National Public Housing Museum

I found an article through the NCPH on an unusual new museum that's due to begin construction in 2013. It's the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago, and it's going to be the first museum in the country on the subject. It's being built in the only remaining former Jane Addams home (built in the 1930s), so it will actually utilize some old public housing. They're going to restore some of the apartments to tell the stories of families who lived in Chicago's public housing at various points in the 20th century. They've done oral histories with some of these families in order to research their experiences, design the recreated apartments, and acquire artifacts. Here is a video the museum's created with 3D laser scanning (it also has some old photos of the housing and quotations from former residents which are pretty neat):

The museum says that it "draws on the power of place and memory to illuminate the resilience of poor and working class families of every race and ethnicity to realize the promise of America." I think this is a very interesting concept that could produce a very powerful experience, but it also has the potential to be very controversial. It could draw criticism both from opponents of public housing and those who think resources would be better spent actually helping those who require assistance. It will definitely be something to watch out for in the news (I bet Mike Wallace is excited).

Objects and Memory

Hey Guys,

I would like to start off my saying that the film, Objects and Memory did a great job in portraying how public historians preserve current history. The film was very touching and showed how many people associate various objects to their memory of lost friends, spouses, parents and associates. After thinking about this post for a week or so, I’ve decided to share a little of my personal life with the class. Last year, around October, one of my friends Adam died in a motorcycle accident. Days after his passing, friends and people he touched began depositing items of remembrance outside his house. These pictures are perfect examples of what objects and memory is and how it is collected not by historians, but by the community.

Welcome to Pine Point

I found probably the coolest website on the face of the planet today. It takes a while to get through it, but it is completely worth it.

It's called Welcome to Pine Point, and it follows the story of a small Canadian town and its tragedies and triumphs.

It is so engaging because of its interactive nature -- you can click through the story at your own pace. Interviews from townspeople and photographs and videos complete the story. This is a great way to present online exhibits, or oral histories. The authors of the site said it started out as a book, but they turned it into this website, which reaches a wider and more diverse audience.

With all our quibbles surrounding technology this semester, I think this is a great way to use it for good, and not for evil.

Lincoln: Can He Save Us, Once Again?

               

                I have finally come to the self realization that I am excited about Lincoln. In case you’ve been living in a hole for the last couple months there is a new movie coming out about our 16^th President, Abraham Lincoln. No, in this one he will not be killing vampires. This movie is based around the passage of the 13^th Amendment. Impressively, Stephen Spielberg took ten years making this movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln.

                The movie, itself, interests me, but what is intriguing me the most right now is thinking of the implications this movie will have and what kind of reception Lincoln will receive from both the general public and the history world. What got me thinking about all of this was reading the article featured in Time magazine by the renowned historian and noted author of the highly acclaimed book Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin. I have placed a link to this article below for you to read in all of your free time, haha.

                In this article Goodwin states, in what to me can be taken as high praise for this movie and its attention to detail:

I spent 10 years writing Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln- on which Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln is partly based- and every day I imagined Lincoln’s world. I had never seen it realized, however, until I visited the movie’s set… When production designer Rick Carter opened a door and led me into his rendering of the Lincoln White House, I felt as if I had been transported back in time. Every detail was so lovingly created, from the cubbyholes in Lincoln’s desk to the portrait of Andrew Jackson on the office wall, from the carpets to the clocks and candelabras.

In Goodwin’s opinion, there was a strong attention to detail taken this movie. While I can’t say if this is certain, I find it hard to argue with an expert like Doris Kearns Goodwin. Additionally, it would seem as though a lot of work has gone into making this movie authentic to the true story it wishes to portray. Tony Kushner, writer of the screenplay for Lincoln, spent six years researching the history he was basing the screenplay on. The superb actor Daniel Day-Lewis even delayed production one year to study Lincoln.

With all this research and approximately three days until the premier of Lincoln the question begs to be asked, “How will it be received?” Will the general public flock to it? If so, will that create an avenue for history to become popular, for at least a little while? What are the historians going to say? Time will only tell and either it’ll be a joyous celebration of history done right or it’ll be another instance of a history film going down in flames.

The history community has had a bad track record for receiving historical films. However, there haven’t been very many historically accurate films made, but even those that were, at least, close to authentic were usually shrugged off by historians in both the public and academic fields. At some times these historians have had good validity to sucker punch many of these film’s credibility, but at other times it would seem these historians were just playing the part of old fuddy-duddies. It will be interesting to see the accuracy that Lincoln will posses. Whichever way the authenticity pendulum will swing to, it will be interesting to see the reaction of the historians. If Lincoln does, in fact, prove to be authentic it would be nice to see the history field embrace it.

I am equally as anxious to see how the public will react to this movie. There seems to be a lot of hype out there about it. Had this film been directed by anyone other than Spielberg or the main actor been any other celebrity than Daniel Day-Lewis I doubt there would be nearly as much fanfare behind a movie about Abraham Lincoln. As Spielberg tries to breathe life into our greatest president I wonder if the general public will find the movie compelling or just pass it off as another boring history movie and spend the price of admission to see the new James Bond movie, instead. If this movie is successful and becomes a popular draw amongst moviegoers I wonder if this might propel a surge in historical interest.  This result, while awesome to have realized, I don’t want to get my hopes up for just yet. But, come on how cool would that be!

With only a few days left until this movie hits the silver screen there is plenty of uncertainty. I’m not sure if Civil War buffs, like me, are as gitty with excitement as I am about this movie. But, I am more excited about the potential that exists for this movie if it proves to be a good history film, as it is looking to be right now. I can’t wait to see the impact Lincoln could have. In these trying times of the mass populace being disinterested in history, I wonder if Lincoln can save us and bring our country together once again by bridging the connection between the history field and our historically disenchanted countrymen.   

 Article: http://nation.time.com/2012/10/25/abraham-lincoln-confidential/

History..... Taking it to the Streets?!?!

            In an article search I recently found and interesting article titled."Disruptive Objects, On the Streets." I have pasted the link below. Now, I’m not sure if this applies to you archives people out there, but it definitely has an interesting argument for museums. Put on your hipster hats and prepare to read about an innovative idea for museums.

            In this article Rainey Tisdale creates an interesting logic with her suggestions of historical geo-tagging and the development of 3-D printing and how that can be utilized by museums to take objects to the streets. Her logic is that if visitors are not coming to museums can we bring museums to the visitors? Can we take our collections out to the streets and to the public?

            The most obvious argument against these questions is one of the thousands of potential conservation methods. Almost any conservator, preservationist, or any history wise person would scream if they saw George Washington’s uniform out on display on a New York City sidewalk, even if it was under glass. These are 100% valid arguments. But, the concept of this idea is still attractive. By engaging the individual at his/her own level more objects would come into public view and maybe, just maybe, more people would gain the knowledge that these objects offer. In-your-face museums, would be an interesting route to take.

            But, perhaps we don’t need to truck Washington’s uniform out to the street. What if we put a reproduction out there? Would that be equally effective? We loose authenticity, but it is still engaging. Maybe that would spike enough interest for someone to take their family to see the real thing. This is the idea that Tisdale is offering, to a point. Tisdale points out that geo-tagging has advanced. This is a method in which by using a mobile device app someone can see what a location used to look like. Additionally Tisdale points out that 3-D printing may be used to recreate reproductions of objects that could be put out on the street. These 3-D printed objects combined with reproductions are expendable. People can handle these objects and engage their sensory faculties. At the end of the day what’s important is engaging individuals and educating the public.

            This is not the traditional approach, by any means… its not even close to the traditional approach for museums. However, it is obvious that traditional museums aren’t doing so great in making themselves attractive to the public; so, its time to be innovative. If our main goal is to teach people, then lets take exhibits to the people. These exhibits, though, have to be interactive and that means not everything can be behind glass, nor should there be word after written word scrolled on an exhibit label. Tisdale’s idea is to freshen up the way people look at history and maybe we will have museum patrons flooding our doors once more. 

Article: Tisdale, Rainey. “Disruptive Objects, On the Streets” City Stories. http://raineytisdale.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/disruptive-objects-on-the-streets/.

        

Politicization of History

A few weeks ago we did a discussion on history wars. How people use a historical event to advance a political. Point is that history should not be used in such juncture. History is a collection of people's memmories. History in a way should be treated as learning life lessons. We learned so many lessons from history. Some are tragic and some are inspirational.
One such tragic lesson when History is being used to justify a political point is when Adolf Hitler used World War I and subsequent Versailles Treaty as the reason for everything wrong that happened to Germany in the war's aftermath. He used this reasoning successfully because he seized power in 1933. He was partially correct in that the first world war contributed to Germany's demise and the Versailles treaty stripped it of its territory in Europe and colonies in Africa and Asia. This is common sense. Any country would suffer both territorial and economic loss if they are on the losing side. Hitler was incorrect for two reasons. One was the Weimer Republic The Weimer Republic was despied throughout Germany. It was a very ineffective government that was unable to bring economic well being and law and order to the people of Germany. The other was that all European countries that fought in the war suffered but they recovered. If the Weimer Republic was strong and used the war as motivation to rejuvinate Germany then there might be no Adolf Hitler. If Hitler concentrated upon economic development only and not seek revenge against the French or Russians then Germany would not have been occupied by Allied powers or see more of its territory going to Poland.
Furthurmore a valuable lesson in history was learned when the governments of Britain under Neville Chamberlain used appeasement as a strategy to keep another war from happening. The end result was that a war did occur and in fact it was the most destructive war in history. Tody we see many polyicans use the Munich conference as a argument for aggressive stance on regimes that threaten peace. Although some would say they are using a historical event and politicizing it, I would argue that its really not. Its a historical lesson. A very successful historical lesson in that thee has not been any major destructive wars.
On the other hand  the assination of JFK has enflamed both liberals and conservatives. For conservatives JFK was a ineffective President. Therefore he wasn't a great President. For liberas he was. The point should be not whether or not JFK  was a great President. The point should be that it was a tragic event. We shouldn't politicize tragic historical events. We should learn from them and prevent it from happening again.

I spy with my little eye....

     The International Spy Museum. Located in Washington, D.C., the museum opened on July 19, 2002. This is the only public museum dedicated to espionage. It has the largest collection of international espionage artifacts available for public display. Also, it is one of the few museums in the nation's capitol that charges an admission fee. 
     The museum took seven years to develop. The museum's advisory board and council is made up of individuals from the Intelligence Community- FBI, CIA, KGB Foreign Counterintelligence, House Intelligence Committee and the British Security Service. 
     The exhibits include the history of espionage (the secret history of history), methods of espionage and materials from various eras and cultures such as the Greek, Roman and British Empires, the American Revolutionary War, the Civil War and the Cold War. Also included in the collections are popular culture materials inspired by film, radio and television programs as well as games and toys.   
     There are various education and outreach programs for educators, kids and families, adults, and community initiatives. 
     Take a virtual tour.