The Sketch Book of Nick DeLuca

I’ve been thinking recently about how to revive this blog and make better use of it. The last piece I published here was over a year ago, inspired by my interpretive work at Faneuil Hall for the National Park Service in Boston, the ongoing social movement to rename Faneuil Hall, and my graduate studies at UMass Amherst.

As I look back at some of the older pieces, I cringe a bit over the style and substance but I think both have evolved over time — sometimes (perhaps rarely) even for the better..

I’d like to continue focusing on historical exploration and analysis and, when possible, localize my subjects and comment on broader national trends. Also, full disclosure, I’ve removed some of my older pieces that are irrelevant to my history work and inappropriate for that purpose.

While I conceive of new pieces and breathe new life into this space, I’ll kick things off by repurposing some of the work I completed in grad school. The first is a biographical sketch of Robert Stanton, former Director of the National Park Service the service’s first director of color. I’ll publish it in multiple parts.

The focus of my research on Stanton was his youth and how the context of his upbringing shaped his tenure as director and, thus. a large swath of our public lands and monuments.

I had the pleasure and privilege of hearing Bob Stanton speak during the summer of 2022. Stanton spoke at the rededication ceremony of the Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial on Boston Common, alongside such people as Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Blight, anti-racist scholar Ibram X. Kendi, and other notable figures.

As the head of the NPS during President Bill Clinton’s second term, Stanton was integral to expanding the reach and resources of the NPS to include, interpret, and manage sites of Black history as well as educational programming for youths and under-resourced communities.

It’s fitting, then, that Stanton was in Boston for the rededication of the 54th Massachusetts memorial, which commemorates one of the first all Black volunteer infantry units to fight in the US Civil War.

It was an exciting moment for me, fresh off the spring semester when I researched and wrote about Stanton.

I think you’ll find his life, particularly his youth, quite interesting.

Stay tuned.