Defining memory: local museums and the construction of history in America's changing communities PDF
Preview Defining memory: local museums and the construction of history in America's changing communities
Defining Memory AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR STATE AND LOCAL HISTORY BOOK SERIES SERIES EDITOR Thomas A.Mason EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Jerome L.Thompson,State Historical Society ofIowa Eric Emerson,Maryland Historical Society Kelly Wilkerson,Tennessee Historical Society Elizabeth H.McClung,Belle Grove Plantation Vicky Kruckeberg,American Textile History Museum Russell Lewis,Chicago Historical Society Rebecca Conard,Middle Tennessee State University Modupe Labode,Colorado Historical Society Ken Bubp,Conner Prairie Museum STAFF Serena Krombach,AltaMira Press Terry Davis,AASLH ABOUT THE SERIES The American Association for State and Local History Book Series publishes technical and professional information for those who practice and support history, and addresses issues critical to the field ofstate and local history.To submit a proposal or manuscript to the series, please request proposal guidelines from AASLH headquarters: AASLH Book Series, 1717 Church St., Nashville, Tennessee 37203. Telephone:(615) 320-3203.Fax:(615) 327-9013.Web site:www.aaslh.org. ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to advancing knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of local history in the United States and Canada. In addition to sponsorship ofthis book series,the Association publishes the periodical History News, a newsletter, technical leaflets and reports, and other materials; confers prizes and awards in recognition ofoutstanding achievement in the field;and supports a broad education program and other activities designed to help members work more effectively. To join the organization, contact: Membership Director, AASLH, 1717 Church St.,Nashville,Tennessee 37203. Defining Memory Local Museums and the Construction of History in America’s Changing Communities EDITED BY AMY K. LEVIN A Division of ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS,INC. Lanham • New York • Toronto • Plymouth,UK ALTAMIRAPRESS A division ofRowman & Littlefield Publishers,Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary ofThe Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group,Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard,Suite 200,Lanham,MD 20706 www.altamirapress.com Estover Road,Plymouth PL6 7PY,United Kingdom Copyright © 2007 by AltaMira Press All rights reserved.No part ofthis publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic,mechanical, photocopying,recording,or otherwise,without the prior permission ofthe publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Defining memory :local museums and the construction ofhistory in America's changing communities / edited by Amy K.Levin. p.cm.— (American Association for State and Local History book series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13:978-0-7591-1049-6 (cloth :alk.paper) ISBN-10:0-7591-1049-2 (cloth :alk.paper) ISBN-13:978-0-7591-1050-2 (paper :alk.paper) ISBN-10:0-7591-1050-6 (paper :alk.paper) 1. Historical museums—United States.2. Historic buildings—United States.3. Historic sites—United States.4. Museums—Social aspects—United States.5. Museums—United States—Management.6. United States—History,Local.7. Public history—United States. 8. Memory—Social aspects—United States.9. Community life—United States. I.Levin, Amy K.,1957- E172.D44 2007 973.075--dc22 2006100277 Printed in the United States ofAmerica (cid:2)™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements ofAmerican National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence ofPaper for Printed Library Materials,ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Contents Acknowledgments vii Foreword by David E.Kyvig 1 PART I: Frameworks 7 1 Why Local Museums Matter 9 Amy K.Levin 2 Local History,“Old Things to Look At,”and a Sculptor’s Vision: Exploring Local Museums through Curriculum Theory 27 Elizabeth Vallance PART II: The Rebirth of a Nation 43 3 Public History,Private Memory:Notes from the Ethnography ofColonial Williamsburg,Virginia,U.S.A 47 Eric Gable and Richard Handler 4 The House ofthe Seven Gables:A House Museum’s Adaptation to Changing Societal Expectations since 1910 63 Tami Christopher 5 Louisiana’s Old State Capitol Museum:Castle on the Mississippi 77 J.Daniel d’Oney v vi CONTENTS PART III: Nostalgia as Epistemology 93 6 The Small Town We Never Were:Old Cowtown Museum Faces an Urban Past 97 Jay Price 7 “The Dream Then and Now”:Democratic Nostalgia and the Living Museum at Arthurdale,West Virginia 109 Stuart Patterson 8 History Lessons:Selling the John Dillinger Museum 127 Heather R.Perry PART IV Museums at Risk: Changing Publics 143 9 The Politics ofPrehistory:Conflict and Resolution at Dickson Mounds Museum 147 Donna Langford 10 “Such is Our Heritage”:Daughters ofUtah Pioneers Museums 161 Jessie L.Embry and Mauri Liljenquist Nelson 11 “A Repository for Bottled Monsters and Medical Curiosities”: The Evolution ofthe Army Medical Museum 177 Michael G.Rhode and James T.H.Connor PART V: Challenging the Major Museum 197 12 Objects ofDis/Order:Articulating Curiosities and Engaging People at the Freakatorium 201 Lucian Gomoll 13 Cities,Museums,and City Museums 217 Eric Sandweiss PART VI: No Business Like Show Business 231 14 Business as Usual:Can Museums Be Bought? 235 Amy K.Levin 15 Conclusion:Museums and the American Imagination 253 Amy K.Levin Selected Bibliography 265 Index 269 About the Contributors 285 Acknowledgments First,I wish to express my thanks to the authors ofthe articles in this book for their perseverance through various revisions and delays not oftheir own mak- ing.Their continuing commitment to this project was heartwarming. Second,my thanks to Martin Johnson,formerly of Northern Illinois Uni- versity Press,for his enthusiasm about publishing this work.I was assisted at various stages in the process by current and former Northern Illinois Univer- sity graduate students Erika Mann,Kai Zhang,and Lise Schlosser,all ofwhom helped with organizational tasks and ensuring the correctness of the manu- script’s documentation.The Graduate School and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences of the university provided travel funds for my research on New York museums in 2000 and 2004. Chapter 5 by Richard Handler and Eric Gable was originally published in Ethnos,volume 65,number 2 (2000):237–52.Eric Sandweiss’s article,“Cities, Museums,and City Museums,”is based on a short article that appeared in Ex- hibitionist 18.1 (Spring 1999): 45–47; portions of that piece are reproduced with permission from the National Association for Museum Exhibition. Finally, this book is dedicated to Charles Lugo, together with Samantha, Gerald,and Melissa Crane,for their patience while I worked on this manu- script.I hope that some day they will enjoy museums as much as I do. vii Foreword In the past half century,American culture has become ever more standard- ized. Corporate brands, retail franchises, and look-alike shopping malls stretch from coast to coast,homogenizing the consumption offashion,deco- rative arts,and material goods.Broadcasters,publishers,and cinema distrib- utors convey the same information, entertainment, and ideas to audiences throughout the country.Regional differences in dress,diet,and even language fade as patterns ofcommerce and communication are universalized.One no- table exception to this pattern of increasing uniformity has been the preser- vation of local culture and distinctive identity in America’s vast number of small and local museums. America’s justly admired best-known museums are among its largest.From New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Natural History, and Museum of Modern Art to Washington’s Smithsonian Institution and Na- tional Gallery ofArt to Chicago’s Art Institute and Field Museum of Natural History to Los Angeles’s Getty and Huntington Museums as well as their only slightly smaller counterparts in Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and a few other cities,these museums are among the world’s finest.They tend,unfortu- nately,to overshadow thousands of smaller local museums spread across the 1
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