I am probably Colonial Williamsburg's biggest fan. I love it there. I could live there and pretend that I was a colonist and basically it would be awesome. So needless to say, I did not agree with Mike Wallace today. I understood where his arguments came from, but I did not agree. I wanted to see what everyone else thought about this too, so here's why I don't agree with Mike Wallace on Colonial Williamsburg (and other living-history type places).
Founded by John D. Rockefeller II, Colonial Williamsburg was an attempt to preserve the ideals of the founding fathers through "a vision of total social order" (15). The eighteenth-century planter elite were showcased in a suburb-like fashion in organized neighborhoods. Wallace claimed that the distorted view portrayed by Colonial Williamsburg (90% of the town would have been African slaves in the eighteenth century) denied that history ever happened.
During WWII, Colonial Williamsburg was the symbol of American freedom. After the war, Colonial Williamsburg represented a "traditional patriotic shrine" (18). Wallace even says that towns became "Williamsburgered" -- with gas stations and streets named "Williamsburg." To Wallace and other scholars, this represented the suburb-ization of America.
By the 1960s-70s, Colonial Williamsburg was becoming more historically accurate. Wallace said that Colonial Williamsburg "discovered slavery." I disagreed with this wording. Colonial Williamsburg always knew slavery was there -- it just refused to acknowledge it. By the time Wallace published this essay, Colonial Williamsburg had integrated programs about slavery and also about women.
Here is the problem for Wallace. He says: "By obscuring the origins and development of capitalist society, by eradicating exploitation, racism, sexism, and class struggle from the historical record, by covering up the existence of broad-based oppositional traditions and popular cultures, and by rendering the majority of the population invisible as shapers of history, the museums inhibited the capacity of visitors to imagine alternative social orders -- past or future." I understand what Wallace is saying -- many groups are underrepresented or not represented at all in many history museums. However, he offers no solutions to correct these problems. He acknowledges that the educated have access to these museums, as well as underprivileged schoolchildren on field trips, but there is no solution for the museums to re-examine themselves. Wallace calls on historians to help, but with no specific recommendations.
I visited the Colonial Williamsburg the summer before I started high school, and my family and I attended interesting and informative programs based on slaves and women. However, I am not saying that Colonial Williamsburg is completely historically accurate. The buildings all have air conditioning. Not so eighteenth-century. There are pigs and chickens, but no bad smells. The streets are easily cross-able. But to me, there is nothing wrong with this. I was still immersed in a different world, one that I would have only been able to read about otherwise. As I got older and learned more, I began to understand the issues with Colonial Williamsburg, but that does not take away my nostalgia for the place itself.
I do have to agree with the points you make about Williamsburg. It might not be 100% historically accurate but accommodations have to be made to attract visitors and keep them happy and probably healthy; Virginia summers with no air conditioning probably would not be good for business or the health of the patrons or staff. Being aware of the site's shortcomings does not ruin the effect, as you stated. It is still educational. Could it be improved? Yes, but until feasible solutions are offered, Colonial Williamsburg will remain as-is. I certainly enjoyed my last visit although I do not recall much; I was a little kid at the time.
ReplyDeleteI also agree. Although I haven't been to Williamsburg I am big fan of living history. There is a museum in Northumberland in England called Beamish which I went to just before I moved out here. It is a recreation of a coal mining community between 1800-1900. They have houses and shops that you can walk around, a school, church, fairground, an actual mine even. There are trams and buses that take you around if you don't want to walk. There are lots of staff in period costume who are very knowledgeable about the particular job they are supposed to be doing. I would never say that people should base their history on what they see at these kind of places but they are a great jumping of point and a fantastic way to get children enthusiastic about history.
ReplyDelete