Abstract The Nantucket Historical Association found itself by 1930 suddenly transformed from a gr... more Abstract The Nantucket Historical Association found itself by 1930 suddenly transformed from a grass-roots collective to a modern nonprofit organization host to the ambitious new Nantucket Whaling Museum. The change owed largely to president William F. Macy, who promoted the museum as entrée into the nation's rising heritage tourism industry. And yet, by merit of its concern with a seafaring past inextricably bound with maritime labor and global economies, the museum unwittingly complicated the romantic portrayals of ships and their captains favored by local tourism boosters. Its core collection, for instance, a vast assemblage of industrial whaling tools donated by Progressive reformer Edward Sanderson, showcased the hard lives of workaday sailors. This article examines Macy's vision for Nantucket's past and how he sought to ensure that it would remain profitable, history notwithstanding. We discover how moments of institutional change can redistribute historical authority in ways that have considerable long-term impacts on museums and their publics.
This is a lively and engaging look at patriotism and collective memory.In "Here, George Wash... more This is a lively and engaging look at patriotism and collective memory.In "Here, George Washington Was Born", Seth C. Bruggeman examines the broader history of commemoration in the United States by focusing on the George Washington Birthplace National Monument in Virginia's Northern Neck, where contests of public memory have unfolded with particular vigor for nearly eighty years.Washington left the birthplace with his family at a young age and rarely returned. The house burned in 1779 and would likely have passed from memory but for George Washington Parke Custis, who erected a stone marker on the site in 1815, creating the first birthplace monument in America. Both Virginia and the U.S. War Department later commemorated the site, but neither matched the work of a Virginia ladies association that in 1923 resolved to build a replica of the home. The National Park Service permitted construction of the "replica house" until a shocking archeological discovery sparked protracted battles between the two organizations over the building's appearance, purpose, and claims to historical authenticity.Bruggeman sifts through years of correspondence, superintendent logs, and other park records to reconstruct delicate negotiations of power among a host of often unexpected claimants on Washington's memory. By paying close attention to costumes, furnishing, and other material culture, he reveals the centrality of race and gender in the construction of Washington's public memory and reminds us that national parks have not always welcomed all Americans. What's more, Bruggeman offers the story of Washington's birthplace as a cautionary tale about the perils and possibilities of public history by asking why we care about famous birthplaces at all.
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
The cruiser Olympia, known widely for its associations with Admiral George Dewey and the 1898 Bat... more The cruiser Olympia, known widely for its associations with Admiral George Dewey and the 1898 Battle of Manila Bay, has moldered along Philadelphia's Delaware River waterfront ever since being decommissioned there by the US Navy in 1922. Veterans' groups advocated for the ship's preservation, but none succeeded until 1958, when the Cruiser Olympia Association secured rights to restore Olympia and open it to the public as a museum ship. This essay shows how the Olympia's preservation saga endowed shipboard interpretation with ideas about gender, race, and nationalism that, today, undermine possibilities for engaging a new generation of preservation advocates. d own At Penn's LAnding, amid the lunch stands and pedal boats that hint at revival along Philadelphia's Delaware River waterfront, visitors encounter what for most is merely a vague schoolbook memory: the cruiser Olympia. 1 It was the Olympia that car-This essay has benefited significantly from the insights of many historians, archivists, students, friends, and supporters. Foremost among them are
This essay details my experience in developing and teaching a course concerning the history of th... more This essay details my experience in developing and teaching a course concerning the history of the National Park Service for students enrolled in Temple University’s ProRanger Program. I offer this account as a pedagogical case study, but also as evidence that educational partnerships between the agency and college classrooms can help us imagine new possibilities for both. Most significant, for the NPS, is the possibility of grooming a new generation of agency advocates at a time when it—and we—need them most.
During the early twentieth century, amid growing interest in the pedagogical significance of heri... more During the early twentieth century, amid growing interest in the pedagogical significance of heritage landscapes, Pennsylvanians took a leading role in demonstrating the value of teaching with historic places. A forward-looking Pennsylvania Historical Commission (the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission since 1945) and significant investments by the federally sponsored Works Progress Administration paved the way. This essay reflects on that history toward assessing the role of historic places in education today. It suggests that historic places offer important lessons beyond what they reveal about how Americans lived in the past. Most significantly, we gain new insight into Pennsylvania history by interrogating the reasons why historic sites are preserved and how their management changes over time. Several examples illustrate how challenging students with nuanced considerations of historic places encourages all of us to be mindful of persistent threats to Pennsylvania’s public historical resources.
... Seth C. Bruggeman Temple University Museums and Empire: Natural History, Human Cultures, and ... more ... Seth C. Bruggeman Temple University Museums and Empire: Natural History, Human Cultures, and Colonial Iden-ti ties by John M. MacKenzie. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009; 272 pp.; clothbound, $89.95; paperbound, $34.95. ...
New research concerning unprecedented growth in the US penal system during the twentieth century ... more New research concerning unprecedented growth in the US penal system during the twentieth century creates rich opportunities for prison museums to engage broad audiences in a conversation about the problems of mass incarceration. The case of Eastern State Penitentiary, however, suggests that public historians' ability to call the law into question may be limited by the founding vision of their host intuitions. Specifically at issue are the priorities of historic preservationists whose architectural commitments risk obscuring important histories of race, power, and community. If they do, we stand to forget that many of the same social forces underlying the United States' carceral turn account too for the gentrification of its urban spaces during the late twentieth century. Eastern State's complicity in both may explain why it still struggles to fulfill its mission to “place current issues of corrections and justice in an historical framework.”
Labor Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, 2012
ABSTRACT Many of Labor's readers are aware of and should be thanked for the remarkable co... more ABSTRACT Many of Labor's readers are aware of and should be thanked for the remarkable collabora-tions among labor historians and public historians over the years. Examples are varied and wide ranging and, in some cases, have been formative. Here at Temple University, where I direct the Center for Public History, I am constantly reminded of the professional debt I owe to the editorial conuence of three particular labor historians: Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig. Their Presenting the Past: Essays on History and the Public () inaugurated Temple Press's Critical Perspectives on the Past series, which has produced titles of considerable signicance for public historians and labor historians. I am not the rst person to recognize this shared legacy, nor am I alone in doing it recently. International Labor and Working-Class History mounted its own thematic spe-cial issue in fall . The Public Historian, my eld's principal journal, devoted an entire issue to the intersections of public and labor history in and one to the special case of industrial history museums in . Labor historians will be glad to learn that the National Council on Public History gave the Public History Project Award to the Bracero History Archive, which collects materials pertaining to the mid-twentieth-century guest worker program. In , the council's annual book award went to Cathy Stanton's mag-nicent The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Postindustrial City (), which has quickly become one of the most inuential works of public history scholarship to date. Much of our common purpose relies on our conviction that history worth doing is history that encourages real change in real lives. Civic engagement is at the center of our shared enterprise. Marvin Ciporen anticipated as much in when, in an early issue of The Public Historian, he entreated readers to revisit the example of Charles Beard and James Harvey Robinson and to become actively involved in trade union education. "Labor has often been neglected by historians," Ciporen noted, but "the current movement to develop a eld of public history could help ll some of this void. The desire of the public historians to expand the traditional uses of history . . . coincide[s] with unions' needs for these skills and their belief in the value of history" ("Labor's Use of History,"). Now that the eld of public history is well established, it is worth wondering whether Ciporen's aspirations have borne fruit. In this special review section, Labor takes up the question by exploring a cross section of American museum exhibits. Our goal is to learn what today's labor historians make of the fascinating work done by their colleagues in these selected public settings. It is worth noting that labor history gets done in a whole host of venues, including archives, historical associations, community organizations, and government agencies. Our intent is not to slight the remarkable scope of public historical endeavor but rather to join an ongoing conversation about a particular case of labor his-tory and museums.
Abstract The Nantucket Historical Association found itself by 1930 suddenly transformed from a gr... more Abstract The Nantucket Historical Association found itself by 1930 suddenly transformed from a grass-roots collective to a modern nonprofit organization host to the ambitious new Nantucket Whaling Museum. The change owed largely to president William F. Macy, who promoted the museum as entrée into the nation's rising heritage tourism industry. And yet, by merit of its concern with a seafaring past inextricably bound with maritime labor and global economies, the museum unwittingly complicated the romantic portrayals of ships and their captains favored by local tourism boosters. Its core collection, for instance, a vast assemblage of industrial whaling tools donated by Progressive reformer Edward Sanderson, showcased the hard lives of workaday sailors. This article examines Macy's vision for Nantucket's past and how he sought to ensure that it would remain profitable, history notwithstanding. We discover how moments of institutional change can redistribute historical authority in ways that have considerable long-term impacts on museums and their publics.
... of Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site put me in contact with important materials concer... more ... of Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site put me in contact with important materials concerning Louise du ... toned down my jargon, readers still complained about terms that have no agency meaning. At ... the ball rolling and so, my purpose here is to write a historypart social ...
Abstract The Nantucket Historical Association found itself by 1930 suddenly transformed from a gr... more Abstract The Nantucket Historical Association found itself by 1930 suddenly transformed from a grass-roots collective to a modern nonprofit organization host to the ambitious new Nantucket Whaling Museum. The change owed largely to president William F. Macy, who promoted the museum as entrée into the nation's rising heritage tourism industry. And yet, by merit of its concern with a seafaring past inextricably bound with maritime labor and global economies, the museum unwittingly complicated the romantic portrayals of ships and their captains favored by local tourism boosters. Its core collection, for instance, a vast assemblage of industrial whaling tools donated by Progressive reformer Edward Sanderson, showcased the hard lives of workaday sailors. This article examines Macy's vision for Nantucket's past and how he sought to ensure that it would remain profitable, history notwithstanding. We discover how moments of institutional change can redistribute historical authority in ways that have considerable long-term impacts on museums and their publics.
This is a lively and engaging look at patriotism and collective memory.In "Here, George Wash... more This is a lively and engaging look at patriotism and collective memory.In "Here, George Washington Was Born", Seth C. Bruggeman examines the broader history of commemoration in the United States by focusing on the George Washington Birthplace National Monument in Virginia's Northern Neck, where contests of public memory have unfolded with particular vigor for nearly eighty years.Washington left the birthplace with his family at a young age and rarely returned. The house burned in 1779 and would likely have passed from memory but for George Washington Parke Custis, who erected a stone marker on the site in 1815, creating the first birthplace monument in America. Both Virginia and the U.S. War Department later commemorated the site, but neither matched the work of a Virginia ladies association that in 1923 resolved to build a replica of the home. The National Park Service permitted construction of the "replica house" until a shocking archeological discovery sparked protracted battles between the two organizations over the building's appearance, purpose, and claims to historical authenticity.Bruggeman sifts through years of correspondence, superintendent logs, and other park records to reconstruct delicate negotiations of power among a host of often unexpected claimants on Washington's memory. By paying close attention to costumes, furnishing, and other material culture, he reveals the centrality of race and gender in the construction of Washington's public memory and reminds us that national parks have not always welcomed all Americans. What's more, Bruggeman offers the story of Washington's birthplace as a cautionary tale about the perils and possibilities of public history by asking why we care about famous birthplaces at all.
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
The cruiser Olympia, known widely for its associations with Admiral George Dewey and the 1898 Bat... more The cruiser Olympia, known widely for its associations with Admiral George Dewey and the 1898 Battle of Manila Bay, has moldered along Philadelphia's Delaware River waterfront ever since being decommissioned there by the US Navy in 1922. Veterans' groups advocated for the ship's preservation, but none succeeded until 1958, when the Cruiser Olympia Association secured rights to restore Olympia and open it to the public as a museum ship. This essay shows how the Olympia's preservation saga endowed shipboard interpretation with ideas about gender, race, and nationalism that, today, undermine possibilities for engaging a new generation of preservation advocates. d own At Penn's LAnding, amid the lunch stands and pedal boats that hint at revival along Philadelphia's Delaware River waterfront, visitors encounter what for most is merely a vague schoolbook memory: the cruiser Olympia. 1 It was the Olympia that car-This essay has benefited significantly from the insights of many historians, archivists, students, friends, and supporters. Foremost among them are
This essay details my experience in developing and teaching a course concerning the history of th... more This essay details my experience in developing and teaching a course concerning the history of the National Park Service for students enrolled in Temple University’s ProRanger Program. I offer this account as a pedagogical case study, but also as evidence that educational partnerships between the agency and college classrooms can help us imagine new possibilities for both. Most significant, for the NPS, is the possibility of grooming a new generation of agency advocates at a time when it—and we—need them most.
During the early twentieth century, amid growing interest in the pedagogical significance of heri... more During the early twentieth century, amid growing interest in the pedagogical significance of heritage landscapes, Pennsylvanians took a leading role in demonstrating the value of teaching with historic places. A forward-looking Pennsylvania Historical Commission (the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission since 1945) and significant investments by the federally sponsored Works Progress Administration paved the way. This essay reflects on that history toward assessing the role of historic places in education today. It suggests that historic places offer important lessons beyond what they reveal about how Americans lived in the past. Most significantly, we gain new insight into Pennsylvania history by interrogating the reasons why historic sites are preserved and how their management changes over time. Several examples illustrate how challenging students with nuanced considerations of historic places encourages all of us to be mindful of persistent threats to Pennsylvania’s public historical resources.
... Seth C. Bruggeman Temple University Museums and Empire: Natural History, Human Cultures, and ... more ... Seth C. Bruggeman Temple University Museums and Empire: Natural History, Human Cultures, and Colonial Iden-ti ties by John M. MacKenzie. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009; 272 pp.; clothbound, $89.95; paperbound, $34.95. ...
New research concerning unprecedented growth in the US penal system during the twentieth century ... more New research concerning unprecedented growth in the US penal system during the twentieth century creates rich opportunities for prison museums to engage broad audiences in a conversation about the problems of mass incarceration. The case of Eastern State Penitentiary, however, suggests that public historians' ability to call the law into question may be limited by the founding vision of their host intuitions. Specifically at issue are the priorities of historic preservationists whose architectural commitments risk obscuring important histories of race, power, and community. If they do, we stand to forget that many of the same social forces underlying the United States' carceral turn account too for the gentrification of its urban spaces during the late twentieth century. Eastern State's complicity in both may explain why it still struggles to fulfill its mission to “place current issues of corrections and justice in an historical framework.”
Labor Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, 2012
ABSTRACT Many of Labor's readers are aware of and should be thanked for the remarkable co... more ABSTRACT Many of Labor's readers are aware of and should be thanked for the remarkable collabora-tions among labor historians and public historians over the years. Examples are varied and wide ranging and, in some cases, have been formative. Here at Temple University, where I direct the Center for Public History, I am constantly reminded of the professional debt I owe to the editorial conuence of three particular labor historians: Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig. Their Presenting the Past: Essays on History and the Public () inaugurated Temple Press's Critical Perspectives on the Past series, which has produced titles of considerable signicance for public historians and labor historians. I am not the rst person to recognize this shared legacy, nor am I alone in doing it recently. International Labor and Working-Class History mounted its own thematic spe-cial issue in fall . The Public Historian, my eld's principal journal, devoted an entire issue to the intersections of public and labor history in and one to the special case of industrial history museums in . Labor historians will be glad to learn that the National Council on Public History gave the Public History Project Award to the Bracero History Archive, which collects materials pertaining to the mid-twentieth-century guest worker program. In , the council's annual book award went to Cathy Stanton's mag-nicent The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Postindustrial City (), which has quickly become one of the most inuential works of public history scholarship to date. Much of our common purpose relies on our conviction that history worth doing is history that encourages real change in real lives. Civic engagement is at the center of our shared enterprise. Marvin Ciporen anticipated as much in when, in an early issue of The Public Historian, he entreated readers to revisit the example of Charles Beard and James Harvey Robinson and to become actively involved in trade union education. "Labor has often been neglected by historians," Ciporen noted, but "the current movement to develop a eld of public history could help ll some of this void. The desire of the public historians to expand the traditional uses of history . . . coincide[s] with unions' needs for these skills and their belief in the value of history" ("Labor's Use of History,"). Now that the eld of public history is well established, it is worth wondering whether Ciporen's aspirations have borne fruit. In this special review section, Labor takes up the question by exploring a cross section of American museum exhibits. Our goal is to learn what today's labor historians make of the fascinating work done by their colleagues in these selected public settings. It is worth noting that labor history gets done in a whole host of venues, including archives, historical associations, community organizations, and government agencies. Our intent is not to slight the remarkable scope of public historical endeavor but rather to join an ongoing conversation about a particular case of labor his-tory and museums.
Abstract The Nantucket Historical Association found itself by 1930 suddenly transformed from a gr... more Abstract The Nantucket Historical Association found itself by 1930 suddenly transformed from a grass-roots collective to a modern nonprofit organization host to the ambitious new Nantucket Whaling Museum. The change owed largely to president William F. Macy, who promoted the museum as entrée into the nation's rising heritage tourism industry. And yet, by merit of its concern with a seafaring past inextricably bound with maritime labor and global economies, the museum unwittingly complicated the romantic portrayals of ships and their captains favored by local tourism boosters. Its core collection, for instance, a vast assemblage of industrial whaling tools donated by Progressive reformer Edward Sanderson, showcased the hard lives of workaday sailors. This article examines Macy's vision for Nantucket's past and how he sought to ensure that it would remain profitable, history notwithstanding. We discover how moments of institutional change can redistribute historical authority in ways that have considerable long-term impacts on museums and their publics.
... of Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site put me in contact with important materials concer... more ... of Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site put me in contact with important materials concerning Louise du ... toned down my jargon, readers still complained about terms that have no agency meaning. At ... the ball rolling and so, my purpose here is to write a historypart social ...
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