Wow, Jon. (1) What a cogent analysis and (2) (as usual) you were way ahead
of my mid-February 2006 musings.
Well, onward and upward. I bought me a plastic "Jamestowne" helmet when I
was last there, and have been making appeareances where appropriate (and
probably some not quite appropriate.)
Randy Cabell
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Kukla" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 11:01 AM
Subject: [VA-HIST] Anniversary celebrations in the 21st century
> 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
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
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