Nicholas Sacco is a Historian and Museum Curator with the National Park Service at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis, Missouri, and an Adjunct Instructor of History at IUPUI. With the National Park Service he has also worked temporary assignments as the Director of Education at Gateway Arch National Park, Park Ranger at Ste. Geneviève National Historical Park, and Interpretive Media Manager for Reconstruction Era National Historical Park.
Within the realm of public and digital history, Sacco specializes in interpretive methods, education theory, public program development, teacher workshop development, Content Management Systems (CMS) development, and Audience Centered Experience (ACE) methodologies. He conducts historical research and has had several book chapters and journal articles published about nineteenth century U.S. history and public history. He is also a regular contributor to The Journal of the Civil War Era’s blog, “Muster.”
In addition to his work with the National Park Service, Sacco has previously worked for the National Council on Public History, the Indiana State House, Capitol Tour Office, and the Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center.
Sacco received his Master’s Degree in History with a concentration in Public History from IUPUI in 2014.
Undergraduate Courses: Introduction to Digital Humanities
Graduate Courses: Introduction to Digital and Public History, Historic Site Administration (Practicum in Public History)
Book Chapters
“Interpreting Slavery Through Video Games: The Story of Freedom!,” in Playing at War: Identity & Memory in American Civil War Era Video Games, by Patrick A. Lewis and James Wellborn, eds. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, publication forthcoming early 2023.
“All in the Family: Ulysses and Julia Grant’s Relationships with their In-Laws,” in Grant at 200: Reconsidering the Life and Legacy of Ulysses S. Grant, by Chris Mackowski and Frank J. Scaturro, eds. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2022.
“Interpreting the Man: Ulysses S. Grant and His Personal Memoirs,” in Entertaining History: The Civil War in Literature, Film, and Song, by Chris Mackowski, ed. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2020, 29-37.
“Lombards and Sicilians: The Forgotten History of Italian Immigration to St. Louis,” in The St. Louis Anthology, by Ryan Schuessler, ed. Cleveland: Belt Publishing, 2019, 35-39.
Journal Articles
“Unraveling the Mystery of Ulysses S. Grant Through the National Park Service,” Ohio Valley History 22, Number 2 (Summer 2022), 24-33.
“I Never Was An Abolitionist: Ulysses S. Grant and Slavery, 1854-1863,” The Journal of the Civil War Era 9, Number 3 (September 2019): 410-437.
“Historic Preservation From the Grassroots: A History of Save Grant’s White Haven,” National Park Service (2019). Available at <https://www.nps.gov/ulsg/learn/historyculture/the-story-of-save-grant-s-white-haven.htm>
“Searching for Compromise: Missouri Congressman John Richard Barret’s Fight to Save the Union,” The Confluence 10, Number 1 (Fall 2018/Winter 2019): 4-32.
“The Grand Army of the Republic, the Indianapolis 500, and the Struggle for Memorial Day in Indiana, 1868-1923,” Indiana Magazine of History 111, Number 4 (December 2015): 349-380.
“One Nation, One Flag, One Language: The Grand Army of the Republic and the Patriotic Instruction Movement in Indiana,” The Americanist Independent 1, Issue 6 (December 2014): 5-44.
Public History, Digital Humanities, 19th Century United States History, Civil War Era (Antebellum through Reconstruction period), Intellectual History, Memory Studies, Museum Studies, Historiography and Theory.
