What is Public History?

"If history is 'finding what happened in the past', then public history is 'telling lots of people about it'.   

But it's not a term I particularly like.  Why?  Because to me, talking about the 'public' sounds somewhat sniffy and patronising: 'public' as opposed to 'expert'; 'popular' as opposed to 'scholarly'.    

The British Association for the Public Understanding of Science dropped the 'public' bit years ago, to become the 'British Science Association'.  At Historic Royal Palaces, where I work, 'the public' long ago became 'the visitors', who in due course became a series of very well-researched and precisely-calibrated audience groups.     

Having said that, though, I do think of myself a public historian, because I can't think of a better term."

Lucy Worsley is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that looks after The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace State Apartments, the Banqueting House in Whitehall, and Kew Palace in Kew Gardens.