How history is told depends on who is telling the story. And who is telling the story changes and dependent on the culture and values of the times. I recently visited (2018) the ANMH and was appalled. I felt it was the same perspective of history I learned over 50 years ago. It is not that history needs to be rewritten, but it needs to be more inclusive. We need more storytellers.
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The article on the expanded speed camera program seems to suggest they are only going to be at public schools.
Don't our private, parochial, and charter schools deserve the same protection?
Even if Albany doesn't think so, those schools should be included because Albany wants the increased revenue generated.
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A far better title would for this article would be "Fake History at the Museum!"
One wonders why facts are deemed offensive in today's America.
The Poetry Day material puts me in the mood. We just brought tickets to see "Belle of Amherst" (about the life of Emily Dickinson) at Two River in Red Bank right after tax season.
The Poetry Day material sets the right mood. We just brought tickets to see "Belle of Amherst" (about the life of Emily Dickinson) at Two River in Red Bank right after tax season.
For Poetry Day: I found this when cleaning up a few months back, written by a person I went to school with, Jack Balkin, who I see on google seems to have gone in t o be a noted philosopher and Yale professor. Trying to recall if it was a song, because it's certainly not about Jack himself, who was brilliant, but it looks funny for Poetry day.
Neither Are You - by Jack Balkin
I may be nothing much,
But you’re nothing special yourself.
I may be out of touch,
But you’re quite a mess all yourself.
So please don’t refute me
Don't losers love losers.
You’re just what will suit me.
And beggars can’t be choosers.
My body’s not that great,
But your chassis’s due for a change
I’m not a fashion plate,
But your mother dresses you strange
So please, darling, swallow pride
And give me a love that is true
I may be nothing great,
But then again neither are you.
(PS Happy Purim!)
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Today is the world day of poetry, therefore my favorite poem.
Musee des Beaux Arts
W. H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
Regards from Buenos Aires
Pablo
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It is Gertrude Tredwell, not Gertrude Treadwell. See:
http://merchantshouse.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant%27s_House_Museum
I often send in small corrections to the NYT. Most of the time I am ignored. Presumably as they think the corrections are too small to bother to make. But they usually correct misspellings. I sent in this correction more than two hours ago. Her name is still spelled wrong as I write this.
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Thanks for doing this. I have sent in corrections also of street names, but . . .
The Merchant House Museum is a gem. It had a narrow escape last year: A new, tall hotel was going to be built next door (contrary to zoning) which would have undermined the foundations and wrecked the plasterwork.
Speaking of which: Let's stop the building of another zoning-flouting tower just behind the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It'll kill the plants, including those in the Children's Garden. You know, where little 'uns learn about vegetables.
Speaking of ruining things: They are still seriously contemplating turning the Brooklyn Heights Promenade into a 6-lane highway. (De Blasio calls it the "ripping off the bandage fast" method.) Talk about undermining foundations -- it'll kill the neighborhood the same way Robert Moses killed so many others.
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@B.
Is the Merchant's House in the clear? Their website makes it looks like the possible construction next door is still an ongoing problem.
The article did not state where Gertrude Tredwell lived, other than the street. But like you, I have been to the museum, and knowing the story of its existence, it was clear to me it was her house. To be sure, I checked...
Since retiring 10 years ago, I have visited the BBG every week, to get a couple mile walk. The zoning was put in place specifically to protect the garden. The zoning should not be changed for some greedy developer.
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Miss Tredwell died in the upstairs bedroom. It was indeed her home, and she outlived her whole family. When the house came down to her cousin, he made it a museum. Everything she and her family owned is still there.
“a group urging institutions to acknowledge how marginalized people were represented. The museum consulted with outside experts but not the protest group.”
“This Time We Know It's More Real”
Tune of “This Time I Know It's For Real” (my playlist again - still picking out the confetti from the Broadway Donna Summer musical many months later!)
Here’s what we’re gonna do
To show you we know it’s not true.
We’ll point out where this is wrong
Like these skirts - they’re just too long.
Didn’t ask folks who protest
We found experts, ‘cause they know best!
We’re pointing out the things that we now know
But didn’t know about some time ago
We’ll keep researching as we raise more dough.
But this time we know it’s more real.
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Re: the Lenape today.....What about the Lenapes in NJ? And the Ramapo and nanticoke Lenapes?
Looks as though the museum has more work to do on this matter.
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Regarding the dress exchange on the 1 train... only in New York. Just shows that those 'anonymous' announcements are by real people.
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How wonderful it is that nothing is settled; everything is subject to review.
3
PROSE & POETRY
Usually prose
Is horribly prosy
And even when lush
Verges on the lousy.
Poetry, however,
While sometimes ho-hum,
Can charm and enlighten
In a gem-like poem.
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@Leon Freilich Thank goodness for you, Leon, amid all this gloom.
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Even "ghost tours" have been infected by identity politics.
Neat.
I guess most superstitions have synergy.
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If anything, this article shows why America (and Americans) have a difficult time coming to terms with their past. Especially when it comes to the depictions of Native Americans, enslaved Africans and even the European indentured servants, who all have a part in its history.
As every New York school kid will tell you the Museum of Natural History is a great place.
And the idea of labels to "Decolonize This Place", only goes to prove it.
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Everyone should read the article on political fundraising in Albany. Fantastic journalism and a quite concerning state of affairs in our state government.
2
Theodore Roosevelt's vast progressive legacy outweighs some late 19th-century cultural biases. And even there he was way ahead of his time.
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@B.
He receives plenty of credit. Incorrect views of history should be revised.
4
"Reconsidering the scene" is a good idea. Rather then take down works of art that depict history, a plaque correcting what is historically incorrect should suffice. The famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware is an example of a scene that contains inaccuracies---but correctly memorializes the event.
The "reconsidering" notation seems like a good trade-off.
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@Billy
The labels are a good temporary solution. When curators are able to construct a historically accurate diorama they should do so. But it is responsible to inform current visitors that there are questions about the depiction.
2
"For decades, the museum has educated and entertained. But now it is acknowledging that some of its exhibits have also offended"
"Offended" is a mild term for what happened to non-European natives all over the world.
But overhauling museums and re-writing narratives will not erase what happened. It will only make early 21st century "activists" feel better, temporarily.
There will never be any moment where everyone is happy with museums. Perhaps it's time for some of these activists to open their own museum.
We are obligated to learn from the past and go forward. Obsessing over every detail of what happened centuries ago gets us nowhere.
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@Kevin O'Reilly
I never understand arguments that run: Because we can change only a small thing instead of everything instantly we should not bother to make any changes at all.
And changing inaccurate diorama is not a small thing. It's not an insignificant detail with which you can't be bothered. Five million people visit the Museum of Natural History each year. It also is kind of nice not to keep deliberately offending the people who have been misrepresented for decades.
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@Lifelong Reader
"deliberately" ?
My friend, we live in a world now in which the best intentions by reasonable and sensitive people invariably "offend" someone.
What offends you may not offend others.
I am not offended by Notre Dame using a team name of "Fighting Irish". I laugh it off. But no doubt some disgruntled folks of Irish descent are offended.
Where does this all stop?
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