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Natchez history should tell not merely show
Published Friday, July 25, 2008
What is the difference between an object and a historical artifact?
That was the question rattling in my brain last week as my wife and I toured across Pennsylvania.
It sounds like a pretty heavy question to ponder when you are on vacation. But the thought kept nagging me as we went from one historical site to another last week.
When we had finished reliving my childhood in the Pennsylvania suburbs last week, we set out to visit some of the places I had always wanted to see. The Amish countryside, Gettysburg, President Eisenhower’s home, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and numerous other sites were on our agenda.
I grew up in a family that used vacations as a time for relaxation and entertainment. There were few instances where the Hillyers were spotted visiting an old Civil War battlefield or similar historic site.
When we did go on an educational trip, I remember being dragged through exhibits filled with objects. It was the 1970s, when the most exciting thing in a museum was the saber-toothed tiger diorama. Most museums were big containers for objects. Indian museum cases displayed pots, baskets and arrowheads. Multicolored rocks and crystals filled the shelves of the mineral and gem museums. Egyptian statues and ancient carvings were the prized possession of large regional museums.
To a kid, these big buildings were nothing more than a big file drawer for objects.
When I first came to Natchez, I will have to admit that this was my first impression of many of the historic homes that I toured.
I felt like once again I was filing through big containers of objects — albeit fancy, exquisite objects. Each house seemed exactly like every other house filled with the same Mallard bed or Old Paris china.
This week’s trip demonstrated to me how much the museum experience has changed since those big-box museum days of my childhood.
Instead of focusing on display cases overflowing with objects our visits to historic sites this past week centered on the one thing that makes the objects important —the story.
There were still many, many objects on display. In Gettysburg alone more than a million visitors each year get the chance to see thousands of artifacts.
The main difference, however between my childhood experiences and this past week’s tours, was that the objects were the backdrop for the story. They were the tools to help tell the story and not the focus of the tour.
Some exhibits used the latest technology to tell their story. Video, audio and computer displays were used to great effect. But in almost all cases it was the stories told by tour guides that were the most fascinating and interesting.
In Gettysburg, our tour guide brought the three-day Civil War battle to life as he drove us across the Pennsylvania countryside.
In Fallingwater, a tale of two men — a merchandising mogul and the world’s greatest architect — and how they created one of the world’s masterpieces of architecture was told as we toured the house.
Ironically, hearing these fascinating narratives made the objects even more valuable and appealing than had I not heard the stories in the first place.
That to me is the difference between object and history.
Since my first days of touring Natchez’s antebellum houses, I have had the opportunity to hear some of the great stories of mystery and intrigue that make our objects unique.
In recent years, some effort has been made to tell some of these stories like those of Longwood, the William Johnson House and the effort to develop a special tour for steamboat passengers in 2005.
Despite the fact that tourists have become savvier and have an appetite for such tales, Natchez’s stories remain largely untold. In many respects the town seems stuck in an age when the objects were the show.
It’s a shame, because Natchez has many great stories to tell, some great storytellers to tell them and many who are ready to listen.
Ben Hillyer is the web editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3540 or by e-mail at ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com.
Comments
Posted by dangyankee (anonymous) on July 25, 2008 at 12:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Funny you should write this today, Ben . . . I came across this just a few minutes ago, and you may find it interesting (certainly I did). I do NOT know who the writer is, but she tells a hell of a story--and it's all about Natchez, or anyway a couple of long-dead Natchez residents.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunnybrook1...
(I don't know if this will post as a link, but you can copy and paste it in your browser, I think.)
You are right about the difference between objects and history: Objects really only serve to help illustrate the history; the history itself, the stories behind the objects, are what gives the object any meaning at all. With regard to all the "old" houses/mansions in Natchez, for instance, I would be bored out of my mind simply touring them, however beautiful architecturally a lot of them are. I would rather hear about the people who originally trod those grounds, about their daily lives and what they might have been like (I hope they all weren't like that godawful selfish b-word Scarlett or useless Ashley).
In a writing class once (yes, believe it or not, I HAVE actually taken a writing class before--a lot of years ago) our teacher had us write an "object sketch." You probably know this, but if not, it's simple: You take an object, something you remember, then start writing about it, see what comes out of your pen. It was an interesting exercise.
Wouldn't it be cool if long-time (or lifelong) Natchez residents went through their mental closets, found long-forgotten objects, took them out, studied them, remembered . . . and then wrote down their memories? What a history book THAT could make.
Posted by dangyankee (anonymous) on July 25, 2008 at 12:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
P.S. The link does work as a link--but it takes you only to the photograph. To get to the story behind the photograph, go to the bottom of the page and click on "Return to Flickr Photo Page" (or words to that effect--you'll see it).
Posted by pittypat55 (anonymous) on July 25, 2008 at 7:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Ben, you are so right. In the past, I have been in a hoopskirt and described the objects in a room. I was only able to repeat what the owner gave me to say. I remember being so frustrated, as I knew there had to be some interesting stories to tell that the tourists would enjoy. I recall thinking that these people could go into an antique shop and see these same things.
Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on July 25, 2008 at 8:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I grew up hearing stories of the Goat Castle and other tales of Natchez. You are right, we should write this down because now that my mom has passed away, there are things I would like to ask her about again.
Posted by dynagirl (anonymous) on July 25, 2008 at 8:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
When I used to receive, all we did was tell stories. Yes, we were telling of the origin of some of the artifacts, but there was always a story with them. To me, that was the beauty of Pilgrimage... real interactivity.
Posted by skippydammit (anonymous) on July 25, 2008 at 12:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Good article Ben. Enjoyed it !
Am reminded of a quote attributed to Napoleon
(Bonaparte, not Dynamite...lol),
"What is history but a fable agreed upon?"
There is a lot of history in Natchez and
also a lot of "fables". The fun part is trying
to separate the two.
Again, good article.
Keep up the good work !
Posted by Yeahuhuh (anonymous) on July 25, 2008 at 3:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It is true what you say about objects in museums, if and only if they do not excite the viewer enough to dig deeper himself. But to enshrine the interpretive speech is to elevate our own right to dismiss the evidence that objects are.
Some people, probably most, if they see an amethyst specimen or a piece of Civil War ordinance -- go , Wow! but don't take it much further. It's not the fault of the object, and often not the curator.
Natural curiosity has been damaged by our culture. How else could we rage war in a foreign land and so very few even show you where it is on a globe? Or how could so many people for so long link Alqaida with Saddam -- even with the misinformation campaign -- if there was not something seriously amiss in their minds.
Many stories offered as true are not that at all, but packaged visions designed to entertain at the expense of accuracy. Those people who wait on the stories to be handed to them are especially vulnerable to the false vision.
Everything has it's story and there is always more to be seen. Those folks who are especially bored with the artifacts -- who disdain digging the story for themselves -- are often just lazy. But almost nobody wants to hear that story!
If I am right, most folks don't know a thing about the geology of the area, even the first layer. They know nothing of the natives that came before the Natchez, they know nothing of animals that once lived here, nothing of where the oil and gas come from around here, and not much about their neighbors' past.
So, exactly when was the top 30 feet of Natchez put here and how? See what I mean? Most don't have a clue.
But Beware! A story that brings some life to that question is easy to make up or get wrong -- and how would you even know?
Posted by Idefinitelymight (Tom Scarborough) on July 25, 2008 at 3:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
^^^
Post of the day.
Posted by destiny (anonymous) on July 25, 2008 at 5:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Dangyankee, thanks for the link. Enjoyed the story very much. Goat Castle has always been one of my favorite tales. My older brother took me to goat castle when I was ten years old in 1948. It was just as the story tells. The goats still roamed around the old house, inside and out. I petted some of them and my brother let me feed one an ear of corn that he brought with us. I'll forever remember that visit.
Posted by dangyankee (anonymous) on July 25, 2008 at 8:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yeahuhuh, I agree with a lot of what you say, up to a point. To some degree we do seem to have lost our natural curiosity, or what SHOULD be "natural" curiosity. Partly that might be simply because we don't have to look very hard for information, these days: It is all around us; in fact, most of us are overwhelmed with it.
When I say that I would get bored walking around one of the antebellum houses, it is because simply to look at a collection of artifacts is in a way a 2-dimensional experience, and there is a century-long "screen" between you and the 3rd dimension, "depth." I can look at, say, a buttonhook, and even know "intellectually" what it's purpose was, etc., everything about it EXCEPT what it must have been like to have to use one every day. I can't "feel" it. That's why I get bored looking at a steady stream of artifacts.
Now, show me ONE of them, show me and tell me about it, connect with me in a way that I can "feel" that artifact, and I'm hooked.
When I was about 8 years old, my father bought an old horse harness, one for a working team of horses, at a farm sale. That harness had been around for probably more than 50 years at that point. He made his 3 sons and himself belts out of the leather, using the "solid bronze" (that was stamped on the buckles; I can still see it) buckles. His sons have all long since lost those belts, or outgrew them, but Dad still uses his (the buckle, anyway; I think he has gone through a couple or few leather straps). Dad is a practical man, so it came as no surprise that he made belts from that harness--but I'm sure it was not his intention when he bid 75 cents or whatever and bought the harness. I think, in retrospect, that it was simply a connection to his past, when he had actually run horse teams on his father's farm.
I can see that buckle now whenever I see my father, and if I let my imagination work, I can see all the way back to his childhood in the Depression era.
Personal stories, histories, can help us see our ancestors' lives branching into our own, and can help us remember and cherish what we have been, along the way to becoming what we are.
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