Week 4 Readings and the Excitement it Brings

     The two book readings were very appropriate for each other due to the fact that both were focusing on historical preservation and the costs, rewards, and failures that come with it.
   
     Essays from the Field:
     In Gardner and LaPaglia, the first essay writer, Antoinette Lee, takes us through the life of a preservationist. Lee makes the point that historical preservationists are tasked with taking boring facts about a location and presenting them to government boards in an energetic and passionate manner in order to keep historical sites from being destroyed. The next essay was by Mark Howell who dealt with the topic of interpreters. Howell took a more casual approach with writing this essay and I don't believe that it is necessarily a bad thing. As a profession, historical interpreters are tasked with being personable and approachable and I felt like he conveyed that about himself. He believed that as a museum interpreter, he and his peers were tasked with being able to teach both children and adults. This becomes a difficult task of being able to filter what you can say to both groups.

    Mickey Mouse History:
     In this, Mike Wallace takes the reader through a journey of the development of historical preservation starting from the 1880s. Each subsequent generation had its own opinion and role in historical preservation, but a common theme is that if the rich are interested in history, then it is easy to preserve history. During the 50s-70s, there was a mass tourism boom as a result of better transportation and communication. The development of the car sent people across the country and these people wanted attractions to draw them out of their urbanized cities and places like Colonial Williamsburg  and Greensfield Villiage would reap the financial benefits until the development of other parks. There was an update to Wallace's essay in which he updated the ideas of historical preservation for the 80s and 90s. This was used mostly to tear the Reagan administration and Republicans a new one.
   
     Web Readings: This was an interesting examination of critique and critique taken the wrong way. I did feel like Dr. Cebula presented his case and complaints in a respectful and professional manner while acknowledging that his tour guide at the Baron Von Munchausen house was a volunteer. The manager of the historical site did not seem too happy about any critique that was directed their way. It is a classic battle between a worker in the field and an academic...who is also a worker in the field of public history.

Terror behind the Walls. Image courtesy of

     Websites and Video: The two websites were very bland. It seems to be a recurring theme that the blogs are nice and classy with good content and interesting links while the historical websites are in desperate need of a makeover. It would seem like the National Park Service would be able to afford a web designer who could make the website look more desirable and with better content. The video was weird but well done. The students at Temple did work. It was a very creepy looking prison, but in order to keep it well funded they turn it into a haunted house at night. This is actually a genius idea to get extra interest and revenue for the historical site.  The academics didn't seem overly excited by this however. This feature is similar to what the "cannon-ball parks" do with their ghost tours of the battlefield. 

Example of one of the many ghost tours at Gettysburg
and other battlefields. Image courtesy of

         

Life and Times of Public History

Paper Readings
Essays from the Field:

     These reading assignments were very enlightening because it dealt with a large variety of skills and positions that a public historian can have. On the first day of class, Dr. Cebula gave a presentation on these various jobs, but Gardner and LaPaglia, through other people's essays, showed public history in action.

      First, the essay about administrators was rather funny because the writer, Michael Devine, discovered his calling to be a historical administrator through a fortuitous accident (46). That accident being that a friend offered him a job that would pay more than a teacher's salary. Devine also had nothing but negative things to say about business administrators in museums, exhibits, and any historical site. The next essay about archivists and records managers was timely, seeing as how we had just entered one of the regional state archives in the last class, but it seemed as though the archivists we met on Thursday played the role of both the archivists and the records managers; however, the writer of this essay, makes a clear distinction between the two. The role of the historical contractor, as explained by Jannelle Warren-Findley, was one that required a specific type of personality and psychological makeup. A makeup that I for one do not have. The final essay was an examination of how history helps with editing and publishing, but the story and essay prior to that about the Emma Goldman Papers showed the type of time, effort, and dedication that is required for a documentary editor. Overall, this continued to reinforce in our minds how a history degree opens doors in both the public history world and other business opportunities. 

  

Online Readings Etc.
Ellis Island Website:
      This website could use some more creativity and clarity. It feels like they are putting a lot of information into their tabs and need to spread it out through more links so that you can fall deeper into the rabbit hole. They did have a fun little listing about the famous people who have passed through there. Also, couldn't help but notice that on the front page there was a plea for a 45$ a year membership to keep the website running. One of the things that they talk about in "Essays" is that constant struggle to find money.

Video:
For some reason my computer wasn't able to access the video.

Web Stuff:
      Boston 1775 had an informative blog that shared some things that I didn't know about Boston in 1775. Like the Battle of Golden Hill or the weaponry that Washington had at the time. It was a blog that I have never seen or heard of and thought that it was enlightening.

Disney's America. Courtesy of Disney

      My favorite part of any of the readings this week was the interesting article about the Disney History Site. I had no idea that this was a possibility at one point. Having been to the Manassas Junction area for awhile, the fields and wilderness surrounding the battlefield would have been a great spot for a site like this. Granted, Disney would have, inevitably, figured out a way to mess history up.

Nic Cage, National Treasure. Jif courtesy of tumblr

     Unfortunately, the common, underlying theme of the readings for this week is that it is extremely difficult to get funding for historical things, unless it has Nicolas Cage involved.

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Public History

Comic History of Rome. Image Courtesy of Wikipedia