Cooperstown Graduate Program

Last updated
Cooperstown Graduate Program
Cooperstown Graduate Program building.jpeg
Established1964
Founder Louis C. Jones
Parent institution
 State University of New York at Oneonta
Director Gretchen Sorin
Address
5838 State Route 80
,
Cooperstown
,
New York

42°43′6″N74°55′35″W / 42.71833°N 74.92639°W / 42.71833; -74.92639
Campus Rural
Website cgpmuseumstudies.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Cooperstown Graduate Program

The Cooperstown Graduate Program (CGP) is the first and oldest dedicated museum studies program within the United States. [1] [2] It provides a Master of Arts degree in Museum Studies, with concentrations in science museum studies and history museum studies. Part of the State University of New York at Oneonta, the Cooperstown Graduate Program is located in Cooperstown, known as the "village of museums." [3] It is considered an important part of the development of public history within the United States. [4]

Contents

History

The Cooperstown Graduate Program was formed in 1964 by Louis C. Jones in a joint effort between Oneonta and the New York State Historical Association (now the Fenimore Art Museum), a folklorist that wanted a museum training program that centered "ordinary people" [5] and taught practical administrative skills. [4] This was a conscious rejection of the University of Delaware's Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, which focuses almost exclusively on decorative arts and curation. [6] The Cooperstown and Winterthur programs remain friendly rivals. The Cooperstown Graduate Program's mascot, a plastic flamingo, comes from this rivalry; the plastic flamingo represents the material culture of ordinary people versus the highbrow decorative arts represented by Winterthur. [7] The Cooperstown Graduate Program is considered the most lasting and successful legacy of Jones's experiments in integrating public folklore and academic training, known as "the Cooperstown Idea." [8]

Historically, the Cooperstown Graduate Program offered graduate degrees in American folk culture and art conservation in addition to museum studies. The folk culture program was discontinued in 1979, while the art conservation program was moved to Buffalo State University in 1987. [9]

The Cooperstown Graduate Program is noted for its large oral history archive, oral history training, and the integration of oral history into the digital humanities. [10] [11] [12]

References

  1. ↑ Walker, Will (2017-02-03). "Folklore and the roots of public history training in Cooperstown". National Council on Public History . Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  2. ↑ Conard, Rebecca (2015-02-01). "The Pragmatic Roots of Public History Education in the United States". The Public Historian . 37 (1): 105–120. doi:10.1525/tph.2015.37.1.105. ISSN   0272-3433.
  3. ↑ Fulkerson, Gregory; Seale, Elizabeth (2012-11-01). "The Case of Cooperstown, New York: The Makings of a Perfect Village in an Urbanising World". Sociological Research Online . 17 (4): 13–32. doi:10.5153/sro.2742. ISSN   1360-7804.
  4. 1 2 Conard, Rebecca (2018), "Complicating Origin Stories", A Companion to Public History, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp. 17–32, doi:10.1002/9781118508930.ch1, ISBN   978-1-118-50893-0 , retrieved 2026-01-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  5. ↑ Walker, William S. (2021), Meringolo, Denise D. (ed.), "Louis C. Jones and the Cooperstown Model: Working at the Nexus of Public Folklore and Public History", Radical Roots, Public History and a Tradition of Social Justice Activism, Amherst College Press, pp. 247–270, doi:10.3998/mpub.12366495.13, ISBN   978-1-943208-20-3 , retrieved 2026-01-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  6. ↑ Leon, Warren; Rosenzweig, Roy, eds. (1989). History Museums in the United States: a Critical Assessment. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 23. ISBN   978-0-252-06064-9.
  7. ↑ Miller, Kaitlyn; Ragone, Shannon (2021). The History of the Cooperstown Graduate Program.
  8. ↑ Livermore, Garet D. (August 2011). "Revisiting "The Cooperstown Idea": The Evolution of the New York State Historical Association". The Public Historian . 33 (3): 70–89. doi:10.1525/tph.2011.33.3.70.
  9. ↑ Dunau, Bera (2014-10-16). "Cooperstown Graduate Program celebrates anniversary". Cooperstown Crier. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  10. ↑ Walker, William S. (2016-12-01). "Sparking Rural Community Dialogues with Digital Oral Histories". Collections. 12 (4): 401–408. doi:10.1177/155019061601200405. ISSN   1550-1906.
  11. ↑ Donaldson, Ryan A. (2009). "Dynamic yet Fragile: Reconsidering the Archive of New York State Folklife". New York Folklore. 35 (1–2): 4–10.
  12. ↑ McLellan, Marjorie L. (2014), Boyd, Douglas A.; Larson, Mary A. (eds.), "Beyond the Transcript: Oral History as Pedagogy", Oral History and Digital Humanities: Voice, Access, and Engagement, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 99–118, doi:10.1057/9781137322029_6, ISBN   978-1-137-32202-9 , retrieved 2026-01-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
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