blog entry for February 25, 2013

Our readings for this week focused on the town of Harrington, Washington.  The articles provided the reader with a brief introduction to the history of Harrington.  An article from the Spokesman-Review from 1902 summarized the attempted land grab by Joseph Drazan against Maude E Green.  The article was interesting for several reasons, including the colorful descriptions given of both Mr. Drazan and Miss. Green.

            In 1909 Richard F Steele published his The Story of Lincoln County, Washington.  His book provided his readers with a brief overview of the history of Lincoln County, including a look at the town of Harrington.  Part of the appeal of Harrington was that it was “on the line of the Great Northern Railway, west from Spokane.” (pg. 14)  It was easy for people to take the train from Spokane, spend a day in Harrington, then take the train back home.  Harrington was a place to go to get away from the hustle and bustle of Spokane, yet it was close enough that a lot of prior planning was not necessarily required for the trip.

Photo Courtesy of Meredith Bezold

            Mr. Steele described Harrington as being part of the “Harrington Wheat Belt.” (pg. 21)  The wheat belt was an area in Washington State which was famous throughout the region as being a place “for wonderful acreage production.” (pg. 21-22)  He noted that Harrington, as of 1909, had “six large grain houses” and “one flouring mill.” (pg. 22)

            The State of Washington, in 1904, published An Illustrated History of the Big Bend Country, Embracing Lincoln, Douglass, Adams and Franklin Counties.  Almost five pages were dedicated to the town of Harrington.  Harrington was described as being 51 miles from Spokane, as well as being on the main path of the Great Northern Railway.  The town was surrounded by “solid wheat on all sides,” yet this did not stop homesteaders from settling in Harrington. (pg. 158)  

            The town of Harrington began as most towns did back in the 1800s, as a homestead.  In the case of Harrington, Adam and Jacob Ludy founded their homestead in 1879 around the area which is currently occupied by the town of Harrington. (pg. 158)  The town grew steadily, and it was added to a town site record in May 12, 1883. (pg. 159)  

            With the town steadily growing, a saloon was added to the town.  It was not always open, as it only did “business a portion of the time.” (pg. 159)  A vote was held in Harrington over the issue of prohibition in 1886.  Twenty-two people voted for prohibition, and thirty-two people voted against prohibition. (pg. 159)  Prohibition had failed in a small town, where the local saloon was not even open part of the time.

            The town of Harrington started to grow more quickly in 1892 when construction of the Great Northern Railway reached Harrington. (pg. 159)  The railway allowed for more people to reach Harrington, which in turn created more business for the town.  The railway also provided job opportunities for the unemployed.

            “One of the most important factors in the building up of the county around Harrington…. was the operations of the California Land & Stock Company.” (pg. 160)  The California Land & Stock Company owned a great deal of land around the town of Harrington, and it provided the land for farming and homesteading opportunities.  People took advantage of the opportunity to own their own land, so the area around Harrington started to grow.

            The mid to late 1890s held two worthwhile events for Harrington.  On May 11, 1894 the coal sheds for the Great Northern Railway were destroyed by a fire. (pg. 1960)  The book did not specify what caused the fire, or if the coal sheds were rebuilt.  I would suspect that they were, in fact, rebuilt as trains used coal for power.  The other worthwhile event occurred in 1897.  A new schoolhouse was built, a “large, two-room” building for the students of Harrington.  The school was taught by two teachers, and 138 students attended the school. (pg. 162)

            The City Hall building was completed in 1904, the year the book was published.  One of the lasting descriptions of Harrington provided to the reader was that “the water supply is abundant and of exceeding purity.” (pg. 162)  If Harrington had nothing else going for it, at least the town had good, clean water.

Photo Courtesy of Meredith Bezold

            On Monday, February 24 of 1902 the Spokesman-Review published an article titled “Pretty Girl Fights For Home: Harrington Beauty Is After Big Bend Farm.”  The case involved Miss. Maude E Green and Joseph Drazan.  Miss. Green was described as “the daughter of one of the rich farmers of the Big Bend,” and as a “young, handsome and fashionably dressed girl” who “looks like a society girl.”  Mr. Drazan, however, was described as “a horny handed tiller of the soil.”

            The case centered on a homestead which Miss. Green claimed to own, while Mr. Drazan claimed that she had not established a proper residency on the land.  If it was proven that Miss. Green had not established her residency, then the land would be free for Mr. Drazan to claim.  As the land had already been sown with crops, Mr. Drazan would also take over and harvest the crop which had already been planted.

            The article does not provide the reader with a summary of the verdict in the case.  It is possibly that at the time of press the verdict was not known, so it was printed in a different article on a later date.

            The WISAARD database is a useful website.  Washington Information System for Architectural and Archaeological Records Data, or WISAARD, is a database which lists the historical features in a particular city or town.  Harrington currently has eighty listings.  Pictures, reports and other documents are available for the viewer to navigate through.  A lot of information is available for the viewer, if they are willing to take the time and look through the database.    

blog entry for February 18, 2013

This week’s readings focused on the Civil War, mostly from the Confederate viewpoint, the issue of slavery in several forms and an ex-slave who settled in Los Angeles and became a midwife until her death.

             

        Tony Horwitz wrote Confederates in the Attic as a narrative of his personal journey into the Confederacy during the Civil war, and how that mentality did not die with the end of the war.  He book begins with him explaining to his reader how he became interested in the Civil War.  His father, during bedtime, had read to him The Photographic History of the Civil War. (pg. 4)  His interest peaked when he was an adult and had the opportunity to meet some “hardcore” re-enactors during one of their battles.  The “hardcore” re-enactors were the ones who were so dedicated to their roles that they purposely lost a great deal of weight, along with making sure that they only ate food that the Confederate soldiers had access to during the war. (pg. 7)  For the “hardcore” people, weight loss was a vital key because they wanted to look as authentic as possible, and the Confederate soldiers were not at a healthy weight when they fought.

            

         The author was inspired to go on a personal journey around the old South and visit the Confederate sites for himself.  One of the places he visited was a saloon called Redbone’s Saloon in Tennessee.  The Saloon was full of Confederate memorabilia, including a hand written poem on the wall. 

                       

                        It was 1865, homes burnt to the ground,

                        Everything lost, I took my stand.

                        Riding through the fog,

                        Rebel flag in hand,

                        Fighting for my freedom,

                        Fighting for my land.  (pg. 90)

The poem expressed the sentiments of the people whom he had met on his trip.  The South was always worth fighting for, even when you have nothing left.  You fight on. 

The major event that occurred in our readings was the trial of a black man, named Freddie, who was accused on killing a white man, Michael Westerman. (pg. 93)  The trial divided an already divided town, and the judge had to decide the verdict because a jury could not be found that was not overwhelmingly supportive of the prosecution.  The defendant, Freddie, had hoped that he would be not guilty because the state had tainted evidence, but his hopes were dashed when the state presented two witnesses to his guilt.  Hannah Westerman and Tony Andrews testified against him. (pg. 119)  Tony was in the car with Freddie at the time of the shooting and he testified that Freddie had shot Michael Westerman. (pg. 120)  Freddie was found guilty of murder, among other charges, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes.  Michael Westerman’s mother was satisfied with the verdict, but she told reporters that “they deserved to die.” (pg. 122)

The other major event that occurred in the reading occurred at the end, when the author participated in the Battle of the Wilderness. (pg. 125)  He joined the Confederacy during the battle, and he enjoyed his time fighting with the “hardcore” veterans who had invited him to fight with them.  After two days, the battle was over.  His wife noted that “after these battles, all the soldiers’ just get up and walk away,” as well as noting that “in real life, it didn’t happen that way.  Glory had a cost.” (pg. 143)  While the re-enactors could recreate the experience of being in camp, and fighting the way that the real Confederate troops fought, they still got to go home at the end of the day.  Their counterparts were not so lucky.

The topic of slavery dominated this week’s readings.  The website Songs of Confederate Veterans is dedicated to preserving the Confederate heritage, as they explained it.  For them, a violation of Confederate heritage was unacceptable, and there was a form that should be filled out and submitted if the viewer saw a violation of their heritage.  A violation was described as an attack on Confederate heritage, the Confederate flag, and any Confederate monuments or symbols. 

The site failed to mention the topic of slavery; instead they provided the visitor with a store in which to purchase items to display their pride in the Confederacy.  Southern music options, clothing, DVDs, pins and gifts are available for purchase.  The gifts include cards, license plates, note pads, and the southern cross of honor grave marker. 

                                 (Southern Cross of Honor grace marker, courtesy of Google Images)

The University of Virginia provides an article by Jerome Handler and Michael Tuite, Jr entitled Retouching History: The Modern Falsification of a Civil War Photograph.  The photograph in question is of a group of black Union soldiers posing in a room with their white officer.  The original photo was taken in the room, but it was used as a recruitment poster for the Federal Army.  The poster depicted the same group of men, only this time they were in front of a tent and American flag, standing near a battlefield.  This was much more heroic then a group of men standing in a room together.

The same photo was taken by the Confederacy and used for recruitment by the Confederacy in Louisiana.  This time, the photo was cropped so that the white officer, in Union uniform, was taken out of the picture.  The group was named the 1^st Louisiana Native Guard.  This was a show to prove that African Americans were fighting for the South, their home.  This played into the lost cause ideology because it showed that Civil War was not about slavery at all, the slaves did fight for the South.

                                                    (Image Courtesy of Google Images)

The article A White Man Remembers Slavery in the Shenandoah Valley was an interesting article.  It was a reprint of an interview taken from Jacob Coffman before he died.  The article was a series of mini stories of the encounters Mr. Coffman had with the slaves who lived around him.  It told the good, and mostly the bad stories that he had to tell.  One of the stories was about the time he met a slave who was driving a four horse team.  They talked while the slave adjusted the harness.  The slave mentioned how he wished it was “Chrismus’.”  When asked why he wished it was Christmas the slave responded that on Chrismus’ they were given flour bread.  This was their reward for their hard work over the course of the year.  Flour bread.

Another one of his stories was about two slaves who ran away from their master.  A $50 reward was placed for them, and the slaves were soon found and returned to the master.  The master whipped them until their backs were raw, then he poured salt and pepper into the wounds to make his point.  Never run away from me again.

Not all of the stories were bad.  Mr. Coffman told a story about a slave master he heard about that allowed his slaves to grow melons and sell them for their own source of income.  He even allowed his slaves to have parties and get-togethers at their houses.  He treated them well, but he was in the minority of slave owners in the area. 

Never Mind the Slavery, Have You Dipped A Candle Yet? is an article published by the Histsoriann on February 12, 2009.  The article focused on the topic of North Carolina plantation house museums which rarely mentioned the topic of slavery to their visitors. The topic of slavery seemed to be put on the backburner, while the topics of architecture and gardens were discussed.  The question posed in the article was what was the use of historic sites and house museums.  Was their purpose to allow the visitor to admire a high-style material culture, or was it to allow the visitor to learn about the lives of all of the people in a given time period?  The author of the article argued that the latter was the correct interpretation, which by ignoring a piece of history, even a controversial piece, was a dishonor to the visitor.  Let the visitor decided for themselves what they wanted to learn about.  

                                        (Rosedale Plantation, Image Courtesy of Google Images)

  

Our final reading came from The Power of Place by Dolores Hayden.  The chapter focused on her foundation, the Power of Place’s campaign to reclaim the land that once held Biddy Mason’s homestead when she arrived in Los Angeles.  The site had been lost when her son failed to convert the building into a community center for African American youths. (pg. 170)  A group had approached the Power of Place with their proposal of placing a plaque at the site, but that they were open to other possibilities.  The Power of Place jumped into action, in an effort to reclaim the land, which was now a parking lot. (pg. 171)  The Power of Place used four works of art to publicize their efforts.  A poster, created by Sheila de Bretteville, was distributed around the community that showed the history of the site, and why it was important to save.  Another work of art used by the Power of Place was created by author, who wrote about the subject of midwifery (Biddy Mason’s profession).  Susan King wrote a book titled HOME/stead which told Biddy Mason’s story.  Rubbings taken from the gravestones in the area were also included. (pg. 176)  Finally, an eighty-one foot long wall was constructed.   The wall told the story of Los Angeles’ development from a Mexican settlement into the city that it was at the time.  The wall also showed Biddy Mason’s walk across the country when she moved from the South to Los Angeles. (pg. 181)

Biddy Mason, Courtesy of Google Images

blog entry for February 11, 2013

This week’s reading came from the book The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History by Dolores Hayden.  Before I begin my blog entry for this week, I will be honest and say that I did not fully understand what I was reading.  For me, the text was hard to follow, so my response may be different from the rest of the class for this reason.

            Section one starts with a brief summary of the debate by Herbert Gans and Ada Huxtable in 1975 as to what the definition of the “built past” was in the New York Times.  “He wanted more social history, she wanted more culture.  He wanted taxpayers’ money spent equitably in all neighborhoods.  She believed aesthetic resources should be ranked in order to buy the best in terms of connoisseurship.” (page 4)  While they may have seemed to share completely different viewpoints, in fact they shared a common concern.  They both thought that America was losing public memories by bulldozing old neighborhoods or old monuments. (page 5)

            This carries over into an important question posed by the author.  What is place?  Both Gans and Huxtable were debating different forms of place, but what is place?  The author wrote that “”Place” is one of the trickiest words in the English language.” (page 15)  Place can mean so many different things.  Place could be a location, or a psychological state of mind.  Everyone has a different definition of place, which means that the author’s question has more answers then one person can possibly image.  Place is unique, so having a debate on place would seem to serve no purpose.  That being said, a debate on the meaning of place is a way of expanding a person’s idea of what a place is.  (Photo below is courtesy of Google Images, I am unable to insert this message below the photo because I am currently unable to use the enter function on this site)

            The author also mentioned another way of looking at place.  Territorial history is an example of how people have attempted to define place, and who or what can live there.  An example given by the author was the treatment of the Japanese during World War II.  Many neighborhoods put up signs that told current and perspective Japanese residents that they were not welcome in the neighborhood. (page 24)  They would have to find a new place to live.  This place was not for them.

            Territorial history can also be apparent during the Civil Rights movement when signs were put up that warned African Americans not to live in a particular neighborhood.  As with the Japanese during World War II, they would have to find a new place to live.  This one was not for them.

    “The relationship between history and memory is peculiarly and perhaps uniquely fractured in contemporary American life.” (page 45)  The history that a person remembers is based on their memory of the event, or their memory of reading/listening about the event.  In terms of deciding what is worth saving, and what is worth destroying, that can easily be based on a person’s memory.  Going through old papers or pictures to decide which are worth keeping is an example of this.  Based on the person’s memory of the events tied with that picture, the fate of the picture will be decided.  The same can hold true for old buildings or monuments.  What does a person remember about that place, and is the memory good enough to determine that the building is worth keeping can be a powerful thing.  Everyone remembers an event differently, so everyone can be attached to a building or picture differently.

            The book also mentioned environmental protection because it shows the “a broad cultural and historical debate is taking place about the extent to which “nature” and “culture” are intertwined.” (page 62)  The author used the example of the British organization Common Ground.  This is a popular environmental group, which focuses on landscape history.  The group seeks to “[combine] the reality of people’s relationship with their places, and which begins in our hearts but gets mediated by our reason.” (page 64)  For them, history is not only a study of objects, but also a study of their surroundings.  Landscapes are a type of place, and for every individual a landscape says something different to them.  For Common Ground, this is worth keeping as much as any old building.

Readings for February 5, 2013

As far as I know, the only reading assignment for this week was to finish Gardner and LaPaglia (pages 397-416).  I have checked the readings page on his blog, and as of Sunday night at 8:30pm it still only shows the Gardner reading.

            This week’s reading focused on the use of websites by historians.  There are many different types of archives available for the public online, and James Sparrow focused his article on an archive that he has contributed to himself.  The archive is the September 11 digital archive.  This archive is a place where viewers can upload videos of themselves sharing memories from September 11, 2001.  The website went active exactly one year later, on September 11, 2002. (pg. 397) 

            The archive was created by the Center for History and New Media, or CHNM, for the purpose of documenting the public’s reaction to the events of that day.  “[I]t became clear that ECHO’s approach to documenting contemporary history was especially well-suited to the task of capturing a broad canvas of Americans’ experiences for the historical record of “9/11” (as it has come to be known).” (pg. 402) ECHO stands for “Exploring and Collecting History Online,” which is a project developed from CHNM. (pg. 402)

                       (George Mason University, home of CHNM.  Photo courtesy of Google Images)

            The author also discussed the various problems with online historical websites.  One of the problems is the continued bias presented to the viewer by the website.  “Just as such museums can reflect the class biases of the engineers and corporate managers who patronize them, so too might the digital medium be prone to a comparable technophilic self-congratulation.” (pg. 399)  Museums often present their collections with a bias towards their patrons and donors, and online museums are no different.  If the museum, or website, wants to have a steady source of income they have to cater to one group or another.

            Another problem that the author addressed was that some historical websites restrict the viewer’s ability to view outside information from their webpage.  Links are often limited to outside webpages because the website wants viewers to use their information, not another site.  This is a feature that some, if not most, viewers would find annoying and may be revisit the website because of the restrictions.  While it is understandable that websites would like viewers to use their information, when a viewer has to hit the back button in order to find new links for the same information it is hard to return to the original website.  This is especially true if a different website is found that has external links included, and the information presented suits the viewer’s needs.   

            The author ends his article by addressing what he considers the “key problem” that online historians have to overcome. (pg. 412) 

“The key problematic for online historians is the lack of a sense of place, identity, and authenticity on the web – something all web authors try very consciously to overcome through “branding” to foster a sense of community through shared design.  Where are you, exactly, when you are visiting a website?” (pg. 412)

It can be harder for historians online to establish themselves then in a museum because when you are in a museum the artifacts are physically in front of you.  It can be harder to form an opinion based on a picture, and sometimes very brief description, then it is to be able to physically see the artifact in front of you.