I have a secret; a part of me hates Public History, a lot!Let me explain.
Ever since I was little, I have loved dozens of hidden history spots in London. These places might be houses (big surprise), ruins, fencepost's, boarded-up wells...anything really: that was old, in my opinion beautiful, and most importantly, hidden from the general public. I like driving through the city and thinking of the secret history that only I know.
Don't get me wrong. Places like Eldon House and Fanshawe Pioneer Village are great! I like that they get people interested and involved in local history and help create awareness surrounding heritage preservation but in my mind, they've always been like that. I was never alive when Eldon House wasn't a museum, or when the buildings at Fanshawe were largely in their original locations. If I had been, I think I would end up hating them. Something is lost in their transformation from historic entities into historical artifacts. They seem to lose their context, and tend to become - in some ways - less real.
Now the rational part of me knows that Public History is extremely important. Were it not for places like Eldon House, which completely captured my imagination at a very young age, I know I wouldn't be in the same place I am today. Furthermore, without Public History, a lot of my once secret places would be gone. Buildings that I've always admired would be ugly modern condos, completely impractical one-way bridges would be replaced, and unused graveyards would become overgrown and disappear. It takes public awareness for there to be ANY interest in many of these sites. Without interest, there would be no action and my secret history would be gone for everyone, including me! In the end, I suppose that Public History is a lesser evil than no history at all. Still, in an ideal world, the historic spots I love would remain my little secrets.
There, now you all know that I've been living a lie; I hate the "public" part of Public History.
1 comment:
That's simply reason to go track down additional secret places, obviously!
Halifax crawls with that kind of stuff, though for the most part the "whoa, History(tm)!" pointers tend to aim towards the major things. People don't notice or pay much attention to the smaller monuments, the out-of-the-way places, the buildings or sites that clearly have stories but aren't being trumpeted. There's probably a marketing aspect in there as much as an academic one, which is probably the source of a whole other rant. Maybe the trick is jumping on the publicity bandwagon and aiming it at the sites you're least interested in or something.
(I should probably retroactively lose my BA or something for comments like that...)
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