Theresa McCulla is a historian of the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States. She is also the curator of the American Brewing History Initiative at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. McCulla talked to Tiah Edmunson-Morton on Zoom on May 14, 2020 about her research on food in New Orleans and beer history in the U.S. McCulla shared her strategies for starting, conducting, and tracking research (talk to librarians and archivists, be a careful note taker, ask for writing feedback); thoughts on material culture and oral histories as sources; thoughts on collecting contemporary history; and emerging research opportunities as a result of recent digitization projects.
