{"id":14,"date":"2022-09-25T21:30:34","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T01:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/claremccabe\/?p=14"},"modified":"2023-01-22T14:10:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T19:10:36","slug":"the-battles-of-germantown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/claremccabe\/2022\/09\/25\/the-battles-of-germantown\/","title":{"rendered":"The Battles of Germantown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Battles of Germantown<\/em> portrays an industry which, if it refuses to adapt, will die. The situation is dire for those who wish to continue to operate house museums or other historic sites, and the fate of sites like Upsala show that they ignore the community which surrounds them at their peril. For too long, Young shows us, Germantown\u2019s Historical Society focused on 1777 at the expense of the rich tapestry of black Philadelphian history that surrounded them. Young\u2019s book provides something of a roadmap, then, for improving the connection to the neighborhood with collaborative programming, broad educational or recreational initiatives, and a willingness to step outside the site\u2019s strict time parameters to emphasize the sort of history community members value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is possible to balance scholarly history with community collaboration. Cliveden and the Johnson House demonstrate that sites can adapt their history to new and exciting scholarship, especially on the history of slavery. Such places need not be mausoleums to the past- they can be fun for tourists, students, and local people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This summer I had the opportunity to bring students to Historic Fairhill<\/a>, a Quaker burial ground in North Philadelphia which is operated under the Historic Germantown umbrella. The students, mostly high school (but a few early undergraduates) were participating in a program<\/a> designed to get young people of color interested in and engaged with the museum industry. Fairhill is where notable abolitionists Robert Purvis, Harriet Forten Purvis, and Lucretia Mott are buried. While there, we had the chance to see how Fairhill, and Historic Germantown more generally, make an effort to broaden their services and work with community members to preserve more than colonial or nineteenth century history. Fairhill operates a robust community garden (on the day we visited there was a neighborhood block party going on within the grounds) and Beverly Brown, the site\u2019s education director, took us on a tour of local murals which showcased Fairhill\u2019s twentieth century history, which saw neighbors unite to clean up Fairhill\u2019s burial ground and open it to the public. It was the student\u2019s favorite trip of the summer, and Fairhill demonstrates that historic sites can make themselves relevant while still grounding themselves in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One facet of the book I really enjoyed was Young\u2019s presence throughout. He has worked with and for the Germantown community for years, and he is a frequent participant and director of the projects discussed in the book. I found it valuable to hear from someone working in the field, specifically as a museum professional, rather than someone coming from inside the academy. While Germantown and its historic homes are a perfect example of the ways historians and museum professionals can alienate a community, I did still appreciate the non-academic perspective. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary, The Battles of Germantown<\/em> proves a useful roadmap for us, as we embark on a history project in a place like Temple, where too often community history has been ignored in favor of whichever narrative Temple University would like to dominate. It may be useful to think on this book as we continue in our quest to discover what on earth a food truck is. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Battles of Germantown portrays an industry which, if it refuses to adapt, will die. The situation is dire for those who wish to continue…<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingThe Battles of Germantown<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":33611,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-managing-history","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/claremccabe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/claremccabe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/claremccabe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/claremccabe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33611"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/claremccabe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/claremccabe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/claremccabe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/claremccabe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/claremccabe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}