Dr. Virginia Yans (Deptartment of History, Rutgers
University)
"What's So Hot About Family History?
Commodity, Museology, and Public Policy"
Wednesday, November 8th, 2000, 4:00 p.m.
This paper discusses the recent popular history
of family history and genealogy from the point of view of an
historian who has been acting as a consultant to the Statue
of Liberty Ellis Island National Monument since 1983, the year
when the National Park Service initiated plans for these museums.
Professor Yans' work as an advisor continues now as the Park
Service prepares to establish a new Family History Research
Center on Ellis Island. Ellis Island and now the Family History
Research Center have proven to be of historical and mythological
importance to ethnic Americans. Visitorship at Ellis Island
has far exceeded what the museum planners anticipated. In recent
years, for example, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National
Monument has been the second most heavily visited tourist site
in the United States (after Universal Studios).
The recent popular interest in family history
and genealogy played a significant role in what amounts to a
public policy decision to create the new Family History Research
Center at a major National Park. Among American museums, the
Ellis Island site is especially interesting because the site's
subject matter as well as its visitorship and use by families
offer an untapped resource for examining families in the process
of creating and /or examining their own myths. Statistics reveal
that museum visitorship within the United States is a significant
locus for informal education; some of that education takes place
across generations and within families.
Based upon seventeen years of personal observations,
Yans' talk will illustrate how those who participate in the
process of creating a national museum also participate in the
process of creating or deconstructing myths, including myths
about families. The actors involved in the creation of a national
museum, in this most recent instance, the Family History Research
Center, are often strange bedfellows with entirely different
agendas. Geneaologists and historians consulting on the development
of the new Family History Center have different knowledge bases
and different concerns. The best genealogists often head for-profit
publishing and internet companies and can be expected to have
an interest in commodifying family history. The museum planners
and media consultants probably share a romantic vision of family
history because it "makes good television," as they say in the
media business. The interest of historian/consultants now, as
it has been in the past planning of the Ellis Island site, is
to preserve some sense of "historical reality" and, given their
typically liberal political stance, to modify family mythologies
concerning "free will," "streets paved with gold," and "rags
to riches" narratives; instead the immigration historians call
attention to historical contingency, global economic forces,
and racial or ethnic discrimination. What is known, learned,
and absorbed at a place like Ellis Island occurs on several
levels--emotional, intellectual and political. What and how
families learn in this context is worth studying.
The MARIAL Center
Emory West, 4th Floor, Room 415E
Open to the public
Refreshments will be served
< BACK to Calendar of
Events
DIRECTIONS TO THE MARIAL CENTER
Convenient and quick transportation to Emory West is available
every 10 minutes from the Campus via shuttle (Route W, which can
be found on the corner of Asbury Circle and Pierce Drive, Along
Pierce Drive, or in Front of the Administration Building). It
is a 5 minute ride. Or you can drive and park close in at Emory
West, 1256 Briarcliff Rd. Tell the receptionist at the front window
that you are here for the MARIAL Center lecture.
