Museums as Refuge: Serving as Places for Reflection After Boston Marathon Bombings

The place I identify as my home city is hurting today after the bombings of yesterday's marathon. Yet, amongst all the pain, we are hearing stories of hope. These include stories of people helping and reaching out to others: A former Patriot player who carried a woman to safety in the midst of chaos; people who crossed the finish line of the marathon and then kept going to the hospital to donate blood for victims; people living in Boston who are opening their homes to strangers who have no place to go; a server in Austin, Texas who brought some free food to my friend when she found out he was visiting from Boston - just to show her support; The Yankees baseball team posting a message of solidarity despite their rivalry with the Red Sox; the list goes on and on...

As for the cultural heritage field, two museums stood out for helping in their own way:

 

Community. Reflection. Refuge. Respite. Part of what we do best as museums and libraries. I feel that the museums can serve a role as part of a bridge to understanding to help us all heal. As an ideal, these institutions house what is best about humanity - our creativity, our strong continuing voices, our unity on this earth. As we strive to make sense of senseless tragedy, my beloved museum community reminds us of the good and tries to draw us together in hope. Thank you MFA and ICA.

Have any other museums participated in opening their doors for free today? Did anyone take Boston Museums up on their offer to reflect in the shelter of their collections inside their doors? Please let us know and contribute their perspective to the positive stories I am hearing across the media today.

Boston Public Library Local & Family History Lecture Series

"The Boston Public Library's Local & Family History Lecture Series is in its 10th year of sharing information about the history of Boston and its neighborhoods along with tips and guides for those beginning their own genealogical research."

I am pleased to be included among the speakers at this year's BPL Local and Family History lecture series. I will be at the library on January 23rd at 6pm. The librarian emailed the following when she asked me to participate, "Your quote 'We can each have some control over the history that is remembered when we maintain and make plans for our own documentation' brings the history and the genealogy together."

Getting this message out to genealogists [and others] is important. Often caught up in the history of the past, we forget about the history of the future. By that I mean, we need to remember that the things we do today will be important to our descendants. We need to be aware as we search for answers about our ancestors that we can also leave clues about ourselves. We are not just digging for history -- or in my case saving the records of history -- we are also living history.

While in the past we did it somewhat shoddy job of recording and keeping information about how we lived, we have an opportunity moving forward. We have tools and awareness of the value of history that can help us share what we know with future generations. As a genealogist or person with an interest in local history and family stories, YOU are responsible for telling your story. How will you be remembered? What do you have to say to others? What does your life represent? And, not only is this a responsibility, it is an opportunity to think about and live your life as you want -- to evaluate who you are and how you want others to begin to think about your place in history.

You are the center of history

My life is a blip on a timeline of history, but it is ON that timeline. Each one of us is important. We have the power to help our memories survive by documenting them and thoughtfully passing them on. It is the stories of everyday life that count. It is these stories that help us better understand societies and how the "common man" functions, survives and changes. As part of larger communities, individuals help mold those communities. Whether we are aware of our impact or not, our participation in anything changes that thing. I have found that being aware of this makes the study of history more significant and allows me to better understand my role and purpose in the world.

My presentation, "The Unofficial Family Archivist" will help arm you with techniques for telling your stories. I hope to make you realize (if you don't already) how life's little moments are what make you and what makes your communities. How do you find, record, and save the stories that surround you that are worth telling? My books on archives, communy and memory provide a little more focus with worksheets to assist. [I didn't want to make this blog post a book sales pitch, but I do think the tie-in will be helpful to some.] I hope that you will join me this Wednesday if you are in the Boston area. Come tell me YOUR stories. I love hearing about what is important to other people. Not only do I like growing my personal network, but, selfishly, learning about others helps me better understand myself too. I look forward to seeing you soon!

Learning African American History through Context Boston

Prince Hall sought and received an English
charter for a black free masons group when
he was denied entry to the local white free
masons. Interestingly from an archives
perspective, the original charter for the
group he founded is currently housed
in a State Street bank vault.

I was lucky to once again have the opportunity to take a Context Boston Tour. This past winter I walked and blogged about the company's North End Tour. Last week's traipse through history began at the North End, but then took us on the Freedom Trail for a remarkable look at Boston's African American heritage. We were once again led by the knowledgeable Alex Goldfeld, who first introduced us to bits of this story on our last visit. (Here's a little plug for Alex who seems to have the low-down on all Boston history and as a North End resident, as well as President and historian of the North End Historical Society, he certainly knows the ins and outs of this area in particular. Check out his book The North End: A Brief History of Boston's Oldest Neighborhood.]

Alex began our walk through time with a version of this story:

"When Paul Revere wrote in his account of his midnight ride, 'After I had passed Charlestown Neck, and got nearly opposite where Mark was hung in chains,' he was referring to a well-known local landmark along his route through Charlestown (present-day Somerville). On this site twenty years earlier a slave named Mark Codman had been hanged and his body gibbeted (suspended in chains) for murder and petit treason for killing his master, John Codman."  http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/education/codman.html

The story resonated with those taking the tour and immediately brought the past to life, reminding us that issues of race have run as a thread through the fabric of American society since its inception. We discussed how black men struggled in a fight for freedom, noting their servitude as incompatible with the ideals of our founding fathers, and later seeking equality in society that had more common interactions among people of different races at an earlier time than I realized.

The racial thread wound with us through the streets of Boston. We paused at the site of the Boston Massacre, in front of the old state house building. For the first time, I learned about Crispus Attucks, who is widely known as the first man killed in the American Revolution. The most memorable cultural item created as a result of the Massacre is Paul Revere's engraving of it. I recalled from my early American art history classes that there were no dark faces in the image. I surmised with my guide that perhaps in an attempt to gain widespread general support for the movement toward Independence this was a conscious bit of self censorship.  

August St. Gaudens used live models for realistic
depictions of black men serving in the Civil War in this
monument located across the street from the Massachusetts
State House. The fine details of his work remind us of their individualism.

The oldest home on Beacon Hill, the residence
of George Middleton represents a
neighborhood for free African
Americans in the 18th century.

I think more than anything else, this tour gave names and faces to those who we knew existed. The stories of men and women who fought slavery, helped others find freedom, promoted education, and valued the general ideals purported by a newly established government were revealed across the street from the Statehouse and up Beacon Hill, which had always represented Brahmin culture to me. The tour also gave us stories of specific events that demonstrated the struggle for freedom, such as the story of Elizabeth Freeman who sued for her rights. She recounted her experiences for posterity and her court records shed light on the African American experience at the time. I kept picking up on those archives connections that are so valuable for me. There was also the story of Lewis and Harriet Hayden who were leading abolitionists with a home on the underground railroad. Lewis' story is heartbreaking and still full of hope. (Go on the tour and let Alex tell it to you for full impact.)

Part of the Museum of African American history,
this building itself has a long history of use, re-use and preservation

One of our final stops was outside the Museum of African American History. To get there, we wound through back alleys that were built as shortcuts for getting around the grid layout of a very hilly area. These alleys also served as places to run along the underground railroad. We silently walked through and, to me, this was the most poignant part of the tour. There was something about winding through narrow passages that made the historical echoes of chasing freedom vibrant to me. On the other side of the passage we viewed the remodeling of the Museum, forming the culmination of our journey. It drove home the idea that saving stories is so vital to saving our heritage and made me think about my appreciation for how far we've come and how society's evolution is preserved in our cultural heritage sites.

I very much enjoyed the tour. I also enjoyed our small group of three friends who took it together. I felt that I had plenty of opportunity to ask questions and to use walking time to discuss my observations with my guide. There was a lot of walking in this tour, which may not be desirable for everyone, but I found it wonderful to explore parts of the city I had never seen before, even though I lived in Boston for four years. It was a pleasure to see another often under-recognized group highlighted in a tour dedicated to their story. Together, these multi-dimensional community stories that the Context Tours have provided me form the fabric of our heritage. While I work to ensure our documentation about this heritage is cared for, it is nice to see historians and even the travel industry taking the raw materials of history to create educational and entertaining programs.
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Please also see the blog post by Evolving Critic, who accompanied me on the tour. He focuses on the architectural landmarks along our route.

More Finds at the Local Antique Shop - Majestic Theatre Playbill

I was about to leave the shop empty handed, when a looseleaf stuffed with ephemera caught my eye. I asked the proprietor to open the glass case and she took it up to the counter for me to browse. This lovely early playbill from the early history of Boston's Majestic Theatre stood out from the other contents for its lovely cover artistry, indicative of the Beaux-Arts / Art Nouveau period.

This item called to me. Perhaps after teaching local second graders about Louis Comfort Tiffany last week as part of their monthly artist enrichment series, this period is on my mind. The turn of the twentieth century was a time for many artists to seek a more modern aesthetic, seeking to offer a new language for a new century.  These particular style(s) of the period were characterized by strong lines and natural elements. The effect was a sort of fancy simplicity of strong curvelinear design used to heighten beauty. This style matched the vision of Tiffany and other artists aiming to make beauty and beautiful decorative things accessible to anyone. Tiffany intended his designs to be affordable. Many artists were hoping that the twentieth century was to be a place of greater equality and greater social understanding.

My little playbill, steeped in the tradition and artistic sensibilities of the time is a perfect fit for the dramatic theater arts. The artist of this image is unknown to me, but his 1907 work matches the design of the 1903 Majestic Theatre building itself.

But within the booklet is a strange combination of advertisements, many relying on old-fashioned design despite the new artistic sensibility. 

This old-fashioned ad with a corseted woman leaning on her husband seems to directly contrast with the modern  woman drawn on the cover of the playbill who lets it all hang out (so to speak)

There is also a strange array of products for the wealthy, such as pianos, furs, white gloves, turkish baths, and chocolates, with few items that would suit a lower class, despite what the nouveau artists believed or wanted for their generation.

We also get a look at some popular culture of the day with an advertisement for Harvard-Yale football and the almost full page portrait of the popular actress Frances Starr.

From a simple piece of ephemera, we can explore the past, learn about the development of culture, try to decipher the sensibilities of a time, and explore community ideals trying to take flight.

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Interesting Internet read related to the subject: A Crisis of Tradition and Birth of Contemporary Art

Gravestones - Losing Historical Artifacts and Objects of Remembrance

Copp's Burial Ground in
Boston's North End

Last week, I visited Copp's Hill Burying Ground in Boston. Copp's Hill is the second oldest graveyard in the City. It is also the burial place of Cotton and Increase Mather who were major figures in our colonial history. Prince Hall, the "father" of black freemasonry is buried here with a stone erected in his honor. Copp's Hill is home to the marker commemorating Robert Gould Shaw of "Glory" fame.  He was formally buried at sea, but is remembered here by his townsmen. Robert Newman, the patriot who hung lamps in the North Church window as a signal to Paul Revere, is also here... So, as graveyards go, this is no slouch... Its condition implies otherwise.

Making my way to the historic spot last week, I marched uphill in my boots and a long overcoat. Watching my breath in the cold, I felt an air of anticipation at the thought of revisiting this site that I last saw in my college years. To set up the scene and my emotionalism for what I found, I should give a little of my own background. I have been a cemetery enthusiast since my father took me through Trinity Church burial ground in New York as a youngster. He made it a stopping point on daddy-daughter work days and pointed out the headstones of Robert Fulton and Alexander Hamilton. This was among my first memories of falling in love with history, imagining people who came before me and feeling an appreciation for how society became what it is today. In college, I had strong memories of these jaunts with my father when an art history instructor included slides of old burial stones in her lecture. She discussed how this was among the earliest colonial art. Enthralled with the idea of tying my interest in art to a more general interest in material culture and civilization, gravestone iconography became a large focus of my undergraduate academic work. I received a stipend through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and spent over a year traveling through New England cemeteries to study changes in gravestone imagery. My final paper was accepted by the Undergraduate Research conference committee for presentation at Cal Tech (All the way across the country! I had never been so far from home!) Over the past twenty years, I have maintained my interest, stopping when I see little burial site on the side of the road and speaking passionately about the joys of viewing gravestones whenever someone will listen and allow me to try to override the sense of morbidity that many others feel about this topic.

The creation of a gravestone is for the living, but it is also for the deceased. Few items that man creates are consciously given this kind of status. It serves as an object of remembrance, hopefully portraying the departed as that person would have wished to be acknowledged. The gravestone becomes an historical object, that stands as testimony of an individual's life and accomplishments while also acknowledging a living bond that remains with the society that remembers. A gravestone's words and imagery tell us what was important to an individual and the person's loved ones. In the case of old grounds, the stones connect our modern society with a past that we treasure, reminding us how we got here, noting our appreciation to those who came before us, and I believe also upholding a responsibility that we have to those who are gone.

The marker of Robert Gould
Shaw is illegible

Copp's Hill is a mess. I cannot be blunter about that. One cannot even make out the words on the Shaw marker that our ancestors placed to honor this unique man. Gravestones are broken, their pieces are nowhere in sight. I can only hope that someone has them stored somewhere until they can be repaired and that they are not just gone for good. Stones are leaning into each other, many covered in lichen and with vines. There is no sense of honoring here, except for the Markers of the Mathers that some descendant likely conserved and this too troubles me. It would be unacceptable to me to watch the grounds around my loved ones rot away, imparting a feeling of some kind of cemetery ghetto. It is forgotten by those who think they have better things to do and better places to spend their money.

Broken, dislodged, and otherwise endangered stones dot the cemetery at Copp's Hill

To be fair, this is not a unique situation. In 1990, I wrote in my gravestone iconography study, "While doing my research it was quite disheartening to find some of New England's historical graveyards in horrendous condition. Broken and weathered images leave many stones as unrecognizable traces of ancestry and American history...It is my hope that through further gravestone studies, people will become more aware of the importance of these markers to those who made them and the importance they still carry for us to remember our ancestors..."

Perhaps gravestones are plentiful and common. Perhaps that is why we let this happen. Maybe we just can't bring ourselves to spend money on these old things in hard economic times. Perhaps it is an unwillingness to see beyond the gruesome and to really see these markers as historical objects... Whatever our reasons , I hope that I can help people realize that few resources give us such a direct tie to history. Those "left behind" make an effort to make a marker to remember. While personal papers can be easily discarded, a gravestone is made to survive -- perhaps for hundreds and hundreds of years if we take care to preserve them. Beyond the memories of individual people, gravestones hold information that help us better understand society's growth. Over time, the way we think about a person's accomplishments, our own role in society, and the idea of life and death itself changes. Gravestones reflect these changes in society just as much as any artifact in a museum or archive. It is a greater challenge to maintain the upkeep of on object that is not submitted to climate control and is instead pounded by all the natural and man-made forces we can subject it to, but that does not mean we should ignore that object.


The City of Boston has a responsibility to its history to do a better job  maintaining Copp's Hill. And we, as citizens of this country, need to do a better job as well. If we do not show that we appreciate this heritage and note objections to its current care, it will disappear. How can we show that we value this history? Can we collaborate to encourage and perhaps help its upkeep? What has been done in the past to secure these stones and has something recently changed that we can positively impact?  In the past month, we have heard much about the loss of historic sites in Italy in articles such as "While Pompeii Crumbles." The neglect of history should not, at the very least, occur because of apathy. We need to take note of what is happening to history and take a stand to make sure it doesn't happen here, before it's too late.

Walking Tour of Boston's North End

This past Friday, I braved the New England cold for a three hour walking tour of the North End of Boston and found that the quiet winter streets were ideal for wandering through the City. Context Boston offered me the tour to get my take on their recently launched historical seminars.

My e-mail contact described Context Boston as "a network of over 200 scholars and experts who create and lead walking seminars in cultural capitals in Europe and, now, the United States as an alternative to mass tours. Context connects intellectually curious travelers (and locals) with Ph.D. level experts for in-depth learning experiences..."

Perhaps I should not admit this, but I am not a tour guide kind of cultural heritage participant. I prefer experiencing a site on my own, doing my research ahead of time, carrying my guide book or brochure, and wandering through an institution or new city. I like going in blind, being led by serendipity and not another person with preconceived notions about what I should find interesting or a docent who tells me what parts of a history are the important parts. In other words, I am quite often the person in the back of the tour group who is reading my guide book while the group leader is speaking. (That's the part that I shouldn't admit, I think.) I thought that Context Boston might have their hands full with me, but I went in with an open-mind, choosing the walking tour of the North End over three others offered because of the area's immigrant history. As a former archivist of the immigrant City of Waltham, Massachusetts, I thought I'd be able to make some good connections in my knowledge of the subject. I had been to the North End many times as a former resident of Boston and a frequent visitor, but I was not well-versed in this particular area's community history.

Boston's North End is now known as a neighborhood composed mainly of people of Italian descent. Its contemporary standing in my mind focused on its restaurants, ethnic shops, and culinary festivals. Its history was remarkable to me for Copp's Hill Burial Ground, which is one of the oldest graveyards in the city and of particular interest to me because of my research in this area as a student, and of course for Paul Revere and his ride. The North End has a small, old-fashioned community feeling in a large city. I had invited a colleague to take the tour with me and she said that the area made her think of Brooklyn, New York. I think that is an apt comparison.  Despite this cozy sense on old narrow streets where neighbors can probably still yell across to each other from apartment to apartment (much like the stereotypical Prince spaghetti commercial from the 1970s), I always feel like an outsider when I venture through this area. I am not privy to the true character and inner happenings of the community as a wanderer on its streets, but our tour guide had the insider's view as a resident of the area, president of the recently established North End Historical Society, and writer of a book about the area's history.

The value of the Context Boston tour to me was this insider's view and the easy knowledge our resident expert had. He could not be stumped by any question (and I did try to stump him.) The very little he did not know, he would admit to and give us some other related tidbit that tied perfectly in to my questions. The guide could change directions on the fly. He tailored his tour to our interests, at first giving us some basic information and then ratcheting up the depth of his colorful descriptions when he realized that we had some historical knowledge of the area. The information he provided us ran the gamut from the 1600s to the present day and included multiple ethnic groups, who I pictured arriving on these shores pushed by the waves of the Atlantic. We talked about architecture, religion, city planning, business, and every other topic that relates to the development of a community. There was no script for our guide. He asked what we wanted to view (everything) and what we wanted to know (everything). He led the way, making sure to get in the necessary history to give us a good framework for understanding the subject, but also going off on the tangents we wanted. He was never rushed, but yet managed to finish the tour in the three hour time frame.

The story of the North End of Boston could be the story of any immigrant area in the United States, but the uniqueness of this particular community was made clear. Its early colonial history remains highly visible in the presence of Paul Revere's home and the Old North Church. It's African American roots are less visible up at the Copp's Hill burial ground. The legacy of its former Irish inhabitants are there in its street signs, old churches, and buildings once frequented by Kennedys. Our tour guide recalled the memories of the area's Jewish residents on streets where synagogues once stood. He even pointed out the last Jewish business owners in town to us. All the immigrant histories overlapped and all were neatly woven back and forth along the threads of time. The information we were given raced back and forth along the community's chronology as we rounded neighborhood corners and examined the architecture, objects, man-made and natural topography of the North End.

Though not one to take any old tour, I will again take one with Context. I have invited my husband to join me to discover the Brahmins of Boston in the spring and will seek out their tours in other cities that I visit. Their program was more of a college course by foot than the typical historical tour I've experienced in the past. I wandered the streets of Boston with an art history professor in my younger days, when everything was exciting to me and the teacher made every building come to life. Context Boston is on par with that experience of my youth. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in gaining a full understanding of a community and its history.
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For more information about my tour and for more images of Boston's North End see ArchivesInfo on Facebook