Post Post

Let’s forget about the past. I know it is impossible for an historian, or at least it would be probably the end of his career, but in this case it should not be so problematic.

The last post, the one on the cute remembrance of the commercial past of Society Hill, was wrong. Not in the meaning that the content was wrong, it is still (I hope) plausible and firmly founded on pictorial evidence, but it is wrong on the fact that it is not a Reading Post of a, surprise surprise, a Reading Blog.

Confessions of a compulsive industrial’s heritage collector* is an interesting book on a very interesting topic: how people of Pennsylvania interprets and feel the memory of the past.

She sails in multiple different seas, some more problematic, others less. Museums, memorials, thematic parks, touristic areas. To be more precise I should say that her insatiable craving for new experiences on the field led her across oceans of situations, not seas, but perhaps I am indulging too much on the metaphor.  The common ground of these manifestations of interest is the memory of the industry; she chose a broad meaning of the word, including farming and in general everything that put men to work.

Other than writing practically an encyclopedia on the argument, the author shows some interesting analysis, drawing the attention on some delicate matters.

Two M come out from the distillation: myth and money. Two words fundamentally important in the world of public history and both coming from the same origin, people.

The uncomfortable position of the public historian princess is indeed caused by the pea of the necessity of dealing with a public. Academia dwell in the comfortable sheets of its ivory tower, but not the poor public historian. Public means money, simply because they pay and you need to provide a product that has to be interesting to the common plowman. Showbiz! History is surely educational, sometimes interesting, but not always entertaining. How much the entertaining aspect, so much needed in dealing with public, dilute the educative role of the study of the past? To not speak about the highly influencing ability of the money coming from donors or (ahi ahi) owners.

The second M is myth, and it is very interesting. The public deliberately undergoes the multiple tortures of an exhibit or any historical-linked activity mostly not because they feel the emptiness of their lack of knowledge, but because they already have ideas and feelings for the argument.

But we know how hard is to hurt the feelings of someone.

-I am sorry ma’am, but Pocahontas did not have any raccoon friend.

-Are you sure son? She was Native American; she surely had a special connection with the nature!

-Yes ma’am… no ma’am: it is complicated.

*To be a correct historian and going to the Chicago:

Carolyn L. Kitch, Pennsylvania in Public Memory: Reclaiming the Industrial Past (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012).