About

Lot 49 is the blog of Sheila A. Brennan. I am a digital public historian and a program officer. I am the former Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media where I also worked as a Research Associate Professor in History and Art History at George Mason University.

My newest publication, Stamping American Memory: Collectors, Citizens, and the Post, is available as an open access digital and print monograph from the University of Michigan’s Digital Culture Books series. It offers the first cultural history of stamp collecting through closely examining the Post Office’s commemorative stamp program. Designed to be saved as souvenirs, commemoratives circulated widely and stood as miniature memorials to carefully selected snapshots from the American past that also served the political needs of small interest groups.

I began my career working in public museums, and served as the Director of Education and Public Programs at the U.S. Navy Museum in Washington, DC for seven years before I came to RRCHNM in 2005. At the Center, I directed and managed 30+ projects. The first project that I managed and worked on from start to finish was the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank. After HDMB, I became part of the original Omeka team (2007-present), and continued to work on many other digital humanities and cultural heritage projects. I have experience teaching, and leading and developing workshops that introduce digital humanities methods to scholars, GLAM professionals, and graduate students. I received my PhD in American and digital history from Mason, and earned an MA from the University of Notre Dame and BA from Bates College in American Studies.

My professional digital portfolio lives here: http://sheilabrennan.org

Find me elsewhere online:
Zotero
Twitter (@SheilaABrennan)
email: brennan dot sheila at gmail dot com