PROPOSAL TYPE
Structured Conversation
SEEKING
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
- Seeking Specific Expertise
- Seeking Additional Presenters
RELATED TOPICS
- Museums/Exhibits
- Reflections on the Field
- Social Justice
RELATED TOPICS
This session will discuss the challenges of confronting firearm history at a site like the new Coltsville National Historic Park within our modern day context of gun violence and the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision. This structured conversation will be a continuation of one begun in Hartford in 2019 and will address the work begin done- especially institutional partnerships and community engagement– at the park as it nears establishment. We will also make connections between the manufacturing history in Connecticut with use and marketing of firearms in the west, and particularly Utah. We have an idea for a side trip to Browning Museum in Ogden.
Description
Our goal is to share what we know and invite input about perspectives and resources (archives, articles, books) and themes that we may not know as we think critically about the purpose of this national park in the city like Hartford and a state like Connecticut, and a the US today.
Leah Glaser will discuss the process of developing the Historic Resource Study and its challenges– as well as exciting themes and discussions that could inform current debates– and how our team is enlisting not only our previous and current work on and with Coltsville, but that of our students. Through intentional community engagement, collaborations with scholars and students at the university level, and conducting an historic resources study. NPS staff will examine how we can approach the story of Coltsville in both the meaning of it’s legacy and place in historical context today. In 2022-23, Wesleyan, Brown and RISD students created virtual exhibits about New England’s hidden gun history in collaboration with the National Park Service’s Coltsville Historic Park in Hartford, Connecticut. The project – which continues with a collaboration with the Autry Museum of the American West in Spring 2024 – combined student research, exhibition curation, community engagement, and exhibit design, and proposes an innovative, collaborative approach to teaching and doing public humanities. Tucker will present the project, findings, and reflect on this model of transdisciplinary collaboration.
We are obviously Connecticut focused, but would consider other participants from western museums or sites of gun violence– and open the discussion up widely… but we can also have a cool case study especially if westerners display Colt and/or Connecticut in their institutions.
What we are unsure about is whether this might be best as a roundtable or a structured conversation.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Leah Glaser, Central Connecticut State University, [email protected]
ALL FEEDBACK AND OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 7, 2023. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
Hi Leah,
He is not a public historian, but Brian DeLay at UC Berkeley has been working on a couple of book length projects on guns and the arms trade in American history. It would be interesting to see if he was interested in talking about the public application s of his research.
Greg
yes! Thanks for that suggestion, Greg. I think we decided to focus on Coltsville specifically– but now I have an idea for next year: The dearth of serious scholarship on firearms and the need for expert witness work.
Leah – I wonder if there’s a way to take stories from, say, Harpers Ferry or Springfield Armory and incorporate them into the Coltsville story. Trying to get the guns at Harpers was one of the goals of John Brown and his collaborators, and Springfield’s products (among others) supplied the US military for decades. I don’t think either site sees themselves as a ‘site of gun violence,’ but the military involves quite a bit of gun violence. There may be opportunities for cross-park collaboration here.
Looks fascinating. To address your question about format: I think that a roundtable with brief presentations and then questions from audience (and for each other) sounds ideal here.
Hi Leah,
Seconding Greg’s comment above about Brian DeLay. I believe he’s done some expert witness work, and I think it would be interesting to explore that as a forum of public history.
All the best with what sounds like fascinating work!
Ari
Hi Leah–
Do re-eneactments fit into your vision for this panel? There is a lot of display and discussion of firearms at those events. Most of these events are outside the realm of formal museums, but NPS sites–and even NPS staff–are engaged in this sort of interpretation.