Meet Southeast Resident Sarah Johnson, the New Putnam County Historian

From Theresa Oliver

If anyone thinks history is boring, think - and look - again. Putnam County Historian Sarah A. Johnson may change your idea of the past. She sees history from a unique perspective. To her, history is material-based and can be found in the life-cycle of clothing, stamps, buildings, even technology. Talk with Johnson for a few minutes. She is more than eager to share her love of history with everyone.

“People think history is boring because of the way it has been presented to them. That’s because of the old-school way of thinking about history. I get really frustrated with history that is focused on dead white guys and the facts that come from dusty, old documents,” said Johnson. “I think you get a much fuller picture of history if you look at the whole life cycle of objects. How it got manufactured and distributed and used and re-used and thrown away.”

While Johnson earned her B.A. in 1985 at the University of Northern Iowa as a European History major, she spent college summers in Montclair, New Jersey honing some of her many unusual skills. In New Jersey, it was designing clothes for theatrical productions. That led to her decision to move to New York City, the first of many places she has lived over the years.

“The nomadic professional lifestyle has been the key defining factor in my life,” she joked. “But I have been extremely lucky because I have had great opportunities to go places and do amazing things. When I think of my experiences, I kind of wax poetic about the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I trained for two years. When I took my lunch break, I could go look at ancient Egypt. I had the whole world right there. It was such an amazing time. I basically had unrestricted collections access. It was absolutely extraordinary to be able to look at objects up close and personal and really study them and get a sense of how to examine artifacts and to tease out interpretively what they can tell us about the people who made them and the people who used them. And I think the preservation of those things is really important. “

Johnson’s love for preservation, saving remnants of the past and learning their stories, is what drew her to apply for the Putnam County Historian position.

“These kinds of jobs are so important and I’m thrilled to be acting in this capacity because of that sense of preservation,” she said.

Johnson believes history should be all inclusive but finds it, quite often, rather gender-based.

“Take for example a visit to a bookstore. Anyone looking for books on history will usually find a giant section on the Civil War and giant sections on WWI and WWII. And that’s fine because lots of guys love that stuff. My neighbors’ boys are 5- and 7-years old. They recently went to the Military Museum in Danbury and they loved it because they got to climb in and on all the equipment over there. And I really do totally get that. But I think that kind of paints history into this corner and genders it in a way that I think is exclusive. I think it should be inclusive. I think it should be about everybody. We’re all immigrants in this country. Well, except for the Native Americans,” she said.

County Executive MaryEllen Odell was impressed with Johnson’s views on history and its preservation when they met during the interview process.

“Sarah is an extraordinarily well- educated, experienced, capable and friendly woman who I feel will be a wonderful asset not only to the position of County Historian but to Putnam on the whole,” said Odell. “She brings with her a deep commitment to preservation and a passion for sharing history, making it accessible to everyone. We were very fortunate to find someone like her to take over this important position.”

Johnson said she worked at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum after she completed her Master’s degree in Costume Studies. Today, she looks back at that job and feels it was a life-altering experience.

“That was really my first museum job and I worked there just after it opened to the public. It was amazing for me because it is such a powerful place. That island and the buildings on that island are truly, truly remarkable. It’s something you can actually feel – all the history of all those people,” she said.

Between her time working at the Immigration Museum and becoming Putnam’s Historian, Johnson was in academia. She received her M.A. from New York University in 1989 and taught, advised and mentored NYU students until 1997. She was also a part-time faculty member for the University of Maryland, Bard College and the Pratt Institute. Later, she became a full-time faculty member at the Parsons School of Design and received her Ph.D from the University of Brighton in England in 2004. Her thesis, “The Consumption of Middle Class American Women’s Clothing through Mail Order Catalogs, 1850 to 1900” was a testament to her theory of historical inclusiveness and her fascination with object interpretation and material culture.

Johnson was also a research fellow at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, England and later became a visiting associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University School of Design in Pittsburgh.

As Putnam’s historian, Johnson hopes to move the county’s history into the digital age to make it easily accessible to more people. She spoke of taking digital photographs of historical markers and putting them online using GPS and Google maps so people can find them. She also hopes to launch a blog and is anxious to immerse herself in the collected County Archives managed by Reginald White.

“There are so many new apps emerging from the digital humanities now and I’ve been chomping on the bit to get started on those kinds of projects,” she said.

Noting the vast amount of American Revolutionary and Civil War history to be found in Putnam, Johnson envisions having downloadable walking and driving tours in the near future. She also hopes to launch a program for collecting oral histories.

“I was actively involved in that when I was at Ellis Island. It was amazing. Interviewing people in that capacity can be a real intimate experience, especially when they open up about certain emotional points in their lives. It bonds you to those people in a way once they tell you their stories,” she said.

An experienced grant writer, Johnson believes she can find money to fund her projects.

“There are a lot of pockets of money for digital projects and that gives me hope,” she said. “I’ve had pretty good luck with funding projects for my own research.”

Now a resident of Southeast, Johnson was quick to bond with Putnam’s countryside where she, her partner Terry Hines and their dog, Ella, enjoy exploring the woodlands, trails and bikeways her adopted county offers.

And why not? Putnam is, after all, where the country begins.

PHOTO: Putnam County Historian Sarah Johnson with Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell. Contributed