What Makes Historic Property Worth Museumizing?

A friend with an inside track told me this was coming. It's hit the Virginia Gazette now, so the word must be out and about. If you don't care to click away, here's the full text of the May 1 editorial, "Leasing History."

"Negotiations between Colonial Williamsburg and Preservation Virginia over operating Historic Jamestowne pose a new twist on interpreting local history.

"The historical society, formerly known as APVA, has motivation for surrendering control over Jamestown.

"Who’s paying whom? Either Preservation Virginia is hiring Colonial Williamsburg to carry on its work at Jamestown, or the foundation will pay Preservation Virginia for access to the visitors. Bet on the latter, although neither organization is flush with cash these days.

"Colonial Williamsburg — There’s opportunity to expand the reach to hundreds of thousands of people who learned about Jamestown’s role during the 400th. The strategy is to lure them to go tour the Historic Area.

"Colonial Williamsburg will have to resolve an intellectual conflict. When Carter’s Grove was abandoned, one rationalization was that neither the 19th century mansion nor the 17th century Martin’s Hundred site was part of Colonial Williamsburg’s 18th century core mission. So, too, Jamestown.

"What’s different here is that interpreters can point to Williamsburg as the next capital and attempt to tie in other angles around democracy.

"Preservation Virginia — Multiple sources have indicated that Preservation Virginia is financially strapped, and the funding it has poured into Historic Jamestowne has come at the expense of the nearly two dozen sites elsewhere.

"As one person bluntly put it, “the fun is over, the glory is fading and the [statewide] chapters need attention that has for so long been devoted to Jamestown.”

"Interest in Historic Jamestowne has diminished since 2007, with no help from the motion picture “The New World,” which flopped. Only attention to the dig at the purported 1607 well has sustained interest.

"That, too, is fading. Much hype was given to a skeleton believed to be that of Bartholomew Gosnold, but attempts to positively identify the bones have failed. Now a piece of slate with etchings is the next great treasure. How much more can the well or the fort produce? And how much longer will chief archaeologist Bill Kelso keep digging?

"The National Park Service was a logical steward to take over Historic Jamestowne, but the government spent millions on upgrades before 2007 and earlier invested in the 225th of the Siege at Yorktown. It’s doubtful Colonial National Historical Park will get little more than maintenance money from Congress for some time.

"Jamestown Settlement next door made more sense, but competitive factors precluded that. Besides, the place is run by the state, which can hardly close a $4 billion budget gap.

"Colonial Williamsburg can be a fine custodian of Historic Jamestowne. Chief historian Jim Horn has a keen interest in Jamestown, having written two books on pre-18th century history in America.

"Lately Colonial Williamsburg has widened its interpretive scope. 19th century programming has been added as the 150th anniversary of the Civil War approaches next year. It just so happens that Jamestown Island still holds the remains of a Civil War fort.

"It’s a gamble for Colonial Williamsburg to take on Historic Jamestowne, but the right approach can make history more palatable to visitors who are confused by two Jamestowns and two Yorktowns."

In my humble opinion, the Virginia Gazette editorial is right on several points, especially those about Colonial Williamsburg getting access to visitor information (contact information that is, for soliciting donations, and secondarily for luring them to the Historic Area, me thinks), that no one is flush with cash and both museums sorely need it, and that James Horn likes the seventeenth-century. I don't know James Horn personally but people tell me he's hard to get along with and he gets what he wants. All I know is that I find his books hard to read. Not because of the information, but because of the writing style.

As a lover of Carter's Grove, I also agree with the Virginia Gazette's point about Colonial Williamsburg's intellectual conflict. The Carter's Grove land held so much interpretive possibility from stories and exhibits about pre-historic people to the mansion's personification of the colonial revival movement in Virginia. The plantation tells the story of European occupation, tobacco and agriculture, slave trade and local African-American roots. It also tells the story of nineteenth-century agrarian life in rural James City County. Carter's Grove was sold because Colonial Williamsburg really, really needed the money, although the official line was that it strayed from the museum's focus on America's pre-Revolution years.

No, the Carter's Grove story in absolutely the American story, but it's pretty challenging to tell and sometimes painful to hear. Jamestown is a lot simpler to tell, I suppose, but the 400th Anniversary pop-fizzle proves that it's just not THAT interesting.

Too bad there's not enough money to tell both stories and tie them together. It's the story of the American Dream: Englishmen wishing to get in on the European get-rich-quick game of extracting resources and wealth from the newly discovered Americas plant a colony in a swamp but manage to survive anyway. Jamestown settlers give their lives so that a century and a half later, folks like the Burwells can become filthy rich and build Carter's Grove.

I guess no one wants to come to a museum to hear an interpretation about excess and greed. We what to live the American Dream, but we don't want to think about it because ... it's too hard. What do we do with this information once we understand?