Participant Info

First Name
Allison S.
Last Name
Finkelstein
Country
United States
State
Affiliation
Website URL
http://allisonsfinkelstein.com/
Keywords
US History, World War I, Women's History, Military History, Commemoration, Military Cemeteries, Public History, Museums, World War II, Historic Preservation, Cultural Landscapes, Architectural History, Memorials, Monuments, Cultural History, Material Culture, Immigration History, Civil War
Availability
1
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Allison S. Finkelstein earned her Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she also studied historic preservation. She currently works as a historian for the U.S. Army. As a public historian, her projects have included the creation of museum exhibits, publications, interpretive programs, education programs, documentary films, webinars, tours, and narration for military processions. A specialist on World War I, her first book, Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials: How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 1917-1945, was published by the University of Alabama Press in August 2021. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) awarded this book the 2022 Arline Custer Memorial Award for the best book written in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Her previous scholarship has been published in Buildings & Landscapes: The Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum and in the National Park Service’s book of essays, World War I Remembered.

From 2017 to 2018, the Arlington County Board (Virginia) appointed her to serve as the Chair of the Arlington World War I Commemoration Task Force. In this position, she led the Task Force in the creation of interpretive panels at the Clarendon War Memorial, funded by a “100 Cities, 100 Memorials” grant from the national World War I Centennial Commission. In 2020, the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (NAPC) awarded this project the Excellence Award in the category of Best Practices: Public Outreach/Advocacy.

Dr. Finkelstein frequently presents at scholarly conferences and gives lectures to a variety of audiences. She has been featured in the Washington Post, the New York Times, CBS News, Fox 5 Washington D.C., and C-SPAN3.

Recent Publications

Book: Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials: How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 1917-1945, University of Alabama Press, 2021.

Article: “A Female Sanctuary on the Former Western Front: The Gold Star Pilgrimage Rest Houses in France, 1930-33.” Buildings & Landscapes: The Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum 23, no. 1 (Spring 2016): 52-77.

Book Chapter: “American Women in the War.” World War I Remembered. Fort Washington, PA: Eastern National, 2017.

Documentary Film: USCIS and the Legacy of Ellis Island 

Book Review: “Death at the Edges of Empire: Fallen Soldiers, Cultural Memory, and the Making of an American Nation, 1863–1921 by Shannon Bontrager.”  The Journal of the Civil War Era 11, no. 4 (December 2021).

Exhibit Review: “Exhibit Review: “Artist Soldiers: Artistic Expression in the First World War” at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.” Endeavour 42, no. 1 (March 2018).

Media Coverage
Country Focus
United States
Expertise by Geography
United States
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, 20th century
Expertise by Topic
American Civil War, Art & Architectural History, Gender, Material Culture, Migration & Immigration, Military, Museums, Public History, Women, World War I, World War II