Dr. John R. Legg

My mother-in-law, Sue, passed away this week. Today, we celebrate her life, and I know it will be a hard day for my wife and our family. I’m remembering our adventures, like our trip to Helena, Montana. Wherever we went, Susie always wanted to tag along and share in the fun. We’ll miss her dearly.

My Civil War lecture was supposed to cover July 1861 through December 1862, but I barely made it through Antietam. Apparently, I spent so much time discussing McClellan’s reluctance to advance in '61-62 that I adopted it myself. 🤣

A great conversation at Metairie Park Country Day School! We spoke about the Indigenous place, Bulbancha, and its transformation into New Orleans. Students asked so many thoughtful questions. I enjoyed methodical questions about Indigenous history & community engaged research.

Tomorrow, after class, I head to Metairie Park Country Day School for my talk, “Bulbancha: An Indigenous Place.” The course premise: to understand the world, you must understand New Orleans. I'll add: you can't truly understand either without first centering the Indigenous histories of Bulbancha.

My new order at the coffeeshop — after I’ve already had coffee and I’m camped out for hours — is a Diet Coke with a little bit of lemon syrup. So good.

The disdain with which the barista responded “car-a-mel” when I ordered an iced “car-mel” macchiato. #MississippiThings

I’m grateful, but it’s another day where I spend more time in the car than I do in the classroom (Hattiesburg to New Orleans and back). Ready to talk about the Kansas-Nebraska Act in one class and Jamestown in the other.

I found several typos in my lecture slides yesterday (it's been one of those first weeks of the semester!) but at least my students know that I am not using AI to create lecture materials!

I am very excited and thankful that Metairie Park Country Day School invited me to speak this September. I will be talking about New Orleans’ Indigenous history and the various intersections with colonialism. I am really looking forward to it!

"Are Military Historians Insular?" by Nick Lloyd. A great read.

Hey Digital Humanities friends: There's a DH postdoc that's opened up at Southern Miss's Mississippi Digital Humanities Hub (+ Center for Digital Humanities) for the next year. If you have any questions about living in Hattiesburg, let me know and I can try to answer. usm.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Really disliked the finale of Hacks.

New article by @hngreen.bsky.social, Adam Domby, Katherine Burns, and me in @anchistjournal.bsky.social on writing Black biography www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I’m looking for visual examples of student unessays—not just project descriptions—to share with my class. Many examples online have broken image links or blog posts do not include photos. If you have creative projects you’re comfortable sharing here or by DM, I’d love to see them. Thank you!

I really enjoyed reading both her Grimke and Trotter books. Damn. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/b...

I am revising a chapter post-review and realized I used the word “duality.” I immediately thought of Full Metal Jacket.

Very excited to see my Western Historical Quarterly article published online!

There's a prof. on TikTok that decided he's going to input student work into AI for grading. He's going to let AI grade AI. What's the freaking point anymore? First of all, this seems like a FERPA issue. Second...just do the work yourself, man.

I had some free time to watch All Quiet on the Western Front (the 2022 iteration). I’ve never read the book, but all I have to say is that war is hell (surely the point of the film(s) and book).

Very excited to see my Western Historical Quarterly article published online!

Very happy to send off my chapter for the Handbook on Digital Activism. Inspired by my work on Indigenous authority at Dickson Mounds, I explore digitization + Indigenous data sovereignty. It took me in unexpected directions, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. Let's hope the editor likes it!

Love this Vine Deloria, Jr. line from Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto.

RIP Gordon Wood, famed historian of the American Revolution era, who was struck by a car and killed yesterday at the age of 92. www.golocalprov.com/news/pulitze...

Do any of my Native history/studies, museum/public history friends have connections with a THPO? I'm hoping to speak with someone who has experience or interest in digital repatriation, particularly questions surrounding the digitization, stewardship, + access of Native American cultural materials.

Received interesting feedback from a fellowship rejection! Historians, do you agree/disagree with R2’s comment that one should be able to revise a dissertation into a book in one year?

The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University New Orleans shared my Indigenous America digital class project on LOYNO's website and socials. Very grateful that our collaborative work stood out to university administration. More here: cas.loyno.edu/news/may-15-...

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

Suggestions needed! We’re looking to convert a classroom into a digital innovation lab (for class instruction and to host a digital gallery for project launches). I’d greatly appreciate any photos, links, or articles of DH labs, centers, studios, etc. or if you have a space like this on your campus!

Oh darn. Canvas is down.

Be nice to your IT folks whenever possible. Sometimes freak things happen and they need to rush into action to get many (I mean, MANY) people back online and connected. We're grateful for all that you do!

When you haven't started the 2-hour drive to campus + you get notified your classroom building is shut down due to a water leak. Nothing's worse than driving an hour or more to have campus shut down (It's happened twice this semester already). Today was a work day in both classes, anyways.

Just submitted my copyedits back to Western Historical Quarterly for my article due out this summer! It's been quite a journey with this one (started in Spring 2022). It engages with the trials & executions of two Dakota chiefs who British agents kidnapped in Rupert's Land after the US-Dakota War.

A new research topic down the road? I grew up with GI Joes. Not only does this Navajo Code Talker speak, it comes with a Navajo language code book. I've got WW2 on the mind lately (taught the topic to my Native history course yesterday).