Commonwealth Speakers:Preserving Our Stories and Communities
Brookville, PA, home of a successful downtown revitalization program.
Preserving Community Character: Choices and Consequences
New suburban residential and commercial development often leads to disinvestment in
older neighborhoods and central business districts. Bryan Van Sweden explores how
the practical and philosophical choices that individuals make can collectively lead to
unintended aesthetic, environmental, and social consequences, and he offers ideas for
shifting development and investment from the outlying suburbs into the core
communities.
Bryan Van Sweden, Grant Manager, Bureau for Historic Preservation, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg
Pennsylvania Family History: The Search for IdentityThe field of genealogy has changed radically in recent years. Today's unprecedented access to records ranging from family diaries to business account books to obscure court documents is giving those interested in family history a new opportunity to add substance to their knowledge of their ancestors and how they lived. James Beidler examines the methods used to find information on ancestors and explores how the process gives researchers the opportunity to find themselves too.
Projection screen required.
James M. Beidler, Genealogical Author and Columnist, Lebanon
How will Americans remember the events of September 11, 2001, in the years, decades, and centuries to come? What stories, images, memorials, and media will we use to make sense of that tragic day? Jeffrey Hyson examines the complex, often contradictory ways in which Americans have commemorated other collective traumas—from natural disasters to military battles to terrorist attacks—and considers the lessons that such precedents may offer for framing the future memory of 9/11.
Slide projector, screen, TV, and VCR required.
Jeffrey Hyson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History, Saint Joseph's
University, Philadelphia
Using unpublished slides from original photographs, Peter Seibert discusses the relationship between changing American lifestyles and changing ideas about interior decoration and architecture between 1880 and 1930. He examines, among other issues, the impact of electricity on home design, the evolution of the parlor into the living room, and the role of leisure in daily life.
Slide projector and screen required.
Peter Swift Seibert,, President, Heritage Center Museum of Lancaster County
A movement to reclaim women's history is now uncovering a rich tapestry of women's experience that enhances our understanding of the larger American experience. In this slide-illustrated presentation, Cynthia Little highlights a selection of women's history sites in the Philadelphia area which represent important themes in women's history and community preservation. She will discuss how participants can study women's history in their own communities.
Slide projector and screen required.
Cynthia J. Little, Ph.D., Public Historian, Elkins Park
According to Socrates, the unexamined life is not worth living. One way to examine and make sense of our busy lives is to keep a journal. Jeanne Walker shares sample journals as she discusses the why and how of journaling and explores how to turn journal entries into poetry, fiction, or essays. Bring your own journal, or bring your observations and life experiences and learn how to start one.
Jeanne Murray Walker, Writer, Professor of English, University of Delaware (resides in Merion, PA)
Connecting, Collecting, Conserving: An Oral History How-ToThroughout human history, the primary means of preserving and disseminating a people's important stories was by word of mouth, and the oral tradition lives on today as the most common way to share knowledge. Are you the family member who others count on to remember all the old stories? Would you like to collect stories about your organization or community? Joan Saverino invites you to learn about oral history, its uses, and how you can begin your own oral history project.
Slide projector,screen,and CD/cassette player required.
Joan Saverino, Ph.D., Educator, Historical Society of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia
The reading public is easily frightened by descriptions of libraries and archives destroying newspapers and books from their collections. But not everything can be saved, and the nation's archivists and librarians have developed sound selection and preservation methodologies to ensure that the most important records and artifacts of our past are saved. Drawing on his book, Vandals in the Stacks? A Response to Nicholson Baker's Assault on Libraries, Richard Cox describes these methodologies, comments on the nature of our documentary heritage, and considers the true challenges confronting it.
Overhead projector and screen required.
Richard J. Cox, Professor of Archival Studies, University of Pittsburgh
After September 11, 2001, there was a spontaneous outpouring of efforts to document and memorialize the horrific events of that day. Drawing on his book Flowers after the Funeral:The Implications of 9/11 in the Digital Age, Richard Cox places these efforts in their historic context and considers their meaning for libraries, archives, and museums, speculating about whether efforts to memorialize 9/11 have fundamentally transformed the traditional roles played by libraries, archives, and museums.
Overhead projector and screen required.
Richard J. Cox, Professor of Archival Studies, University of Pittsburgh
Historians and genealogists traditionally do their research using books and primary source material from archival collections, but there is another source of evidence that is often overlooked: the architecture and landscapes that offer clues to how people lived, how places developed, and how events unfolded. In this slide-illustrated presentation, which can be offered as a walking tour, Bryan Van Sweden discusses Pennsylvania architecture and design and what it reveals about Pennsylvania history.
Slide projector and screen required.
Bryan Van Sweden, Grant Manager, Bureau for Historic Preservation,
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg
Small towns across the Commonwealth and the nation are struggling more than ever to survive in competition with "big-box" retailers, catalogs, and online stores. David Taylor discusses historic preservation and its connection to successful economic development in older central business districts and focuses especially on the case of Brookville, PA (pop.4,400), whose successful historic-preservation-based downtown revitalization program was among the first in Pennsylvania.
David L. Taylor, Historic Preservation and Community Development Consultant, Brookville
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