[On October
1st, 1890, Congress established California’s Yosemite National Park. So this
week I’ve AmericanStudied Yosemite and four other amazing National Parks,
leading up to this special weekend post on their counterparts, National
Historical Parks.]
On one
particularly impressive thing each at three of America’s many wonderful National
Historical Parks.
1)
Appomattox
Court House: I’ve visited Appomattox with my sons on each of our last few Virginia
trips, and each time I was struck by the same thing: the incredibly
impressive short informational film at the visitors center. That might be a
strange thing to highlight at a site surrounded by such history, but at the
same time the informational film is a key part of any historic site visit and
experience. And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better one than Appomattox’s: in
just a few minutes it manages to feature not only the specific military and
diplomatic contexts of the Civil War’s closing moments, but also broader
histories of the build-up to the war, the war overall, and (most importantly
and impressively) the aftermaths of peace and abolition for African Americans
and the nation as a whole. If you’re ever in the Lynchburg, Virginia area, I recommend
Appomattox Court House National Historical Park for that wonderful film alone
(and a lot more, but the film by itself is enough to get you there)!
2)
Lowell:
I’ve been to the Lowell Mills National Historical Park a handful of times, each
of the last two with my sons’ respective 5th grade class field
trips. That has given me a unique appreciation for how the site teaches its histories
and stories to elementary school kids, and I have nothing but great things to
say about those educators and their tours and programs. But on those two
visits, just as on my prior ones, I was most struck by one particular exhibit: Mill Girls
& Immigrants, an exhibit that makes perfect use of one of the mill’s early
19th century boardinghouses. There’s a lot of great stuff in that
exhibit, but it features perhaps my favorite single museum space: a recreated
boardinghouse bedroom where, at the press of a button, the voices of a group of
mill workers (quoting from actual letters and journals) emerge from different
corners of the bedroom, overlapping and fading and reemerging in a combination
of individual identities and communal experience. I can’t possibly do it justice,
so if you’re ever in Lowell, be sure to visit the second floor of that Mill
Girls & Immigrants exhibit and see and hear it for yourself!
3)
Minute
Man: My sons’ other big 5th grade field trips were to Concord’s
Minute Man National Historical Park, but I didn’t get to tag along on those. I’ve
been to Minute Man a few times, however, and have each time been particularly
struck by one core element of the park. While the park features a visitors
center and a number of individual sites, its main attraction is the long
winding path on which visitors can follow the trail of the colonial Minute Men and the British Redcoats
on that historic April 1775 day. While the highway is visible from certain
spots along the path, from many others it’s not; and overall the path, the
surrounding historic buildings, and even I believe the woods and other natural
landmarks have largely been preserved as they were in 1775. The effect reflects
the best kind of immersive experience that these National Historical Parks can
create, a sense that we have truly entered into a historic world and are
experiencing a partial but powerful version of that place and time.
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other National Historic Parks or National Parks you’d highlight?
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