<oldManRant>
I can’t exactly remember but about twenty-five years ago or so I went to Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC. If you’re any kind of a history buff, then you’ll know that it’s most famous as the site of Lincoln’s assassination.
It was a pretty dingy place. There wasn’t a lot of external markings. I don’t even remember if it cost money to enter. If it did, I’m sure that it was a modest amount.
There wasn’t much to it. You were pretty much on your own. There was a small collection of artifacts in the basement. I seem to remember one of Lincoln’s stovepipe hats and, I don’t know, maybe Booth’s derringer. It was all presented simply. There’d be an artifact and an explanation on a 3×5 card.
You pretty much had free run of the theater. You could go down into the seating area and look up at the Presidential box. In the quiet, you could imagine John Wilkes Booth climb to the rail of the box and jump, catching his spurs on the American flag (still present) on the way down and breaking his leg. Although you couldn’t actually go into the Presidential box, you could walk right up to it. IIRC, there were a set of footprints drawn on the floor. You could literally stand where Booth stood when he fired the fatal shot.
Although, it was a relatively low key presentation, I found it quite moving, almost unnerving. I could almost feel the ghosts of that night still lingering. It was one of my favorite experiences during that trip to DC.
About five years ago, I made it back to Washington DC. Still harboring those fond memories, I decided to revisit Ford’s Theatre. Suffice to say that it was much changed.
It was apparent that it had undergone a multi-million dollar renovation. It’s front had been completely refurbished. You couldn’t just walk in. There were so many people that a reservation was required.
Once inside, the museum was completely redone. It was full of colorful placards full of information about Lincoln, Booth, and the assassination. Some of the exhibits were interactive.
The theater was open to the public as well. Unlike last time, most of it was cordoned off. I couldn’t get close to the stage. I couldn’t get close to the Presidential box.
Needless to say, I didn’t feel the presence of any ghosts. I understand that a museum’s first purpose is to educate. The Ford Theatre is now shooting for a more general breadth of tourists, so it had to make the presentations more accessible to people (ie children) that are not history geeks like me.
Still, when I left, I was kind of bummed and will probably never go back.
</oldManRant>
Why did I write this? Well, I recently went to the Museum of the American Revolution in downtown Philadelphia. I’ve never been before. This should have been right up my alley. I’ve been to Independence Hall several times and have enjoyed it each time.
Opened in 2017, it is clearly using the same modern museum presentation approach that Ford Theatre did. Once again, there are colorful placards telling a pretty simple story of the American Revolution. There are wax figures in various vignettes. There are a number of historically relevant items such as canteens, swords, and guns.
Since it is fairly new, it does do a good job of including diverse voices. You hear the point of view of women and the enslaved, for whom the phrase ‘all men are created equal’ clearly does not apply. I had never heard of the Phillipsburg Proclamation. Over eighty years before the Emancipation Proclamation, the British General Henry Clinton announced, as a wartime measure, the freeing of all slaves in the American colonies. Many of the enslaved made the rational decision to join the British to win their freedom, while at the same time American revolutionaries, supposedly fighting for their liberty and freedom from tyranny, fought in part so that they could continue to own slaves.
The centerpiece of the museum was Washington’s tent. Yes, this was the tent that Washington lived in during the Revolutionary War. That’s pretty cool. However, to see it, you had to endure a fifteen minute presentation on the American Revolution in a theater. At the conclusion, the curtains would raise and you could see the tent. You had to stay in your seat and it was on stage behind glass. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s just a tent, and you can’t even get within twenty feet of it. It was somewhat anti-climactic.
So, all in all, the museum was kind of a meh. With the exception of the Phillipsburg Proclamation, I don’t know if I learned anything new. Most of the artifacts just aren’t that unique enough to inspire some deeper communion with history. I probably wasn’t the target demographic.
Some of the problem might have been with the war itself. Technically the war took place roughly between 1775 through 1783. The fact is that not a lot actually happened during that time. It can be summed up pretty quickly as:
- April 1775: The first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord.
- June 1775: At Bunker Hill, the British win but learn that the Americans can stand and fight.
- 1776: British take New York. Washington barely escapes with remnants of his army.
- Dec 1776: Washington sneaks up and attacks Hessians at Trenton. This gives the Americans a boost at their lowest moment.
- Oct 1777: British surrender an army at Saratoga.
- Oct 1781: British surrender an army at Yorktown.
- Sep 1783: Treaty of Paris is signed.
That’s not really a lot of action during an eight year war. Sure, there are things like the Battle of Cowpens and Nathan Hale’s execution after a very unsuccessful career as a spy, but that’s all pretty small potatoes.
What was most important to the revolutionary cause was that Washington and his army endured. They just needed to outlast the British and they did. Perhaps that just doesn’t make a very compelling museum exhibition.
dorkenstein 