Reflecting on “Unprecedented: A Pop-up Exhibit”

Hello Heurich Community! I’m Emma Flolo, the Spring 2025 Public Programs Intern at the Heurich House Museum, and a graduate student pursuing a dual degree in History and Library & Information Science at the University of Maryland. The culmination of my work at the Heurich House is a public program titled Unprecedented: A Pop-up Exhibit. Unprecedented was a two-part program held during the Dupont ArtWalk on the first Fridays of May and June 2025. During part one, “Community Curation,” we asked participants to either bring an object from home or make a collage at the museum representative of their feelings and experiences since the 2024 presidential election. In June during part two, “Community Experience,” we put the materials on display, facilitating an exhibit experience created by and for community members. 

Part One of Unprecedented, “Community Curation” 

The inspiration for this event largely came from a public history class I took in the fall, in which we discussed the best ways for museums to remain relevant in a changing world and provide impactful experiences for the public to engage with history. During one of our course meetings, a guest lecturer said something that stuck with me as I began the process of planning Unprecedented. He told us that the past doesn’t exist, only our interpretations of the past and items of material culture exist. That is to say, we can never know the past exactly as it was, even if we lived it, because memory and artifacts are only byproducts of the past, rather than the past itself.  

As a historian, it’s my job to take these byproducts and construct a rendering of the past that is as truthful, nuanced, and comprehensive as possible. There are many different types of histories that we can tell, but my favorite is social history. Essentially, the goal of social history is to deviate from traditional historical works by looking at small state actors instead of large state actors. A social historian will find archival sources from individual members of a community or group that were impacted by a historical event and tell the story from their perspective, rather than from the perspective of large actors like governmental bodies or large organizations. Social history is also crucial to the work we do at the Heurich House. For example, we used Amelia Heurich’s daily diary entries to help curate our exhibit Working Title, which tells an important story about intersectionality and labor in D.C. in the early 20th century. 

“Psy Lady,” a collage on display in the Unprecedented Exhibit.

All that is to say, my love of history is centered around the everyday person and the idea that no story is too small. Unprecedented is simultaneously the culmination of my historical passion and an acknowledgement of the vital need for catharsis and creation in our community right now. We live in a world that is rapidly changing, and because of that we hear a lot from large state actors. Unprecedented came about because we wanted to hear from you, the individuals who make Heurich House a part of your community. 

Moving forward, I would like to continue working on similar projects that center the idea that history is happening to us everyday, and we have an important role to play in its telling. This may sound counterintuitive coming from a graduate student getting an MA in history, but you don’t need a degree to be a historian and you don’t need to save the world to be a valuable historical figure. You, as you are today, are the witnesses that will inform our collective understanding of an unprecedented period in history. The journals that you keep, the photographs you take, and the stories you tell have meaning. With this in mind, I encourage everyone to practice being a historian in their personal lives and their communities, and I hope that Unprecedented is helpful inspiration for anyone looking to do so! 

Emma Flolo standing with the Unprecedented Exhibit.