I have been reading with interest this conversation regarding "race" and
the historical record. My thoughts concerning the issue have already been
represented by others, but I have one more point to raise:
what if the cataloguer is wrong?
I agree that for research purposes and for collection purposes, to note
ethnic/cultural categories can be useful. For historical photographs,
however, these categories can be difficult to ascertain.
In the example of Slavic immigrants at the turn of the century, the same
person could have a multitude of "identities"--as anyone who has tried to
trace geneologies knows. Let's take a person raised in a Carpatho-Rusyn
(a Slavic group) village located in present-day Slovakia, but at the time
of immigration was a part of the Austria-Hungary empire. Their
documentation may list their ethnicity as Austria-Hungarian, Rusyn,
Slovak, or Russian. What if "Russian" is inadvertantly (and somewhat
inaccurately) listed in the museum's catalogue for this individual? How
does this help future researchers of, say, Carpatho-Rusyn immigration?
Obviously there are many complicated issues at hand here, and I do not
offer a perfect solution for my own example. I would like to see a
catalogue description that is as specific as possible, for the ease of the
researcher and for the sake of accuracy.
I caution strongly the museum worker who must make the decision of which
identity to list, however, lest uninformed choices be made!
This could also apply to the Chinese v Chinese-American example: with only
a photograph and scant data concerning it, how can one accurately
ascertain the culture being portrayed?
-Anne Nagrant
Intern, Smithsonian Institution
Student, University of Michigan
On Thu, 20 Jun 2002, Lucy Sperlin wrote (excerpt):
> If we work from the premise that the whole reason for cataloguing is to
> provide future researchers or exhibitors the ability to retrieve
> collection items that are useful, we have an obligation to include this
> kind of information. It helps us celebrate and appreciate diversity in a
> more and more homogenized world. It is my impression that communities
> that have large ethnic populations, and are dealing well with that
> diversity (San Jose, where anglos are now a minority, is a good example
> ) have learned to work together as one for a healthy community, and as
> part of that to actively celebrate and share with one another the
> heritage of their diverse groups. To do that, it's important to know
> what resources are held in the museum.
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
|
