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A Brief report on the Mass History Conference
Worcester 7 June 2010

Though this conference was designed for Massachusetts history organizations, the theme speaks directly to writers and family historians / genealogists, so I excited. As we chatted with table mates in the Hogan Center at Holy Cross College, a sprinkling of others had come, not for work, but "for fun," as my daughter / partner in crime put it.

After an award presentation, the event opened with the keynote speech, Heads or Tales? History and the Art of Story, by Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore, historians who co-wrote Blindspot, a novel set in the 18th century. The message was essentialy that characters (and real people) can be authentically interpreted through the lens of politics of the time. What stuck with me was Ms. Lepore explaining in writing the execution of a fictional black man she had the option of expressing his thoughts, and could not make that leap.

Both talked of current efforts by the 'Tea Party' and related political groups to popularize the false notion that the nation's founders were all-knowing, all-seeing and perfect men. It was comforting to realize that professional historians, who deal with primary evidence, real people and events, - recognize fantasy-history.

Afterward, came three periods with concurrent workshops. Two of the first offerings were targeting public program creation and use of digital technologies. The third was about veterans, and I will never personally be able to reconcile the war-hero mythos with the waste of precious lives. --However, I was happy to learn of town library projects that engaged the citizens with public displays of photographs of service men and women, --and promoting the capture of oral histories from the rapidly vanishing generation of WWII. And people have amazing stories, funny, touching and real. We are poorer as a society when we let them slip away. --I was impressed by a sheet of guidelines from the Veterans Education Project[PO Box 416, Amherset, MA 01004; vep@crocker.com] for conducting interviews.

After lunch (which was a nice buffet with plenty of veggie stuff) I opted for the session, National Events through the Local Lens, which I thought would be on the general concept. However, there were presentations on just two events, the Civil War and the Gold Rush. Both presenters showed how they brought these happenings home in the quiet way of researchers and librarians. One of the subjects of museum archivist, Cliff McCarthy, jumped out the audience in spite of the speaker's low-key demeanor. This individual left the Connecticut Valley for California, endured a disastrous journey, agitated for worker's rights, got put in jail, elected to office, preached abolitionism, founded a business... and I've forgotten many details. The entire room laughed in astonishment of the scope and sheer gusto this 19th Century man poured into one lifetime.

I regretted I was unable to make the concurrent session, Every Picture Tells a Story: Identifying, Dating, and Interpreting Family Photographs. We sat and chatted with the presenter, Maureen Taylor, in the morning, -and I failed to recognized her, though I've read her work. My daughter did go to her program, but because of busy schedules, I haven't found out what she learned.

The last session was Every House Has a Story and featured the only presenter who really had life and energy, Stefani Koorey (theater background) who fell in love with the architectural heritage of Fall River, and created a website with resources for school kids to use to discover the history of the house they live in. In discussion, several participants brought up problems with the approach and reasons it would not work for everyone. There were some valid issues to be sure, but it almost seemed as if some in the audience were disgruntled by her enthusiasm. [It was my intent to share a link to her site(s), but none of the URLs are working.]