I was in New Orleans for a UNESCO sponsored conference on the arts in French
Louisiana around the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 2003. I stepped
outside the New Orleans Mint to have a smoke and up walked a colleague from
the history department in CT. where I was then teaching. He was attending a
LP conference run by another organization which was holding sessions on
another floor of the Mint.
New Orleans did its part in commemorating the LP.
Harold S. Forsythe
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Kukla" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 9:22 AM
Subject: Re: Anniversary celebrations in the 21st century
> 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
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
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