First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory (review)

Abstract

Book Reviews61 Style. Several ofNew England's Chapel Style FMHs have cornerpilasters attached to a frieze, providing a regional distinctive touch. Gothic versions of the type date to the 1895-1910 era, and a single example of the Akron Plan was constructed at Oak Grove, Maine. Twentieth century FMHs (1920-2000) display little architectural cohesion. Since the book's publication, people have forwarded additional information to Silas, fueling the possibility of a second edition. Silas has also been in contact with other historians ofQuaker architecture. As a result, an expanded version would undoubtedly use the emerging typology rather than using terms from residential architecture (Georgian, Cape). Whether or not a new version materializes, New England Quaker Meetinghouses is an excellent resource for Friends historians, genealogists, architectural historians, and libraries. Seth B. HinshawDowningtown, Pa. First City: Philadelphia and the Forging ofHistorical Memory. By Gary B. Nash. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. 383 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. Cloth $34.95. When Independence National Historical Park recently revealed its plans to build a new home for the Liberty Bell on the site of the slave quarters built by George Washington, Gary Nash led the charge of historians and community leaders who forced the Park Service to review and rework the interpretation of the site in order to recognize and remember Washington's slaves. Anything less, according to Nash, would be "murdering historical memory." Nash lives on the "cutting edge" of the field. He was among the first historians to challenge the old guard and their monochromatic approach to history, with its emphasis on great white Protestant males, by emphasizing the contributions oflittle-known people: African Americans, Native Americans , women, and other minority groups. His grass-roots approach, which once made him an outsider among the ivory tower establishment, has, today, made his work popular with those museum educators, public historians, and scholars who want to redefine the field in ways that go far beyond the dry, vocabulary-controlled interpretations of academics to a more engaging and inclusive approach. First City: Philadelphia and the Forging ofHistorical Memory is Nash's most recent gift to public history. Nash makes a compelling argument that Philadelphians, beginning in 62Quaker History the late eighteenth century, actively "participated in transmitting historical memory from one generation to another." Some were members of elite cultural institutions, such as historical societies and museums. Others belonged to relatively anonymous groups, such as women, blacks, and laborers. Regardless of their social and/or economic background, they engaged in memory-making in ways that "carried our their own ideological , cultural, and politically-informed agendas." (Page 8). Nash proves his case by exploring key eras in Philadelphia's eighteenth - and nineteenth-century past—early colonization, the American Revolution, early Republic, antebellum reform, Civil War, and Reconstruction —synthesizing a broad body ofsecondary literature, including his own scholarship. Just as insightful is Nash's familiarity with and interpretation of the artifact and manuscript collections of such institutions as the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, the Pennsylvania Academy ofthe Fine Arts, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Perhaps the finest illustration ofdifferences in the construction ofPhiladelphia 's historical memory are the contrasting approaches of John Fanning Watson and George Lippard. Watson, the patrician founder of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, sought to glorify the most prominent figures of the past by collecting their personal belongings, paintings, and manuscripts. For Watson, William Penn's Bible, a gateleg table from his country estate at Pennsbury, and the wampum belt presented to the Pennsylvania proprietor by a Lenape chief at the Shackamaxon treaty gathering , became engaging portholes to view Penn's almost mythological attempt to create a utopia in the wilderness for the persecuted peoples of Europe. But Watson's approach delivered the message that "great men make history and ordinary people follow their lead." (Page 18). On the other hand, Lippard, founder of the socialist Brotherhood ofthe Union, gave such "polite history" a bad name by celebrating the radical antecendents of Industrial Philadelphia and the common man's contributions to shaping the past. (Page 216). In Washington andHis Generals; or Legends ofthe American Revolution (1847), Lippard presented the War of Independence as a poor man's war...