Why we founded The Pursuit of History

We believe that more people gaining a deeper understanding of history has never been more important.

To address this critical need, we create innovative programs that bring together adults from all walks of life, first with History Camp®, the ground-breaking event we started in 2014 in the Boston area. At History Camp, adults, regardless of their degree or occupation, shared what they’d learned. It was a hit, so we did it again the next year and brought it to other cities. In 2019 we formed the non-profit organization The Pursuit of History to reach more adults in-person and online.

When faced with new challenges, we created new ways to engage people. In March 2020, just days away from our largest History Camp ever, all public events were called off and within a month we launched History Camp Discussions. This weekly series with noted authors is streamed every Thursday night at 8 pm (Eastern) and is archived. You can browse our archive of more than 150 discussions and view our streamed programs at HistoryCamp.org/discussions.

As Spring turned into Summer that year, it was clear that people weren’t going to be leaving their homes to travel, so we brought historic sites to them with America’s Summer Roadtrip, a 12-hour online trip to 12 historic sites across the country. The following year, with public events still out of the question, we created History Camp America—our first online nationwide History Camp with more than 25 sessions and a half-dozen tours of historic sites. In-person History Camps returned in 2022 with History Camp Boston in August. In November, History Camp America welcomed participants from across the country and beyond for our second all-day, all-online History Camp.

For the past two years we’ve been developing The Pursuit of History: Forging the Continental Army. We had been given the rare opportunity to meet and talk at length with more than 300 authors and historians since that first History Camp and we felt that there were others who were passionate about history and eager to dig deep who who would love to have that same opportunity in ways one never can on a tour or at a conference and to meet others who shared their passion.

While what we do—focusing on adults and presenting opportunities to learn about history as it happened and in all its complexity—is out of fashion with many traditional private and public grant-giving organizations, individuals who know the importance of our mission and believe in what we’re doing invest in The Pursuit of History.