This weeks readings concern various topics, from gentrification to the end of history museums.

The Mirabal reading on gentrification is a fairly standard polemic against the process. Gentrification is the latest form of urban renewal—just with more private investment than in periods past. Basically a neighborhood is targeted because of its proximity to workplaces and becomes “upclassed”. The reason for the inclusion of this article in the Public Historian is that Mirabal achieves her work through an oral history project of the people that are being forced out—mostly Latino. It is heartening to see that San Francisco has begun to push back, to try and manage its development in a way that keeps its existing communities intact, but still allow for some improvement.

The other major article for this week is an interesting study of the losing appeal of history museums. Admissions revenue—never a large part of most museums’ budgets, but still significant—is continuing to fall, as people find other things to do besides visit museums. Carson either does not, or can not, pinpoint the reason for this drop-off to occur, but nationwide statistics show that it is—mostly at older “destination museums”. As people make the “staycation” popular, museums that required travel are often the first to suffer. Those that connect with the person on an individual level are the ones that do the best. One example of a museum that is still booming is the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, dedicated to no special family (nobody famous ever lived there) but to the local community that many Americans arrived through in the late 1800’s- early 1900’s. Other museums that are doing well are ones that connect much with recent history, such as the International Spy Museum and the Newseum in D.C. It should also be noted that these are all private museums (and in the case of the latter two, quite expensive). As I’ve previously learned most people connect with history that is directly related to them, and museums that do that seem to have the best attendance rates are those that can elaborate on these connections—either through family history, or the people involved actually living through the times of parts of the museum.

That being said, his idea to revitalize older museums deserved some true interest. Although I doubt it would ever attract the following that could come close to what he suggests the idea of a television show based around historic sites has much merit. But instead of his ideas of regionality, I would propose one that is thematic, a soap opera, or even a long running children’s show based on the time period that the theme of the museums describes. PBS missed this opportunity several years ago with a show they did called “Liberty’s Kids” (the episodes are available on youtube). They had several elements that would make them successful bringing the kids in with a theme song by Aaron Carter, and also bringing the parents to the show by using Walter Cronkite to voiceover a “sage” Dr. Benjamin Franklin. It covers several areas that are involved in the Revolutionary War, but does not foster enough connection with the sites it discusses to try and forge a connection between the children who watch the show, and the sites that are showcased (too many in this show are fictional). However the weaving of the historical stories of several towns (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and others) could serve as a model for a true program of Carson’s design.

The article “Auctioning the Old West to Help a City in the East” is an interesting tidbit about how city budgets affect what could be a popular museum. The mayor of Harrisburg apparently decided to be a wildcat curator and acquire—without city council permission—over 7 million dollars of artifacts for a museum of the Old West—a period that does prove popular. The problem is that with this 7 million dollars in artifacts was no endowment, and no building. Harrisburg had all this stuff in storage, and had a budget shortfall. The council ordered the objects auctioned off to close the budget shortfall. The response to the auction has shown that if the proper channels were followed, the museum would probably have done well. The popularity of the auctions was high; showing that there is a demand for such a museum. I wonder what would have occurred if this museum had come to fruition, instead of being auctioned off, piece by piece.