Preserving the past

Something that is becoming more and more difficult to do is preserving histories around our country.  The public school system doesn't help, giving our youth the highlights in the K-12 system.  Historic sites and buildings are being lost to strip malls, parking garages, resorts, office buildings, etc.  In 50 years whats going to be left?  I mean they almost put an Islamic mosque up at the site of the 9-11 attacks at Ground Zero.  It's all become about money and US history is becoming the victim.

So who's to blame?  Well there's the obvious in politicians; damn Reagan and his right winged agenda.  You could point to the school systems.  History isn't a stressed subject anymore and children don't care.  About a month ago, Los Angeles Laker star, Kobe Bryant, took his  team out for a movie night to watch the new movie, Lincoln.  After the movie, Kobe decided to put a tweet out.  It read along the lines of, "I was real surprised to see that some of the younger guys were shocked to see him get shot at the end."  If that's not a major problem in our society, then count me out I don't want to live on this planet anymore.  While politicians have cut funding and school districts have lost the passion, I believe the history preservation movement itself should shoulder some of this blame.

Professor Farnsworth from Futurama.  Courtesy of Memesters.

Don't get me wrong, in their early years they did some very good work.  The New Deal era was an incredibly important time for history preservation.  The WPA, CCC, HAPS and other groups like them served a great duty to this country.  They created our National and State Parks, created historical guide books that covered the entire nation, and preserved thousands of historical sites from east to west and north to south.  The problem i have with them is how they let the success go to their head.  Instead of providing a much needed service to our people as they did through the 50's and 60's, they switched drastically once it was realized there was money to be made.  They went from non-profit to big business (same thing i believe the NCAA is doing now, but that's for another time).  They began marking areas as historical districts in cities, skyrocketing the property values.  A lot of these districts were poor areas of the cities, and a lot of these people (many minorities) were forced out of the place they had called home for their entire lives because they couldn't afford it anymore.  What this is telling me is that in order to make a place historical you need to make it so the people responsible for the areas history can't afford to live there.  Something's wrong with that picture.  In doing so they made it more about the money than the history.  Manhattan is a great example of this forced migration.  Once a poorer part of New York City, it was dubbed a historical district and, much like in New Orleans French Quarter, its poor inhabitants were forced out to make room for the high class citizens who would pay top dollar for property. This movement lost it's morals and in the depressions of the 70's and 80's did what they could to support themselves and along with budget cuts in our government have put pieces of our history at risk.

Manhattan circa 1929.  Courtesy of New Construction Manhattan.

The movement did make some good decisions in the 90's, that has reclaimed some if its integrity.  For example teaming with environmental preservationists.  They are beginning to get back their roots, which I would like to see, not only for history itself but also for our current recession (and coming soon, my job hunt).  It did it once in the 30's, getting back to preserving our past could create thousands of jobs for historians, environmentalists, teachers, architects, English majors, and contractors.

In his essay "Interpreters and Museum Educators: Beyond the Blue Hairs," Mark Howell brings up an interesting topic.  It's a part of history preservation that seems to be a bit lost in the mix of things.  Howell is an interpreter for a museum; he's the one who gives the tours and puts the exhibits into context.  This may be the most important part of history preservation.  Ok, so you have the building it's been marked as a historical site, what now?  This is only half the battle; the other half will be achieved through the sites years of operations, through historians like Mark Howell who put it all in perspective.  They tell the public what  the big deal is about this venue; without them it's just an old building with a plaque somewhere saying it's important.  They are an irreplaceable part of history preservation and there is not nearly enough funding or jobs for these people.

I want to close with a quote from Howell's essay by historian G.M. Trevelyan, that to me explains the importance of history:

The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once on this earth, on this familiar spot of ground walked other men and women as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions but now all gone, vanishing after another, gone as utterly as we ourselves shall be gone like ghosts at cockcrow.

George Macaulay Trevelyan.  Courtesy of First World War.