So many museums, so little time

I’m in downtown Washington, D.C. this week as part of the annual Teaching American History project directors meeting. I can’t think of a better place for a bunch of history teachers to get together.

The problem?

The conference starts at 8:30 and ends around 5:00. These sessions are really cutting into my museum touring ability.

Yesterday I did managed to stop by the White House, the Washington Monument and spent a few hours at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Of course, a few hours at the National Museum of American History was just enough time to speed through one wing of six and spend a few minutes at the Star Spangled Banner exhibit. The cool thing is that the Smithsonian museums all have great web sites that give you and your kids the chance to find lots of cool stuff. Use the links below to digitally take a trip to Washington, D.C.:

National Museum of American History
Your gateway to innovative, standards-based online resources for teaching and learning American history. The Museum is a proud partner with Verizon Thinkfinity.

National Portrait Museum
The museum offers a number of educational resources to accompany their exhibits. These include lesson plans, study guides, teacher’s guides, and a quiz game called The Great History Mystery. You can also access short articles on historical figures such as Rosa Parks and Walt Whitman. Face-to-Face podcasts offer an in-depth look at artists, major historical figures, and events as interpreted through a particular artwork.

National Museum of the American Indian
Home to one of the largest and most diverse collections of Native art and historical and cultural objects; exhibitions are designed in collaboration with Native communities from across the hemisphere.

National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture was established in 2003 by an Act of Congress, making it the 19th Smithsonian Institution museum. It is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, art, history and culture. Construction is expected to be completed in 2015.

This is just the short list. Find links to all of Smithsonian’s goodies on the museum entry page. You can also check out their extensive museum educators page. Realize that there is also an educators page that focuses more on specific teaching resources and lesson plans.

Cowboys rule or . . . how to make wimpy easterners dance

No . . . we’re not talking about the Dallas Cowboys. Because their record over the last ten years is, what . . . like 5 and 101?

We’re talking about real cowboys.

Today’s session at the Gilder Lehrman elementary teachers summer seminar focused on Western Expansion and how America has created and accepted the myth of the cowboy.

Dr. Patty Limerick of Legacy of Conquest fame spoke early this morning about how our view of the West has shifted and changed over the years. Early historian Fredrick Jackson Turner and, later Ray Allen Billington, suggests a fairly linear view of the West. One in which white America both shaped and was shaped by the frontier.

The view has changed – in large part because of Limerick, who suggests in Conquest that the complexity (especially the economics ) of the West can not be so simply defined. She also argues that it may not even be the West. It certainly wasn’t to the Spanish in Mexico or those in Canada.

So some interesting discussions. Being downstream from Colorado along the Arkansas, I was hoping for more about the impact of water rights in the West and how that may play out as more of us move into places where there just might not be enough water.

Fritz Fischer continues to amaze!

A very energetic presentation of how and why the cowboy myth developed followed lunch. With appropriate music in the background (Silverado, Bonanza, etc), Fritz argued that the myth of the rough & tumble, kind to women, tough on sissified Easterners, cigarette smoking, cattle punching, horse riding, hard drinking cowboy has affected American society in a number of ways. Perhaps not for the best.

Politics and foreign policy were two that were discussed.

We viewed images by Remington and Russell, discussed the evolution of Teddy Roosevelt and argued about how TV and movies reinforce the myth. McCain and Obama both wear cowboy hats at the appropriate times and George W. Bush takes foreign leaders to a ranch in Texas to drive pickups. It doesn’t matter that all three have little “cowboy” background.

What matters is that the cowboy myth is still around, perhaps in a different pair of chaps and boots but still part of American culture.

The problem with that is it does a disservice to the historical record and creates an atmosphere that suggests that a person can’t be a true American unless he is a rough & tumble, kind to women, tough on sissified Easterners, cigarette smoking, cattle punching, horse riding, hard drinking kind of guy. It limits how we interact with one another and others around the world.

So . . . what to do? Not sure here. I agree with Fritz. The myth is still around. It does impact, affect and shape us. But confused as to next steps. Never watch Blazing Saddles ever again?