Local historian Kersting-Lark earns award

An award-winning historian in Moscow believes that to grapple with the most pressing issues facing society today, people must be equipped with historical knowledge.

“I just really believe that understanding the past makes us better prepared to tackle today’s challenges,” Dulce Kersting-Lark said.

Kersting-Lark is the former director of the Latah County Historical Society and the new head of the University of Idaho Library’s special collections and archives. She is also one of 12 nominees recently selected to receive the Esto Perpetua Award from the Idaho State Historical Society.

The award — which takes its name from the state’s motto, “Let it be perpetual” — honors people and organizations who collect, preserve and promote state and local history.

Earl Bennett is on the Idaho State Historical Society Board of Trustees, which selects the award winners. He praised Kersting-Lark for leading the Latah County Historical Society for eight years and accomplishing feats like digitizing historical records and helping the organization become designated as Moscow’s official historian. Bennett also serves on the Latah County Historical Society board.

Bennett said Kersting-Lark is in “excellent company” by winning this award.

“She’s made a big imprint on Moscow in the last eight years and I think the city is really, really fortunate that we have her,” he said.

Kersting-Lark said Bennett called her last week to tell her she won the Esto Perpetua Award and she felt humbled by the news.

“I really love my job,” she said. “I love the work that I do and I’m very happy to be doing it.”

In addition to leading the Latah County Historical Society for eight years, she also served on the board of the Idaho Association of Museums for several years. She said it is a volunteer grassroots organization that advises community museums like the ones in Troy and Potlatch. For example, the Idaho Association of Museums provides education on how to preserve materials on a budget, or how to create interesting and engaging exhibits, she said.

The Iowa native has adopted Idaho as her home and said she is “continually surprised” by what she learns about Idaho’s past.

Kersting-Lark said that while preserving history is a personal passion of hers, it is something that others should value as well.

History shows the roots of challenges society is dealing with today, she said.

“It’s really hard to think about addressing community growth if we don’t understand where our communities began — who was making those decisions, how were choices made,” she said. “That really informs the current context in which we live.”

She also said it allows people to separate fact from fiction.

“I also think that people in positions of power, decision makers, they often try to manipulate the story of how we got to a point,” she said. “History is there for all of us to learn from and so I encourage people to investigate the history of their communities, of their state, on their own. Don’t just take somebody else’s word for it.”

She believes that learning history leads to learning empathy. By understanding how people in the past thought about an issue, it becomes easier to empathize with people today who hold different opinions, she said.

Kersting-Lark said she is grateful to think about Idaho’s history every day.

“It makes me a more thoughtful person in general,” she said.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.