An Analysis of WWII and Civil War Living History Setups

You would think going to a “reenactment,” in and of itself, would not really be that different from one time period to the next. In all cases there are a bunch of people dressed up in old timey costumes and/or military uniforms, living outdoors in the tents of their respective time period, and talking to the public or fighting a mock battle. Those basic concepts, one would think, really stay the same. As it turns out this is sort of true, but as I have found, there are some interesting differences from one time period to the next- or at least some differences between Civil War reenacting and WWII reenacting.

Earlier in the semester I went to visit a WWII group that was setup in Piqua. I had briefly met this group at Ohio Historical Society’s Ohio Village earlier in the summer and when I was telling one of the guys that I was going to be going to grad school at Wright State he said they would be setting up at Piqua. So he gave me the info on it. At the time I was interested in starting to add on WWII reenacting, but since have lost interest- but that is another story.

So, when the weekend of their Piqua event came around I drove over to see what they were doing. What they were doing was a living history setup, meaning no battles or anything like that. They setup a tent, a period correct tent, and had tables full of gear. This gear is what really showed me the real difference between Civil War and WWII reenacting/ living history setups.

The tables were covered with original gear. There were some reproduction items, as well, but if I had to quantify it I would say that 80% of the gear was original. This group did a paratrooper impression, so the focus of their gear was on what the paratroopers had throughout the war. They had mannequins setup with the different uniforms they had been issued, most of them original. But, also, they had a Marine uniform and an infantry uniform on display. They had mess gear displayed. Literally, there was a gun rack with all the different types of weapons the Army used during WWII. They had all the equipment a paratrooper would wear- pack, parachute, belt, etc. They even had Nazi and Japanese “souvenirs” on the tables, in cases behind glass. The professional level they went to in their display was truly impressive. Like I mentioned, they had display cases with more delicate items behind glass, they had foam-board info panels to go along with the mannequins and located at other parts of the tent just to give some general info on WWII and the paratroopers, and they had 1940s era music playing from a period correct radio- reproduction, I think. The professional level of display was really cool to see. Also, the size of the display was huge. That tent was probably about the size of our classroom.

Now to compare an contrast, one clear difference I saw was that they had a ton of original gear. Very, very few things within our Civil War setup is original, but this understandable with the difference in age of the equipment. The way we display stuff for a living history event is to setup a couple tables under a tent fly and cover them with our reproduction uniforms, weapons, mess gear, equipment, etc. We stay there with the stuff and explain it to people. We even let kids, and even the adventuresome grown up, try on our gear. What we do have, that this particular WWII living history didn’t have, is we usually setup a “company street” with a row of tents for people to go into and look. Often times we will make up some of the tents to look like they are being lived in. We’ll often have a fire going, as well, and cook stuff for ambiance as the public are walking by.

Unfortunately, we don’t really go to that level of display in Civil War reenacting, at least with the group I’m with, but maybe we should. I think by comparing these two different setups there are some things that I see that we are doing right in Civil War reenacting, but there are also some things that I saw from the WWII living history that we could do better. I think overall there is more reenactor to public interaction at the Civil War living history described above. But, I think there could be some more signage in the way of foam-boards like at the WWII setup used for the Civil War setup. Perhaps Civil War reenactors can bring some original gear and put in display cases, so the public can see the “real” thing. Also, maybe the Civil War living history can use some mannequins to display the uniforms.

It was a really interesting experience, as a Civil War reenactor, to go to a WWII living history event to see how they do things. I learned some things we Civil War reenactors are doing right, but also saw some things we could do better. The Civil War reenacting group I am with does a living history setup at the Ohio State Fair. So, I think what I’ll do is suggest that we try a couple of the things that I mentioned above that I thought was done well at the WWII event and see how it goes.

Below I have placed some of the pics I took the weekend of the WWII event for you to see.