Week 10

Gone With the Wind. Courtesy of Bernews.

This weeks reading was to finish Horiwitz’s “Confederates in the Attic.”  In chapter 11 Gone With the Window Horwitz visits Atlanta and realizes just how different Atlanta is from other Southern cities.  Atlanta was constantly remaking itself after the Civil War so much that there are no antebellum buildings standing and the battlefields are in poor condition if they are there at all.  “Whatever history Atlanta couldn’t tear down, it bobbed around, lest any ugly blot from the past mar the city’s reputation.” (285) Horiwitz also looks at how the movie Gone With the Wind kept the Civil War alive and peoples continued fascination with the movie. 

            In chapter 12 Still Prisoners of the War Horowitz visits Conyers, Georgia and talks to Mauriel Joslyn about wartime diaries and letters from Confederate who were captured during the war.  Many of the Confederate soldiers who were captured and shipped to Northern prison camps would write to Northern women.  Horiwitz then looks into the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville and how the man who ran the camp, Henry Wirz was hanged as a war criminal, the only man charged in American history.  Both Confederate and Union prison camps had high death rates due to starvation and disease. 

Andersonville Prison Camp. Courtesy of Civil War Home

            Chapter 13 Only Living Confederate Widow Tells Some looks at Alberta Martin, who was the last surviving widow of a confederate soldier.  Mrs. Martin married William Jasper Martin, a Confederate veteran, when she was in her twenties and William Martin was eighty.  A little over a year after they married he died and she remarried.  Horiwitz questioned Mrs. Martin about her husband and his experience in the war, but she remembered little about his and he never spoke about his time as a soldier. 

Alberta Martin. Courtesy of Sons of Confederate Veterans

            Chapter 14 I Had A Dream Horiwitz visits Montgomery, Alabama and notices how both the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement are at the forefront in the city and they are intertwined.  In chapter 15 Strike the Tent Horiwitz goes to Gettysburg for another march with Rob Hodge and afterwards finally returns home after his long journey.  

Week 9: Civil War and Mobile History

Courtesy of Quia. Civil War Battle.

            The reading is from Tony Horwitz’s book “Confederates in the Attic” from chapter 7 to chapter 11.  Chapter 7 At the Foote of the Master, Horwitz visits Shelby Foote and discusses the Civil War.  Shelby Foote is well known for his three-volume narrative history of the Civil War.  Foote shares his own personal history and his limited experience during World War II and how “the embodiment of gallantry and chivalry” that was the standard for southerners made it his duty to fight for his country. (149) At the end of the visit, Foote tells Horwitz why he frequently visits the battlefield at Shiloh on the anniversary of the battle.  Foote said, “For me, something emanates from that ground…the way memory sometimes leaps up at you unexpectedly.” (154)

Courtesy of Mrkash.com. Minie ball.

            Chapter 8 The Ghost Marks of Shiloh is about Horwitz’s experience when he visits the battlefield at Shiloh arriving in the early morning hours just like Foote did when he visited.  Horwitz meets several people during his visit to the Shiloh battle, some people whose ancestors had fought in the battle and another who explored the different aspects of the battle every year.  Horwitz talks to the park historian, Stacey Allen, who has a different view of the battle based on the evidence found in the ground rather than solely on the writings of those who had fought there.  “Shiloh had two pasts: the actual battle, and its remembrance by those who fought there.” (171).  Towards the end of the day Horwitz meets Wolfgang Hochbruck, a German professor whose interest in the Civil War developed from a childhood fascination.  Hochbruck also formed a reenacting group in Stuttgart, Germany, modeled after the German-American unit the 3^rd Missouri. 

            Horwitz then heads to Vicksburg in chapter 9 The Minié Ball Pregnancy, and stops at a drug store that was filled with Civil War items and many were items that surgeons would have used during the war.  The owner of the store was Joe Garache and he collected all the weapons and artifacts since he was a child and he found a 9,000-pound Parrott Gun, which was a Confederacy riverside cannon.  Horwitz visits the Vicksburg museum, noting one exhibit was about a minié ball that went through a young rebel soldier’s reproductive organs then hit a young lady resulting in her pregnancy. 

Courtesy of sonofthesouth.net. Stonewall Jackson

            In chapter 10 The Civil Wargasm Horwitz goes on an extreme tour of must-see sites in the south with Robert Lee Hodge.  This tour covers all the years of the war and they hit many sites where battles were fought, famous Confederate leaders died, and other important areas.  The two men travelled in Civil War garb, visiting each site quickly, and sleeping outside on battlefields, historical sites, and wherever they could find shelter.  As they travelled and before they went to bed, they would read passages from diaries and writings of men who either fought in the war or wrote about it.  Hodge keep a diary of every place that they visited and how much they were able to pack into a single day, “by the second or third day it all starts to blur, so you have to keep a tight record before you get totally tapped.” (214). 

Week 8: Harrington, Washington: Public History in Rural America

Courtesy of Robertson Arts & More.

            Richard F. Steele’s “History of Lincoln County, Washington” looks at what makes Lincoln County such a great place to live.  There are ten profitable industries in Lincoln County: grain, hay, dairying, fruit, horses, cattle, hogs, poultry, gardening, and bee culture.  The soil in Lincoln County is very fertile and the amount of wheat grown in this area exceeds what most other areas grow.  Those who do not grow wheat successfully grow fruits, vegetables, or hay.  Raising cattle and poultry as well as dairying are also lucrative businesses.  Everyone who lives in Lincoln County benefit from the advantages of city life: free mail delivery, electric lights, telephones, and great schools.  Steele looks at the towns that make up Lincoln County, gives some background information on them, and explains what make these towns great. 

Courtesy of CONTENTdm Collection. Harrington, Washington

           Harrington 100 Years looks at the history of Harrington from the very first settlers until 1980.  In 1882, the town of Harrington was established and the next year the town gained its first inhabitants and started to grow.  The first store was built and operated by Edward Willis and Charles Billings, and all of their goods sold in the store were freighted from Sprague.  As the years progressed, Harrington continued to grow; a blacksmith shop, hotel, and a saloon were established in 1884.  During the construction of the Great Northern Railroad starting in 1892, Harrington “enjoyed one of its most exciting and prosperous times.” (7) Starting in 1901, Harrington began the steps to incorporate the town and in 1902 they elected their first city officials.  As the 1900’s progressed, Harrington continued to progress with the rest of the town’s in Lincoln County.  Harrington was a farming and cattle community, with wheat as the primary crop. 

Courtesy of Seattle Times. Wheat Farming.

            HistoryLink’s Thumbnail History of Lincoln County looks at the history of Lincoln County and the towns that make up the county.  In 1883, Lincoln County was formed from Spokane County.  One of the region’s first permanent settlers was Russell M. Bacon and was appointed Crab Creek postmaster.  The region’s first industry was cattle and later on wheat became dominant.  The towns Davenport, Sprague, Harrington, Wilbur, Odessa, and Almira make up Lincoln County.  Aloysius Harry Harker was the first permanent settler the area that would become Davenport, but the town was named after John C. Davenport.  Sprague started out as a sheep camp in the 1870’s and was originally called Hoodooville after the early settler William Burrows, also known as Hoodoo Billy.  Sprague boomed during the 1880s when the Northern Pacific Railroad was built.  Harrington became a town in 1883, and was named after W.P. Harrington.  The town was sparsely populated until 1892 when the Great Northern Railway built a station in the town.  Wilbur was named for Samuel Wilbur Condon, who was one of the area’s earliest settlers, and Condon started a ferry service across the Columbia River.  The construction of the Grand Coulee Dam greatly benefited Wilbur.  A cattle rancher from Portugal, a sheep rancher, and a Russian German wheat farmer settled Odessa.  The town was named Odessa to attracting Russian-German wheat farming immigrants.  The town of Almira grew with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad and during the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, but after its completion the population declined.  Although the number of farms has decreased in Lincoln County, wheat is still the dominant crop and the beef cattle industry is still significant.  

Courtesy of HistoryLink.org.
Northern Pacific Railroad promotional brochure, 1897.

            “Illustrated History of the Big Bend County” looks at the history of Harrington from the beginning.  In 1882, Furth and Robinson bought 1,500 acres of land, which was then deeded in 1892 to the California Land & Stock Company.  Most of the early residents were from Yolo or Calusa counties in California.  These settlers began to grow wheat and began to develop the town by opening a few businesses.  During the construction of the Great Northern Railroad, Harrington prospered and the population greatly grew and in 1904 Harrington built a city hall.

The Spokesman-Review article “Pretty Girl Fights for Home” is about Miss Maude E Green’s fight to keep her land.  A Mr. Joseph Drazan claimed that Miss Green failed to establish her claim on the land and that he had the right to claim it as his own.  Miss Green had only slept on the land for four nights but has worked the land and had raised two crops of wheat already.  She is fighting Drazan’s claim court and Register Ludden and Receiver Wells would decide the case from the testimony from both Miss Green and Mr. Drazan.  

Week 7: Slavery and Public History

            In The Power of Place by Dolores Hayden, chapter 7, “Rediscovering an African American Homestead” looks at the creation and development of the Biddy Mason project.  Hayden first discusses the area surrounding the Biddy Mason homestead painting a picture of the area.  Some information about Biddy Mason is also provided and the few attempts made to mark Biddy’s life.  Hayden then goes on to discuss the work The Power of Place and others did during the Biddy Mason project.  The project consists of several exhibits: Biddy Mason: House of the Open Hand, and Biddy Mason: Time and Place, are just a couple of the exhibits.  This project tells the story of Los Angeles’s development into a thriving city and commemorates Biddy Mason. 

Courtesy of ethicsalarms.com

Courtesy of Wiggins Battery.

            The other reading was chapters 1 through 6 in “Confederates in the Attic” by Tony Horwitz.  Chapter one Confederates in the Attic introduces Horwitz to the world of southern confederacy culture.  Horwitz had always had a fascination with the Civil War and joins a group of hardcore civil war reenactors for a weekend drill held by the Southern Guard.  This is the beginning of his journey through the South.  In chapter two North Carolina: Cats of the Confederacy, Horwitz recalls his time spent in Salisbury, North Carolina.  There he meet Ed and Sue Curtis and others from the Sons of Confederacy, Daughters of the Confederacy, and Children of the Confederacy and discussed why remembering the Civil War was so important to them.  Chapter three South Carolina: In the Better Half of the World looks at how people in Charleston, South Carolina view the war differently.  In Charleston the Civil War does not encompass daily life.  Many people have similar attitudes towards the war as Mrs. Wells, “defeat and devastation were the true legacy of the War, they set the South apart from a nation accustomed to triumph.” (56).  Chapter four South Carolina: Shades of Gray, Horwitz remarks, “hardly a day had passed without some snippet about the Civil War appearing in the newspaper.” (71).  One of the stories was how a statue in York, Maine resembled a confederate soldier while a statue in Kingstree, South Carolina looked like a union soldier.  Horwitz also attends a demonstration for the Confederacy flag and discusses the differing opinions surrounding the flag.  Chapter five Kentucky: Dying for Dixie Horwtiz travels to Guthrie, a town on the border of Tennessee and Kentucky.  In Guthrie, black teenagers shot a white teenager for flying the rebel flag from his pickup.  In Guthrie there is a lot of racial tension between blacks and whites and this incident only increased that tension.  Chapter six Virginia: A Farb of the Heart Horwitz returned to Virginia to take a break from his southern journey, he received a call from Robert Lee Hodge about an upcoming Civil War reenactment: the Battle of Wilderness.  Horwitz joins in on the reenactment and experiences what it is like during one of the enactments.  The groups of reenactors are made up of hardcore and normal reenactors, some taking their roles so seriously that fifty-seven people were hurt and a couple were hospitalized.  In some reenactments, some people had died from heart attacks while others froze to death during an unreasonably cold night. 

            The web reading, “Never mind the slavery, have you dipped a candle yet?” by Historiann.com, discusses how many of the historic museums in the United States do not effectively tell history.  In many southern museums, slavery is not mentioned.  Plimoth Plantation and Colonial Williamsburg are two of the southern museums that incorporate slavery in their historic village and museum.  “It’s not just southern public history sites that “whitewash” history.”

            The next reading, “A white man remembers slavery in the Shenandoah Valley,” by Coffman is an excerpt from Jacob Coffman’s (1852-1938) letter to the Page News and Courier in 1932.  In this excerpt Coffman describes the different kinds of owner/slave relations and how some owners treated their slaves.  He wrote about some slave owners who would beat their slave and were very cruel, “it was said that he tied them over a barrel in the barn and after beating their backs raw, he put salt and pepper on their bleeding wounds.”  He also wrote about some owners who were kind to their slaves. 

            The last reading “Retouching History: The Modern Falsification of a Civil Was Photograph,” discusses the falsification of a photo of Union soldiers.  The photograph is of a group of black Union soldiers posing with a white officer and is believed to be the 1^st Louisiana Native Guard. 

“Given the enormous number of publications and known photographs of Civil War soldiers, it is more than slightly curious that a photograph as striking as one showing armed black soldiers in the Confederate Army has apparently not surfaced in these publications.”

Courtesy of people.virginia.edu. 

Courtesy of people.virginia.edu. 

Week 6: Urban Public History

Courtesy of Illicit Cultural Property.

         

Courtesy of Builders Booksource.

            This weeks reading was from Delores Hayden’s book, “The Power of Place: Urban Landscaping as Public History.”  The first section, “Claiming Urban Landscapes as Public History,” “proposes new ways to understand the urban cultural landscape” and is broken up into three chapters (xii).  The first chapter “Contested Terrain” looks at Herbert J. Gans and Ada Louise Huxtable’s debate over the preservation of “historic landmarks” and what made a building worth saving and preserving.  Gans and Huxtable both agreed that preserving the built history was important but disagreed on what should be preserved; Gans wanted more social history while Huxtable wanted more culture.  Hayden argues that “the power of place- the power of ordinary landscapes to nurture citizens’ public memory, to encompass shared time in the form of shared territory- remains untapped” for ethnic and women’s history (9). 

            The second chapter “Urban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and the Politics of Space,” looks at what “place” is and how people view it differently.  People of different ethnic groups and women view places very differently and areas histories have been shaped from the separation of women and those who are ethnically different.  “Political divisions of territory split the urban world into many enclaves experienced from many different perspectives.” (27) 

Courtesy of PennDesign.

            The third chapter “Place Memory and Urban Preserving,” looks at how urban landscape is connected to memory and is an important resource for public history.  The Brass Workers History and the New York Chinatown History Project are examples of community oral history.  In recent years, more areas that are connected to ethnic communities and women’s history have been preserved, such as the Boston African American National Historic Site and a Women’s Rights National Historical Park at Seneca Falls, New York. 

            

Week 5: The Promise and Perils of Digital History

Courtesy of The LCN. Ronald Reagan

Mike Wallace’s “Ronald Reagan and the Politics of History” discusses how Reagan, as well as others, misinterpreted or used a “mythic” approach to history.  Wallace suggests that Reagan “was able to comfortably… make statements dramatically at variance with widely know facts because they were nestled in a supportive context of myth.” (258) He also notes that Reagan’s time working as an actor in Hollywood influenced his view on history and reality.  Americans tend to forget the past or believe the past in dead and is not as important as the future.  Wallace believes that the reason Reagan was able to confidently speak about things that were historically untrue was a result of “Hollywood history” that would retell myths as truths.  Wallace spends a large part of his essay giving examples of the historical myths or lies that Reagan tells during his time as president.  His opinion of Reagan was clearly shown.

Courtesy of warbirdphotos.net. Enola Gay

Wallace’s “The Battle of the Enola Gay” discusses the controversy of an Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian.  In 1994, the Smithsonian planned to develop an exhibit based on the Enola Gay and soon after releasing the plans were quickly met with criticism and outrage.  Misrepresentation of the exhibit was one of the greatest problems the curators faced.  Political correctness played a large part in the Enola Gay debate and a war fought by various groups on which interpretation of the Enola Gay would be shown in the exhibit or whether there should be an exhibit at all.  In the end there was no Enola Gay exhibit.  Wallace spends the last part of the essay discussing what museums would have to do to get controversy exhibits developed and shown.  He covers this controversy in depth and gives one and idea of what the major issues were surrounding the exhibit. 

Courtesy of September 11 Digital Archive

James T. Sparrow’s “On the Web: The September 11 Digital Archive” discusses how history has moved to the Internet in historical websites and the development of the September 11 Digital Archive website.  Sparrow lays out how the website was created and the design behind it.  What was really interesting about this website, was that regular people could upload their own pictures and entries.  Sparrow notes that the September 11 Digital Archive is “dependent on the needs of its visitors and on its ability to foster a sense of community online.” (411) There is also the need to distinguish credible historical websites from the amateur websites. Sparrow's essay was very informative and gives a clear overview of a way a historical website is designed.  

Week 4: Preservation and Public History

Mike Wallace’s essay, “Preserving the Past: A History of Historical Preservation in the United States,” discusses the history and struggle historical preservation faced in America.  From the colonial era to the present, Americans have had little incentive to preserve the past, instead favoring profit over preservation.  Early forms of preservation were headed by private individuals and groups who would buy up the historic buildings, urge laws to be passed for historic districts, or used the doctrine of “adaptive reuse” to make use of historical building. (189) Wallace makes note that the preservationists continue to struggle in today’s world. 

Courtesy of American Architecture. Independence Hall, Philadelphia

Wallace’s “Preservation Revisited,” focuses on how changes in America reshaped and drastically altered the success historical preservation had seen in the 1980’s.  The changed in tax breaks that preservationists and those who preserved historical buildings and sites and the “property rights” movement, “dramatically reshaped the preservation landscape.” (224).  The rest of the essay discusses the changes to preservationist practices through three main ways.  First was to pry open the definition of historic, second called for the “economic revitalization of cities,” and third was to align with groups that were fighting for the environment and the preservation of endangered species and open spaces. (232)

Wallace goes in depth on his essays on historical preservation and clearly explains how preservationists made strides through the years even though they faced much controversy.  His editorial in his essays clearly voices his opinion on the matter of historical preservation.  He also gives his opinion about what the future may hold for historical preservationists and what mistakes he believed they made in the past.

Antoinette J. Lee’s essay “Historic Preservationists and Cultural Resources Managers: Preserving America’s Historic Places,” discusses what historical preservationists and cultural resource manager jobs entail.  Cultural research management is defined by the National Park Service as, “range of activities aimed at understanding, preserving, and providing for the enjoyment of cultural resources.” (130) A preservation historian not only does research and documentation on a site, but must also be able to provide written descriptions of physical evidence and “justify their evaluation of the historical significance of a property in ways that can move the listener” to support the properties preservation. (133) Lee also makes note of the issues that historical preservationists face, the type of education many receive, and what the future may hold for this profession.  This essay is very well written and very informative, giving the reader an understanding of what a person going into this field can expect. 

Courtesy of National Park Service. Historical Interpreters

Mark Howell’s “Interpreters and Museum Educators: Beyond the Blue Hairs,” essay discusses the job description of a museum interpreter and educator and what it takes to become a great one.  A good museum interpreter gets to know their visitors and decides what history to interpret depending on their audience.  The primary function for those in this field, is to be able to show the “interrelationships between objects, spaces, and the persons who once used them” and being able to place them in historical context. (145) Howell also discusses how difficult it can be to make a living as a historical interpreter as few museums can afford to hire a full-time interpreter, instead hiring seasonal or relying on volunteers.  Howell’s essay is very informative and he makes it interesting in how he gives examples almost like he is trying to dispel the belief that historical interpreters are all a bunch of “blue hairs.” (154)

The web readings for this week were really surprising.  The content of the letter Professor Cebula received from Patricia Pangloss was unexpected.  It is understandable that some of the history surrounding the house and its residents would be excluded to fit what the visitors want to learn or hear about.   What was really shocking was for Mrs. Pangloss to say that Professor Cebula should “stop bringing into the 21^st century all this negativism.”  To teach all parts of American history is not teaching people hate and negativism.  This is our history, we should be proud of our history, maybe not everything that occurred, but it is important that people are taught our whole history and not just the good parts that people like.  

Walt Disney: One Mans Dream

Follow in the Footsteps of Walt Disney

Courtesy of Walt Disney World

            To commemorate the 100^th anniversary of Walt Disney’s birth, the exhibit Walt Disney: One Mans Dream was created.  Through this exhibit one can “discover the man behind the mouse” and learn about his many achievements and ongoing legacy.  Visitors are shown over 400 artifacts from Walt Disney’s life including, one-of-a-kind animation art, storyboards, paintings, photos, props, models, costumes and set pieces, including:

•        Walt Disney's 2nd-grade school desk
•        Vintage Disney toys and merchandise
•        “Granny Kincaid’s Cabin,” Walt’s first attempt at a 3D miniature environment
•        “The Dancing Man,” Walt’s first animated figure and precursor to the Audio-Animatronics technology he would soon pioneer
•        The original Audio-Animatronics Abraham Lincoln figure from the 1964 New York World’s Fair
•        Mickey Mouse Club props and costumes
•        The model of Main Street, U.S.A. from Disneyland Resort
•        Jungle Cruise and Spaceship Earth models
•        Mary Poppins costumes
•        The Tree of Life model from Disney’s Animal Kingdom park
•        Peter Pan’s Flight ride vehicle models
•        The planning model for Disney's California Adventure theme park
•        Scaled replicas of Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Paris Resort

            This exhibit was designed to be an interactive gallery.  Audio and film clips that contain previously unseen footage and interviews with Walt Disney, including clips of Disney talking about his creation Mickey Mouse are shown.  A short film about Walt Disney’s life and also explores the extraordinary difficulties he overcame during his life. 

      When people enter this exhibit they are immersed in the life and world of Walt Disney.  They get a glimpse into his life and get to view many artifacts from the Disney archives that have never been seen by the public before. Through this exhibit people are able to get a glimpse into the life of Walt Disney, his dream, and the accomplishments that continue to inspire and fascinate people today.

Week 3: The History of Public History

Mike Wallace’s essay on “Boat People: Immigration History at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island” discusses the controversy surrounding the renovation and the construction of museum exhibits at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Wallace discusses how there has been much controversy between the Park Service and the American Museum of Immigration (AMI) over what the main focus of the museums should be.  The AMI wanted the main focus to be about immigration and show how immigrants are able to come to America and improve their lives through self-sacrifice and hard work.  He felt the Park Service wanted the main focus to be about the history of the statue itself and set the exhibit up so that “the objects, left to speak for themselves, tell an ambiguous story” (62).  Wallace then goes on to discuss how the Ellis Island museum is very detail oriented when discussing the various different rooms that are set up to allow the viewer to see and experience what the people who came through Ellis Island felt. 

Courtesy of Holiday Force. Statue of Liberty

Courtesy of Liberty Harbor RV. Ellis Island

           Wallace’s essay, “Progress Talk: Museums of Science, Technology, and Industry” discusses the history behind engineering and how and why industrial museums became popular in the 1920’s.  He points out that many of these museums were centered around technology and industry, but left out topics like “labor relations, pollution, foreign competition… labor and radical movements,” ect. 

In Wallace’s essay, “ Industrial Museums and the History of Deindustrialization,” he suggests some paths that public historians might consider exploring.  They “need to strive for a better connection of past, present, and future in our exhibitry,” that “exhibits should be analogous not to snapshots, but to frames from an ongoing movies;” they should be “set in a larger spatial as well as temporal context” (89).  He also argues that museums that focus on industrialization need to also put some focus on deindustrialization. 

Wallace’s essay “The Virtual Past: Media and History Museums” is about how technology has advanced so much that museums need to become a part of the technological world through electronic galleries, virtual museums, and other medias that allow a person to view a part of history or an exhibit of a museum from a computer or other device.  With the advancement of technology, museums need to adapt to be able to keep up with the changing times. 

Wallace’s essay on “Museums and Controversy” assesses how museums have dealt with controversial topics and why certain exhibits are shown while others are not.  This is not only seen in museums but other facets of everyday life, topic that are considered taboo see much objection if one suggests to make it known to the public.  Wallace argues that instead of trying to keep taboo topics hidden away, they need to be shown and become public knowledge. 

Wallace’s essay “Mickey Mouse History: Portraying the Past at Disney World” gives insight as to why Walt Disney decided to create a theme park with the main goal of throwing the patrons back into an Improved version of the past.  Disney’s park has been compared to Rockefeller’s Williamsburg and Ford’s Greenfield Village as all three “eliminate from “history” what their sponsors found inconvenient and unwelcome” (141).  Wallace discusses what kind of impact Walt Disney’s park has on its visitors and thinks, “the country at large needs to reflect upon the consequences of the corporate commodification of history” (154).

Courtesy of Blue Light Lady. Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse

Wallace’s essay “Disney’s America” looks at how the Walt Disney Company had to “reinvent the Disney theme park experience” as well as other aspects of the company to get people interested in all things Disney once again.  In 1993, Disney announced its new theme park, Disney’s America, was developed in order to solve the company’s financial problems.  The core theme of the park would be to evoke the history of the United States and was meant to be “a “serious fun” celebration of U.S. history” (164).  Shortly after Disney released the plan for Disney’s America they came under fire by historians and other groups on how Disney planned to present the past, without any of the horrors of history.

Wallace gets a bit bogged down with his descriptions and facts in many of his essays.  It seems that he sometimes loses himself in certain topics like how the museum at Ellis Island is set up.  His essays about Walt Disney were interesting because very few in today’s world would think that Disney World was designed to transport people back into the past.  Wallace makes a point to show how Americans tend to ignore parts of history that they don’t feel comfortable with.  Walt Disney and many museums only show the good parts of history while ignoring the worst parts.  Wallace also has a tendency to input editorial into his essays.

            Michael J. Devine’s “Administrators: Students of History and Practitioners of the Art of Management” examines what is takes to become a successful administrator.  Based off of Devine’s own experiences and observations, he believes there are three essential elements for successful administration.  “First, directors must know the nuts and bolts of their agencies, and possess basic skills in interpersonal communication, management, and budgeting.  Second, directors must have a sense of vision… essential that administrators of history programs know history and know it well.  Third, directors must serve as tireless, resourceful, effective principal spokespersons or advocates for that vision” (47).  Funding and governance is just a couple of the problems historians in administrator positions face.  He also discusses what types of training and qualifications are necessary for historians who seek a career as an administrator of a historical program or agency.  Devine’s essay is very straightforward but is very informative.  His experience as an administrator lends some credibility to his essay and gives some insight into the career that others who just did research may not have. 

            In Roy H. Tryon’s essay “Archivists and Records Managers,” he explains what archivists and record managers do and how they are different from one another.  According to Tryon, “archivists are concerned with noncurrent records and record managers with current ones” (57).  He goes on to describe how these two jobs are different from each other, how they work together, and the different education required for each position.  Tryon’s essay give the reader insight into and archivist and record managers job and it helps that Tryon is an archivist and record manager so he has first hand experience with both jobs. 

            Jannelle Warren-Findley’s essay on “Contract Historians and Consultants” explains how one would become a historian in private practice and how to determine what professional skills that you’ve attained to aid in you work as a contract historian or consultant.  Having once had a private practice as a historian, Warren-Findley knows first hand what it takes to be successful in this career and gives the reader information that will be useful for someone who chose this career path.
            Candace Falk’s “Documentary Editors: Not as Boring as it Sounds” explains what a documentary editor does, they preserve “history by presenting the full texts, allowing the reader to experience the immediacy of the authentic voice” (88).  Falk was a documentary editor herself and discusses her own work in the field, creating the Emma Goldman collection.

            Daniel Greer’s essay “Editors and Publishers: Making Books for Readers” illustrates what an editors job entails.  Since Greer works as an editor, he has first hand knowledge on how a manuscript is chosen to be published and the long process it goes through before it goes to print.  Greer gives examples of how an editor determines whether a manuscript has the potential to become a great novel and lays out the process a book and editor go through before the final product is produced.

            Disney’s America theme park was the dream project of Michael Eisner back in 1993.  Eisner wanted it to be a park that was centered on the history of the United States.  The different themed areas would allow guests to go back in time to the Civil War, visit an American Indian village, travel through Ellis Island, visit an old-time farm, or even walk through an American factory town.  In many of these areas rides would have been constructed to add to the experience.  This project never left the drawing board but many aspects can be seen in Disneyland, CA.  Maybe in another era Disney’s America theme park could become a reality, if one was willing to change the aspects that people took issue with. 

Courtesy of Disney Drawing Board. Disney's America Concept Art

Week 2: Museums and the Origins of Public History

Mike Wallace wrote Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory, to  “examine the way Americans have grappled with the preservation and presentation of history in public settings”(xii).  Wallace makes note that Americans do not hold the same relationship to the past that people from other countries have.  For most Americans the discovering their ancestors, the history of their communities, or stories of great events in American History is what greatly interests them.  Not every one has the same view or opinion about history and there have been a few conflicts over collective memory.  Planned museum exhibits have come under fire, for example the National Air and Space Museum’s 1994-95 proposed Enola Gay exhibit.  But is does not stop at just conflicts, as Wallace points out, dictators like Stalin “police the past as well as the present, suppressing some memories, embellishing others.” (xi). 

Wallace’s first essay Visiting the Past: History Museums in the United States, discusses how the very first “museum” Washington’s house at Mount Vernon was preserved and how museums first came into being in the United States.  During the mid 1800’s, Americans were not interested in preserving sites of historic value because the monetary value outweighed the price is would cost to preserve the buildings.  Several groups were formed and they would construct shrines and monuments, some of these groups were: Sons of the American Revolution, Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.  Henry Ford, like many others, believed that history had no business in the present and people should live in the now, later on he created the first museum villages in Sudbury, Massachusetts.  Wallace notes that the first museums seen in America voiced the opinion of those who developed them, and left out parts of history that they or the public would not like.  This is a very interesting essay and gives insight into how Americans viewed museums in the 19^th and 20 century. 

Wallace’s second essay Razor Ribbons, History Museums, and Civic Salvation, discusses different types of museums in different areas and what they emphasize as important history.  Many of the urban museums put more focus on the history of the surrounding areas.  Museums are also changing how they display the history or artifacts.  Wallace himself proposed an exhibit that is not based on objects but on architecture, construction, developers, housing as well as other things.  This essay is not as straightforward as the last one, where some knowledge of the areas he discusses would help to understand why they design their museums the way they do. 

Patricia Mooney-Melvin’s Professional Historians and the Challenges of Redifinition, discusses how the history profession expanded from academic to the study of Public History and what that entails.  Melvin’s essay is very informative but dry and makes it hard to focus on all the facts that are presented.  One interesting fact is that professional historians paid less attention to individuals who worked in historical organizations, archives, the federal government, as independent historians, or the general public who read history books or visited historical sites.  Finally public history broke free and became its own respected profession although the definition of what public history is and what a public historian does is still greatly debated. 

Constance B Schulz’s Becoming a Public Historian discusses how a person becomes a public historian today.  Schulz discusses how one entered the public history field in the early years before the creation of public history programs.  The programs were split into three categories of study: archives and information management, cultural resources management, and applied research.  Schulz essay is very interesting and gives much information about the differences between academic history and public history. 

Museum Sells Pieces of Its Past, Reviving a Debate article by Robin Pogrebin, discusses how the Philadelphia History Museum sold numerous artifacts to provide funding for a $5.8 million renovation of their 1826 building.  There was much controversy about museums like this one selling historic artifacts to fund museum projects.  Pogrebin hits the mark when discussing why people are against this move and how the transactions are not closely recorded. 

Courtesy of The Philidelphia History Museum, taxidermied Philly