I’m Eric C. Nystrom, Associate Professor of History in the College of Integrative Science and Arts at Arizona State University. I am an experienced historian of science and technology specifically focused on the areas of mining history and public history. Over the last decade, my research has also ventured into digital and legal history, including the application of data analysis to interpret historical language used in U.S. courts.

I served as President of the Mining History Association (2021-22) and on the Board of Trustees for the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House (2014-20). At the Susan B. Anthony House, I served on the steering committee which developed the museum’s new strategic plan and participated in creating fundraising initiatives to secure the long-term strength and expansion of the museum.

I currently serve on the Finance Committee for the National Council on Public History, the Public History Committee for the Western History Association, and hold several positions with regional and international history organizations. From 2017-2019, I served as co-director of ASU Public History. Recently, I was invited to serve on the Scientific Committee for the International Conference of Mining and Underground Museums (to be held in Poland, 2023).

My research focuses on the history of mining and the evolution of mining engineering throughout the 19th and 20th century. My book Seeing Underground: Maps, Models, and Mining Engineering in America investigated the visual culture of mining, and demonstrated how visual tools helped form the mining engineering profession in the late 19th and early 20th century. Seeing Underground won the Clark Spence Award from the Mining History Association for the best book on mining history. I am the founder and editor of the scholarly book series Mining and Society with the University of Nevada Press.

My current book projects include an examination of how mining was portrayed to the public in museums, and a co-authored book which uses digital history methods to examine the social history of deafness and deaf culture in the 19th century. As a native Nevadan with a keen interest in historical moments that shaped the state’s economy and mining industry, my upcoming project investigates the social and technological history of the Carlin Trend, which was the topic of my Presidential Address for the Mining History Association in 2021.

At ASU, I teach courses on the history of engineering, environmental history, public history, and applications of historical methods. Prior to ASU, I was an Associate Professor of History at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where I taught courses about Las Vegas, national parks, museums, and other public history topics, and won the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. My recent public history work includes an invited talk for the Arizona Historical Society entitled The Senator was a Ham: Barry Goldwater and Amateur Radio. I also served as a historical expert for the film The City of Las Vegas: The Twenties, where I discuss the 1920s railroad strike.

For more information about past or current projects, please contact me.