Karie Diethorn was studying ancient and early modern European history when she realized, at the end of her junior year at Penn State, that she wanted to switch to American history. That shift led to a long career beginning with an internship in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park—the home of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell— followed by stints with the National Park Service as curator of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow National Historic Site and the John F. Kennedy Birthplace, and, in 1989, a return to Independence Park, where she is the chief curator and is helping to plan the nation’s 250th anniversary.

“Independence Park is participating in local and state events as a venue, and we’re the meeting place for the national A250 Committee,” she says.
Diethorn ’80 Lib has developed a speaker series commemorating the anniversary, which, she says, will explore a variety of perspectives on freedom-seeking during the Revolutionary era and beyond. She’s also involved with “25 Objects for the 250th,” a social media project presenting objects from Independence Park’s museum and collection. “Each month’s object will date from a different decade from the 1770s to the current decade and will explore the park’s themes of commemoration and conscience in America’s past,” she says.

Diethorn is in charge of Independence National Historical Park’s collection of approximately 2.2 million artifacts—books, documents, personal items, artwork, and more—ranging from the 17th through the 21st centuries. She oversees staff who preserve, document, and interpret the museum collection. “We’re historians, archaeologists, and social scientists whose job is to build, preserve, and present the park’s collection,” she says. “Our mission is to tell how the ideas and ideals of [America’s] founding have influenced national and world history.” —Jon Caroulis