Week 4: Historic Preservation, Accurate Information, and the Bogyman

            The first reading this week was section III from Mickey Mouse History And Other Essays American Memory by Mike Wallace included Preserving the Past: A History of Historic Preservation in the United States and Preservation Revisited.  The first essay spoke about the evolution of historic preservation in the United States starting from the colonial period through to the  early 1980’s, covering preservation vs. development, laws, and government backlash.  This author has a tendency to ramble on, considering the last paragraph in its entirety is one sentence twelve lines long.  The second essay picked up the ball from the previous essay, starting from the late 1980’s. It spoke about the hits and delay’s historic preservation has had from fuzzy worded initiatives, the decrease in available funding and the idea to promote restoration as a form of environmentalism.

            The reading from Public History: Essay’s from the Field edited by James B. Gardner and Peter S. LaPaglia included the articles Historic Preservationists and Cultural Resources Managers: Preserving America’s Historic Places by Antoinette J. Lee and Interpreters and Museum Educators: Beyond the Blue Hairs by Mark Howell.  The first essay spoke about what the responsibilities, duties and concerns are of preservationists and cultural resource managers.  The second essay discusses how to present information to the public as an interpreter or museum educator, as well as the difficulties of breaking into the field. 

            The web reading this week was awesome.  Professor Cebula’s letter was pointed yet polite, and pointed out some real flaws inherent in presentations at historic sites.  Even better was the rebuttal by the director of the site, which admittedly made me laugh, both with humor and disbelief that someone in that position could be so ignorant and unprofessional. 

            The website this week was the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It had a clear and aesthetically pleasing layout that wasn't confusing.  The goal of the group is so save America’s historic places, and the site has information on their current sites, histories, news coverage, work and volunteer opportunities, and how to join or support them.  This site does a good job of not overloading visitors with ads or plea’s for funding, as is often the case with preservation or historical groups, unfortunately.   

            The second website was the National Register of Historic Places page on the National Park Services website.  This was a clean and organized site that was easy to navigate.  According to the “About Us” page, the National Register of Historic Places is “part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources”.  This website has links to publications, databases, information on how to list a property and much more. 

            The PreservationNation Blog contains “stories, news and notes from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  I think it’s a good blog without being too “loud”, and the authors of the posts are from the Trust or similar organizations. It even has a Pinterest segment, which is smart as it allows for a greater reach of the Trusts goals to use multiple media outlets.

The historic farm house in Star, NC. Courtesy of PreservationNation Blog.

            The video of the week was on Eastern State Penitentiary. It was very brief and did not give a lot of information, but I gathered that there is a bit of controversy over the institute turning into a haunted house at night to bring in revenue.  There is worry that it trivializes the history of the Penitentiary, but on the other hand there are people who think it is a necessary evil in order to remain open to the public.   I’m not sure where I stand on this issue. In this case, I think it’s kind of a good idea as long as the site is not damaged further from the haunted house and it does not present misinformation on what went on when the Penitentiary was in use.

 

HIST 389 Second Week Post

            I liked Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory by Mike Wallace. It was easy to get through, offering a view not often thought about concerning public history.  It was interesting how it talked about how history is presented in different slants depending on the views of the people who put it together, talking about all the controversies on page xi.  It goes along the lines of how Ford created a utopian-esque view of the “Good Old Days” with his Greenfield Village and Williamsburg created by John D. Rockefeller Jr.  This brought to mind the Civil War reenactments I’ve been to that were so clean cut and left out some really big issues of the day.  The next article describes the development of museums and how they need continual evolution of encompassing more and more of history without blinders in regards to “class, race, gender and micro-cultures” (p. 43). 

            The readings in Public History: Essays from the Field, edited by James B. Gardner and Peter S. LaPaglia, spoke about professional historians and how to become a public historian, and the conflicts and differences between the two.  I liked the second article the best, Becoming A Public Historian by Constance B. Shulz the best if only because it clarified the training involved, the various jobs included under the title of public historian and where the field could be headed. 

            The online article from The New York Times entitled Museum Sells Pieces of Its Past, Reviving a Debate by Robin Pogrebin was really eye opening. I had never even considered that a museum would sell pieces for its own funding, weaseling its way around the myriad rules concerning such an issue.  There are so many different interpretations of the laws governing history museum collections that it leaves the items vulnerable to less than honorable intentions. 

            The other website, Museums and the Best of the Web Awards, included a lot of information and was a bit confusing. The title is self-explaining, will the results of the voting going all the way back to 1997. I noticed on the page it talks about the nominating process it says “you are encouraged to nominate a site other than your own”.  I take it you can nominate your own site, which I think is kind of like cheating. 

            Museum Blogging, written by Leslie Madsen-Brooks who is a researcher, professor and public historian, is an easily maneuverable blog, if a bit dry and confusing at times, requiring a bit more knowledge of the inner workings of a museum or related technology than the average person might have.  Though there are lighter bits, like the post Bringing the sexy back to public history, I prefer the other blog which I talk about below.

            The other blog site, Burke Blog, maintained by the University of Washington with various author postings, is like visiting a museum online. The posts had interesting topics that were relatively easy reads on new discovery’s, museum personnel, and links to numerous other sites concerning history and conservation. 

A beinakerlingar in Iceland. Photo courtesy of  Burke Museum Blog