Museums as Repositories for Family History
By Arlene Jennings, CG
In pursuit of ancestors’ stories, genealogists spend
hours in libraries, courthouses and archives. Names, dates, places and events
emerge to provide the skeleton for the family tree. But what about the leaves
that adorn the tree? And the forest in which the tree grew?
To understand and recreate our ancestors' stories,
we must be as avid in our search for the context as for the statistics of their
lives. Context includes other people - neighbors, co-workers, official
witnesses and even the public officials who recorded the events. Research on
brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins yields volumes.
Context includes the material environment of our
ancestors' lives. What were their homes like? How was the house furnished?
What did they hang on their walls? What kind of clothes did they wear? What
kind of tools did they use? How did they entertain themselves? What games did
they play? What books did they read?
But, you say, I inherited nothing. Nothing is
left. Cousin so-and-so got everything, and we haven't spoken for years.
Besides, I don’t think my family had anything of value to be saved and passed
on. Pick up the phone and speak to cousin so-and-so. Pursue other cousins.
You will find that almost everyone has something passed down. If only a little
remains in each household, the ensemble gathered together can tell quite a
story.
Study photographs. Observe the details of dress and
background in photographs. What was the clothing like? What does it suggest
about labor? About style? About concern for style? Are there photographs that
show a home or a farm? What details can you describe from the photograph? Are
there pictures with pets? If you have pictures, you probably have many without
labels. If the photographs are part of the family collection, they are useful
in the providing detail of the family's material life even if you don't know the
names of the individuals featured.
But do not despair for want of inherited artifacts.
If you know when your ancestors lived and where they lived, there are
opportunities to study the environment of their lives in museums which display
the artifacts of the past with explanations as to their origins and use. There
is probably no corner of this country that does not offer some such institution,
no matter how modest, presenting the local history. And your ancestor's life,
no matter how modest, was part of that history. Let's consider just a few.
Village Museums
Village museums like those at
Old Sturbridge Village in
Sturbridge, Massachusetts,
Greenfield Village in Dearborn,
Michigan, and Colonial
Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia, recreate the settings and
life of entire historic communities. At
The Farmers Museum,
a 19th century village, in
Cooperstown, New York, the New York State Historical Association hosts an annual
seminar series on American culture, this year featuring hands-on workshops in
American crafts and folk art.
Historic Deerfield,
in Deerfield, Massachusetts has preserved fourteen 18th
and 19th century houses which display
more than 25,000 objects “made or used in American between 1650 and 1850.2
Also in Massachusetts at
Plimouth Plantation you can see
and learn about the homes of both the European immigrants and the native
Americans.
Historical
Museums
Our grandest historical museum is arguably the
Smithsonian National
Museum of American History " . . . devoted to collecting,
preserving, and interpreting artifacts as a special class of historical
evidence—and as principal expressions of human creativity. The Museum is
interested in how objects are made, how they are used, how they express human
needs and values, and how they influence society and the lives of individuals."
The collections of the Division of Cultural history feature "artifacts
produced by ethnic groups and generally identified with their occupational,
domestic, and religions activities, including furniture, architectural elements,
food-related devices, clothing, tools, ritual devices, decorations, arts and
crafts." There are collections focusing on sports, recreation and leisure, on
popular entertainment, on consumer culture, on schools, and on traditional
American hand tools. The Division of the History of Technology presents "the
material culture of American technology and the American armed forces and
interprets it in relation to the country's social and cultural history."3
On a smaller scale, local historical societies may
offer an array of buildings and exhibits as in
Sheffield, Massachusetts;
extensive collections of artifacts as at the
Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania,
or smaller presentations of objects from the lives of ancestors like that of the
Lancaster County
Historical Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which has among the
objects in its collections historical cookbooks and related utensils. Regional
museums like the Shiloh
Museum of the Ozarks in Springdale, Arkansas, tell the story of an
area over time, and small local museums like the
Last Indian Raid Museum in
Oberlin, Kansas, may describe a key event in the historical experience as well
as artifacts from the lives of the local population.
The
Sheffield Historical Society,
just thirty minutes south of NARA, Pittsfield, on route 7, has the Dan Raymond
House which was built about 1775 and contains artifacts from the time of the
Revolution. Another building, the Parker Hall Law Office served a group of
lawyers from about 1820 through the 19th century. The Carriage House from about
1870 presents a historic tool exhibit. There is also a
Smokehouse in working condition which dates to
about 1838.
The
Mercer Museum, of the Bucks County
Historical Society in Doylestown, Pennsylvania has on permanent display "the
implements, folk art and furnishings of early America before mechanization. . .
. a Conestoga wagon, whaling boat, carriages and an antique fire engine . . .
50,000 tools of more than 60 early American crafts and trades."4
On a recent cross country trip I visited the
Shiloh Museum of Ozark
History in Springdale, Arkansas, a superb example of a regional
museum presenting the history of the people of its area. The museum owns over
400,000 photographs of the Ozarks. Among the main building's exhibits is a
meticulously reconstructed room from the Elizabeth McGarrah - A. W. Reed
residence with log walls of the main room built in 1832 and furnishings from the
1860s. There is a box of clothing in period styles for visitors to don, there
are displays of tools, an apple shed with equipment used by the orchards, school
books, games, doll furniture, quilts, and folk art. Among the buildings on the
grounds are a general store from the 1870s, a doctor's office from the 1880s, a
two-seater outhouse from the 1930s (complete with moon and star indicating it
serves both men and women), a barn with tools and equipment, and a log home
complete with vegetable garden.
The Civil War battles at Pea Ridge, Cane Hill and
Prairie Grove took place nearby, and museum visitors can see an excellent video,
"In Dreadful Conflict", depicting the experience of the war from the viewpoint
of a resident of the area during the war.
Specialized Museums
At the
Battlefield Museum of the
Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park the
weapons, uniforms and equipment of Union and Confederate soldiers alike are
presented. Alongside a display of confederate money is an explanation of the
2600% inflation the Confederacy experienced during the war, revealing the impact
on the lives of the people in details of pricing. In 1861 a pound of bacon
could be bought for 12.5˘, a year later in 1862 75˘; in 1863 the cost went from
$1.25 to $6; in 1863 from $8 to $9; and in 1865 from $11 to $13. On display is
a fully equipped tent which served as an officer's quarters, recreated from a
description in a letter written by Captain Robert F. Braden of the 26th
Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Such a museum gives a powerful sense of the
experience of the soldier from which to develop the story of your Civil War
ancestor. My great-grandfather, Maurice Kelleher of the 37th
Illinois Infantry, was wounded in the left foot at the battle of Prairie Grove.
In the museum is a dramatic contemporary painting of the 37th
Illinois in the heat of battle, and just in the center of the painting is
depicted a soldier with a wounded left foot. He even has the beard and general
appearance of my great-grandfather. No doubt, the artist knew nothing of
Maurice Kelleher, and yet the painting tells his story.
Throughout the country are many such specialized
museums to inform us of our ancestors' lives. Two fine examples not far from
Pittsfield are Mystic
Seaport, The Museum of America and the Sea,
at Mystic, Connecticut, and in New York City,
Ellis Island, where the experience
of immigration into the United States in the late 19th
and early 20th century is
dramatically told.
Art Museums
Art museums also provide opportunities to study the
past in paintings and in cultural artifacts. It was informative and exciting to
see the Vermeer show at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York at a moment when I was researching Dutch ancestors.
In Milwaukee, a city of beer and German immigrants,
the stunning new Milwaukee
Art Museum has an entire gallery devoted to "Beerhall Culture"
where visitors enjoy paintings and objects related to the production and
consumption of the brew. A small show, "Icons of Identity", tucked away on the
lower floor, is a genealogist's delight. In it "every object tells a story
about the people who owned and made it. Consciously or unconsciously, we use
our possessions to define ourselves. These galleries explore three different
ways that objects help to shape our identities." Among the objects shown are
"Trivial Pursuits" - drinking games, parlor games, "tulipmania", and "women's
work".
The new
American Folk Art Museum in New
York City opened last year. Its "American Anthem Part II", on display from June
to December 2002, is a chronological exhibit of American folk art from the
colonial period to the present " . . . through contextual settings in a visually
powerful mix of materials, demonstrating the aesthetic ideas that were commonly
held in a particular period and that received interpretations across mediums.
For example, the imposing portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds, attributed to
early Connecticut artist Reuben Moulthrop, will be placed in proximity to a
stunning late-18th century bed rug
and superb examples of painted furniture of the period."5
So, do check your attic and the attics of your
cousins, but remember that museums have gathered together the finest of objects
from the attics of the past, and in them your family is represented.
__________
1.
OSV, http://www.osv.org/,
downloaded 19 June 2002.
2.
Historic Deerfield Collections and Research,
http://www.historic-deerfield.org/.
3.
Smithsonian National Museum of American History,
http://americanhistory.si.edu/csr/cadht.htm,
downloaded 8 July 2002.
4.
Bucks County Historical Society,
http://www.fonthillmuseum.org/mercermuseum/index.html,
downloaded 19 June 2002.
5.
American Folk Art Museum,
http://www.folkartmuseum.org/,
downloaded 19 June 2002.
6.
For more information on Andy Thomas’ paintings and prints on the
Trans-Mississippi Civil War battles, see his website,
www.andythomas.com.
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