Intro to Public History Crash Course

By historical standards, my project time period is pretty recent. Some academics might think that writing about people that aren't dead yet is risky because these people still have a perspective and memory of what happened and because we might not have a complete understanding how the processes historical actors set in place have effected society. I, however, as a public historian believe that studying such a recent time period is an invaluable opportunity because I have access to the individuals I am writing about! 

I will have to keep in mind how big a role I want interviews (in the form of oral histories) public history I want to play in my work. There are a lot of examples of how oral histories can contribute to written historical works. Monica Perales' Smeltertown goes beyond using her oral histories merely as accounts to examine how events, places and people are remembered and the role memory plays in inventing and reinventing their identity. Other historical works utilize oral histories as layer of perspective otherwise lost to the historical record. There are always a bias to the historical record, which does not exclude written sources. Given this fact, it is important for historians to approach their subject from as many perspectives as possible to have a multi-dimensional and holistic approach when forming an argument about what happened.   

Findings

My trip to the Chicago Botanic Gardens last weekend was so great! The library director pulled material for me from their archives and had everything waiting for me in their rare books room. I spent two and a half hours pouring over Chicago Horticultural Society records, newspaper clippings and newsletters from the 1950s through the 1970s. I have a basic understanding of how the institution came together and a list of VIP who made it happen, but there were a couple of great nuggets that I think could be connected to large historical issues. For example, the horticultural society had to fund a dam to divert water from their property that was polluted and purchase water from Northbrook and another suburb. Also, how significant to the chosen location of the garden is the fact that the majority of members were from the northern suburbs?

I had a really interesting conversation with Daniel Greene, the VP for research and academic programs at the Newberry Library today about my project and teasing out the issues of class--perhaps by bringing in the Missouri Botanical Garden into my analysis. I think class and place are both important themes to my project. Class, because a more affluent community's easier access to money can make projects happen faster (though there are always challenges and opportunities that accompany your status, high or low), and place, because the version of nature that is valued and created by a community is related to both its topography and culture. Keeping these larger issues in mind is critical as I continue to research, because they contribute to a framework for my argument that I can lean on when my source material gets overwhelming.

Parks and Rec

Quick mental break for a show about a parks department. I wish I could somehow work this into my dissertation... sugar rush!

Politics and Representation

As I am looking at how these institutions were founded, one if the questions that comes up is what is the difference between receiving government support and being privately funded by donations? What are the implications? Is non-profit a uniform category no matter how you are supported? I am going to have to do some research on non-profit environmental organizations...

I'm also trying to figure out what perspective best tells the story of urban dwellers' relationship with natural spaces. Is it as important to explain the top-down governing structure of how and why these gardens were created than to chronicle people's reaction to them? I'm hoping my research will reveal the loudest and most powerful voices so I know where change comes from. The 1960s were characterized by a fast-growing number of activist groups that started to protect or fight for a certain interests related to the environment. In the 1970s, quite a few of those groups came together to fight corporate conglomerates and lobby local governments. One of the best ways to examine environmental groups in this period is to look a their correspondence with other local environmental groups. Here's hoping I find some good dirt!

activist groups vs. institutions

When I started this project, i wanted to look at how institutions reflected and shaped a community identity and its issues. The problem I am wondering if I will encounter now that I have done more research on the historic environmental culture of some of the large urban areas was that it might have been in large part driven by activism - groups with specific reactionary agendas most often concerned with getting rid of pollution and protecting private property than preserving natural spaces. I think I am going to have to do more research about the relationship of these groups to one another. I need to put myself into the context and culture of the 1970s to make sure I am addressing the most influential perspectives and initiatives as well as the everyday persons motives and values. 

RESEARCH UPDATE

Just got off the phone with Library Director Leora Siegel about visiting the Chicago Botanic Garden archive. Leora green-lighted my visit for October 21 at 1o a.m.! I am very excited. This will just be preliminary findings trip to get a feel for the state of the archive and their holdings. In the mean time I'm going to have to talk with my advisor about what types of records I should be looking for and about coming up with a searchable list of topics. The CBG's archive is pretty rough, there isn't a finding aid yet and the topics are searchable via Excel (sigh, wouldn't it be cool if they hired me to catalog?), so I am going to have to spend some serious time there, which means I should be as organized as possible before I go.

I haven't been in an institutional archive in over a year, so I'm also going to try and ask other grad students around the department for tips and advice on prelim visits. Any words of wisdom are welcome!

Blogs and sources

While my research doesn't carry over into the 21st century when blogs become a common method for organizations to get the word out, looking at them does bring up questions about how botanic gardens have reached out to their audience in the past. Member newsletters and press releases (the main modes of reaching people) are still around today, but compared to blogs they seem much more institutionalized and formal, almost impersonal. It would be interesting to know how (or if) garden public relations made those personal connections. I've posted a couple of examples of garden blogs--some are more formal than others, but they all function as supplemental to e-newsletters and are updated weekly or bi-weekly with news and pictures.

Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden

I liked the LACABG's blog because it included a Blogroll of other related blogs and websites, this is kind of an old-school format for the blog world, but it was really helpful for me to have all of those websites in one place.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Blog

The BBG's blog is my favorite because it is very user-friendly and interfaces with twitter and facebook and is updated often, which may be because there is more than one contributor.

Chicago Botanic Garden Blog

The CBG's blog is high tech with videos, it's more like a garden TV channel that highlights different aspects of the garden and isn't necessarily the best place to get the newest news and happenings at the garden. It was also buried in the garden's website, which doesn't make it very accessible to viewers.