As I am approaching my fourth week in the IS process, I am happy to say that I am satisfied with my progress thus far. I am planning on meeting with cultural preservationists from the Wyandot Nation this week, and I am ready to submit my proposal to create this web project as my Independent Study. I am also beginning to slowly create the structure for my website, which includes posting the blog posts you see here.
I spent this week looking at how my project fits into local history. I ran into some familiar faces as I described the development of local historical writing in New England, traced it to the publishing of Historical Collections of Ohio in the 1840s, and then investigated how local history spread across the country to encourage young professionals such as Ben Douglass to write sweeping narratives about their local communities.
While I was familiar with the history of local history pre-1920s, I then extended my work to look further into how local history developed after the beginning of the twentieth century. What I found is that the bicentennial had a similar impact on the popularization of local history as the centennial: as the U.S. celebrated its 200th birthday, people became interested once again in how their community fit into a larger story of American nation-building. However, in the 1970s, local historians and academic historians had a different relationship. In the 1870s, they largely worked together, while in the 1970s, some academic historians were attempting to repair their relationship with local and non-professional historians through the field of public history. Today, we see that public historians are pushing their community collaborators, such as local historians, to consider telling their familiar stories from different angles and including folks who are not usually included.
This is where my work fits in. From my work in local history in Wayne County, I know that there is a movement to include underrepresented voices, such as Indigenous voices, in our local history. My project represents a local example of this larger movement to make local history more collaborative and inclusive, which puts it in stark contrast to the writings of Douglass. That isn’t to say that my work will, or even could, replace that of Douglass. Rather, I want to add my work to the canon of local history in the Wayne County area and present researchers, educators, and citizens with an alternative narrative that is in direct conversation with Douglass’s, and that incorporates modern conventions of inclusive public history, digital history, and Indigenous studies.
The photo at the top of the page is from one of Douglass’s later works, about the history of the legal practice in Wayne County. Published in 1900, it was one of the last works that Douglass got to see published before he died in 1909. I found this photo at the end of writing my junior IS, after struggling to find any photos of Douglass in online archives. I like this photo so much because it has so much life to it. Douglass looks off into the distance, into a source of light. There’s a slight furrow in his brow, and, despite the age of the photo, you can see the thought behind his eyes.
Looking at this photo, it’s easy to imagine that this man would have the passion and discipline to write about the history of his birthplace. Over the last year, I have developed a complicated relationship with the man in this photo. As a historian, I understand how laborious writing history is, and Douglass’s volume is longer than any work that I have attempted to write, including my IS.
However, coming from the place and context in which I am situated, I also disagree with many of Douglass’s narrative choices, on a scholarly and personal level. This man did the Wayne County community a service by preserving their early history in the area, but also did the Indigenous communities of this land a massive disservice by leaning into stereotypes, blame, minimization, and glorifications of the violence mounted against them. As not only a scholar, but a person who resides in Wayne County for most of the year, it’s hard not to have personal investment in the local history of this area. What I think Douglass and I share is an appreciation for how the local shapes broader attitudes and narratives. However, I want to posit myself as the Wayne County historian who uses the local to promote understanding and remembrance, rather than division and forgetfulness.