In which I am a meme and rich Bostonians talk about doing something good.
I say I am a public historian. What is a public historian? How do I know if I am one? Just toss me out a window, I guess.
Contents:
What Someone Smarter Than Me is Thinking About
What I listened to while writing
What I am thinking about
I have so many things I am thinking about. So many partial notes on so many topics.
One thing I have been trying to do for the last… year? at least… is get a handle on what I mean when I use the term “Awesome Ancestor.” It is the name of this newsletter. It is part of my Instagram bio. I haven’t published a podcast episode for a long time because I want to incorporate it somehow but I’m just not sure how. Let’s write and read about it.
Maybe the first step to helping someone else understand what an “Awesome Ancestor” is has to be explaining what kind of historian I am. I use the title Public Historian like it means something to everyone. I managed to get all the way through my undergraduate program without hearing the term, which makes me think it would really be nice to have some sort of introduction to the career of “history” or something.
Anyway, I am not like other historians (meme reference).
Whenever I meet a fellow historian, whether they are public historians, academic historians, or just read a lot of books and know stuff, something stands out to me. They have a time period or topic or something that they are super interested in and passionate about. Here in Utah, a lot of historians know everything about Mormon pioneer history or Indigenous history. And by “everything,” I mean names, dates, places, other historians, every single book title, and some interesting fact on page 174 of the third edition.
Whenever I meet myself, I find a guy with super imposter syndrome who doesn’t really have a favorite time period. I don’t know the names of a lot of historians if I do not know them personally. What I do know about specific people, places, or times is more out of the necessity of being a curator of that topic than some unquenchable interest.
But wait! I do have a time period. Right now. Not 2024, but just this always shifting present moment. Just like I was late figuring out that public history is a thing, I discovered later in my education that I would probably enjoy being a folklorist or something of that nature. Even that isn’t a perfect fit, because all of the folklorists I know are focused on (of course) folk art. I am just interested in folks.
In addition to that, I find myself drawn towards being someone who makes the present more convenient for historians in 50, 60, 100+ years. In my own historical research, one of the struggles is that people 150 years ago or more don’t have a lot of evidence of their existence. Maybe a grave marker or their name on a census. The mid-1900s seems to feel like a sweet spot. We have lots of records, photography was taking off, but it was still physical stuff, which limited the amount of evidence.
It is kind of a roundabout way of saying it, but I am a historian of the present and for the future. We all want to be remembered for as long as possible. Collectively we are creating an overwhelming amount of data every single day:
(Source)
I didn’t Google it or anything, but I am guessing we collectively create more data every day than our ancestors just 75 years ago created in a lifetime. It’s nuts! That is why I think it is important for us to get a handle on our data now, or our families and/or historians are going to have to sift through it all for us (what they can even access!).
An Awesome Ancestor is mindful of the story their data tells. They control their own narrative, being sure to acknowledge their shortcomings as well as their successes. They know that they will likely be forgotten someday and just be a name on a headstone, but that they can help out people who want to remember them by organizing their junk. precious records.
What someone smarter than me is thinking about
Sudbury may be next Massachusetts town to take down ‘one-sided’ historical signs. Boston Herald, September 21, 2024.
We always say “history is written by the victors.” But in the Boston neighborhood of Sudbury, there is talk of removing several historical markers that portray Indigenous people in a negative light. This is, of course, an issue throughout the United States—and I assume the world. It is 2024 and we are still stuck on this idea that First People were no more than savage wild animals that White people had to defend against.
(image from article)
Not just Indigenous communities get treated unfairly either. In the South you can see entire monuments to Confederate “heroes,” from which you would be forgiven for walking away believing they were just fighting for their way of life and making a living. Never mind the slaves they brutalized to maintain their way of life.
In Virginia we preserve the homesteads of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It’s a similar story: rich slave owners whose homes are meticulously cared for. They did great things for our country that should be celebrated, but I think context is important. Again, it is 2024 and you wouldn’t leave these historic sites without hearing about slaves, but I would understand if you thought their slaves were somehow not that bad off or lived somewhat pleasant, meaningful lives.
Back to Boston, though. It has taken 400 years, but the descendants of the victors are thinking, “hey, what if we weren’t the good guys?” Or at least, “hey, what if the story has more nuance than we ever allow for?” There are proposals to remove 100 year old markers that all but explicitly say that Native Americans were the antagonists in our Manifest Destiny.
I am for interpreting history in ways that are more fair and acknowledge the good and bad of all sides.
Thank you for reading the Awesome Ancestor Newsletter! If you are into this sort of thing, I send a new one weekly-ish. At least a couple times a month. I just have trouble committing, okay?
If you are into this sort of thing, please subscribe and tell a friend :).