Humanities Truck

The Humanities Truck is an experimental mobile platform for collecting, exhibiting, preserving, and expanding dialogue around the humanities in and around the Washington, D.C. area. This project was devised by Dan Kerr, director of American University’s public history program, and initially funded through a generous grant of $225,000 from the Henry Luce Foundation. The grant supported the purchase and customization of the truck, the technology for community documentation and exhibition, supplies, website development, and project staffing.
The Humanities Truck is fitted with a recording studio, mobile workshop space, and a gallery for pop-up exhibits that features built-in speakers, a flat screen television, a roll-down screen and projector, and even an outside exhibit wall. The truck’s exterior was designed by Carly Thaw, a recent AU graduate. Keynote speaker Eugene M. Tobin, senior program officer for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, called on colleges and universities to "collaborate with surrounding communities to tackle issues of local as well as national significance."
October 19-21, 2018 was American University’s All-American Weekend. As part of the Golden Eagles Reunion, the Humanities Truck partnered with the American University archives to present the on the AU quad Friday, October 19th. Archivists Leslie Nellis and Austin Arminio collaborated with the Humanities Truck team to create the exhibit. In addition to numerous captioned photos, a slideshow of nostalgic photographs played while an infamous speech by Hubert Humphrey sounded throughout the grounds. Oral history interviews of several alumni were conducted during the exhibition.
On November 2-3, 2018, the Humanities Truck participated at the (formerly known as the Annual Conference on D.C. History), which is a collaboration between the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., George Washington University, DC Public Library, and DC Office of Public Records. The conference theme was Mobility, Migration, and Movement. The Humanities Truck popup exhibit “Whose Downtown? The Past and Future of the CCNV Shelter” was created from Director Dan Kerr‘s research on homelessness, which was relevant to the conference theme. Visitors were invited to watch a documentary playing on the outside screen, look at photos and story panels inside the truck, listen to oral histories playing on the inside speakers, and peruse printed documents. This exhibit offered something for everyone interested in learning about housing tensions in DC, homelessness, the Community for Creative Non-Violence shelter, and Mitch Snyder.
On December 1, 2018, Whitman-Walker Health held their 32nd annual Walk to End HIV, beginning in Freedom Plaza. Working in collaboration with the Humanities Truck, American University Public History master's student, Hannah Byrne, curated a mobile exhibit on the history of the Walk to End HIV. Byrne, the organizational archives assistant at Whitman-Walker, interviewed people whose "lives form the larger story of Whitman-Walker’s evolution." The exhibit was displayed at this year’s walk.

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