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.   

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.

websites

I like to think that because I took online media classes in college that I have a pretty good eye for judging the format and accessibility of institutional websites. There is, believe it or not, criteria for that sort of thing. I know that internet access doesn't fall into judgeable criteria for my dissertation (which as of right now is set in the 1970s), but I still think its relative to the larger scope. So here are a few botanic garden websites prime for judgement.

Chicago Botanic Garden

New York Botanical Garden

Houston Arboretum and Nature Center

Missouri Botanical Garden

Santa Fe Botanical Garden

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Theme song

This week I've been thinking about what idea I should keep at the center of the early stages of research that will determine the directions I will take and questions I will ask/attempt to answer. I've decided to go with "concepts of urban natural space and access to them." This is vague on purpose so that my work can ask more questions. For example, what enables or prohibits access? Socio-economic factors? Transportation? Cultural beliefs? Also, who creates natural space? Why? How does this change people's access?

This idea of access is a big deal. What does it mean that some urban dwellers will never get to go to an Arboretum, or that some children will never roll down a giant hill that overlooks an English garden? I certainly never gave a thought to how (or if) inner-city school kids got to the Chicago Botanic Garden because I was privileged enough to have it practically in my back yard. But why does it matter? Historians reveal those answers when they put a community's access to nature in the larger context of how that community treats the environment and whether or not they have a say in how the environment is used. A person's relationship with the environment is shaped by their access to natural environments.

What is often hidden from sight are the motives behind the economic and political forces that create the natural spaces (which shape our relationship to the environment) in urban areas. How and why a city government (or a private organization) chooses a specific site for a community garden can influence their community's relationship to the environment depending on who has access to that site. These forces thereby have power over how a community thinks about and uses the environment. Crazy, yes, but not conspiracy theory crazy. These forces don't shape our environments in dark board rooms with men in suits laughing maniacally like Mr. Burns. However, they are done with a social, political or economic agenda, which may benefit or harm a community in multiple and complex ways that aren't revealed until after the fact. Access to natural space matters because it has the potential to give people power over their environment.

Other questions I'm thinking about:

There are sociological and historical studies on how ecological education fosters an appreciation and connection to nature. How much more difficult is it to get this type of education and appreciation from city parks or walking paths or forest preserves? Do we get just what we put in? If so, does the value a community gets from an ecological institutions like a Botanic Garden or Nature Center go as far as the people it reaches?