Personal History and Family Heritage through Song

Many peoples' earliest connections with the past come from hearing the stories told by parents and grandparents. The history that they start with is in many ways far more heritage than history. There is usually a sense of family connection or pride that accompanies these stories. Just as in the song "Something to be Proud of," many parents and grandparents use stories about their pasts and the past in general to help explain how their children and grandchildren should live their lives.

Something to Be Proud of  by Montgomery Gentry Lyrics

There's a story that my daddy tells religiously

Like clockwork every time he sees an opening

In a conversation about the way things used to be

Well I'd just roll my eyes and make a bee-line for the door

But I'd always wind up starry-eyed, cross-legged on the floor

Hanging on to every word

Man, the things I heard

It was harder times and longer days

Five miles to school, uphill both ways

We were cane switch raised, and dirt floor poor

'Course that was back before the war

Yeah, your uncle and I made quite a pair

Flying F-15's through hostile air

He went down but they missed me by a hair

He'd always stop right there and say...

That's something to be proud of

That's a life you can hang your hat on

That's a chin held high as the tears fall down

A gut sucked in, a chest stuck out

Like a small town flag a-flyin'

Or a newborn baby cryin'

In the arms of the woman that you love

That's something to be proud of

 

These early experiences often lead people to a deep connection with their heritages, but those who experienced past events have even stronger attachments to the past. To these individuals, these events and stories are far more than historical occurrences, they are the stories that make up their lives.

A song that truly reflects this is called "In Color" by Jamie Johnson. In the song, a grandfather is trying to explain to his grandson different events in his life through a few black and white photographs. He is frustrated because of all that the pictures leave out from the stories. There is a really powerful line in the song where he says "That's the story of my life/ right here in black and white."

In Color by Jamey Johnson Lyrics

I said, Grandpa what’s this picture here
It’s all black and white and ain’t real clear
Is that you there, he said, yeah I was eleven

Times were tough back in thirty-five

That’s me and Uncle Joe just tryin’ to survive

A cotton farm in the Great Depression

And if it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other

You should have seen it in color

This one here was taken overseas

In the middle of hell in nineteen forty-three

In the winter time you can almost see my breath

That was my tail gunner ole’ Johnny McGee

He was a high school teacher from New Orleans

And he had my back right through the day we left

And if it looks like we were scared to death

Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other

You should have seen it in color

A picture’s worth a thousand words

But you can’t see what those shades of gray keep covered

You should have seen it in color

This one is my favorite one

This is me and grandma in the summer sun

All dressed up the day we said our vows

You can’t tell it here but it was hot that June

That rose was red and her eyes were blue

And just look at that smile I was so proud

That’s the story of my life

Right there in black and white

And if it looks like we were scared to death

Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other

You should have seen it in color

A picture’s worth a thousand words

But you can’t see what those shades of gray keep covered

You should have seen it in color

You should have seen it in color

In spite of the fact that this may not be a true story, it does reflect the feelings of many people who believe that those who never experienced these events are leaving such important things out when they tell it. These events are not merely dates on a timeline, but things that happened to them; not random faces, but their beloved friends and family; not obscure places, but familiar haunts from times gone by. These people are irrevocably attached to the history that they lived through.

I can only imagine a historian getting his or her hands on the photographs discussed in the song. What would a historian write about these pictures in a book, as a slide in a lecture, or as part of a museum exhibit? History deals with being impartial, with critical inquiry, but at the same time we, as historians must never forget that when we tell history we are telling the stories of living, breathing people who have deserve our respect and acknowledgement.

History through Radio and Film

As new technologies within the world of communications evolved, historians and producers decided to take advantage of it by presenting history in a way that would appeal to the public, as discussed in Historians in Public by Ian Tyrrell. This trend of historians trying to pursue a general audience started as these new technologies were becoming available with several book series. Two of the most well known were: The Pageant of America (1925) and Chronicles of America (1918-1921), historians then tried to turn into a series of films.

Historians tried to expand their audience both through radio and through film and spanned everything from early documentaries to Hollywood classics. One of the first films with historical themes to appear on the sliver screen was Birth of a Nation, which was created in 1915. There was a great deal of controversy over this film, as it was seen as overtly racist and contained Southern bias.



Some early documentaries were made in the late 1930s by Pare Lorentz, including The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (`937).

The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936)

The River (1937)

Despite numerous attempts at reaching audiences through film, historians' strongest successes came from radio productions. One of the first national radio productions centered on history was the Cavalcade of America, which ran from the 1930s through the 1950s and had 6 million listeners nationwide. An index of episodes can be found at archive.org. Other popular radio shows include: America's Town Meeting of the Air and History behind the Headlines.

In the end, the historians of the 1930s through 1950s struggled with where the line is between public appeal and academic integrity. Today it seems that professional historians have decided to stay firmly on the side of academic integrity, while leaving Hollywood to create the films that teach the general public (often incorrectly) about history.

This situation, though sad in itself, opens up a wonderful opportunity for teachers to connect the academic-based curriculum with entertainment based films by having students write reviews of popular historically based films like The Patriot, Glory, Anne of the Thousand Days, A Man for all Seasons, Gone with the Wind, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, etc. They can asses the movies for historical accuracy in terms of events, culture, and individuals. Much the same thing can be done with historical fiction, either in print or as a film adaptation. This way students leave with information that is more interesting to them, and they serve as ambassadors between the academic and general worlds by correcting the errors that are created through entertainment-driven media.

Van Hoosen Farm

For our first assignment in the history class, we were supposed to find a local historical monument, take a picture of it, and make two lists of questions, one from a historian's perspective and the other from a visitor's perspective. The first place I thought of was Van Hoosen Farm, which is also the Rochester Hills Museum. I remembered going there back in third grade on a three-day field trip, where the students got to learn in an old one-roomed schoolhouse just up the road from the museum.



Without having any previous knowledge about the farm or the people who lived there, I felt that many basic questions would be shared by both the visitors and the historians. Questions like:
~ Who lived here?
~ When was the house built?
~ How did the owners live?
~ Why was this house saved?
~ Where these people important in the community?
~ What did the family believe about life, society, and the people around them?



Some questions that I believe would pertain more to visitors are:
~ How were the lives of the owners different from those experienced today?
~ How was the area/world different from today?
~ What did the family do for a living?
~ What did they do for fun?



Some questions that I thought historians might ponder are:
~ Why are these people remembered when so many other farming families were forgotten?
~ How were social norms and expectations different from today, and how did these play into decisions made by the family members?
~ What types of sources do we have about the family, the farm and house, the community, the time period, and the way of life these buildings represent?
~ What is being portrayed about life in the 19th and 20th century and about the owners?
~ How are the building being preserved in order to ensure that they will continue to stand to be enjoyed by future generations?

While looking over some of the information that I could find about the Van Hoosen Farm, I came across a very interesting video promoting the farm and the museum that views history through a certain lens. It's definitely worth seeing.
Rochester Hills Video Library