"More voices" in Boston’s public history

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man and woman at podium

Frank and Audrey Peterman were among the speakers at the “More Voices” event in Boston. Photo credit: National Park Service

As a graduate student of public history who specializes in early America, I spend a lot of time thinking about borders and peripheries, not just the temporal and spatial borders of British North America, but the figurative borders within which the “traditional” American experience is circumscribed. In my adopted state of Massachusetts, I’ve encountered many public humanities practitioners who are trying to push boundaries and engage new disciplines and new audiences, particularly through capturing a wider range of voices and stories at their sites.

What are some of the new ideas in public history about ways to do that? In an attempt to answer that question, Boston’s Old South Meeting House, in partnership with Boston National Historical Park, hosted a month-long lecture series last spring titled “More Voices–Expanding Our Nation’s Story.” They invited five practitioners from different areas of the preservation and education worlds, environmental conservationists Audrey and Frank Peterman, educator Lorén Spears, interpreter Tom Lincoln, and community activist Karilyn Crockett, to discuss their personal experiences and offer suggestions about how sites might expand their interpretations.

two women speaking

Lorén Spears speaks with a visitor at the Old South Meeting House event. Photo credit: Old South Meeting House

Each presenter had a unique perspective and recommendations. The Petermans advised finding smaller stories within larger narratives, Spears suggested examining relationships, Lincoln proposed physicality as a means of story-telling, and Crockett advocated for the telling of the recent past. The presenters referenced three specific sites. They found examples of both missed opportunities for inclusive narratives and the successful broadening of interpretations of the American experience at Boston’s Old State House and Old South Meeting House, and the Royall House and Slave Quarters in nearby Medford.

The Bostonian Society, a private preservation organization, runs and maintains the Old State House. I have been there twice, once as part of a class assignment and the second time to attend a roundtable discussion on the Proclamation of 1763. Its mission is quite clear: the Old State House is “America’s Revolutionary Museum.”

Some of the “More Voices” presenters suggested drawing on specific episodes of the American Revolution–such as the death of the African American and Native American Crispus Attucks during the Boston Massacre or the colonists disguising themselves as “Indians” or “Mohawks” during the Boston Tea Party–in order to expand the site’s historical narrative. This might amount to little more than an “add-and-stir” approach, but there certainly are sites throughout the region, including the Black Heritage Trail® and Minute Man National Historical Park (whose Patriots of Color initiative began in 2002), that have recast the American Revolution as a story of more than just the heroic feats of white men like Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and Dr. Joseph Warren.

two-story building

The kitchen and slave quarters at the Royall House in Medford have been integrated into the interpretation of the colonial mansion. Photo credit: My Lil’ Rotten

The presenters turned to the Royall House and Slave Quarters for an example of how multiple, but not competing, voices can be seamlessly woven into a single narrative. As the only extant slave quarters in the northern United States, the Royall House has a unique opportunity to tell the story of Massachusetts’ largest slaveholding family and the Africans who worked for them. The power of the site’s interpretation lies in its physicality. The lives and experiences of two distinct groups of people–wealthy white Loyalist landowners and enslaved people of color–are interpreted through the site’s landscape, architecture, and artifacts. Visitors can compare the grand mansion bedrooms to the kitchen chamber, which likely housed several enslaved men, women, and children. Archeological evidence and a plethora of written documentation provide the site with future opportunities to explore various eighteenth-century experiences and their legacies.

brick church

The Old South Meeting House in Boston centers its interpretation on ideas of free speech and political dissent. Photo credit: Old South Meeting House

The Old South Meeting House offers yet another approach for including subaltern voices. Rather than defining itself solely as the “Birthplace of the Boston Tea Party,” the Old South Meeting House connects its history to protest, revolution, and freedom of speech and extends that history well beyond the Revolutionary era. Its interpretive timeline draws attention to the voices and stories of women, African Americans, immigrants, and others. In a sense, the Old South Meeting House offers a historical interpretation more rooted in an idea than in a specific period of time. Therefore, the site has the ability to push the boundaries of its interpretation past the stereotypical narratives of American history. I look forward to seeing the new directions in which they will take their interpretation in the future.

Other sites around Massachusetts are also rethinking their approaches. Thirty-five miles north of Boston is the seaside town of Gloucester. Although best known as a fishing center, the summer getaway is home to a variety of cultural destinations, including Beauport, a shingle-style mansion also known as the Sleeper-McCann House. Once home to Henry Davis Sleeper, one of the country’s first professional interior designers, the property is now overseen by Historic New England. Jennifer Putsz, Historic New England’s Museum Historian, spoke to my museums and exhibitions seminar last spring. She explained how the organization is using Beauport to increase the visibility of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) community. Sleeper, she told us, was almost certainly gay.

Through the efforts of various people and organizations, sites in Massachusetts are making strides towards an ever-more-inclusive interpretation of the American experience. We are not shying away from boundaries–we are trying to expand or perhaps even erase them altogether. The best way to do so may be up for debate, but, as the lecture series made evident, the conversation is well underway.

~ Sarah Hudson is a graduate student in the Public History Program at Northeastern University and the current editorial assistant of The New England Quarterly.

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