PROPOSAL TYPE
Traditional Panel or Roundtable
SEEKING
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking Specific Expertise
RELATED TOPICS
- Reflections on the Field
- Social Justice
ABSTRACT
In this session we would like to have either a series of presentations or a structured conversation around how the history of public history is women’s history. We want to highlight the role of women’s heritage organizations in the creation of public history institutions, memorials, holidays, and more.
DESCRIPTION
Women’s heritage organizations are an important and often-overlooked aspect of the public history field, both in its history and in the public history landscape today. Since the antebellum work of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, white women’s historical and heritage organizations have utilized historic sites for contemporary political ends.
On one hand, women’s role as “Republican Mothers” and providers of civic education in the private sphere have made them perfectly positioned to do heritage work for future generations. The motto of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, who run house museums in forty states is “virtutes majorum filiae consrvant,” which roughly translates to “women are the keepers of their ancestor’s virtues.”
On the other hand, the professionalization of history in the late twentieth century undermined the work of many of these primarily volunteer-run organizations. To complicate things still, the preservation and definition of white womanhood further restricted what kinds of history these women’s heritage groups preserved and shared with the public.
How have women’s heritage organizations both upheld and pushed back against this role as memory-keepers, especially as the public history field developed in the twentieth century? Additionally, whose memories have been ignored, censored, or forgotten in this framework? In line with this year’s theme of Historical Urgency, many of these organizations today specify that they are non-political and non-partisan, a departure from their very political beginnings. In an era of political fracturing and a rise in overt white nationalism, what is the role of organizational-run, small local sites in informing the public?
Join these presenters for an engaging conversation about how women and their organizations have shaped public history. Share your own ideas about how gender dynamics have affected the ways women have started, been involved with, or even undermined heritage organizations across the U.S.
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: Megan Weiss, University of Utah, [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.
I am concerned with the framing of this topic. The message I am receiving is that history is only white women’s work. That the emphasis is on their whiteness. This strikes me as problematic on many levels. One of these issues is the limited perspective these organizations provided, as in skewing the accepted version of history to maintain racist structures in our society and to blur the lines between historical and ahistorical opinion. While these organizations have played a role, it seems less likely that the professionalization of the field of History caused a decline in these organizations’ prominence or their ability to draw supporters/volunteers. They also tended to be of particular classes of society further skewing perspectives and accuracy.
Hi Megan, it might be interesting to include someone from one of the organizations you are focusing on (since in Utah, the DUP) to talk about how this work is different in the 21st century and the challenges balancing the legacy of those founding institutions and the need to be contemporarily relevant. I have one person in mind, and you may have others. Anyway, this might be one way to introduce a contemporary/coalface context. Another way might be to bring in a completely different community organization that might either demonstrate or refute the gendered aspects of stewardship you posit. Thinking Sema Hadithi as contemporary collectors, stewards, and interpreters; perhaps you have another organization that could provide a similar perspective.
Hi Megan,
This gender-based panel is very fascinating. There are tons of great ideas in here. I’d aim for streamlining what you’ve got. For example, you’re asking several questions, so maybe pick one and really run with it. Or look for ways that there might be one big umbrella question that could allow for multiple approaches from different panelists. The one specific piece of advice I have is to more clearly articulate the link to urgency. You name the political and social leans of these groups but not the speed (urgency) aspect. Great ideas and I hope this turns our well! Feel free to reach out to me if you want to talk through some further ideas.