It is notworthy that, once again, attendance is lower than had been
projected for the Winter Olympics in Turin. Time alone will tell whether
the Jamestown in 2007 makes a big tourism splash for the commonwealth, but
like the Olympics as a tourist destination, the memorable anniversary
celebrations of the past - Chicago and Columbus in 1893, St. Louis and
Lewis and Clark in 1904, and Jamestown in 1957 etc - thrived in a VERY
different world. A year ago I commented about these changes in an article
published in History News - the AASLH magazine -- that began with some
reflections about the underwhelming anniversary celebrations of the
Louisiana Purchase in 2003 and then drew some conclusions, as follows:

     ". . . Public indifference to the anniversary events of 2003 reveals
more than the long shadows of Lewis and Clark. It may suggest some
lessons about the practice of public history in post-modern North
America. For three reasons, national and international anniversary
celebrations may be as extinct as world’s fairs and the wooly
mammoth.

     First, recreational travel is easier, cheaper, and available to more
citizens than just a few decades ago. Anniversary celebrations have
lost their appeal as vacation destinations. Who can blame
sophisticated recreational travelers for avoiding over-crowded
exhibits and facilities, peak-season prices, and security concerns?

     Second, every modern profession and every marketable commodity has
its own annual trade shows and conventions. Fairs and anniversary
events have lost their public function as venues for the exchange of
technological and commercial information.

     Third, we no longer think about history itself as a single
uncontested narrative. Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 was a
major world event. A century later, naive attempts to replicate that
triumphant mood unleashed bitter controversy. Today’s scholars value
social history and the long durée over old-fashioned “event-driven
history.” We value alternate readings and perspectives as we seek to
hear and portray the voices and experiences of a broader society. We
are too fully aware of history’s ironies and unintended consequences
to admit words like celebration into our discourse about
anniversaries.

     Despite these realities, birthdays and anniversaries still have an
inherent appeal for museums and communities, just as they do for
families. Properly structured, they continue to offer occasion for
valid and successful programs. Three suggestions come to mind:

     First, biography obviously works. While Columbus was sinking fast,
Monticello did well with “Jefferson at 250.” Alexander Hamilton is
all the rage with the anniversary of his fatal duel with Aaron Burr.
Ben Franklin’s three-hundredth birthday promises to be quite a bash.

     Second, research and discovery are keys to vitality. When anniversary
programs are successful, everyone involved learns something new about
the event, its participants, or its context. In 2007, for example,
Virginia officials hope to bolster the economy with a tourism event
based on the four-hundredth anniversary of the Jamestown settlement.
I’m just a spectator here, but the newspaper reports are not entirely
promising. It seems that after a few years of effort, the folks who
want to repeat the 1957-style celebration (highlighted by the visit
from the young Queen Elizabeth II) are fifteen million dollars short
of their sixteen-million-dollar fund-raising target. On the other
hand, the ongoing investigation of the Jamestown fort site by William
Kelso’s archaeological team has excited a great deal of genuine
interest. Research — in this instance by the Jamestown Rediscovery
project — is a key to vitality.

     Third, regional and local anniversaries still have genuine potential.
Huge international events seem distant, impersonal, and susceptible
to abstraction. Smaller, coherent, and manageable events lend
themselves to nuanced interpretation. Surely I am preaching to the
choir when I suggest to members of AASLH that these microcosms offer
 promising occasions to address  big themes of social history and
give them empathetic local and regional faces."

From Jon Kukla, "A Noble Bargain and Its Centenaries," History News
(Winter 2005) p. 9.

>
> My overall point is that when the commemoration is all over, are we going
> to look back on it as 'another'  Lewis and Clark non-event in Virginia?  I
> sure hope not.
>
> Randy Cabell
> Boyce Virginia
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "W. Scott Smith" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 11:02 AM
> Subject: [VA-HIST] Jamestown 2007 (was "Jamestown and the Little Ice Age")
>
>
>> Cousin Randy and List,
>>
>> As a former Virginia 2007 Community coordinator and a current member of
>> the
>> Jamestown 2007 Speakers Bureau, I'm more than a little concerned about
>> the
>> impression that nothing is happening with the upcoming anniversary.
>>
>> The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation is doing much more than offering
>> membership in a "1607 Society."
>>
>> As the organization designated by the Commonwealth to spearhead the
>> 400th
>> anniversary events, it is working closely with the Jamestown Federal
>> Commission, over 100 local governments, and scores of organizations to
>> plan
>> events throughout Virginia in 2007. . . .

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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