Fred is right about the vitality of L&C stuff, especially in the west -
though of course some of the events were sequenced to follow their path,
and so built up momentum and visibility as they moved from a very early
event at Monticello west St Louis..... Just a footnote, but the first "big
half" of my talk/article compared the high visibility of L&C with the
obscurity of the LA Purchase - in 20th-century civic events AND
anniversaries AND scholarship.....
jk

> Well stated, Jon.  Actually, from my perspective, the Lewis and Clark
> Bicentennial was a great success--at least from St. Louis westward.
>
> Scholarship flourished (and some real crap, too); the reenacted Corps
> of Discovery/Rediscovery met huge and enthusiastic crowds as it went
> up the Missouri; and the signature events did well as both historical
> learning opportunities and stimuli for tourism dollars.  More Native
> Americans were involved than in any other national commemoration
> I can recall.
>
> Substantial financial support from the National Park Service, Corps of
> Engineers, and well-heeled, established private organizations certainly
> contributed to that success. But Lewis and Clark have always been more
> NATIONAL in scope, with 12-15 states claiming L & C heritage
> connections, and I don't think that Jamestown has that same appeal
> going for it.  We all know that it should, but the "birthplace of America"
> does not resonate with typical citizens west of Richmond because the
> early 1600s represent such a "foreign country."  When I worked on the
> Susan Constant about 1000 years ago, half the people I talked to
> thought that it was one of Columbus's ships, and even native Virginians
> didn't know what river flowed by Jamestown (even folks from Richmond,
> honestly).
>
> What are we "celebrating," exactly?  The Omohundro Institute of Early
> American History and Culture sponsored a very DEEP scholarly confer-
> ence in 2004, almost ignoring Jamestown itself by placing it in global
> context with West African tribal traditions circa 1607, etc.  The only
> conference on the Jamestown Commemoration website that I saw was
> focused on modern democracy.  Better not go there.
>
> Historians can still reach "lay people" by keying on anniversary buzz,
> but my experience shows that they will be audiences of senior citizens,
> not young adults, and rarely children.  I logged 12,000 miles in my Jeep,
> taking show-and-tell Lewis and Clark programs to small rural communities
> in Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.  The focus
> was on the Corps, Indians, and their respective artifacts and contacts,
> but
> the content was sufficiently deep and revisionist to bring my audiences up
> to date on recent scholarship.  In some towns, I attracted more than 50%
> of the town's entire population (even beating out Trump's "Apprentice").
>
> But someone has to value scholarly presentations, put together programs
> and conferences, and choose speakers (some who don't live in Virginia)
> who can communicate excitement as well as information to interested
> audiences of all backgrounds.
>
> National Anniversaries give us a rare chance to stimulate and exploit (in
> the best, non-tourism sense of that term) a heightened and broadened
> curiosity among citizens who may be unreachable otherwise. But to miss
> that opportunity by too little effort or by dumbing-down content is to
> give
> up
> on history altogether.  Will there even be an acknowledgment of a 500th
> anniversary?  Do we want Disney and Terence Malick to produce the
> curriculum materials?  Are we satisfied that films are now replacing books
> as our sources of information about the past?
>
> Let's remember what Santayana said and add some substance to the fluff.
>
> Fred Fausz
> St. Louis
>
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>


Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528
www.redhill.org
Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463

Fax 434-376-2647

- M. Lynn Davis, Office Manager
- Karen Gorham-Smith, Associate Curator
- Edith Poindexter, Curator

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