Month: April 2011

After I read the article about the 4^th grade Virginia textbook, I thought that Joy Masoff should not be writing any books, especially history books.  She is not a trained historian, and should not be writing textbooks for schools.  In the article, she even admits that her statement/sentence about thousands of black Confederate soldiers was based on information she found on the internet.  It is obvious she needs training as to how to conduct research, and write textbooks.  The review board should have also done a better job evaluating her textbook.  This is why parent involvement is so important, because an actual historian and parent, Carol Sheriff noticed the sentence in her daughter’s textbook and had a problem with it as a parent and as a historian.

The problem with the docents at the Baron Von Munchausen House, is likely they did not receive adequate training.  It could be that someone else told them that the myths were true so they are just repeating what they have learned.  Here too is an excellent reason to do your own research before you go on a tour of a historic home/site.  The docents should also be conducting their own research and educating themselves.  Just because someone is a docent, or wrote a history textbook does not mean they are being historically accurate.  The fact that Historian Larry Cebula heard several myths reported by the docent, and calling slaves “servants” is not being accurate and is downright wrong; the site definitely needs to focus on correcting and improving upon their interpretation of history, and training their docents to be historically accurate.

The response of the curator I find rather comical.  Maybe the curator forgot to take her “meds” that day.  I especially found it ridiculous that they omitted slavery due to some kids teasing others.  To change history, or omit facts so as not to make someone feel uncomfortable is not what a historic institution should do.  Obviously some of the teachers need to educate their students before the tour as to how to behave.

After reading the article about Earl Taylor, it just reinforces again that when you want others to follow your political agenda, people are willing to change or omit real events of the past to suit their agenda.  The fact that Taylor said that Jefferson’s slaves wouldn’t want to leave Monticello is ridiculous.  Of course they would want their freedom.  During Taylor’s workshops, he just omits past events as if they didn’t exist, and reports on portions that fit in with his philosophy or agenda.  Obviously, he is not being historically accurate.  I don’t agree with information being changed or omitted to fit with a political agenda.  Yes, it is an ethical dilemma….

 

Here is an interesting site I found, not related to this week’s topic.  This site has several photos of historic Boise

http://www.oldboise.com/gallery_then.html

After grading 85 essays over Spring Break about the issue of bias in representations of slavery, it was all I could do to read more about it. However, as the article on the “Founding Fathers” class illustrates, this is such a relevant issue today with the rise of the Tea Party, etc. that it is hard to escape.

The “They Have Blood on Their Hands” post would have received a B from me for some unnecessarily inflammatory editorializing, but it did raise an important point about how the “pro-South” advocates make slavery out to be a minor issue when discussing the Civil War and its memory. My students were assigned to read a web page run by the Sons of Confederate Veterans in order to write their essays, and I was surprised that many of them did not seem to question the source’s bias at all (to re-emphasize last week’s point about how easy “lying about the past” is, especially on the web). I agree with LauriAnn that peer review is crucial to the accuracy of the text and integrity of the author. However, when the general public does not place a high value on the integrity of the source (it was a professor who discovered the error in the textbook), it is hard to see how more peer review will solve the greater issue at hand.

Another obstacle to promoting general historical literacy is the lack of resources that those with scholarly integrity are equipped with to pursue this goal. One of the comments to the Munchausen blog post noted that museum interpreters are often volunteers, and historic sites can not always afford to hire experts in the field. The power of public history is that it puts historical interpretation into the hands of the public; this can be either an asset or a detriment to the study of history.

Over the course of this semester, one thing that is probably obvious to anyone who had not known me before is how much I truly enjoy every aspect of being a Historian. I have been lucky enough to gain employment in the field, and subsequently receive irreplaceable training and experience by the countless individuals I have encountered across the country in my research endeavors.

The Last American Pirate blog struck a chord with me. I have not read the entirety of the blog (but from your reading reflections thus far, I can gather that it isn’t a result of solid research – something I might have assumed by some grammatical errors in the publications), but from what I read thus far, her efforts remind me of research I have been pursuing for the last few years.

The long of the short is that my great grandmother was a campaign volunteer for the Democratic party in Massachusetts, most actively from the 1950’s to late 1960’s. I have always known that she was politically active from the stories I’ve heard, to the government issued license plate I received as a family heirloom for my first car in high school. The degree of her involvement and achievements were not apparent until I devoted my scholastic and professional life to History a few years ago. Since then, I have received a number of artifacts and heirlooms from this woman who I never had the privilege of meeting. During the years of her involvement, anyone who has even a modest grasp of history is aware that women were not, and were not encouraged to be, politically active. The group she was involved with, the Democratic Women on Wheels was one of the few all-women grass roots movements in this era, especially having any level of success.

I always heard that she was involved with the election of John F. Kennedy, but considering his notoriety in Massachusetts, I wasn’t that impressed (let’s face it, a lot of people might claim to have been ‘a part’ of that election). The first discovery that struck my interest was her in a group photo. There was my relative, not 4 feet away from our 35th President.

From this moment, I began what has been years of research. I’ve spent hours in the archives at the Kennedy Museum and Library in Boston, and much like the author of the ‘Pirate’ blog, my initial trips had been largely unsuccessful.

The issue with grass roots movements is, that they were not well documented. Archivists at the Kennedy Library ask me for information whenever I’m there, because their knowledge is in the larger events and on-goings of JFK’s presidency and life. In that respect, they were not entirely helpful, or optimistic in my endeavors. Reluctantly, the Archivist allowed me to thumb through some Distinguished Women events held by the Kennedy campaign (Distinguished Women events were actually a unique faction within JFK’s election – some events being the infamous ‘Campaign Tea’ events where John would host essentially a town hall meeting with these invited ‘distinguished women’.

After about half a day spent tirelessly going page by page through boxes of material, I told myself I would leave after this next set. When almost all the way through the collection, I hit a gem…

While this find didn’t progress my research at all, it did make me realize something: my efforts were not for nothing. Somewhere in the depths of this archive, or the Walpole Historical Society, or maybe in an attic somewhere, the answers to my questions exist. Persistence is a requirement of all Historians, whether professional or amateur. There is no such thing as an unsuccessful day of research. Even if the answer to your question has not been found, you are either closer to finding it, or gaining further direction on where to move next.

During my last trip to Boston this past spring break, a gift was awaiting me on my aunt’s coffee table. An entire photo album with artifacts that proved my great grandmother’s level of involvement with the Kennedy campaign. I have letters and invitations in sealed envelopes from the U.S. Congress, ‘Honored Guest’ tickets to events (which research has shown were distributed by the Inaugural Committee by invitation only), and other artifacts that I have only seen in the Kennedy Museum at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

If this post has encouraged any message, I hope that it is to prove that even the slightest of hints, whether it be stories of a politically involved relative, or a pirate with a sandwich named after him, your findings can be well beyond anything that you could have imagined. If something fascinates you, pursue it. Finding that piece of paper with my grandmother’s name on it makes me proud to know that her efforts were rewarded with her name being a part of the permanent record of John F. Kennedy’s election.

The recent find in my aunt’s attic has given me a direction in my research, and the motivation to complete it. The tales of a politically involved great grandmother has grown into a lifetime research project. Whether it results in a publication, or just a nice narrative for future generations in my family, I hope to be able to properly tell the story of a truly fascinating woman.

The main thing I came away from this blog with was how important peer review is to academics. Since a large portion of publishing seems connected to career advancement, peer review seems necessary to ensure that the process is as fair as possible. While I’m sure that our peers cannot verify all aspects of our work, including sources and citation, they can still help keep obviously fraudulent material from being published and advancing someone’s academic career. The importance of peer review for public historians is more of a gray area. I don’t know if their are any official mechanism’s to ensure accuracy among public historians or if it is even possible.

As to my response to the blog I can’t say it was very captivating. While I like pirates as much as the next person, I didn’t find reading about someone researching a pirate all that interesting.

I have to admit that I wasn’t all that surprised by the Last American Pirate hoax. Maybe it’s because I sensed something was fishy by the overly exuberant blog entries, but the existence of such a fascinating topic (previously undiscovered by the plethora of Virginia historians, at that!) seemed suspect from the beginning. Maybe I am just cynical. Nevertheless, it was a good example of how easy it is to lie about the past.

Another thing that the blog made me doubt was the value of blogs detailing an academic research project. I knew several people in college who kept blogs about their undergraduate theses, but any interest I may have had in these blogs was merely because they were authored by my friends. I feel like, for historians in particular, people are already uninterested enough in the final product of your research (the book or article, etc.), so why would anyone want to read your narcissistic (and probably boring) account of how you conducted that research?