Week 11

In public history this week, we returned to business as usual by discussing controversial history. We looked at examples surrounding the portrayal of wars through the Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and the difficulty of approaching the topic of racism and slavery through Natchez, Mississippi’s yearly spring Pilgrimage event and the Library of Congress’ failed exhibit “Back of the Big House: The Cultural Landscape of the Plantation.” Out of the three readings we had for this week, I found the one on Natchez to be the most interesting. 

In reading about how history is handled in Natchez, I was baffled at the way Black and White history had been kept separate for so many years. I think that must speak to some sort of privilege that I have from growing up in a time where racial relations, while still not fantastic, have eased somewhat. I also found the discussion about women and gender roles within the essay to be very interesting as well. It talks about how one of the traditional roles of women in the household was to teach their children southern traditions and morals. This included a sense of white cultural superiority in which they injected into the public history of the town. 

The Natchez Garden Club, consisting of all women, were the ones who controlled the most important display of public history in the town — the Pilgrimage. The Pilgrimage includes pageants, displays of plantation homes, period costumes and other forms of public history meant to celebrate “the good old days” before the Civil War. The women of the garden club too their roles as gatekeeper’s of history one step further when they convinced the alderman to pass an ordinance requiring that all tour guides must have a license. The license could be obtained by passing a test written and evaluated by the garden club. Using deep seated racism and public history as building blocks, women of the garden club created something that would give them a sense of control that they may not usually have felt at home seeing as they strongly adhered to traditional gender roles.   

Another way in which gender roles and race relations intersect is in the education system. The majority of teachers in the grade schools were women and strongly believed in incorporating traditional values into their curriculum. The article mentions Pearl Guyton who was head of the Natchez’s high school history department between 1933 and 1953. She authored the textbook Our Mississippi did nothing to dispel myths of white cultural superiority. All of the young people who went through the school system were taught these values and would grow up to teach their own kids the same. In this way we can see how gender norms play a role in the perpetuation of racism.  

To bring some fun into these difficult times, I wanted to share with you something I saw on twitter earlier this week that pertains to public history. Museums were showing appreciation for one another through their accounts by tweeting photos and painting of flower bouquets to one another. It is nice to see how people are doing their best to brighten one another’s day in such a difficult time!

This is the link to the thread of tweets: #MuseumBouquet on Twitter