Cultural Resource Management, Information for Parks, Federal,... Preservation Education in Service to the Community... Volume 21, No. 11... U.S. Department of the Interior... 1998

59 Pages·1998·11.4 MB·English

by  Department of the Interior

Y
CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Information for Parks, Federal Agencies,
TavelFUaa fal]o fstM es)e lect Mote MOTo)7-larlaalsalee
and the Private Sector
VOLUME 21 NO. || "1998
Understanding
e Past
S
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Cultural Resources
-
PUBLISHED BY THE Contents VOLUME 2! NO.II
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ISSN 1068-4999
Understanding the Past
To promote and maintain high standards
for preserving and managing cultural
resources
Practicing History American Women Nurses in the
in the Public Interest Spanish-American War...........
DIRECTOR Josie Fernandez Mark R. Barnes
Robert Stanton
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Presenting History to the Public— A Spy Named Whitney ...........
CULTURAL RESOURCE STEWARDSHIP The Study of Memory and Milagros Flores Roman
AND PARTNERSHIPS the Uses of the Past
Katherine H. Stevenson
David Glassberg
A Splendid Little War
EDITOR
Alan Sweeney
Ronald M. Greenberg
Seneca Falls Remembered—
Celebrations of the 1848 First Women’s
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rights Convention..............66. 9 Great Events in Canadian Women’s
Janice C. McCoy History—Celebrations and
Vivien Ellen Rose
Commemorations
GUEST EDITOR SP e2eupeeeeg eee eaee @ 8
Vivien Ellen Rose Luce Vermette
Hontahoel Pr ast , I re ...16
ADVISORS
Human Rights Declaration Turns 50 . 42
David Andrews
Allida M. Black
Editor, NPS
Joan Bacharach Celebrating the Illinois and
Museum Registrar, NPS Michigan Canal.................. 18
Randall J. Biallas George D. Berndt On the Road to Equality ..........
Histonical \nchieect, NPS Eugene Fleming
The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo—
Celebrating the Legacy of
Forgotten or Remembered? ......... 20
John A. Burns Martin Luther King, Jr. ........... 45
Art G6mez
Architect, NPS
Harry A. Butowsky Carol Ash
HistorianN,P S
Observing the Civil War Centennial—
Rhetoric, Reality, and the Bounds of Centennial 2002—
Selective Memory Bureau of Reclamation
‘eee eee tees
Mary Munsell Abroe Brit Allan Storey
The 2003 Centennial of Flight—
Hope and Glory—The Centennial
Roger E. Kelly Celebration of the Monument to Aerospace Historians and the
ArcheologistN,P S Challenge of Commemoration ......
Robert Gould Shaw and the
Antoinette J. Lee 54th Massachusetts Regiment Roger D. Launius
HistorianN,P S
Martin Blatt
ASSISTANTS A Decade of Rediscovery at
Denise M. Mayo Fort Clatsop National Memorial—
Structuring Memory—The Haymarket
Jessica Olive: Lewis and Clark Winter
Martyrs’ Monument .............. 28
Encampment Bicentennial
Robin F. Bachin Ser eee @
Cynthia L. Orlando
Women and the
An electvrersoionn iofc th is Spanish-American War ............ 30 The American Way of Memory .....
issue of CRM can be accessed Teresa Prados-Torreira Dwight T. Pitcaithley
through the CRM homepagea t
<http:/www.cr.nps.gov/crm>.
Cover: National Woman's Party leader Alice Paul and Senecc Falls officials with the Wesleyan Chapel marker at the
75th anniversary celebration of the first warnen’s rights convention, |923. See story page 9. Photo from the slide
files of Women’s Rights National Hist srical Park, Seneca Falls, New York.
Statements of fact and views are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect an opinion or endorsement on the part of the editors, the CRM advi-
sors and consultants, or the National Park Service. Send articles and correspondence to the Editor, CRM, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service,
Cultural Resources, |849 C Street, NW, Suite 350NC, Washington, DC 20240; 202-343-8 |6 4, fax [phone]; email: <[email protected]>.
2 CRM No 11—1998
Josie Fernandez
Practicing History in the Public Interest
All human beings are practicing historians. As we go speech unveiling the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.'s new
through life we present ourselves to others through our life story; as cultural resource management badge. Efforts to com-
memorate the centennial of the Civil War, and the
we grow and mature we change that story through different inter-
dedication of the Robert Shaw memorial statue are
pretations and different emphasis.We stress different events as
considered in following articles. Robin Bachin dis-
having been decisive at different times in our life history and, as we
cusses the continuing importance of a monument to
do so, we give those events new meanings. People do not think of 1886 May Day strikers dedicated this year as a
this as “doing history,” they engage in it often without special national historic landmark. The Spanish-American
awarenessW.e |v e our lives; we tell our stories. It is as natural as War centennial, observed internationally through
conferences, publications, and preservation efforts, is
breathing...
covered in four articles. Significant anniversaries of
Being human means thinking and feeling; it means reflect-
important events in Canadian women's history are
ing on the past and visioning into the future. We experience; we examined by Luce Vermette, a Parks Canada historian.
give voice to that experience; others reflect on it and give it new The 50th anniversary of President Truman's
form. That new form, in its turn, influences and shapes the way next executive orders ending racial segregation in the
generations experience their lives. That is why history matters.* Armed Forces and federal employment, and of the
adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human
ultural resource managers mediate Rights by the United Nations General Assembly were
the relationship between the viewer also marked in 1998. Three articles consider the his-
and the past. They determine histori- toric cost of racial segregation during World War II,
cal significance; they preserve struc- First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's essential role in the
tures to a particular period of significance; they creation and adoption of the Declaration of Human
interpret this understanding of significance to the Rights, and the civil rights struggle led by Martin
public. Yet while historians, anthropologists, cura- Luther King, Jr.
tors, archivists, historic architects, and educators Three articles remind readers that the future
agree about the importance of preserving the past, contains the past. Brit Allan Storey returns us to the
commemorations open the question of what the past concerns of citizens of Illinois and Michigan, who
means to visitors who frequent historic sites and moved earth to contain water in canals for their use—
museums. As Gerda Lerner, former president of the much as the 100-year-old Bureau of Reclamation’s
Organization of American Historians and author of dams and water projects have made gardens in the
many books on women in history, points out in the wilderness. An article by Roger Launius deals with the
passages quoted above, “all human beings are prac- impending centeinial of the first flight at Kitty Hawk,
ticing historians.” North Carolina, and what is being done to keep that
This issue of CRM uses case studies to consider commemoration on track. Cynthia Orlando reviews
how cultural resource managers can facilitate com- the 10-year commemoration plan of Fort Clatsop
memorative celebrations that are respectful of histori- National Monument, where the bicentennial of the
cal fact while leaving room for visitors to frame and Lewis and Clark Expedition serves as a focus for
understand the past from their own perspectives. The renewed preservation, research, and educational
essays by David Glassberg and Dwight Pitcaithley efforts.
provide a framework for understanding memory and Cultural resource managers have a particularly
history. If the past is contested terrain, perhaps the important role in making the past accessible and
best we can do is provide a safe place to speak. understandable to today’s audiences. I hope that the
Managers can use Glassberg’s analysis of history as philosophical essays and the case studies presented
politics, popular culture, and place to determine what here will serve CRM readers grappling with commem-
to emphasize as they plan commemorative events. Orative events.
The sesquicentennial of the California Gold
Rush, the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the opening Note
* Gerda Lerner, Why History Matters: Life and Thought
of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and the Seneca
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 199, 211.
Falls women’s rights convention were all celebrated in
1998. Articles about the last three begin this issue,
Josie Fernandez is Superintendent of Women’s Rights
along with First Lady fiillary Rodham Clinton’s National Historical Park.
CRM No 11—1998
David Glassberg
Presenting History to the Public
The Stu of Memory and the Uses of the Past
n the past decade, there has been an ing that audiences more or less understand the
explosion of new scholarship examin- same historical images the same way, new
ing the uses of history in Western cul- approaches emphasize the many different mean-
ture. Ranging from broad overviews ings audiences derive from the same historical rep-
such as David Lowenthal’s The Past is a Foreign resentation. The meaning of a historical book, film,
Country (1985) and Michael Kammen’s Mystic or display is not intrinsic, determined solely by the
Chords of Memory (1991) to monographs such as intention of its author. Meanings change as audi-
Karal Ann Marling’s George Washington Slept ences actively reinterpret what they see and hear
Here (1988) and my American Historical by placing it in contexts derived from their diverse
Pageantry (1990), the new scholarship explores and personal backgrounds. But if each person cre-
the various ways that the “memory” of a society is ates his or her own past, how and when does a
created, institutionalized, disseminated, and shared understanding occur?
understood. The current fascination with memory Much of the new scholarship investigates
among a wide variety of disciplines, including his- how individual memories of the past are estab-
tory, shows no sign of abating. lished and confirmed through dialogue with others.
This new scholarship on memory offers a An individual memory is the product of group com-
common intellectual framework for those working munication, intimately linked to a “collective”
in museums, historic sites, and historic preserva- memory of the community. Those working with
tion agencies, as well as those in academe. community groups are in a good position to inves-
Comprehending the various ways in which soci- tigate how stories about the past are handed down
eties think about the past and use it in the present within families, or circulate among friends. They
can illuminate the institutional contexts in which are also in a good position to compare the memo-
cultural resource managers operate as well as the ries that circulate among family and friends to the
ideas about history with which the public historical representations that circulate in public
approaches their work. Moreover, the insights on a wider scale, in towns, regions, nations, and
preservation and interpretation professionals gain mass media. A second look at the many oral his-
from working with the public in a variety of set- tory projects connected with the 50th anniversary
tings, the first-hand understanding of how histori- of World War II, for example, reveals how family
cal knowledge is created, institutionalized, dissem- stories told about the War were more than solely
inated, and understood, cain help revitalize the personal reminiscence, but also reflections of the
entire profession and practice of history. larger political culture and mass media.
What is meant by memory? By and large This leads to a larger question, at the core of
these studies seek to understand the interrelation- much recent scholarship on memory: with all the
ships between different versions of history in pub- possible versions of the past that circulate in soci-
lic. They investigate what anthropologist Robert ety, how do particular accounts of the past get
Redfield termed “the social organization of tradi- established and disseminated as the public one?
tion”; how various versions of the past are commu- How do these shared histories change over time?
nicated in society through a multiplicity of institu- Politics
tions and media, including school, government cer- One approach to these questions is to ana-
emonies, popular amusements, art and literature, lyze how the prevailing images of the past reflect
stories told by families and friends, and landscape political culture. In the wake of controversies over
features designated as historical either by govern- the Smithsonian exhibit on the end of World War
ment or popular practice. II or the content of national history standards and
Following this approach, scholars i.ave textbooks for schoolchildren, few can deny that the
moved from studying the institutions that produce question of whose version of history gets institu-
history—colleges and universities, government tionalized and disseminated as the history is a
agencies, mass media—to studying the minds of political one. Contemporary debates over the poli-
the audiences where all these versions of the past tics of history have only increased the importance
converge and are understood. Rather than assum- of being familiar with new work on the political
CRM No 11—1998
uses of history in the past, as reflected in the estab- Washington. In this role, the task of cultural
lishment of war memorials, civic celebrations, resource managers may be more to create spaces
museums, archives, and historic sites. for dialogue about history and for the collection of
For some, history supplies the myths and memories, and to insure that various voices are
symbols that hold diverse groups in political soci- heard in those spaces, than to provide a finished
ety together. In the words of Benedict Anderson, a interpretation of events translating the latest pro-
shared history—elements of a past remembered in fessional scholarship for a popular audience.
common as well as elements forgotten in com- Popular Culture
mon—is the crucial element in the creation of an When history appears in the commercial
“imagined community” through which disparate mass media and in tourist attractions, it is primar-
individuals and groups can envision themselves as ily the marketplace and the desire to appeal to
members of a collective with a common present— large numbers of people in their leisure hours that
and future. One strand of analysis has portrayed are the driving forces. Popular appeal is the
the politics of public historical representation as lifeblood of commercial historical ventures; with
essentially consensual, embodying an underlying the decline of government and foundation funding
civic or national faith beneath ethnic and class for history, all but the most exclusively scholarly of
divisions. historical institutions have been increasing their
Others argue that history is a tool in the marketing and promotion to bring more visitors
political struggle for hegemony among various through their doors or to broaden the constituency
social groups. This strand of analysis sharply for their work. As museums and historic sites seek
delineates between an official history used to larger audiences and cater to popular expectations,
maintain the status quo, and the many “vernacu- will the conventions that shape other popular
lar” memories used by ordinary citizens to sustain media play a greater role in shaping the form and
family and community ties. These authors believe content of their work? Roy Rosenzweig docu-
that when government and mass media use histori- mented how the popular journalistic convention of
cal imagery to advance an imagined national com- the human interest story permeated the presenta-
munity, then authentic local and group memories tion of history in American Heritage magazine in
are suppressed. the 1950s and ‘60s. In the future, will every histor-
Pitting official history against vernacular ical documentary or exhibit need a happy ending
memories oversimplifies the play of forces shaping to compete for mass audience? Will historic sites
a shared history. Concern that depictions of the and districts more and more resemble theme parks
nation’s “collective” beliefs and values might such as the one Disney proposed in Virginia?
endanger minority rights leads these works to over- The new scholarship on memory argues that
look the apparent spontaneity and depth of emo- individuals neither passively accept nor actively
tion associated with a shared history. In fact, there challenge the historical information encountered in
are multiple official histories as well as multiple television docudramas, music, film, novels, and
vernacular memories. Analyses of the politics of tourist attractions. Rather, as George Lipsitz has
history must not only explain how elites appropri- shown in his Time Passages: Collective Memory and
ate and transform vernacular memories into official American Popular Culture (1990) they “negotiate”
history, but also how national imagery acquires between mass culture and their own particular
diverse meanings in the local contexts in which it subculture. To appeal to the widest possible audi-
appears, such as rituals of ethnic, fraternal, and ence, popular historical representations, like other
labor organizations, and the conversation of family pop culture forms, incorporate a variety of possible
and friends. characters and themes with which diverse audi-
Cultural resource managers not only strive to ences can identify. Even the most commercial of
balance competing political forces but also local history products contain the submerged collective
and larger-scale interpretive frameworks as they memories of subordinate groups. Through close
place a local story in larger context. Since it is analysis, historians can recover the hidden mean-
nearly impossible to reach a consensus on the ings and memories present in these stories. But do
meaning of a historical event that anyone still individuals really interpret history based primarily
cares about, cultural resource managers often on social characteristics such as gender, class, and
make exhibits, war memorials, and commemora- ethnicity? Or is education and ideological stance a
tive ceremonies deliberately ambiguous to satisfy better determinant of how popular presentations of
competing factions. The products of this ambiguity history are understood? How competent are most
are examples of what James Young has termed people to recover the hidden meanings in popular
“collected memory’—discrete and often conflicting representations of history by reconfiguring the
memories brought to converge in a common space, information present and supplying what is left out?
much like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in And what about the role of intermediaries in guid-
CRM No 11—1998
ing reception? We not only see the film but read mandates, visitor education and satisfaction
the review. Doesn't being told that the historical remains one of four major operational goals. While
account they will see is “true” affect a visitor's each layer of NPS bureaucracy offers a context that
understanding of the past as much as race, class, shapes the meaning of the past, all remain commit-
or gender? ted to the overarching goal of visitor ¢..ucation.
If individuals actively analyze and interpret Cultural resource managers and interpreters who
the historical interpretations they receive, we need work in multilevel cultural agencies are in a posi-
to find out what other stories they might have tion to recover these various contexts and mean-
heard, and what sources they consider reliable. | ings, as well as those brought by visitors.
would guess that most Americans trust the presen- Or consider viewer response to popular his-
tations of history at historic sites and museums torical documentaries such as Ken Burns's The
more generally than those of a commercial televi- Civil War. During March 1991, I read the letters
sion network—-though recent controversy over the Burns received at his home in New Hampshire as a
Smithsonian's Enola Gay exhibit demonstrates way to begin to understand how audiences con-
how fragile that trust can be. structed the meaning of what they saw and heard.
Many writers were prompted to discuss how they
learned about the war from their families. Nearly
one-third of the letters Burns received mentioned
family members, suggesting that these viewers saw
the national history presented in the film through
the lens of their family history.
Place
History can not only be used to communicate
political ideology and group identity, or to make a
profit, but also to orient oneself in the environ-
ment. Historical consciousness and place con-
sciousness are inextricably intertwined. We attach
histories to places, and the environmental value
attached to a place comes largely from the memo-
ries and historical associations we have with it.
Connecting stories of past events to a particular
present environment occurs whether showing a
film of a Civil War battlefield; designating, preserv-
ing, and interpreting a local historic site or district;
Managers and interpreters understand that or placing a statue or marker. What cognitive
Hiroshima survivor
historical meanings are not only created by the changes occur when an environment is considered
Yasui Kouichi
posed in front of a authors of history books, but are also shaped by as “historical,” either by government designation
photo mural of the the institutional bureaucracy in which they work or popular practice? When civic organizations,
Enola Gay crew on and reinterpreted by various audience members. such as a local chamber of commerce, create maps
the opening day of
Audience research aimed at understanding the pre- and historical atlases that recognize some histori-
the Smithsonian
conceptions about history with which audiences cal places but not others? The scholarship on how
exhibit, 1995.
Photo by Ed approach historic sites would assist everyone who memories attach to places has special relevance for
Hedemann of the works with historic preservation and interpretation cultural resource managers helping communities to
War Resisters and the general public. define and protect their “special places” and “char-
League. Originally
Consider, for example, a family visiting a acter” through historic preservation strategies.
published in
National Park Service historic site. What at first Over the past decade, just as historians have
Bulletin of
Concerned Asian glance seems a historical interpretation handed studied the making of historical consciousness—
Scholars, April- down from a central office in Washington, Denver, how ideas about history are created, institutional-
June 1995. or Harpers Ferry turns out to be a product of the ized, disseminated, understood, and change over
interaction of national and regional offices, time—other disciplines have investigated place
between park personnel and local interest groups, consciousness, what scholars in environmental
as well as between NPS and the visitor in the field. psychology, folklore, and cultural geography call
Park Service personnel have a lot of autonomy in “sense of place.” Psychologists have explored how
the selection of what information to tell visitors, children, as they develop, »ond emotionally with
and park visitors continue to interpret and reinter- places and memories of childhood places, particu-
pret the history they see and hear in terms of fam- larly environments explored between ages of 6 and
ily and other contexts. Even in an era of declining 12, which remain a crucial anchor for personal
resources and government performance and results identity in adulthood. One's sense of place is fur-
6 CRM No 11—1998
ther developed and reinforced by the social net- “historical” and distinguished from ordinary
works participated in as an adult; the longer one places, or stabilized, restored, or even recon-
lives in a place, the more likely that the environ- structed, which (and whose) version of community,
ment becomes saturated with memories of signifi- place, and character will prevail? This is an espe-
cant life experiences with family and friends. cially important question when it comes to consid-
Psychologists have also explored the emotional ering the tourist relationship to historic sites and
consequences when the bonds between people and cultural resources. By and large tourists look for
places are broken, the grieving for a lost home that novelty in a landscape, what is not back home,
occurs among the elderly or exiles forcibly while local residents look at the landscape as a
deprived of their familiar environment and memory web of memory sites and social interactions.
sites. In studying the relocation of 500 Boston resi- Research on memory and place should be a
dents to make way for an urban renewal project in regular part of CRM work. Resource managers can
the 1950s, Marc Fried noted that nearly half exhib- initiate programs to identify and protect a commu-
ited symptoms of depression even two years after nity’s memory sites, places unintentionally pre-
the move. Boston's “West End” gained an intelligi- served or iade special by popular practice, in
bility in memory that it might never have had in addition to sites designated by governinents as
experience—a destroyed collection of streets important to a collective political identity, such as
became a single “neighborhood” or place primarily battlefields and presidential homes, and those
through the memory of its destruction. local chambers of commerce designate as appeal-
While psychologists connect sense of place to ing to tourists. In 1991, I investigated how the con-
personal identity and recollection, cultural geogra- cept of “town character” was used in three New
phers and folklorists connect it to group communi- England communities: Northfield, a post-card New
cation and collective memory. Through conversa- England village; Wilbraham, a sprawled out post
tions among family and friends about past local World War II suburb; and the McKnight historic
characters, about the weather, about work, local district of Springfield, a racially diverse urban
residents transform ordinary environments into neighborhood. In a series of public meetings, resi-
“storied places.” Wallace Stegner notes, “’,o place dents discussed the “special places” in their town
is a place until the things that have happened in it or nei;,.iborhood. Historic landmarks and commu-
are remembered in history, ballads, yarns, legends, nity memory sites were different. For example, the
or monuments.” Unlike early folklore studies that restored Victorian facades of the McKnight
sought to capture and preserve the romanticized Historical District in Springfield held different
“spirit of place” of the natives in rural areas, recent meanings for middle-class African-American resi-
research has focused on the often conflicting mean- dents moving up from ine ghetto and middle class
ings for the same environment communicated whites moving in from the suburbs.
among socia! groups, and how the invention of a Among the other kinds of public programs
“collective” sense of place, like the invention of a that evoke a community's sense of place and his-
public history, is part of the struggle for cultural tory are photographic projects, neighborhood walk-
hegemony, the product of power relations between ing tours led by local residents, or public art pro-
various groups and interests. Geographers con- jects such as “Arts in Transit” in Boston, in which
cerned with the ideological aspects of place-making neighborhood vral historians collaborated with
seek to supplement psychological and folklore artists in developing the public art that was
studies of the subjective experience of place with installed at each station along the Orange Line.
critical analysis of the social production of space— Cultural resource managers are in a position to
how sense of place is affected by larger social, eco- contribute to local residents’ sense of place by
nomic, and political forces that determine, for adding national context to local residents’ sense of
example, the distribution of slums and suburbs in emotional attachment. They can help residents and
a locale and who gets to experience which piace. visitors alike to see what ordinarily cannot be
The established meaning for a place, and the land. seen: both the memories attached to places and the
use decisions that stem from that meaning, are larger social and economic processes that shaped
negotiated not only between various residents of a how the places were made.
town or neighborhood, but also between local resi- CRM and the New Scholarship on Memory
dents and the outside world. The new scholarship on memory has the
The scholarship on sense of place in psychol- potential to provide a new collective framework for
ogy, folklore, and geography reminds us that man- cultural resource managers and academic scholars.
aging cultural resources is inevitably also an effort The new approach to memory, with a focus on bow
to manage the multiplicity of environmental per- individuals and groups create an understanding of
ceptions, values, and meanings attached to a place; their pasts, can be used as a basis for operating in
when certain places are bound and marked as three historical endeavors. Political or official his-
CRM No 11—1998
|a
tory, popular history, and history of place all layden, Dolores. The Power of Place: Urban
engage the public as participants in the history Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge: MIT
being made at these sites. Cultural resource man- Press, 1998.
agers and interpreters play essential roles in these “His.ory and the Public: What Can We Handle? A
three endeavors. This discussion of how historical Round Table about History after the Enola Gay
meaning is created will hopefully serve CRM pro- Conti wersy.” Journal of American History 82
fessionals and academic-based scholars in the (December 1995): 1029-1144.
accurate, effective, and inclusive presentation of Hufford, Maiy .O ne Space Many Places: Folklife and
the past. Land Use in New Jersey's Pineland’s National
Reserve. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1986.
References Conserving Culture: A New Discourse on Heritage.
Benson, Susan, Steven Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig. Urbana, Il: Univerzity of Illinois, 1994.
Presenting the Past: Essays on History and the Kammen, Michael. Mysiic Chords of Memory. 1991.
Public. Philadelphia, 1986. Karp, Ivan, Christine Mullen Krcamer, and Steven D.
Bodnar, John. Remaking America: Public Memory, Lavine, eds. Museums and Communities: Politics of
Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Public Culture. Washington, L©: American
Century. 1990. Association of Museums, 1993.
Brown, Dona. Inventing New England: Regional Tourism Ihelen, David, and Roy Rosenzweig. Presnce of the
in the Nineteenth Century. Washington, DC: Past: Popular Uses of History in American ! ife. NY:
Smithsonian Press, 1995. Columbia University Press, 1998.
Dorst, John. The Written Suburb. Philadelphia: Temple Young, James E. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust
Press, 1989. Memorials and Meanings. New Haven, 1993.
Frisch, Michael. A Shared Authority: Writings on the
Craft and Meaning of Oral and Public History. David Glassberg directs the Public History Program
Albany: SUNY Press, 1990. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is
Gillis, John. Commemorations: The Politics of National the author of American Historical Pageantry (1990)
Identity. 1994. and Sense of History: The Place of the Past in
Gluck, Sherna, and Daphne Patai, eds. Women's Words: American Life (forthcoming).
The Feminist Practice of Oral History. New York:
1991. Copyright 1996 by The Regents of the
University of California. Reprinted from The Public
Historian, Vol.18, No.2 (Spring 1996), pp 7-23.
CRM on the WWW
CRM has a redesigned presence on the World Wide Web located at
<http://www.cr.nps.gov/crm>. The new site features extended archives of past issues available
in PDF format, a database containing every CRM article from the past 21 years searchable by
Title, Author, Subject, and Year, and an online comment and subscription form.
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CRM Wo 11—1998
Vivier “lan Rose
Seneca Falls Remembered
Celebrations of the 1848 First Women’s Rights
Convention
lizabeth Cady Stanton, daughter of important historical events. Managers face other
lawyer and New York State challenges, as well. Increased media attention and
Supreme Court Judge Daniel Cady, visitation can result in higher sales, more fees, and
founded the women’s rights move- infusions of funds for restorations or other CRM
ment in the United States. Her birthplace, work, and overuse of precious resources, stretched
Johnstown, New York, recognizes this important staff, and debates over the meanings of the past.
heritage. Carefully preserved in the Johnstown Interpreting events as one single story may embroil
Historical Society, along with her father’s cane managers in controversy when visitors and descen-
and bedstead, are the Chickering niaio he pur- dants hold other meanings. As historian David
portedly gave her on iver 10th birthday, her gilt Glassberg argues, interpreters, curators, and
chair, and ephemera associated with her life as a preservationists can choose to “create spaces for
reformer and speaker. Commemorative articles, dialogue about history and for the collection of
including a political button for the 1915 New memories, and to insure that various voices are
York State woman suffrage campaign, held in the heard” rather than “provide a finished interpreta-
centennial year of Stanton’s birth, and a guberna- tion of events.”> At the celebration of the 150th
torial proclamation of a statewide “Elizabeth anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention this
Cady Stanton Day” in 1975, round out the dis- past July, fost: :ing such a diversity of voices and
plays.! interpretations made for a very successful com-
One piece of associative memorabilia held by memoration.
the Johnstown Historical Society directly reflects The tissue box also exemplifies the ways
Stanton’s involvement in organizing the July 1848 anniversary celebrations change when the event
women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New commemorated passes out of living memory.
York. At this convention, the first in the United Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, her life-long co-agi-
States to demand equal rights for women as citi- tator, seized on decennial anniversaries of the
zens, Stanton’s considerable rhetorical «\¢ organi- Seneca Falls Convention to reaffirm ties with long-
.ational talents were revealed. That convention's time allies, reinvigorate current campaigns, and
Declaration of S-ntiments—a list of grievances, prepare for future efforts, all within the context of
resolutions, and action plans following the lan- annual meetings of women’s rights organizations
guage and model of the U.S. Declaration of founded by them. nly as leaders aged and died
Independence—continues to provide a framework did celebrations gradually incorporate pictures and
for action in the late-20th century. Stanton’s “inau- artifacts to carry the memory of the Convention. In
guration of a rebellion” is represented in Rochester, NY, in 1878, and in Washington, DC, in
Johnstown Historical Society research files by a tis- 1888 and 1898, icons replaced the actual presence
sue box produced by the Kleenex Company for the of conference organizers Lucretia Mott and the
90th and 140th anniversaries of the Seneca Falls M’Clintock family.*
Convention. On the bottom of the box, Stanton’s After the deaths of Stanton in 1902 and
image heads text explaining her role “leading the Anthony in 1906, various wings of the women’s
way in women’s rights.” Perhaps the manufacturer movement used quarter-century and decennial
wished to attract a predominantly female buying anniversaries to claim direct descent, and therefore
population, and to simultaneously avoid offending legitimacy. Absent the voices that rang out in
cold sufferers who disagreed with Stanton’s Seneca Falls, new leaders returned there as inheri-
women’s rights agenda. tors of the women’s rights movement. Anniversary
Kleenex’s marketing of Stanton and the commemorations held in Seneca Falls in 1908,
Seneca Falls Convention demonstrates that cul- 1923, and 1948, respectively hosted by Harriot
tural resource managers cannot control the ways Stanton Blatch (Elizabeth Cady’s Stanton’s daugh-
that others use tempting opportunities to revisit ter), by the National Woman's Party, and by the
CRM No 11—1998
community of Seneca Falls, all shared this ten- played a distinct role: the park interpreted the
dency. Blatch, a member of the New York Suffrage Convention, Celebrate '98 celebrated the anniver-
League, began the process of marking buildings, sary, and Forum "98 created an agenda for the
gathering artifacts, sponsoring speeches, and ask- future.
ing direct descendants to endorse particular strate- In Living Memory: |9 th-Century Celebrations
gies for political change.> Nineteenth-century observances of the
By contrast, this year's events included Seneca Falls Convention took place within the con-
forums for exchange of ideas and collection of text of active organizing for women’s rights. In
memories. Women’s Rights National Historical 1878, the National Woman Suffrage Association
Park, created in 1980 to preserve and interpret the called the first recorded celebration, held at the
sites associated with “the beginning of the struggle Unitarian Church in Rochester, NY, in place of its
of women for their equal rights,” holds the regular annual convention. In addition to Stanton,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton House, remnants of the delegates included Sojourner Truth, who had been
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, site of the Seneca speaking for women’s and African-American civil
Falls Convention, and the M’Clintock House, rights for 27 years, Frederick Douglass, publisher
where Quaker activists hosted the drafting of the and statesman, and Quaker minister and anti-slav-
Declaration of Sentiments, revised -nd adopted by ery activist Lucretia Mott, Stanton’s mentor and
the Convention as its statement of purpose. Each role model. With the character of “a reunion...of
became 7 venue for commemorative events. near and dear telatives...which help to sustain
Scholars and activists met in panels and roundta- reformers while they battle ignorance and preju-
bles at the Stanton House. First Lady and dice in order to secure justice,” it was also an occa-
Honorary President of the Girl Scouts of America sion to call for change. Stanton returned to an
Hillary Rodham Clinton unveiled the new Girl early theme of the women’s rights movement: the
Scout badge, “Honor the Past, Imagine the “perverted application of the scriptures” which
Future,” with the same logo as the White House denied women equal rights. Stanton spent much of
Millennium Council's “Save Our Treasures” tour at the 1870s travelling as a popular speaker, and
the M'Clintock House. (See speech page 16.) repeatedly found the Bible useu io refute her argu-
Celebrate '98, a consortium of community organi- ments about women’s equality with men. She
zations, sponsored a re-enact ment of the 1848 encouraged women to decide for themselves what
Convention in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, the Holy Scriptures said about women’s equality,
where Mrs. Clinton met with descendants of the sponsoring three resolutions on self-development.
signers of the Decla ation of Sentiments. Women’s The first called it the “duty of every individua!” to
Rights NHP, Celebrate '98, and Forum '98, a coali- develop herself; the second appealed to women to
tion of national women’s organizations, each exercise their own critical thinking in analyzing the
1888 International
Council oWfo men.
Susan B. Anthony
and Euzabeth
Cady Stanton
seated second and
fourth from left,
first row. Photo
from the slide files
oWfo men’s Righits
National Historical
Park.
CRM No 11—1998