Looking Back: Top Heritage Experiences of 2012

This past year has been filled with a variety of heritage focused experiences, archival moments, and history based exploration.  Below are some of my favourite public history moments from the past year:

• The best museum experience I had this year was hands down my visit to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. I wrote about my experience here.
• The best conference experience I attended was the National Council on Public History 2012 conference.  The dynamic nature of the conference, the variety of attendees and general history goodness won me over. 
• Similarly, the best historical tour I participated in 2012 was at the NCPH conference.  It was a walking tour of downtown Milwaukee put on by Historic Milwaukee Inc.  The weather was on the chilly side during this tour and I remember the wind being particularly harsh, but I loved learning about the built heritage, early history, and local events of Milwaukee.  The tour was well contextualized and provided a great introduction to the history of Milwaukee. 
• Best natural heritage experience of 2012 is a hard choice.  I'm torn between the drive along the beautiful North Shore of Lake Superior and seeing the Agawa Pictographs.  Both were memorable experiences and spoke volumes about the rich heritage that exists in Northern Ontario. 
• I was fortunate to celebrate Canada Day  at The Forks heritage site in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  This was probably the most memorable and most diverse celebration at a heritage site.  It was great to see a natural heritage space being used for events by the general public and to see the in progress building of the Museum of Human Rights.

Other heritage highlights of 2012 include seeing the Body Worlds Vital exhibit at Science North, drinking tasty beer in the Third District in Milwaukee, being proposed to with a piece of estate jewelery, the Truth and Reconciliation event I attended in Toronto last February, and having the time to read about aspects of archival practice, public history, and Indigenous heritage that I'm interested in.  Looking forward to many more heritage filled moments in 2013.  Providing the world doesn't end tomorrow, of course.

Canada's Churches: A Struggle of Built Heritage and Social Services

It won't be surprising to anyone to note that Christan church attendance in Canada has been declining in recent years.  The United Church of Canada, which has been seen as one of the more forward thinking and social activist churches (ordaining women ministers in the 1930s, tolerant and supportive of gay rights since the 1980s and promoting rational thought in the church since the 1990s) has had a declining membership since 1965. The once dominant Protestant churches in Canada are feeling a similar decline in membership.

In the small town of 1200 people where I live, there are five Christian churches which hold services on Sundays.  On the average non-holiday Sunday most of these churches see under 30 people in the pews.  Many congregations are struggling with financial concerns, lack of new members, and aging congregations. 

Looking at the United Churches in the North Shore region of Ontario paints a rather dismal picture.  Many of these churches are struggling to keep their doors open.  The congregations simply do not have the financial means to heat, maintain, and repair the historic buildings the churches call home.  In many cases the unwillingness to let go of these historic buildings is slowly resulting in the demise of congregations.  Ministers, secretaries, organists and other once essential staff are let go in hopes of saving money to support a building.  These decisions to discontinue with paid staff often result in further instability and additional church members leaving the church.  All for a building.

I find this instance on identifying a church with a building mind boggling.  Similar to service clubs (which are also facing declining membership), churches have long been community staples, providing community services and a sense of working for the less fortunate/the greater good.  Churches have served as gathering places and places of community spirit.

Historically, the social role of church has been just as significant as the heritage buildings the church communities have built. Many early church congregations met in community halls, private homes, and schools.  The location where these congregations gathered didn't make them any less of a church.  The congregations still worshiped and worked together to improve their community.  The Church buildings came much later, as the congregations grew in size and prosperity.  Logically, if there has been a drastic decline in size and prosperity the church building should reflect that. 

 By no means would I want a historic building to be torn down or simply abandoned.  But, I can't see the value in a handful of people holding onto a building after the worship and social components of a church have been lost.  The financial burden of a large church is huge. The winter heating costs alone can be crippling.  Desperately holding onto a building that you can't afford in the long run seems like a form of denial and simply delaying the inevitable. 

There are a number of adaptive reuse possibilities for churches.  In the small town of five active churches which I spoke about earlier.  There is a sixth church building which stopped operating as a church in the 1990s.  Since that time, the building as been a public library, town offices, and an arts center.  The building still exists and many people have entered it that never would have had it stayed a church. Church buildings in larger cities have been turned into condos, office space, fitness centers and used for a whole range of other purposes. 

People don't like change.  But, declining membership numbers and financial reports speak for themselves, ignoring them doesn't make them go away.  Many church congregations and communities need to take a serious look at their future and decide how to move forth in an increasingly secular society.


Additional Reading:
The Globe and Mail article on "The Collapse of the Liberal Church" from June 2012 is an interesting read for anyone looking to learn more about the place of liberal Christianity in Canada and the United States.

Conference Engagement: Presentations and Papers

Anyone who has attended Canadian Historical Association or Association of Canadian Archivists or any other mainstream academic conference is familiar with what more traditional conference sessions look like.  There are typically two or three presenters per session and the majority of presenters simply read a formal paper.  These papers are at times accompanied by a powerpoint presentation but many of them are simply stand alone papers.  Reading of these papers is typically followed by an extremely short question period, in which a small handful of the audience asks questions.

People reading can be engaging, but it depends on the topic, style of writing, and reading style of the presenter. Some people are dynamic and engaging while talking and don't really need additional props.  But there are also the monotone presenters, those who hardly look at the audience, and obscure topics that aren't contextualized for the audience.  Often the content of the presentation has the potential to be interesting, the format of the presentation just lacks any level of engagement.

One of the many reasons I loved the National Council on Public History (NCPH) conference last year was the dynamic, engaging nature of many of the sessions.  The formal reading of papers is fairly non existent at NCPH conferences and I found sessions which involved active audience participation to be the ones which stuck in my mind, provided stimulating thoughts for future projects, and were generally the most enjoyable.

Recently, an email was sent out to NCPH 2013 presenters that reinforced the idea of engaging presentations at the annual conference.  It was suggested to presenters:

1) not to read your presentation if you can help it, but to present as if you are teaching or interpreting at a historic site;

2) bring the audience into the program (don’t leave the audience only five minutes at the very end for questions);

3) see the session as an energetic, highly-informed start of a conversation, not simply a report on work done in the past.

I  really love the idea of presentations as conversations that involve the audience.  I also like that there is an emphasis on "presentation" not "papers."  A thoughtful carefully written academic paper is not the same thing as a well crafted interactive presentation. Many attendees of the NCPH annual conference come from outside of academia.  I'm sure that this in part is due to the spectrum of people engaged in public history, but I think it could also be attributed to the style of the conference -- those not well versed in academic conferences feel completely comfortable presenting in their own style, which might not fit into more traditional conferences.

I'm looking forward to NCPH 2013 which is being held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in April 2013.  The conference program and registration details are available online.

What makes a good conference session? Have you attended a conference that used an innovative presentation style?

Archives Music

When you think of music you probably don't instantly think of archive themed songs. Yet, there are a surprising number of lyrics that mention archives.  For your listening pleasure on this snowy Monday:

John K. Sampson's "When I Write My Master's Thesis"contains a great reference to archives: "Oh the hours I spent in the archives wearing cotton gloves, shuffling photos from the night at Sanatorium..."  The image of white gloves tends to draw to mind the idea of dusty papers and rooms filled with boxes, but it is definitely an archives reference in an alternative rock song.

There is actually a London, England based band named Archive.  They are well worth a listen, even if the only reference to archives is their name.

Though more of a library reference than an archives shout out,the Arkells song Book Club contains the amusing line "You're my library, always open for business." Additionally, many of the Arkells songs mention well known (and at times historic) Hamilton landmarks.  Some of the more well known references include the Snooty Fox, Jackson Square, Frank McCourt, and McMaster.

The "Little Boxes (In the Archives)" parody  is about as archive oriented as a song can get.  There are mentions of Hollinger boxes, grey boxes, folders, flattening, material types, reference, and genealogy.  Check out the full song:

Digital Map Making Roundup

I've recently come across a lot of great material focusing on digital map making, bottom-up cartography, and the linkage of digital maps to the physical world. A few of these great posts have been listed below:

Mapping our Learning Worlds by Lyndsay Grant on the DMLcentral blog. 

This post does an excellent job of highlight the usefulness of maps in education -- with an emphasis on what maps can teach us about the world.  The link to Jerry Brotton's A History of the World in Twelve Maps, is particularly interesting in it's focus on what maps can tell us about their creators (rather than the physical landscape).  Grant's post also dives into a discussion of digital senses of space and open source map creation. 

Spark interview with Andrew Turner focusing on bottom up and digital map making.  

This interview highlights the interactive possibilities of maps, the integration of maps into mobile devices, and the possibilities of place paced inter-connectivity and personalization.  Turner presents an interesting discussion of the authoritativeness of open source maps, contested map spaces, and potential future digital mapping developments. 

Digital maps as art: Google Street View inspires an art and architecture show

"The Skyliner's new exhibition will look at the streets and buildings and people of Greater Manchester via artistic interpretations of that modern phenomenon, Google Street View. "

Mapping Zombies, Visualizing data at the Oxford Internet Institute. 

So this last reference might not be the most scholarly map ever, but it has entertainment value.