Short take on the news: shared beds

There’s a story on the BBC today wherein a Doctor suggests that married couples not share a bed because sleeping apart is healthier. The article says “Dr Stanley, who sleeps separately from his wife, points out that historically we were never meant to share our beds. He said the modern tradition of the marital bed only began with the industrial revolution, when people moving to overcrowded towns and cities found themselves short of living space”.

I think someone needs to read a little social history.  Especially if he thinks the only time people have ever shared beds was as a married couple.

I remember when I was research women’s roles in war in Scotland (and Europe) for one of my grad seminars and read an essay about women’s units in Britain during WWII.^[1] The administrators (upper and middle class urbanites) were concerned about what they saw as lesbianism among the women in the barracks; these women were from rural, less wealthy families and as one of them pointed out later, they had never had their own bed. Many of them were sharing a bed not in a romantic or sexual way but because they were so unused to sleeping alone they could not sleep at all.

I appreciate that people have the option to sleep seperately or alone, but one would hope that when you start making historical defenses for your scientific theories, you would actually understand the history…

1 I believe the essay was in A soldier and a woman : sexual integration in the military – it may have been the DeGroot article.

 

“History doesn’t change”

Recently I went down to south-west Florida to visit my grandfather, who lives in one of the many retirement communities in the area. He said “We’ll do whatever you want,” and I said “Hey, let’s check out the local history museum.” My grandfather admitted he’d never been, despite having been in the area for over a decade, and away we went. It was a very nice County Museum, with a small static exhibit in the administrative building and a nice collection of pieces and small buildings in the outdoor area/garden.

We went to leave, and said we would be back. The woman who was working the desk at reception/gift shop area said “Well, everything here will be the same – history doesn’t change!”

I just nodded, but her statement bothered me. True, the actual facts of history are, at this point, static. What happened does not change. Our understanding of it, on the other hand, does. Their exhibits included topics such as the Seminole, slavery and escaped slaves, and the logging of the cypress forests. How those topics are presented today are not necessarily how we would present them 15 or 30 years ago; who knows how we will interpret them 15 years from now? Scholarship, certainly changes. Public history changes, too.

I know that this is a small county museum, which is part of four museum sites operated by the county museum administration. They don’t have a large staff, their budget is definitely small. They may have limited opportunities to change their exhibits, even if their administrators (whoever they may be) wanted to do so. To me, however, saying “History doesn’t change” is to say “this place is static, only worth seeing once, because it and history are only worth a single walk through.” Museums and history deserve second looks, because you never know what you might discover that you missed before.

 

Disappointed but not surprised

The Board of Supervisors for Orange County, VA,  has approved at WalMart on the Wilderness Battlefield; see the coverage from the Associated Press and the NTHP’s blog entry.

One of the comments on the NTHP blog states a “fact” which was circulated by the pro-WalMart groups, but in fact parts of the battle were fought on the parcel of land being used by WalMart; according to one historian who spoke at the Planning Commission meeting back in May, that was where the African-American unit from the Union was stationed, and also where the wounded were taken to be treated. Historically, neither of these groups might have been seen as important enough to comemmorate, but surely in the 21st century they are?

I am disappointed and somewhat angry at the decision, but not all that surprised by it. Even before the first hearing by the Planning Commission, before the reports were in, two of the Board had said they would support WalMart at all costs. Orange County could use some help with its economy, but as many people have said, that location is not the best. The store might stimulate the economy a little, but how much is it going to cost the county in terms of law enforcement, traffic accidents, and national image?

 

What makes a citizen?

Working as I do with a focus on the period between 1780 and 1830, the War of 1812 frequently drifts into focus. It is not a war with which I was very familiar when I started at this job, and I still think there’s a lot more I could know about it (although I have very little interest in all the movements of all the troops).  Still, I am aware that one of the issues which led to the war was continued impressment by the British Navy of people who considered themselves to be citizens of the United States.

I do not know, and admittedly have not taken the time to discover, how exactly one became a citizen of any nation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Now, of course, we have citizenship applications and tests and ceremonies where you swear an oath, and afterwards you get a new passport. What was it like then?

Yesterday, while in the archives, I came across a letter which mentioned this question of what makes a person a citizen. It is written by a man living in Liverpool, England, to an acquaintance back in the U.S. The man in Liverpool worked for the U.S. Government, and must therefore have considered himself an American, despite having been born before the Revolution. It doesn’t answer my question completely, but it’s an excellent insight into the attitudes which led to a war between the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

“I observe what in America constitutes a citizen of the U. S. differs from what is here considered the Qualification; pro. Ex. a subject of this Country settled since the peace, in the Territories of the U.S. altho’ admitted there a Citizen is nonetheless still held here a subject of this Country.”

Source: James Maury to Thomas Jefferson, [10] November 1791. Papers of James Maury, 1769-1917, Accession #3888 and #3888-a, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

 

Little Bitty Books

Today I went to the local U to their special collections (the joys of working for a historic site!). In one of the boxes I requested were books – three larger ones and then a series of small ones. I mean small – less than two inches wide and at best three inches tall. Most of them were almanacs, from the 1810s and 1820s, just a single signature, most likely stab bound to the marbled paper cover. The lovely one had a red leather cover, with a overlapping tongue that fit into a loop on the cover. The cover was lined with some fabric and had a little pocket inside the flap for a pencil. All of these had calendars, with blank pages opposite each month for your own appointments.The person (or people) who owned these books used those pages, and also wrote notes and addresses in the flypapers.

They were wonderful little glimpses into early 19th century material culture in the UK, into the way people used books and other printed material. It is so very much the way we still carry little notebooks around with us, catchalls of information – or, more 21st century, our pdas and cellphones.

 

Mail by Train

This morning I attended the re-opening of the train station/post office in the tiny little zipcode that houses the historic site where I work. I was excited partly because the building has been wonderfully restored, partly because I no longer have to drive to the nearby tiny town to check my PO box, and partly because, in February, we’ll be installing some exhibits in the old White and Colored waiting rooms.

The Train Depot is on the rail line between Cville, Culpeper, and Fburg. It isn’t a stop now, and apparently was never a regular stop, at least not for passengers. The current director for this area’s post offices (the Mountain Region, which goes over into West Virginia) told us some stories about when the mail was carried all over the country, back when he started with the USPS. This was before zip codes, and when he was invited to the re-opening of our little post office train depot, he thought for a minute and was able to recall exactly which train you’d need to have put the mail on form his sorting facility for it to reach this depot.

Even the mail trains didn’t stop here. They just slowed down and the mail carrier on the train would toss the sack of mail out of an open window. At the time, federal employees (including postal carriers) had merits and demerits. Failing to deliver a sack of mail was a demerit, so they kept a few empty sacks by the train car door. That way, if you couldn’t find the right bag, you could just toss an empty bag – it still counted, no demerits.

The other story I found interesting was that our little depot had a dog who would come out and get those mail sacks. The guys on the train (and yes, I think it was just men) took to tossing out various things, trying to distract that dog. Chicken bones, baloney sandwiches, whatever they could get their hands on that a dog might like. No matter what they tossed, the dog always got the sack. The man from the USPS didn’t say, because by that time the guys on the train would have been out of sight, but I bet that dog went back out after delivering the sack and enjoyed the treats from the train.

 

Material Culture online

One of the sessions I attended today at THAT Camp was on material culture (led by my friend Arden Kirkland – see her blog post and webgroup).

This is something I’ve given passing thought to, or tangentially considered, but never thought of seriously on it. What I said in the session was that, for me, the ideal presentation of an object online is not a single web page. It involves: a representation of the image on its own; at least one image of the object in its historical context; a description of the object; at least one documentary mention of that object or a similar object.

To flesh this out, take for example a silver teapot from 18th century (take a look at the teapot in the Domestic Furnishings Collection at the Smithsonian or this teapot from the National Museums of Scotland ). The stand-alone image could be a still image, like the examples, or a QTVR which you can launch and rotate, to really see the object. This image should be in a neutral background, as museum collection images often are.

The second image, or set of images, would be the teapot on a tea table. Ideally, it would be the same object with other objects from the same set or era, on an appropriately dressed table. That’s not always possible, but even images of tea tables from period prints and artworks would help viewers understand the object in context.

The description would hopefully be a happy medium between the two museums I’ve linked. I like that the NMS exposes some of the data in list form, giving you materials, dimensions, place of creation in a quick-read layout. The personal history and general information about teapots on the Smithsonian are also useful for (again) providing context. If I were creating a page on the teapot, the text blocks would be broken into “teapots” and “this teapot” sub sections, with the statistical information under or next to that.

Finally, show how we find these objects in documents. Include a page from a goldsmith’s ledger or a storekeeper’s account book, or a mention in a letter. In my work, I start with the documents and seek out objects, while some of my colleagues start with objects and then turn to the documents. However you work, the objects and the documents are in concert, and I think it’s important to show that on the object’s page if you can.

Obviously, building a series of pages like this would be labour intensive. The best implemtnation might be with a furnished room in a historic house; web visitors could start with the room, go to the object’s page, move through documents, back to the room, and explore.

Many, many thanks to Arden Kirkland for proposing this session for THATCamp, to Laurie Kahn for sharing with us some of the ideas that didn’t get used when making A Midwife’s Tale, and to everyone who participated in the session. If you want to know more, there are notes from the session on the THATCamp09 wiki.

 

Quick thoughts after THATCamp Day 1

Spent today having good conversations and listening to good conversations at THAT Camp.  The twitter buzz on the camp hashtag (#thatcamp) has been pretty busy; one of the points which kept coming up in twitter was how conversations kept coming back to tools more than implementations.  My thought, in the final session I attended today, was that we have such diverse audiences (end users).  Attendees include art historians, academic historians, public historians, librarians, grad students, costume designers, archaeologists, english professors, &c. The way we want to use the tools we’re brainstorming about are myriad; and of course once we launch the tools, the users will take them in totally new directions.

This makes the conversations more challenging, but the end results all that much more interesting.

 

Sanctuary

Yesterday’s shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC is distressing not only because of the hatred and willful ignorance which seems to have driven the shooter, but because of its location.

We think of museums as safe places. They aren’t necessarily apolitical – in fact they can be the focus of political action or spur debate – but I feel that they are supposed to be places where those discussions and debates can happen without violence. They are a sanctuary.

The online edition of the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “sanctuary” as “2 a (1):a place of refuge and protection”. When I was a child, I learned about the medieval practice of Sanctuary, refuge from the law within the bounds of a church, by watching Cadfael (The Sanctuary Sparrow) on PBS.  Naive though it might be, I applied that idea of sacred spaces being beyond the reach of mundane violence and brutality to the modern world, to churches and museums (both sacred spaces to me, although in different ways).

The shooting in the Holocaust Museum is more upsetting to me because it comes so close on the heels of another violation of Sanctuary space, the shooting of George Tiller within the walls of a church. There are moments when it is vividly brought home that the fact that the way I see the world is not universal. This morning has been one of those times.

On Sunday, I will remember Doctor Tiller, the security guard Stephen Tyrone Johns, and all lost to the Holocaust during the Prayers of the People.

 

County Planning Meeting – WalMart and Wilderness

Tonight, for better or worse, I am attending the Planning Commission meeting for Orange County, Va.* I have read the staff report regarding MalWart’s request for permission to build on the edge of the county, and the conditions for approval.

I do not want the WalMart in this county.  I object to it on social, historical, and political grounds. That said, I recognize that the historical preservationist argument has failed to convince the county residents who support the WalMart. Having read the staff report, here are the questions I want to have answered tonight:

• Who is going to pay for the roads to be built? VDOT listed 8 actions which would need to be taken in order for the site not to create traffic problems. Where is this money going to come from?
• Where is the money for extra law enforcement going to come from? Do we really think private security will be sufficient? The Walmart will be right on the border with Spotsylvania County.
• How feasible is finding a solution to the water supply issue? Will the county allow them to build without the water there in case of a fire?
• How is the County going to hold WalMart accountable to the recommendations in A1? Fine them? Slap them on the wrist? Or cause them to cease and desist? As far as I can tell, WalMart doens’t play by anyone’s rules but its own!

Also: the estimated economic impact of WalMart – jobs and money brought to the county – is from WalMart. What are external (non-biased) estimates?

I don’t know how long I will last in the meetings. I like discussing historical politics becuase it’s all gone – if the meeting gets too shouting and non-productive I may leave. I’m not willing to waste my time with people who only listen to themselves talk and do not actually engage in a real dialogue.

*Full disclosure: I don’t live in Orange County, I live in a nearby city. I work in Orange County, and very good friends of mien live near the propsed site.