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Rebirth: Creating the Museum of the Reconstruction Era and the Future of the House Museum: Notes

Rebirth: Creating the Museum of the Reconstruction Era and the Future of the House Museum
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table of contents
  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. List of Illustrations
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Introduction
  9. Part I. Bait and Switch?
    1. Chapter 1: Building Shrines: Women Gatekeepers and Making the President Southern
      1. The Woodrow Wilson Family Home’s Origins as Presidential Shrine
      2. The Virginians
      3. The Mausoleum and President Woodrow Wilson House
      4. A New Shrine for the Twenty-First Century
      5. Joseph Wilson’s Career and Making a Southern Family
    2. Chapter 2: The Rebirth: Making the Museum of the Reconstruction Era
      1. A Brief Synopsis of the Tour
      2. Walking in the Footsteps of the President
      3. Objecting to Objects
      4. Death of the Docent?
    3. Chapter 3: Docent Training: Unlearning the Lost Cause and Reconstruction Memory
      1. Designing the Training
      2. Docent Response to Training
      3. Evaluating the Docents
      4. “You Cannot Please Everybody”: Rejecting the Interpretation
      5. Who Makes the Best Docent?
  10. Part II. Interpreting Silences, Violence, and Memories
    1. Chapter 4: Aren’t I a Citizen? Interpreting the Lives of Black Women and Domestic Workers in Historic House Museums
      1. The Problem of White Privilege: Language and Cultural Sensitivity Training
      2. A Labor of Love and Sorrow: Interpreting the Lives of Domestic Workers
    2. Chapter 5: Interpreting Domestic Terror: Reconstruction’s Violent End in the Twenty-First Century
      1. A Brief History of White Supremacy and Its Paramilitary Forces
      2. Women, Public History, and White Supremacy
      3. Challenging White Supremacy through Material Culture: The Red Shirt and Tissue Ballot
    3. Chapter 6: Interpreting the Craft: Doing Reconstruction History
      1. A Difficult Transition: From Political Terrorism to a White Supremacist Narrative of Reconstruction
    4. Chapter 7: (Re)Writing History with Lightning: Interpreting Memory and White Supremacy
      1. Rewriting History with Lightning: Crafting the Legacy of Woodrow Wilson and Reconstruction
      2. Birth of a Problem
      3. Reliving the Past and Nationalizing Columbia’s Reconstruction History
      4. Rebirth of a Problem
      5. Racism in Degrees: Interpreting Wilson and White Supremacy
      6. But What about Gone with the Wind? Conclusions and the Act of Letting Go
  11. Conclusion. The Public’s Response to the MoRE
  12. Notes
  13. Bibliography
  14. Index

Page 237 →Notes

Introduction

  1. 1. Amanda Seim, Sydney Yates, and Deanna Berryman, three graduate assistants assigned to me from 2017 until 2023 at Duquesne University, performed a Google and research database deep dive to locate new literature or information on pre-2014 Reconstruction museums to confirm my original findings.
  2. 2. National Park Service, “Discover the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network.” The page appears to be maintained by the American Association for State and Local History, because the MoRE received its 2015 Award of Merit. American Association for State and Local History, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home.”
  3. 3. Burns, From Storefront to Monument, 10; Dagbovie, “Black Public History,” in Radical Roots, 538.
  4. 4. C. S. Coleman, “African American Museums,” 151–56; Burns, From Storefront to Monument, 7–8; Dagbovie, “Black Public History,” 529.
  5. 5. Ruffins, “Building Homes for Black History,” 14–15.
  6. 6. Ruffins, “Building Homes for Black History,” 14–16, 18–21, 23, 26, 29, 33; Burns, From Storefront to Monument, 3–4, 8, 10; Dagbovie, “Black Public History,” 525, 534–35; Hayward and Larouche, “Emergence of the Field,” 165.
  7. 7. By the 1960s, Black expositions and fairs that created a public space to present knowledge about the Black community and its legacy no longer provided the racial uplift they once did for early twentieth-century race activists like W. E. B. Du Bois and Carter Woodson. During this time museums were established in Boston and DC’s Anacostia neighborhood. Margaret Burroughs and Charles Wright founded the Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art in Chicago (now the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center) and the International Afro-American Museum in Detroit (now the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History). An institution committed to the global fight for freedom and equality, the International Afro-American Museum created the Mobile Museum, a mobile trailer, inspired by African art and history, that hailed earlier Black expositions claiming a temporary public space. M. O. Wilson, Negro Building, 244–45, 252–54, 258, 261–63, 274–80, 295, 304, 311; Burns, From Storefront to Monument, 5–6, 9, 11, 13; Ruffins, “Building Homes for Black History,” 25, 38; Hayward and Larouche, “Emergence of the Field,” 164; Dagbovie, “Black Public History,” 533.
  8. 8. For example, the African American Museum of Philadelphia opened in 1976 as a direct response to American bicentennial celebrations, though it was plagued by controversy. The International Afro-American Museum formed the Association of African American Museums in 1978. Black museums were heavily dependent on volunteers and operated with limited hours. While they lacked professional training, these public historians demonstrated best practices, drafting institutional missions, housing exhibits, though often temporary, and providing educational programming. Nonetheless these institutions struggled to Page 238 →conduct research and properly manage collections, largely supplied by neighbors or donated by cultural institutions. Wilson, Negro Building, 302; Burns, From Storefront to Monument, 3–4, 11–13; Ruffins, “Building Homes for Black History,” 14, 25–26, 28–29, 31, 33–34, 39–40.
  9. 9. Wilson, Negro Building, 304, 306–7; Burns, From Storefront to Monument, 7, 10, 12; Ruffins, “Building Homes for Black History,” 26, 40–41; Dagbovie, “Black Public History,” 532–33.
  10. 10. C. S. Coleman, “African American Museums,” 151–56; Upton, What Can and Can’t Be Said, 2, 4, 18, 21–24.
  11. 11. In the 1960s Wright and the International Afro-American Museum forcefully opposed an early version because of distrust of the government and usurping Black museum work. Anacostia director John Kinard continued the fight in the 1980s. Until 1991 the Smithsonian did not want to separate Black history, and Margaret Burroughs fought any Smithsonian control at all. Fath Ruffins, a historian at Smithsonian, argues that Jesse Helms blocked the bill for a national Black museum because it openly disputed the Lost Cause. Wilson, Negro Building, 254, 283–84, 288–89, 297, 302, 306–9; Burns, From Storefront to Monument, 13–14.
  12. 12. In 1988 the estimated number of local Black museums was over 200. That year the African American Museums Association surveyed 52 Black museums, mostly located in cities across 23 states and Canada. In 2003 the National Museum of African American History and Culture Plan for Action Presidential Commission sent 237 surveys to Black museums in 37 states and Canada. Thirty percent responded. Hayward and Larouche identified 221 museums in 2018. Wilson, Negro Building, 307; Hayward and Larouche, “Emergence of the Field,” 164–65, 167; Burns, From Storefront to Monument, 9–10.
  13. 13. Like the MoRE, the North Carolina History Center added Reconstruction to its name by the time it broke ground in 2018. In November 2022 it added Emancipation. National Constitution Center, “Civil War and Reconstruction”; NC History Center on the Civil War, “Community Foundation Announces $500,000 Grant Investment”; NC Civil War Center, “Groundbreaking Ceremony Speeches”; Healy, “November 2022 Year End Update.”
  14. 14. National Park Service, “Guided Tours,” Andrew Johnson National Historic Site Tennessee, http://www.nps.gov; National Park Service, “History and Culture,” Andrew Johnson National Historic Site Tennessee, http://www.nps.gov; National Park Service, “Go to Kansas,” Nicodemus National Historic Site Kansas, http://www.nps.gov; National Park Service, “The Five Historic Buildings,” http://www.nps.gov; Sites of Cold War; Sites in Beaufort; McLoughlin house; or, Boundary of Glen; and River Watershed on S. 452 S. 500 S. 601 S. 621 S. 630 H.R. 519 H.R. 733 H.R. 788, Before the, 26 (2003), statement on behalf of the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, and the National Coalition for History, ProQuest Congressional.
  15. 15. Of early interest was a George Washington Carver memorial to ease racial tension and draw more southern Democrats into the New Deal coalition. Though the NPS first rejected incorporation in favor of a future (yet unplanned) site at Tuskegee, Booker T. Washington’s birthplace became part of the NPS system in 1957. Likewise the NPS rejected Frederick Douglass’s home because his role as abolitionist was not of “outstanding national significance.” It would finally join the NPS in 1962. West, Domesticating History, xii, 50, 129–30, 136–39, 143, 145, 153–57; National Park Service, “Cedar Hill,” https://www.nps.gov.
  16. 16. Page 239 →C. S. Coleman, “African American Museums,” 151–56.
  17. 17. Jennifer Schuessler, “Taking Another Look at the Reconstruction Era,” New York Times, August 24, 2015; Gregory P. Downs and Kate Masur, “The Perfect Spot for a Reckoning with Reconstruction,” Washington Post, October 7, 2016; Emma Dumain, “Just Under the Wire, Obama Establishes National Monument to Reconstruction Era in Beaufort County,” Post and Courier, January 12, 2017; Taylor and Miller, “Reconstructing Memory”; Downs and Masur, “Era of Reconstruction.”
  18. 18. In 1988 Fish Haul Archaeological Site, now Mitchelville, joined the National Register of Historic Places. The local effort to preserve and commemorate Mitchelville began in 2005. In 2010 the Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park was formed. See the “About Us” and “Mitchelville Today” pages at Explore Mitchelville.
  19. 19. SC Department of Archives and History, “South Carolina’s Reconstruction.”
  20. 20. South Carolina ETV, “40 Acres and a Mule”; “Seat at the Table.” The first full length and definitive study of the Port Royal Experiment in Beaufort County is Rose’s book. Willie Lee Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment (New York: Vintage Books, 1964).
  21. 21. South Carolina State Museum, “Fourth Floor Galleries”; Tom Mack, “Reevaluating History: Reconstruction Gets a More Nuanced Treatment in State Museum Exhibit,” Free Times, May 23, 2018; South Carolina State Museum, “South Carolina and Reconstruction.”
  22. 22. Falk, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience, 50–51, 73, 80; Simon, Participatory Museum, ii; Davidson and Sibley, “Audiences at the ‘New’ Museum,” 177.
  23. 23. Strategies vary from the architectural style, setting, and signage outside to interior variables such as color schemes, lighting, and the comfort of the space. Atmospherics also consider the exhibition design, including décor, case displays, images, interpretive signage, and object and interactive labels. Spaces of commercial consumption like ticketing and food, crowding, and interactions with staff and visitors are also factors. Forrest, “Museum Atmospherics,” 202–3, 205–6.
  24. 24. Falk, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience, 64; Stylianou-Lambert, “Reconceptualizing Museum Audiences,” 135; Dawson and Jensen, “Towards a Contextual Turn,” 128–29, 131, 136–37.
  25. 25. Coxall, “Open Minds,” 139–40; Falk, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience, 29, 64; Dawson and Jensen, “Towards a Contextual Turn,” 128–29, 131–34, 136–38, 159; Stylianou-Lambert, “Re-conceptualizing Museum Audiences,” 134–35; Davidson and Sibley, “Audiences at the ‘New’ Museum,” 178.
  26. 26. C. S. Coleman, “African American Museums,” 157; Bennett, Birth of the Museum, 10–11.
  27. 27. From a Foucauldian perspective of knowledge and regulation, public museums should have audiences that match the diversity in these institutions’ collecting, conservation, and exhibit practices. This diversity, though, is meant to promote social betterment through hegemonic messages rather than inclusion for inclusivity’s sake. Bennett, Birth of the Museum, 7, 8–9.
  28. 28. Bleick, “Volunteer in Art Education”; Jones, “Volunteer-Guides and Classroom Teachers,” 32, 35–35. In an interview with ten art museum docents, interpreters revealed they joined the museum to contribute to their community, become involved with museum programs and other like-minded docents, and expand their mental capabilities.
  29. 29. Page 240 →Pattison and Dierking, “Staff-Mediated Learning in Museums,” 118.
  30. 30. Tamura, “Ethnic Museums in Hawai’i,” 69–71, 73; Johnson et al., Museum Educator’s Manual, 2–3, 16, 20.
  31. 31. Interpretively, the site is positioned to discuss early but short-lived Reconstruction land partition that temporarily divided the McLeod plantation into forty-acre plots for freedmen before returning ownership to the family in 1870. The site also expanded its time frame to 1851–1990 and took a thematic approach, distinguishing it from other plantations nearby, such as Middleton Place, Drayton Hall, Magnolia Plantation, and Boone Hall. Halifax, “McLeod Planation Historic Site,” 256–57, 260–61, 264–65, 269, 276.
  32. 32. As of 2018 Shawn Halifax offered a workshop titled “Ethical Interpretation of Slavery and Its Legacy” to fill the training gap. It stresses interpreter identity, presenting corrective narratives and recognizing emotional and cognitive disruption for learners, and responds to “dissonance” respectfully while offering emotional protection for the docent. Halifax, “McLeod Planation Historic Site,” 266–68, 270.
  33. 33. Designers titled the exhibit An Invisible Life. Crane, “Memory, Distortion, and History,” 50–51.
  34. 34. The new script incorporated Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory that stressed critical thinking through music, physical activity, speaking, and both interpersonal and intrapersonal practices. Rutherford and Shay, “Peopling the Age of Elegance,” 32–33, 35–36, 40, 42, 45–46.
  35. 35. Pyatt, Rosser, and Powell, “Undergraduates as Science Museum Docents,” 16.
  36. 36. Conn, Do Museums Still Need Objects? Conn’s book claims we are in a second golden age of museum building and museum studies that is not object centered. Rutherford and Shay, “Peopling the Age of Elegance,” 32–33, 35–36, 40, 42, 45–46; Crane, “Memory, Distortion, and History,” 50–51.
  37. 37. For more, see Olsen, “Are Guided Tours at Historic Houses Dead?”; Graham, “Great Historic House”; Lopez, “Open House”; Lee, “‘Anarchist’s’ Plan”; Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums.
  38. 38. A far from exhaustive list includes Hale, Woodrow Wilson; R. S. Baker, Youth; Link, Road to the White House; Link, Wilson Vol. I-VI; Link, Wilson the Diplomatist; Link, Revolution, War, and Peace; Clements, World Statesman; Clements, Presidency of Woodrow; Knock, To End All Wars; Cooper, Breaking the Heart; Cooper, Biography.
  39. 39. Jennifer Scott, former vice-director and director of research at the Weeksville Center, argued that the question was not whether there were too many HHMs “but rather, are they useful?” For Lisa Lopez, HHMs are more like “mausoleums … petrified and lifeless” in their guided presentations of daily routines, “the domiciliary equivalent of sticking a pin through an insect and calling it an exhibition.” J. Scott, “Reimagining,” 74, 88; Lopez, “Open House,” 10–11.
  40. 40. Lopez, “Open House,” 10; Pharaon et al., “Safe Containers,” 62–63, 71; J. Scott, “Reimagining Freedom,” 75, 77; West, Domesticating History, xii, 47–48, 95.
  41. 41. Scott, “Reimagining Freedom,” 73-75, 77–78.
  42. 42. Gunter interview.
  43. 43. Scott, “Reimagining Freedom,” 82.
  44. 44. Pharaon et al., “Safe Containers,” 62–64.
  45. 45. Page 241 →Bennett, Birth of the Museum, 1–7, 10, 19, 25, 28, 33, 48, 55, 59, 61. Bennett traces the origins of the modern museum primarily through a Foucauldian lens of the heterotopia. The Birth of a Nation was part of the culture produced for this larger bourgeois public sphere and was designed to civilize the masses by modeling and performing white middle-class values. Stylianou-Lambert, “Re-conceptualizing Museum Audiences,” 131, 133; Simon, Participatory Museum, ii.
  46. 46. Vivian assesses seventy-six estates in the Lowcountry. Vivian, New Plantation World, 1–3, 8–10, 13, 16–17, 20, 22, 28, 207, 209, 249, 278; McPherson, Reconstructing Dixie, 40.
  47. 47. McPherson, Reconstructing Dixie, 42–44, quote 43.
  48. 48. Halifax, “McLeod Planation Historic Site,” 253.
  49. 49. In 1999 retired trial attorney John Cummings purchased Whitney Plantation for $8.5 million. The new interpretation is partly based on work of Ibrahima Seck, a member of the history department of Chikh Anta Diop University (also known as the University of Dakar) in Senegal, who now serves as Whitney’s head of research. Commander, “Plantation Counternarratives,” 34; Golanska, “Against the ‘Moonlight and Magnolia’ Myth,” 142, 144–45, 150; Harnay, “Slavery and Plantation Tourism in Louisiana,” 1–3, 7, 10, 12–13; J. Rose, “Collective Memories.”
  50. 50. Golanska, “Against the ‘Moonlight and Magnolia’ Myth,” 140, 146–47.
  51. 51. Harnay, “Slavery and Plantation Tourism in Louisiana,” 10; Commander, “Plantation Counternarratives,” 35–36, 40–41.
  52. 52. Like any site, Whitney Plantation has flaws. It relies greatly on the rich but highly problematic WPA interviews, rendering them as more authentic than they may be. The intense sculpture memorials can be potentially triggering, and Children of Whitney could be construed as playing into the trope of the infantile slave. In addition the counternarrative, though desperately needed in an unbalanced plantation tourism market, is too niche and erases the radical act of living spiritually, building communities, and creating Black joy. Commander, “Plantation Counternarratives,” 29, 35–38, 40–42; Golanska, “Against the ‘Moonlight and Magnolia’ Myth,” 137, 146–47, 150–52, 155; Berry and Gross, Black Women’s History, 75.
  53. 53. B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 6, 11–12, 87, 89, 108–9, 145, 147, 158–60, 162; Brundage, “Introduction,” 3–4, 6, 8.
  54. 54. Bennett, Birth of the Museum, 8, 47, 55; Stylianou-Lambert, “Re-conceptualizing Museum Audiences,” 135–36; Dawson and Jensen, “Towards a Contextual Turn,” 128.
  55. 55. The Sons of Confederate Veterans successfully blocked the theme study by convincing the original bill’s sponsor, SCV member Rep. Joe Wilson, to kill it by not moving it forward. See Taylor and Miller, “Reconstructing Memory.”
  56. 56. Jason Horowitz, Shaila Dewan, and Frances Robles, “Dylann Roof, Suspect in Charleston Shooting, Flew the Flags of White Power,” New York Times, June 18, 2015.
  57. 57. “Gov. Nikki Haley Calls for Removal of Confederate Flag from State House Grounds,” WIS-TV, June 22, 2015.
  58. 58. In response to this “desecration” of the site, McLeod leadership offered additional support and training for interpreters to discuss their feelings and racist comments or questions from visitors. The creation of a shared journal allowed for one-on-one coaching following an encounter. The training expanded to provide layers of protection via mandatory active shooter training, two-way Page 242 →radio silent alarms, and education on white terrorist groups’ symbols. Halifax, “McLeod Planation Historic Site,” 268–70; Frances Robles, “Dylann Roof Photos and a Manifesto Are Posted on Website,” New York Times, June 20, 2015; “FBI: Dylann Roof Displaying Racist Symbols Even During His Trial,” Chicago Tribune, January 6, 2017; Cynthia Roldán and John Monk, “Roof Gets Death Penalty after Telling Jury ‘I Still Feel That I Had to Do It,’” The State, January 10, 2017.
  59. 59. Jess Bidgood et al., “Confederate Monuments Are Coming Down Across the United States. Here’s a List,” New York Times, August 28, 2017; Jay Reeves, “Report: 110 Confederate Monuments Removed in US Since 2015,” AP News, June 4, 2018; K. L. Cox, No Common Ground, 3–5, 151, 157, 159–60, 172.
  60. 60. “James Alex Fields, Driver in Deadly Car Attack at Charlottesville Rally, Sentenced to Life in Prison,” NBC News, June 28, 2019; “The People, Groups and Symbols at Charlottesville,” Southern Poverty Law Center, August 15, 2017, https://www.splcenter.org/.
  61. 61. Launched following George Zimmerman’s lethal assault on seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2013, Black Lives Matter became a mainstream social movement in the summer of 2020. Brakkton Booker et al., “Violence Erupts As Outrage Over George Floyd’s Death Spills Into A New Week,” NPR, June 1, 2020; Nicole Dungca et al., “A Dozen High-Profile Fatal Encounters that Have Galvanized Protests Nationwide,” Washington Post, June 8, 2020; Jason Silverstein, “The Global Impact of George Floyd: How Black Lives Matter Protests Shaped Movements Around the World,” CBS News, June 4, 2021; Dylan Lovan and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, “Jury Selection Starts in Lone Trial Over Breonna Taylor Raid,” AP News, January 28, 2022; Liz Baker, “A Jury Finds Ahmaud Arbery’s 3 Killers Guilty of Federal Hate Crimes,” NPR, February 22, 2022; Cox, No Common Ground, 6, 158–59, 169.
  62. 62. Cox, No Common Ground, 6–7, 164, 169–71.
  63. 63. Jan Wolfe, “Democracy Under Siege: An Hour-by-Hour Look at the Assault on the U.S. Capitol,” Reuters, January 4, 2022; Jacques Billeaud, “Jan. 6 Rioter Who Carried Spear, Wore Horns, Draws 41 Months,” AP News, November 17, 2021; Dorany Pineda, “‘The Turner Diaries’ Didn’t Just Inspire the Capitol Attack. It Warns Us What Might Be Next,” Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2021.
  64. 64. Democratic candidate Wade Hampton led incumbent governor Daniel Chamberlain by 1,134 votes, though in two counties Hampton received more votes than registered voters. With the governor’s race thrown into the State Assembly, the state supreme court certified those county’s Democratic legislative representatives, while the Republican-controlled state election commission certified their party’s candidates. After Chamberlain convinced the local federal military to station two companies at the State House and honor the election commission’s ruling, a mob materialized. The Republicans remained in the State House, and the Democrats left to form their own official state government. Both Chamberlain and Hampton took the oath of office, and both houses operated for four months, though only the Democrats had tax revenue, produced by their supporters. Edgar, South Carolina, 404–6.
  65. 65. Coxall, “Open Minds,” 139.
  66. 66. King, “Taking What Action?,” 6; Hein, “Assuming Responsibility,” 5–6; Luke, “Museum,” 22–24.
  67. 67. Page 243 →Benfield et al., “‘Honest Visionary,’” 56–57, 70.
  68. 68. Falk, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience, 35; Jensen, Dawson, and Falk, “Dialogue and Synthesis,” 160.
  69. 69. Bennett, Birth of the Museum, 1, 6, 61; Stylianou-Lambert, “Re-conceptualizing Museum Audiences,” 131, 133, 136–38, 140–41; Simon, Participatory Museum, iii; Hein, “Assuming Responsibility,” 4.
  70. 70. Bennett, Birth of the Museum, 8, 47, 55; Stylianou-Lambert, “Re-conceptualizing Museum Audiences,” 135–36; Dawson and Jensen, “Towards a Contextual Turn,” 128.
  71. 71. Shopes, “Legal and Ethical Issues,” 127–28, 132; Ritchie, Doing Oral History, 75–76, 126–27.
  72. 72. Department of History, “Public History.”
  73. 73. Tyson, Wages of History, 3, 6, 8–9.
  74. 74. Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility,” 45, 47, 54, 60.
  75. 75. Vagnone and Ryan wrote The Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums in 2015 to answer the HHM debate via “equal parts manifesto, guidebook, and laboratory of ideas.” The authors lay out five critiques of house museums: (1) they reflect political and social propaganda, often telling partial truths to their communities; (2) they have nothing relevant to contribute to conversations; (3) they are boring; (4) they have been narrowly curated and do not reflect real-life use; (5) they are too expensive to preserve and engage in deceptive conservation practices. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 11, 16, 40–41, 142.
  76. 76. Docent Doe interview, February 17, 2016.

Chapter 1: Building Shrines

  1. 1. John Randolph Bolling to Mrs. E. Henry Cappelmann, February 14, 1930, Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home, 14 April 1930–24 April 1932, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina (hereafter cited as SCL); John Randolph Bolling to Mrs. E. Henry Cappelman, January 8, 1929, Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home, Records, 8 January 1929–31 January 1929, SCL.
  2. 2. American Legion Auxiliary, “History”; Lewis, “Curation of American Patriotism,” 79, 82.
  3. 3. Brundage, Southern Past, 13–20, 24–25, 41, 48–49.
  4. 4. An example of commemoration not centered on the Civil War is the Nashville Ladies’ Hermitage Association, which preserved Andrew Jackson’s home. Some of the organizations modified their mission and focus following changes brought by modernity and suffrage. The DAR, for example, transformed into a nationalist organization that loudly protested radicalism and communism and purged members that supported social reforms once acceptable to the organization. Brundage, Southern Past, 13–18, 20, 23–24, 29, 36–37, 41, 48–51, 53.
  5. 5. George Washington’s legacy drove the early HHM movement. By the end of the Reconstruction era, three of the first five HHMs were George Washington sites. The first was Hasbrouck House, his headquarters in Newburgh, which opened on Independence Day in 1850. The State of New York continues to own and operate the site. In 1860 Ann Pamela Cunningham and her Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association preserved the most significant site, Mount Vernon. The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the caning of Charles Sumner by South Carolinian Preston Page 244 →Brooks fueled sectional tension. Edward Everett raised a quarter of the Mount Vernon purchase price by giving 137 speeches titled “The Character of Washington.” During the fundraising campaign, he contextualized the movement as an example of the moderation needed to avoid civil war. Similarly Anna Morris Holstein founded the Centennial and Memorial Association of Valley Forge to purchase and restore Washington’s headquarters there in 1878. In 1893 Valley Forge became Pennsylvania’s first state park, though the National Park Service administers the site today. Egner, “Ann Pamela Cunningham”; West, Domesticating History, xi, 6–11, 13–14, 16, 18–28, 29, 37; New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, “Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site”; National Park Service, “Washington’s Headquarters”; “Famous Army Nurse Dead,” Allentown Leader, January 2, 1901; Pennsylvania Conservation Heritage Project, “Anna Morris Holstein.”
  6. 6. A group of New York lawyers and businessmen turned “museum men” formed the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation and purchased the home in 1923. The organization was highly visible at the 1924 Democratic Convention, and members were divided over their support for Wilson’s segregationist son-in-law, William Gibbs McAdoo; Al Smith; and foundation charter member John W. Davis, who received the nomination. Grantham, “Southern Historiography,” 267; West, Domesticating History, 99–105, 107–9, 112–13; K. L. Cox, Dreaming of Dixie, 1–2, 131–32.
  7. 7. New Deal projects preserved and promoted places critical to US history or of national significance. The National Park Service more than doubled the size of the areas it administered, the Civilization Conservation Corps improved sites, and WPA state guidebooks highlighted important locations to visit and preserve. L. V. Coleman, Historic House Museums, 18; West, Domesticating History, 4, 43, 130; Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 15–16; Bodnar, Remaking America, 41, 249.
  8. 8. There is a historiographical gap on the legion and its auxiliary, according to Lewis’s 2023 essay. Lewis, “Curation of American Patriotism,” 79–82, 84, 87–90, 92, 94–96, 98, 101–4.
  9. 9. L. V. Coleman, Historic House Museums, 17.
  10. 10. Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 14–15.
  11. 11. Pustz, 19; “Slavery,”; “Plantation and Slavery,” Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello; Whitney Plantation, “Tours of Whitney Plantation Museum”; “Guided Tours,” Tenement Museum; C. S. Coleman, “African American Museums,” 155.
  12. 12. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 45.
  13. 13. Ashley Halsey, “Trust to Be Accepted at July Meeting,” April 24, 1932, Woodrow Wilson Memorial 14 MPs, 1929-1969, SCL, USC.
  14. 14. Reese, “Agreement between J. M. VanMetre and American Legion and American Legion Auxiliary,” Columbia, SC, 25 August 1928, Records, 25 August 1928–4 December 1928 and c. 1928, Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina (hereafter cited as WWBH); quote from Mary R. Forbes to American Legion Auxiliary Unit Presidents, “To the Units of the American Legion Auxiliary, Department of South Carolina,” January 17, 1929, Records, 8 Jan. 1929–31 Jan. 1929, WWBH.
  15. 15. American Legion Auxiliary Richland Post No. 6, “Resolution,” Columbia, SC, 28 September 1928, Records, 25 Aug. 1928–4 Dec. 1928 and c. 1928, WWBH; Page 245 →“Woodrow Wilson Home Bed-Room” 1956, 13 backside, Records, 1952–29 December 1956 and 1956, WWBH.
  16. 16. American Legion Columbia Post no. 6, “Resolution,” Columbia, SC, October 4, 1928, Records, 25 Aug. 1928–4 Dec. 1928 and c. 1928, WWBH; M. S. Whaley, “Auditorium Trustees Meeting Announcement,” Columbia, SC, October 6, 1928, Records, 25 Aug. 1928–4 Dec. 1928 and ca. 1928, WWBH.
  17. 17. For the first comprehensive book on the women’s club movement, see Scott, Natural Allies. The definitive work on the Daughters of the Confederacy and their role in preserving Confederate culture and the Lost Cause is K. L. Cox, Dixie’s Daughters; see chap. 6, “Frances’s Sex,” for a synthesis of the Black women’s club movement and the importance of the National Association of Colored Women. Berry and Gross, Black Women’s History.
  18. 18. These sites were the Joseph Manigault House, Market Hall, Miles Brewton House, Old Exchange, Old Powder Magazine, Thomas Heyward House, and Wilson House. L. V. Coleman, Historic House Museums, 152.
  19. 19. The Chester, Rock Hill, Sumter, Darlington, Greenville, Charleston, and Spartanburg ALA chapters sent resolutions. “Full Text of Resolutions Adopted by 95 Various Organizations in South Carolina as to the Proposal That the Woodrow Wilson Home in Columbia Be Preserved,” October 1928, 1–22, Woodrow Wilson Memorial MS vol. bd., 1928, SCL; “Similar Resolutions Have Been Passed by the Following Organizations since the Preceding Ones Were Made Up,” 1928, Woodrow Wilson Memorial 2 MSS, 1928 and 16 Jan. 1929, SCL; O. A. Alexander to Mrs. Henry Cappelmann, November 7, 1928, Records, 25 Aug. 1928–4 Dec. 1928 and c. 1928, WWBH; American Legion Darlington Post No. 13, “Be It Resolved by the Executive Committee, Darlington Post No. 13, American Legion,” November 7, 1928, Records, 25 Aug. 1928–4 Dec. 1928 and ca. 1928, WWBH.
  20. 20. Marie Jones served as chair of the Wilson home from 1941 until 1943. Her husband was Curran Jones. Eunice Leonard served as president of the Shandon Parent Teacher Association and first vice president of the Central Parent Teacher Council of Columbia. Jessie Mercer served as secretary for the latter and as president of the Shandon Mother’s Club, another supporter. The Council of Farm Women were in Richland and Marlboro Counties. “Full Text of Resolutions Adopted by 95,” 2–22; “Similar Resolutions,” 1; Whaley, “Auditorium Trustees Meeting Announcement”; “Woodrow Wilson Home Bed-Room,”, Records, 1952–29 December 1956 and 1956, WWBH, 13 backside; Mrs. Percy Crown, Mrs. W. F. Fiertick, and Mrs. Theron Woodward, “Be It Resolved That We, the Members of the Afternoon Music Club” (Columbia, SC, October 5, 1928), Records, 25 Aug. 1928–4 Dec. 1928 and c. 1928, WWBH.
  21. 21. War-related supporters included five ALA units, the American Legion’s Sumter post, and two DAR chapters. While seven groups showed sympathy for the auditorium committee’s goals, they hoped the committee would move the location of the auditorium to save the home. Five groups noted the historical value of the house, but two in particular stressed the importance of monuments and memorialization. Both the Mary Ann Buie chapter of the UDC and the Apollo Music Club of Johnston specifically feared a “land without history.” Four groups, including one chapter of the DAR, UDC, and American Legion each, mentioned the benefit for future generations. Recognition of Wilson as a southerner and Page 246 →southern Democrat motivated three resolutions, while two others conveyed that the site was key to supporting Americanism. “Full Text of Resolutions Adopted by 95,” 2, 4–6, 8–9, 11–12, 14–22.
  22. 22. Courson, Jackson, and Hembree, “Senate Education Oversight Subcommittee Summary Report,” 2.
  23. 23. Forbes to American Legion Auxiliary Unit Presidents, “To the Units of the American Legion Auxiliary, Department of South Carolina”; “Summary of Provisions of the Act to Preserve the Woodrow Wilson Home in Columbia as a Memorial and Shrine,” January 17, 1929, Records, 8 Jan. 1929–31 Jan. 1929, WWBH; “S. 52 A Bill to Provide for the Purchase of the Premises and Buildings Thereon Situate at the Corner of Hampton and Henderson Streets in the City of Columbia, South Carolina, Being the Boyhood Home of the Late President Woodrow Wilson,” January 16, 1929, 1–2, Records, 8 Jan. 1929–31 Jan. 1929, WWBH; “A Bill to Provide for the Purchase of the Premises and Buildings Thereon Situate at the Corner of Hampton and Henderson Streets in the City of Columbia, South Carolina, Being the Boyhood Home of the Late President Woodrow Wilson,” draft, January 16, 1929, 2–3, Records, 8 Jan. 1929–31 Jan. 1929, WWBH.
  24. 24. The State Department commander, George Levy, himself “happily sent” fifteen telegrams to senators upon request of Cappelmann’s husband. “S. 52 A Bill,” 1; “Help Save the Woodrow Wilson Home,” March 1929, Records, 14 Mar. 1929–13 Apr. 1929, WWBH; Halsey, “Trust to Be Accepted at July Meeting”; “Legion Men and Women at Woodrow Wilson Home,” Columbia (SC) Record, March 8, 1929, Records, 4 Feb. 1929–13 Mar. 1929, WWBH; Eutalie Salley to James H. Hammond, February 12, 1929, Records, 4 Feb. 1929–13 Mar. 1929, WWBH; F. C. Robinson to George D. Levy, February 27, 1929, Records, 4 Feb. 1929–13 Mar. 1929, WWBH; George D. Levy to Mrs. E. Henry Cappelmann, February 28, 1929, Records, 4 Feb. 1929–13 Mar. 1929, WWBH.
  25. 25. “Minutes of the Woodrow Wilson Home Purchase Fund Committee, 6 March-11 May,” 1929, 1–18, Records, 4 Feb. 1929–13 Mar. 1929, WWBH.
  26. 26. Fitz Hugh McMaster, R. K. Wise, and Henry Johnson served as chairman, vice chairman, and treasurer, respectively. “Minutes of the Woodrow Wilson Home,” 1–2; “The Executive Committee” (1929), 2, Records, 14 Apr. 1930–24 Apr. 1932, WWBH.
  27. 27. The Colonial Dames president was Nathalie Fitzsimmons. The League of Women Voters president was Caroline Swaffield. “Minutes of the Woodrow Wilson Home,” 6; “Executive Committee,” 1; Woodrow Wilson Memorial, April 1929, Records, 16 Apr. 1929–28 June 1929, WWBH.
  28. 28. Hall, Sisters and Rebels, 39–41, 43, 55, 102, 106–7, 118–19, 148, 179–80, 447, 449.
  29. 29. “Minutes of the Woodrow Wilson Home,” 2, 5, 14. Lumpkin also donated to the house a handmade crochet spread and dozens of china plates and cups for teas. “Woodrow Wilson Home Bed-Room,” 4, 11, 13.
  30. 30. Delegates met Cathcart’s suggestion by hiring a field agent for the Lions Club with the last name Ormsby, but R. E. McCaslan became the state organizer. “Minutes of the Woodrow Wilson Home,” 6–7, 9–10; “Executive Committee,” 2 backside.
  31. 31. Founding WWPF member W. P. Blackwell headed up the men’s team. “Executive Committee,” 2; “Minutes of the Woodrow Wilson Home,” 2, 11.
  32. 32. More than three hundred women filled the streets armed with thousands of colored tags labeled “Woodrow Wilson Memorial.” Anyone who contributed to Page 247 →the fundraiser received a tag. “Minutes of the Woodrow Wilson Home,” 8–9; Halsey, “Trust to Be Accepted at July Meeting”; “Observe Tag Day on Wednesday,” American Legion Auxiliary Scrapbook, 1925–1929, n.d., 126, Jennie Clarkson Dreher Papers, SCL.
  33. 33. Three days after Tag Day, the treasurer reported that $16,915.43 sat in the WWPF account with a prospect of $2,000 more from the city and county. Woodrow Wilson Memorial, April 1929; Unknown to Sir, “Fundraising Letter,” April 1929, Records, 16 Apr. 1929–28 June 1929, WWBH.
  34. 34. “Executive Committee,” 2; “Minutes of the Woodrow Wilson Home,” 7, 14–15; Mrs. Henry Cappelmann, Wilson Home Committee Meeting Notes, May 11, 1929, 1, Records, 16 Apr. 1929–28 June 1929, WWBH; Mrs. Henry Cappelmann, A Garden Party and Sale of Plants from Historic Gardens, program, Edgefield, SC, May 17, 1929, 1–4, Records, 16 Apr. 1929–28 June 1929, WWBH.
  35. 35. “Minutes of the Woodrow Wilson Home,” 8–9; Halsey, “Trust to Be Accepted at July Meeting.”
  36. 36. “Woodrow Wilson Bed Acquired for Memorial; Put in Room War President Occupied Here,” Columbia (SC) State, April 14, 1930, 14 Apr. 1930–24 April 1932, WWBH; “Minutes of the Woodrow Wilson Home,” 17; “Woodrow Wilson Home Bed-Room,” 1, 4; Cappelmann, Wilson Home Committee Meeting Notes, 2.
  37. 37. “Whereas It Is a Recognized Fact,” July 24, 1930, Records, 14 Apr. 1930–24 Apr. 1932, WWBH.
  38. 38. Stanley Llewellyn to Mrs. E. Henry Cappelmann, March 13, 1931, 14 Apr. 1930–24 Apr. 1932, WWBH; “Auxiliary Proposes to Preserve Wilson Home,” March 1932, Records, 14 Apr. 1930–24 Apr. 1932, WWBH; “Legion to Take Charge of Wilson’s Early Home Here,” April 24, 1932, Records, 14 Apr. 1930–24 Apr. 1932, WWBH; Halsey, “Trust to Be Accepted at July Meeting”; “Woodrow Wilson Home Bed-Room,” 15.
  39. 39. Charter Members Honored by Garden Club, newspaper photograph, 1961, Records of the Crape Myrtle Garden Club (Columbia, SC), box 2, 3Ps, 25th and 30th Anniversary, SCL; “Crape Myrtle Garden Club Year Book, 1937–1938” (Columbia, SC), 1–2, 6, 8, Records of the Crape Myrtle Garden Club (Columbia, SC), box 2, Yearbook, 1937–1949, SCL; “Crape Myrtle Garden Club Year Book, 1938–1939” (Columbia, SC), 3, 7–8, Records of the Crape Myrtle Garden Club (Columbia, SC), box 2, Yearbook, 1937–1949, SCL; “Crape Myrtle Garden Club Year Book, 1939–1940” (Columbia, SC), 3; Rose E. Dye, April 1939 Minutes (Columbia, SC, April 12, 1939), 57, Records of the Crape Myrtle Garden Club (Columbia, SC), Records (1936–2001), box 1, SCL; Ester Matheson, November 1939 Minutes (Columbia, SC), November 1939, 62–64, Records of the Crape Myrtle Garden Club (Columbia, SC), Records (1936–2001), box 1, SCL.
  40. 40. Centennial invitations went out to officials across the state, leaders of patriotic organizations, and, of course, all legion and auxiliary members who helped save the home thirty years earlier. “Woodrow Wilson Home Bed-Room,” 5 front, 14–15 backsides; Whereas the Am. Leg. Aux. of S.C. Is Deeply Concerned about the Preservation & Care of the Boyhood Home in Columbia of Our World War I President Woodrow Wilson, statement (1965), Records, 28 Sept. 1961–16 Nov. 1969 and n.d., WWBH.
  41. 41. Ruth Cappelmann, “Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home,” n.d., 1–2, Records, 28 Sept. 1961–16 Nov. 1969 and n.d., WWBH.
  42. 42. Page 248 →J. A. Cathcart to Mrs. E. Henry Cappelmann, January 26, 1929, Records, 8 Jan. 1929–31 Jan. 1929, WWBH; John Randolph Bolling to Mrs. E. Henry Cappelmann, January 31, 1929, Records, 8 Jan. 1929–31 Jan. 1929, WWBH; Mrs. Henry Cappelmann to Ray Stannard Baker, February 12, 1929, Records, 4 Feb. 1929–13 Mar. 1929, WWBH.
  43. 43. Ray Stannard Baker to Mrs. Henry Cappelmann, February 13, 1929, Records, 4 Feb. 1929–13 Mar. 1929, WWBH.
  44. 44. Giorgio Bertellini, The Divo and the Duce: Promoting Film Stardom and Political Leadership in 1920s America (Oakland: University of California Press, 2019), 35, https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-divo-and-the-duce/paper.
  45. 45. H. F. Drugan to Col. Fitz Hugh McMaster, January 19, 1929, Records, 8 Jan. 1929–31 Jan. 1929, WWBH; H. F. Drugan to Mrs. Henry Cappelmann, March 16, 1929, Records, 14 Mar. 1929–13 Apr. 1929, WWBH; John Randolph Bolling to Mrs. E. Henry Cappelmann, March 19, 1929, Records, 14 Mar. 1929–13 Apr. 1929, WWBH; H. F. Drugan to Mrs. Henry Cappelmann, March 30, 1929, Records, 14 Mar. 1929–13 Apr. 1929, WWBH; H. F. Drugan to Hon. Richard I. Manning, April 3, 1929, Records, 14 Mar. 1929–13 Apr. 1929, WWBH; H. F. Drugan to Col. Fitz Hugh McMaster, April 9, 1929, 1–2, Records, 14 Mar. 1929–13 Apr. 1929, WWBH; H. F. Drugan to Mrs. Henry Cappelmann, April 9, 1929, Records, 14 Mar. 1929–13 Apr. 1929, WWBH; H. F. Drugan to Mrs. Henry Cappelmann, April 12, 1929, Records, 14 Mar. 1929–13 Apr. 1929, WWBH; H. F. Drugan to Mrs. Henry Cappelmann, April 13, 1929, Records, 14 Mar. 1929–13 Apr. 1929, WWBH; H. F. Drugan to Mrs. Henry Cappelmann, June 6, 1929, Records, 16 Apr. 1929–28 June 1929, WWBH.
  46. 46. John Randolph Bolling to Mrs. E. Henry Cappelmann, February 14, 1930, Records, 14 Apr. 1930–24 Apr. 1932, WWBH; “Minutes of the Woodrow Wilson Home,” 18; Cappelmann, Wilson Home Committee Meeting Notes, 3; “Feby 5, 1930,” February 5, 1930, Records, 14 Apr. 1930–24 Apr. 1932, WWBH.
  47. 47. Yuhl, Golden Haze of Memory, 127, 130–34, 179, 182.
  48. 48. Six Woodrow women graduated from the seminary between 1869 and 1885. Link, Road to the White House, 1, 3n11; Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 13, 18; R. S. Baker, Youth, 26; Berg, Wilson, 30; Brown, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, 20.
  49. 49. Link, Road to the White House, 4n11; Brown, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, 6, 20; Berg, Wilson, 356, 359.
  50. 50. Arthur S. Link and Katherine E. Brand, “Edith Bolling Wilson: Tributes Given at a Memorial Service at the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace,” January 28, 1962, 11, Edith Bolling Wilson Papers (hereafter cited as EBWP), folder 37, Miscellaneous, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, VA (hereafter cited as WWPL).
  51. 51. Smith served as director of the Garden Club of America. Her service of two terms on Mary Baldwin College’s board resulted in an alumnae award in her honor in 1965. In addition to her volunteer work, she possessed social prestige through her marriage to Herbert McKelden Smith, one-time mayor of Staunton and member of the Virginia House of Delegates. James S. Wamsley, “Staunton’s Indomitable Mrs. Herbert McK. Smith,” Commonwealth, April 1973, Chairman of the Board-Incoming Correspondence-S-1960, box 6, folder 12, 5 Feb. 1959–Apr. 1973 Miscellaneous Typed or Printed Tributes to Emily Smith, Papers of Emily P. Smith, WWPL (hereafter PEPS); “Mrs. Herbert McKelden Smith,” Page 249 →n.d., Chairman of the Board-Incoming Correspondence-S-1960, box 6, folder 12, 5 Feb. 1959–Apr. 1973 Miscellaneous Typed or Printed Tributes to Emily Smith, PEPS; Mary Baldwin College, “Announcing The Emily Smith Citation,” 1965 1964, Chairman of the Board-Incoming Correspondence-S-1960, box 6, folder 12, 5 Feb. 1959–Apr. 1973 Miscellaneous Typed or Printed Tributes to Emily Smith, PEPS.
  52. 52. “Mrs. Herbert McKelden Smith,” n.d., Incoming Correspondence-S-1960, box 6, folder 12, 5 Feb. 1959–Apr. 1973 Miscellaneous Typed or Printed Tributes to Emily Smith, PEPS; Mary Baldwin College, “Announcing the Emily Smith Citation,” 1965 1964, Incoming Correspondence-S-1960, box 6, folder 12, 5 Feb. 1959–Apr. 1973 Miscellaneous Typed or Printed Tributes to Emily Smith, PEPS; Woodrow Wilson Birthplace Foundation, “Resolved, by the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace Foundation … Retirement of Mrs. Emily P. Smith,” February 19, 1973, 2, Incoming Correspondence-S-1960, box 6, folder 13, 6 June 1968–19 Feb. 1973 Tributes to Emily Smith, PEPS; Emily P. Smith, “Report of Woodrow Wilson Garden,” Staunton, Virginia, February 20, 1934, 1, 3, Outgoing Correspondence 1934–1964, February 1934-December 1939, folder 1, PEPS; Brown, Presidential Library and Museum, 20.
  53. 53. Wilson also met Smith’s husband. Edith Bolling Wilson (EBW) to Mrs. H. McK. Smith, October 8, 1931, folder 9, 1931, EBWP; EBW to Charles Catlett, January 8, 1932, folder 10, 1932–1933, EBWP; L. V. Coleman, Historic House Museums, 157.
  54. 54. EBW to Emily P. Smith (EPS), July 28, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP; EBW to D. L. Groner, July 29, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP.
  55. 55. EBW to EPS, October 12, 1933, folder 10, 1932–1933, EBWP.
  56. 56. EBW to EPS, November 18, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP; EPS to Mrs. Cordell Hull, July 3, 1939, Outgoing Correspondence 1934–1964, February 1934–December 1939, folder 1, PEPS (quote).
  57. 57. EBW to EPS, May 30, 1935, folder 11, 1934–1935, EBWP; EBW to Michael Kibligan, May 30, 1935, folder 11, 1934–1935, EBWP.
  58. 58. John Randolph Bolling to Mrs. H. McK. Smith, January 28, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP.
  59. 59. Brown, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, 20.
  60. 60. The WWBF elected Admiral Grayson as its first president, but he died soon thereafter. Emily P. Smith to Justice D. Lawrence Groner, April 8, 1939, Outgoing Correspondence 1934–1964, February 1934–December 1939, folder 1, PEPS. The language of “national shrine” was used in the following two documents: “Memorandum,” February 12, 1940, folder 37, Miscellaneous, EBWP; EPS to Jesse H. Jones, April 20, 1939, Outgoing Correspondence 1934–1964, February 1934–December 1939, folder 1, PEPS.
  61. 61. EPS to Mrs. Ambrose Ford, July 1, 1939, Outgoing Correspondence 1934–1964, February 1934–December 1939, folder 1, PEPS; Brown, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, 22.
  62. 62. EBW to EPS, June 26, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP; EBW to D. L. Groner, July 29, 1939; “Memorandum.”
  63. 63. EBW to EPS, July 28, 1939.
  64. 64. EPS to Jesse H. Jones, January 23, 1939, Outgoing Correspondence 1934–1964, February 1934–December 1939, folder 1, PEPS; EPS to Jones, April 20, 1939; EPS to Jones, May 1, 1939, Outgoing Correspondence 1934–1964, February 1934–December Page 250 →1939, folder 1, PEPS; EPS to Mrs. Cordell Hull, May 1, 1939, 1, Outgoing Correspondence 1934–1964, February 1934–December 1939, folder 1, PEPS.
  65. 65. The team Smith selected served as a model for other states, and she approved each state’s chairman. EBW to EPS, July 28, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP; EBW to D. L. Groner, July 29, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP; EPS to Hull, May 1, 1939, 2; EBW to EPS, June 26, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP. The legion lent some support over the course of the next year and half, as they are referenced briefly in the following letter. EBW to EPS, October 27, 1940, folder 15, 1940, EBWP.
  66. 66. Edith also worried about Smith’s low estimated budget of $12,000 for restoration. EBW to EPS, August 19, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP; EBW to EPS, August 30, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP.
  67. 67. The Philadelphia’s Democratic Luncheon Club furnished the dining room, and Smith’s DAR chapter outfitted the nursery. Edith Wilson sent a wardrobe, table, bookcase, trunk, and vest set. She also gave several desks and chairs, including an oak rolltop desk, a large mahogany desk chair, and an oak typewriter desk and chair. She retained the right to withdraw the items at any time and stipulated that unused items would be returned. The artwork included portraits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee, William Gladstone, the Wilson family, and Wilson’s father, an old map, an Italian scroll, three images of Wilson, and various images of his alma maters Princeton and Johns Hopkins University. EBW to EPS, October 8, 1931; EBW to D. L. Groner, June 30, 1938, folder 13, 1938, EBWP; EBW to Groner, June 18, 1938, folder 13, 1938, EBWP; EBW to EPS, November 28, 1938, folder 13, 1938, EBWP; EBW to EPS, August 12, 1940, folder 15, 1940, EBWP; EBW to EPS, January 29, 1941, folder 16, 1941, EBWP; EBW to EPS, March 4, 1941, folder 16, 1941, EBWP; John Randolph Bolling to EPS, November 7, 1940, folder 15, 1940, EBWP; Bolling to EPS, November 15, 1940, folder 15, 1940, EBWP; EBW to EPS, January 29, 1941; EBW to EPS, March 28, 1941, folder 16, 1941, EBWP; EBW to Mrs. Cordell Hull, April 7, 1941, folder 16, 1941, EBWP; EBW to Smith, April 23, 1943, folder 18, 1943, EBWP; Brown, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.
  68. 68. EBW to EPS, October 8, 1931; EBW to EPS, August 30, 1939; EBW to EPS, April 29, 1940, folder 15, 1940, EBWP; EBW to EPS, August 12, 1940; EBW to EPS, October 27, 1940; EBW to EPS, November 3, 1940, folder 15, 1940, EBWP; EBW to EPS, November 14, 1940, folder 15, 1940, EBWP.
  69. 69. EBW to EPS, October 27, 1940; Brown, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, 21; EBW to EPS, March 28, 1941; EBW to EPS, May 5, 1941, folder 16, 1941, EBWP (quote).
  70. 70. EBW to EPS, August 19, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP; EBW to EPS, August 30, 1939, folder 14, 1939, EBWP; EBW to EPS, April 13, 1942, folder 17, 1942, EBWP; EBW to EPS, July 20, 1942, folder 17, 1942, EBWP; EBW to EPS, September 3, 1943, folder 18, 1943, EBWP.
  71. 71. EBW to EPS, August 8, 1942, folder 17, 1942, EBWP; EBW to EPS, December 19, 1942, folder 17, 1942, EBWP; EBW to EPS, September 3, 1943.
  72. 72. Commercialization quote from EBW to EPS, July 25, 1944, folder 19, 1944, EBWP; train quote from EBW to EPS, September 12, 1944, folder 19, 1944, EBWP; EBW to Colonel Opie, September 14, 1944, folder 19, 1944, EBWP. In early 1961 Edith still hoped the endowment would reach the $100,000 mark. EBW to EPS, January 3, 1961, folder 35, 1961, EBWP.
  73. 73. Page 251 →EBW to EPS, November 22, 1945, folder 20, 1945, EBWP; EBW to EPS, September 7, 1948, folder 23, 1948, EBWP; EBW to EPS, December 1, 1948, folder 23, 1948, EBWP; EBW to EPS, December 1948, folder 23, 1948, EBWP; EBW to EPS, February 1, 1949, folder 24, 1949, EBWP. One of Edith’s closest friends, Louise Pennington, made a sizable donation to the endowment “out of the blue.” EBW to EPS, August 21, 1949, folder 24, 1949, EBWP; EBW to EPS, August 27, 1949, folder 24, 1949, EBWP; EBW to EPS, July 19, 1950, folder 25, 1950, EBWP; Rockefeller quote from EBW to EPS, July 29, 1950, folder 25, 1950; EBW to EPS, October 22, 1952, folder 26, 1952, EBWP; EBW to EPS, November 5, 1952, folder 26, 1952, EBWP; EBW, “Prospect List Given by Mrs. Wilson,” November 5, 1952, folder 26, 1952, EBWP; EBW to General Opie, October 29, 1952, folder 26, 1952, EBWP; EBW to EPS, April 24, 1953, folder 27, 1953, EBWP; EBW to EPS, October 9, 1954, folder 28, 1954, EBWP; Joseph M. Hartfield to EBW, September 8, 1955, Folder 29, 1955, EBWP; EBW to EPS, Sunday 1955, folder 29, 1955, EBWP; EBW to EPS, December 22, 1959, folder 33, 1959, EBWP.
  74. 74. E. W. Opie and Harry F. Byrd to EBW, November 19, 1954, folder 28, 1954, EBWP; EBW to EPS, April 24, 1953; EBW to EPS, October 9, 1954; EBW to EPS, June 25, 1955, Folder 29, 1955, EBWP; EBW to EPS, June 30, 1956, folder 30, 1956, EBWP; EBW to EPS, November 17, 1960, folder 34, 1960, EBWP.
  75. 75. Wamsley, “Staunton’s Indomitable Mrs. Herbert McK. Smith”; quote from EBW to Mary Jones, January 30, 1956, folder 30, 1956, EBWP (quote); EBW to EPS, November 16, 1959, folder 33, 1959, EBWP; EBW to EPS, March 7, 1960, folder 34, 1960, EBWP. A curator in 2015 joked that the manse could burn to the ground, but if anything happened to the car, he would be in major trouble. Phillips, “Behind-the-Scenes Tour.”
  76. 76. EBW to EPS, October 30, 1954, folder 28, 1954, EBWP; WWBF, “Resolved,” 1; Brown, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, 21; Wamsley, “Staunton’s Indomitable Mrs. Herbert McK. Smith.” The fact that Smith had declined the presidency until the last decade of her public service was circulated in written accounts celebrating her tenure.
  77. 77. EBW to EPS, October 11, 1960, folder 34, 1960, EBWP.
  78. 78. Wilson knew Kennedy personally and knew that he admired her husband. She wrote to Mrs. Kennedy, whom, in the expert estimation of the former First Lady, was cultivated, charming, and a real “asset to her husband.” Through the Associated Press, the WWBF learned that President Kennedy verbally accepted the invitation during a meeting. EBW to EPS, November 17, 1960; EBW to EPS, November 25, 1960, folder 34, 1960, EBWP; EBW to EPS, February 27, 1961, folder 35, 1961, EBWP; Geoge M. Cochran to EBW, March 23, 1961, folder 35, 1961, EBWP; EBW to EPS, October 16, 1961, folder 35, 1961, EBWP; EBW to EPS, November 2, 1961, folder 35, 1961, EBWP; EBW to EPS, November 9, 1961, folder 35, 1961, EBWP; EBW to EPS, November 1961, folder 35, 1961, EBWP; Mrs. H. McKay Smith, December 7, 1961, Outgoing Correspondence 1965–1974, Selected, Wilson, Edith B., PEPS.
  79. 79. EBW to EPS, November 17, 1960; EBW to EPS, November 25, 1960; EBW to EPS, January 3, 1961; Dale D. Drain to Woodrow Wilson Birthplace Foundation, “Estate of Edith Bolling Wilson, Deceased,” December 7, 1962, folder 37, Miscellaneous, EBWP; US District Court for the District of Columbia, “Estate Page 252 →of Edith Bolling Wilson, Deceased, Receipt of the Legatee,” n.d., folder 37, Miscellaneous, EBWP; Link and Brand, “Edith Bolling Wilson,” 3.
  80. 80. WWBF, “Resolved,” 1–2.
  81. 81. Smith kept Link informed of meetings and developments and arranged staggered visits. Arthur S. Link to Mrs. Herbert McK. Smith, December 5, 1960, Incoming Correspondence-Link, Arthur S., PEPS; Link to EPS, January 16, 1962, Incoming Correspondence-Link, Arthur S., PEPS; Link to EPS, February 19, 1962, Incoming Correspondence-Link, Arthur S., PEPS; Link to EPS, November 1, 1963, Incoming Correspondence-Link, Arthur S., PEPS.
  82. 82. Link to EPS, March 26, 1964, Incoming Correspondence-Link, Arthur S., PEPS (quote); Link to EPS, December 4, 1968, Incoming Correspondence-Link, Arthur S., PEPS; Link to EPS, September 28, 1966, Incoming Correspondence-Link, Arthur S., PEPS; Link to Mrs. Herbert McK. Smith, March 30, 1970, Incoming Correspondence-Link, Arthur S., PEPS; Daniel Martinez, “Former U.S. Archivist to Step into Wilson’s Shoes,” Harrisonburg (VA) Daily News-Record, June 17, 2009.
  83. 83. Virginia Travel Council, “Meritorious Service Award Presented to Mrs. H. McKelden Smith,” June 5, 1968, Incoming Correspondence-S-1960, box 6, folder 11 10 May 1968–24 Jul. 1968, Undated Correspondence Relating to the Tributes Dinner Given for Emily Smith, PEPS (hereafter Tributes Dinner); quote from Virginia Travel Council, “A Recognition from the Board of Directors of the Virginia Travel Council,” March 26, 1968, Tributes Dinner; Richard S. Gillis Jr. to Mrs. George M. Cochran, June 3, 1968, Tributes Dinner; W. C. “Dan” Daniel, “The Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Send Greetings to Mrs. Herbert McKelden Smith,” 1968, Tributes Dinner.
  84. 84. William T. Alderson to Mrs. H. McKay. Smith, May 30, 1968, Tributes Dinner; Richard Nixon to Mrs. H. McKay Smith, March 17, 1973, Incoming Correspondence-S-1960, box 6, folder 12 5 Feb. 1959–Apr. 1973 Miscellaneous Typed or Printed Tributes to Emily Smith, PEPS.
  85. 85. Smith claimed that she shared her dreams with the trustees. Delores Lescure, who directed the Augusta County Historical Society and Historic Staunton Foundation, proved a worthy successor to Smith. During her twenty-year presidential term, Lescure moved the WWBF closer to Smith’s mission of a museum and library. Smith’s fundraising and leadership expertise honed at the birthplace improved her community as well. She served eight years as hospital board president, running a $2.5 million fundraising campaign. Emily P. Smith, “Mr. Toastmaster, Mr. Darden and Friends,” 1968, 2, Tributes Dinner; WWBF, “Resolved,” 2; “Mrs. Herbert Mck. Smith Retires as Birthplace Foundation President,” Staunton (VA) Leader, February 19, 1973, Incoming Correspondence-S-1960, box 6, folder 13, 6 June 1968–19 Feb. 1973 Apr. 1973 Tributes to Emily Smith, PEPS; Wamsley, “Staunton’s Indomitable Mrs. Herbert McK. Smith”; “Mrs. Herbert McKelden Smith.”
  86. 86. Calvin R. Trice, “Woodrow Wilson Library Planned,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 29, 2004, city edition; Bob Stuart, “Wilson Library Plans Revealed—Staunton Facility to Become Nation’s 14th Presidential Library,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 26, 2004, One Star edition; Chris Kahn, “Virginia City Plans Wilson Library for Its (Briefly) Native Son,” Times (Trenton, NJ), August 29, 2004; Bob Stuart, “Wilson Library Has Big Plans for Exploration—It Page 253 →Hopes to Examine His Presidency and the Period’s Way of Life,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 26, 2006, final edition; Alicia Wotring Sisk, “Wilson Library Looking for Boost-Lawmakers Propose Grant Legislation for Expansion,” Harrisonburg (VA) Daily News-Record, August 2, 2007; The Woodrow Wilson Museum, digital video (Staunton, Virginia, n.d.), accessed June 22, 2015.
  87. 87. The PWWH is commonly called S Street. I did not research any archival materials related to the National Trust transaction. The PWWH entered the Wilson HHM canon in the 1960s, making the shrine formation of Staunton and Columbia by Emily Smith and Ruth Cappelmann most alike.
  88. 88. In 2015 the PWWH general tour did briefly celebrate the Wilson’s Virginia roots in the Solarium, where the couple ate breakfast. The silver Virginia cup represents the Wilson’s place of birth and that two Virginians resided in the White House. Sometime between 2015 and 2021, the mission changed. See the “About Us” page at the PWWH website, http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org; Toegel, guided tour.
  89. 89. Toegel, guided tour.
  90. 90. Berg, Wilson, 738–39. Wilson’s modernization of Princeton with a new graduate college, common meals, and dormitories replacing socially exclusive eating clubs and residential houses angered the administration, trustees, faculty, and alumni. Ambar, “Woodrow Wilson.”
  91. 91. Lopez, “Open House,” 10.
  92. 92. Taylor, notes from meeting with Betty van Iersel, PWWH, Washington, DC, June 20, 2015.
  93. 93. Toegel, guided tour.
  94. 94. Joseph Wilson was from Ohio and of Scotch-Irish descent. His wife, Jessie, daughter of a Presbyterian minister, was born in Carlisle, England. Wilson moved the burgeoning family from Ohio to Hampton-Sydney, Virginia, before taking his position in Staunton in 1855. Link, Road to the White House, 1.
  95. 95. Link notes that almost all of Wilson’s biographers testify that he was “essentially a Southerner.” See Link, Road to the White House, xi, 3–4n11; R. S. Baker, Youth, 26.
  96. 96. Link, Road to the White House, 2–3.
  97. 97. Woodrow Wilson, Robert E. Lee: An Interpretation, v–vi.
  98. 98. “Woodrow Wilson: President in a New Era,” panel; “Washington Welcomes a Democrat to the White House, panel,” Woodrow Wilson: His Life and Times, WWPLM, June 19, 2015. For additional information on the violent overturn of Reconstruction, see the following: Zuczek, State of Rebellion; Lemann, Redemption; Foner, Reconstruction. For a discussion of the New South and national reunion, see Woodward, Origins of the New South; Lears, Rebirth of a Nation; Blight, Race and Reunion.
  99. 99. Link, Road to the White House, 1; Ayers, What Caused the Civil War?, 55, 58–59.
  100. 100. Blight, Race and Reunion, 7–9, 11.
  101. 101. K. L. Cox, Dixie’s Daughters, 5–6, 69–71, 112–13, 148.
  102. 102. Montgomery’s book was not peer-reviewed, but I consulted its original primary source material if I used it in my own research and found much of Montgomery’s evidence sound. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 148–52.
  103. 103. A brief tour of the manse with Erick Montgomery for CSPAN can be found here: Woodrow Wilson’s Boyhood Home, https://archive.org/details/CSPAN3_20150802_181200_Woodrow_Wilsons_Boyhood_Home.
  104. 104. Page 254 →A 1901 Colonial Revival remodeling changed the front of the home, removing the small portico and iron balconies under the windows. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 38, 128, 130, 137.
  105. 105. Herzberg, guided tour. In 1860 the church, eager to keep Wilson, gave him a five-hundred-dollar raise and built a new manse for ten thousand dollars to replace the deteriorating one. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 24–26, 31.
  106. 106. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 141–45, 147. The executive committee included President Nancy Bowers, Vice President Herb Upton, and Treasurer Dean Childress.
  107. 107. The researchers for the study were architect Normal Davenport; archaeologist Dr. David Collin Crass; Montgomery, who researched the history; and landscape consultants Mary Palmer and Hugh Dargan. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 148–52; Herzberg, guided tour.
  108. 108. When I attended a tour, the guide never used the word Reconstruction to describe the time period after the Civil War. Herzberg, guided tour.
  109. 109. Wilson shared the story of his first memory in a 1909 speech on Abraham Lincoln. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 2, 44; Parlor quote from Herzberg, guided tour; Polhill, guided tour.
  110. 110. W. B. Hale, Woodrow Wilson, 30; Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 55–56; Corley, Confederate City, 97.
  111. 111. Tommy Wilson’s love of baseball is a theme interpreted both in Augusta and Columbia. The Clark brothers, who attended school in New Jersey, introduced baseball to the community. Wilson, one of the Clark brothers, and his friends set up the baseball club. Tommy drew the picture of the balloons and lineup on the inside cover of his Elements of Physical Geography textbook. According to Montgomery, Prof. S. A. King charged twenty-one cents to see the balloon Hyperion lift off behind the Opera House on its journey to Beaufort, South Carolina. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 70–73; Herzberg, guided tour.
  112. 112. Herzberg, guided tour; Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 69, 75, 77, 79 (quotes).
  113. 113. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 19–20, 41, 43 (quote).
  114. 114. W. B. Hale, Woodrow Wilson, 36; Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 80.
  115. 115. W. B. Hale, Woodrow Wilson, 34–35.
  116. 116. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 56–59, 67, 69; W. B. Hale, Woodrow Wilson, 38–39.
  117. 117. Wilson, “Robert E. Lee,” 68–69; Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 71, 82.
  118. 118. Wilson, “Young People,” 478, 480; Link, Road to the White House, 2.
  119. 119. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 4, 153–54 (quotes).
  120. 120. Herzberg, guided tour.
  121. 121. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 18, 22, 41.
  122. 122. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 47–50, 52–53, 61, 63–64; Corley, Confederate City, 4.
  123. 123. Poole, Never Surrender, 47–48; Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 51–52, 44 (quotes), 46–47; Corley, Confederate City, 39–40, 46–49, 51, 60.
  124. 124. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 65, 82; Joseph R. Wilson to Thomas Woodrow, October 22, 1866, Woodrow Wilson Papers, S. 2 P. 4.
  125. 125. Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 83–85, 103–4, 108.
  126. 126. Montgomery, 36, 73, 75, 138–40, 138–39 (quote); Herzberg, guided tour, “Tour of Boyhood Home.”
  127. 127. Page 255 →“Staunton Welcomes Its Native Son,” panel, Woodrow Wilson: His Life and Times, June 19, 2015, WWPLM; Stuart, “Wilson Library Has Big Plans for Exploration.”
  128. 128. This Wilson quote appears in Wilson biographies by Hale and Montgomery and the exhibit film within Staunton’s Woodrow Wilson Museum W. B. Hale, Woodrow Wilson, 7–22; Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 12; The Woodrow Wilson Museum, digital video (Staunton, Virginia, n.d.), accessed June 22, 2015.

Chapter 2: The Rebirth

  1. 1. Taylor, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home Adult Tour Script,” 1–3.
  2. 2. Steven Conn, Do Museums Still Need Objects? (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010), 5, 40–41, 46-47, 50, 56-57, 94.
  3. 3. Brazier interview; Morgan interview; Taylor, email message to Heather Bacon-Rogers, “Practice Tour of WWFH,” July 30, 2014; Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 95.
  4. 4. “The Woodrow Wilson Family Home,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014. Evidence showing how the interpretation and tour evolved comes from the tour script evolution. I circulated numerous drafts of the script to the interpretive team in the months before opening as part of my job as tour facilitator. See Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour 01 31 14 Working Draft,” 4; “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour 02 06 14 Working Draft,” 4; “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour Second Training Version,” 4.
  5. 5. Local filmmaker Lee Ann Kornegay produced the film in collaboration with Historic Columbia. She also directed the final exhibit films discussed in the last chapter of the present book.
  6. 6. Only Tommy’s room and his parents’ are identified. The Wilsons’ bedroom is the tour’s denouement.
  7. 7. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 121.
  8. 8. Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation,” 1.
  9. 9. Taylor, “WWFH Script,” 1; Blackwell, “Tour-SAB Edits,” 1.
  10. 10. Link, Road to the White House, 2–3.
  11. 11. This path also allowed visitors to learn about the origins of saving the home. The tour passed Township Auditorium, which was to be built where the Wilson house stands. See chapter 1 on shrine building. Blackwell, “Tour-SAB Edits,” 3; Waites, “WWFH,” 1; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation,” 1; Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “WWFH Adult Tour,” 1.
  12. 12. Waites, “WWFH-Tour Review”; Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 85, 116.
  13. 13. Gunter; Morgan interview.
  14. 14. Redfield, “Thoughts on the Scrip[t]”; Taylor, “Adult Tour Script,” 6; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation,” 1; Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “Marking Changes RW JMS,” 1.
  15. 15. Taylor, “Adult Tour January 2nd Draft,” 1.
  16. 16. Taylor, “WWFH Script,” December 10, 2013, 1; Waites, “Revision 2 Dec 16 RW Notes,” 1; Taylor, “Tour 01 31 14 Working Draft,” 4; Taylor, “Tour 02 06 14,” 4; Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “Marking Changes RW JMS,” 2.
  17. 17. Annie Wright, email message to Waites, “Feedback on the WWFH Tour,” March 18, 2014.
  18. 18. Vagnone and Ryan argue historic house museums ignore a vast cast of characters and groups connected to their homes in favor of one or two significant Page 256 →individuals, which stymies a multi-vocal and diverse interpretation. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 138.
  19. 19. Gunter interview.
  20. 20. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 130.
  21. 21. Docent Doe interview.
  22. 22. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 44, 89.
  23. 23. Brazier interview.
  24. 24. “Woodrow Wilson Family Home” panel.
  25. 25. Hogan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  26. 26. Hogan interview.
  27. 27. Segregating federal offices united Black activists who had been divided on other racial issues. They aligned with anti-segregation white people to protest the policy through public meetings, letter writing, petitions, and stories in the press. Wolgemuth, “Woodrow Wilson and Federal Segregation,” 158–59, 163–68, 170.
  28. 28. According to Trygve Throntveit, the language of national self-determination, much less the idea of ethnic nation-states, was not a key feature of Wilson’s peace plan. Wilson lacked clarity as to how the process would work outside Europe. The level of freedom, if any, was contingent on local conditions. Erez Manela argues that, rather than ushering in the Wilsonian century as previous Eurocentric historians have contended, the president’s rhetoric sparked an international Wilsonian moment. This moment began with US entry into World War I in April 1917. Although European leaders had articulated the concept of self-determination as a path to peace earlier, Wilson’s postwar vision circulated among a global audience on an unprecedented level, including to colonized peoples in Egypt, India, China, and Korea, who interpreted his rhetoric as an endorsement of universal self-determination. China’s May Fourth movement, Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance movement in India, revolution in Egypt, and Korea’s March First movement are 1919 campaigns contextualized in each state’s national history but rarely placed in an international one. All four emerging nations had long-established social, economic, and political histories as well as educated elites, which allowed nationalist ideology to flourish. These nationalists were not radicals but rather shrewd politicians who used the Wilsonian moment to legitimize their demands for sovereignty within a new international order. More influential than V. I. Lenin, Wilson became an international symbol for self-determination, a temporary protagonist and icon for anticolonial nationalists. They seized his message, quoting his Fourteen Points and speeches, and worked within the negotiation process to challenge imperialism on an international stage. The Wilsonian moment peaked between fall 1918 and spring 1919 during the Treaty of Versailles negotiations. Throntveit, “Fable of the Fourteen Points,” 446–48, 451, 476; Manela, Wilsonian Moment, x, xii, 3–13.
  29. 29. “State Government,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014.
  30. 30. L. V. Coleman, Historic House Museums, 17; D’Oney, “Louisiana’s Old State Capitol,” 78–79; Conn, Do Museums Still Need Objects?, 11.
  31. 31. Toegel, guided tour; National Trust for Historic Preservation, “President Woodrow Wilson House”; Olga Oksman, “The Unusual Gifts Given to U.S. Presidents,” The Atlantic, February 15, 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com.
  32. 32. Bennett, Birth of the Museum, 2; Coxall, “Open Minds,” 140.
  33. 33. Page 257 →Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 35, 45, 130–31, 134; Conn, Do Museums Still Need Objects?, 7, 21–23, 26, 175.
  34. 34. Conn, Do Museums Still Need Objects?, 20, 23.
  35. 35. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 36. The objects were painted white as part of the new interpretation following a major restoration at the turn of the twenty-first century. Олександр Удовенко, “Mikhail Bulgakov Museum,” Museums of Kyiv History, http://www.kyivhistorymuseum. org (accessed August 9, 2022).
  36. 36. Bacon-Rogers interview.
  37. 37. Morgan interview.
  38. 38. Taylor, “WWFH Script,”; Waites, “Revision 2 Dec 16 RW Notes,” 2; Taylor, “Tour Jen’s Dec. 30 Revision,” 3; Taylor, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home Adult Tour Script,” 6.
  39. 39. Hogan interview; Storm interview; Clark second interview; Scott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  40. 40. Docent Doe interview; Morgan interview; Storm interview; Hogan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  41. 41. Bacon-Rogers interview.
  42. 42. Hogan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Morgan interview; Storm interview.
  43. 43. Storm interview (quote); Morgan interview; Hogan interview.
  44. 44. Bacon-Rogers interview.
  45. 45. Docent Doe interview; Brazier interview; Clark second interview; Gunter interview.
  46. 46. Docent Doe interview; Bacon-Rogers interview.
  47. 47. Hogan interview; Stickney interview; Westcott interview; Clark second interview; Serrell, Exhibit Labels, 38.
  48. 48. Bacon-Rogers, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Bacon-Rogers interview (quotes); Hogan interview; Holmes, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  49. 49. Docent Doe interview; Brazier interview. In 2018, on the two-hundredth anniversary of the site, Historic Columbia initiated a “holistic rehabilitation” with new interpretation, interactive exhibits, and renovations. The Hampton-Preston family’s role as slaveholders and secessionists as well as the lives of those enslaved at the urban mansion were central to the changes. Coincidentally the Preston family enslaved future state senator W. B. Nash. Historic Columbia, “Hampton-Preston Mansion and Gardens.”
  50. 50. Lee interview; Bacon-Rogers interview.
  51. 51. Simon, Participatory Museum, 127–28, 130; Gunter interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Clark second interview.
  52. 52. Lee interview; Simon, Participatory Museum, 131.
  53. 53. Bacon-Rogers interview.
  54. 54. Gunter interview.
  55. 55. Storm interview (first quote); Storm, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey” (second quote); Gunter interview; Clark second interview; Bacon-Rogers interview.
  56. 56. Storm interview.
  57. 57. Westcott interview; Docent Doe interview; Stickney interview; Gunter interview.
  58. 58. Morgan interview; Hogan interview.
  59. 59. Bacon-Rogers interview.
  60. 60. Page 258 →I evaluated the visitor evaluation data for 2014. Taylor, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home Trends”; “WWFH Visitor Evaluation 2014 Summary,” Survey Monkey, January 8, 2015, 5, Historic Columbia.
  61. 61. “Copy of Wilson Survey Monkey Download Feb 2014–Jan 2015,” Survey Monkey, February 2015, Historic Columbia.
  62. 62. Docent Doe interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Clark second interview.
  63. 63. Bacon-Rogers interview.
  64. 64. Bacon-Rogers, interview; Bacon-Rogers, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  65. 65. Stickney interview; Bacon-Rogers interview.
  66. 66. Clark second interview; Bacon-Rogers interview.
  67. 67. Bacon-Rogers interview.
  68. 68. Conn, Do Museums Still Need Objects?, 40–41, 56–57.
  69. 69. Conn, Do Museums Still Need Objects?, 5, 46–47, 50, 94.
  70. 70. Taylor, “Tour 01 31 14 Working Draft,” 2; Waites, “Tour Review First Floor.”
  71. 71. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 12. According to Olsen, only 45 percent of participants in a 2010 Connecticut Cultural Consumers study liked guided tours. Because of visitor and nonvisitor feedback, the Charles Lindbergh Historic Site moved away from lecture-style tours in favor of a conversational tour. Cindy Olsen, “Are Guided Tours at Historic Houses Dead?”
  72. 72. Taylor, “Tour Jen’s Dec. 30 Revision,” 2; Taylor, “Adult Tour January 2nd Draft,” 2.
  73. 73. Taylor, “WWFH Script,” December 10, 2013, 1; Blackwell, “Tour-SAB Edits,” 1; Waites, “Revision 2 Dec 16 RW Notes,” 1; Taylor, “Tour 01 31 14 Working Draft,” 4; Taylor, “WWFH Script,” June 13, 2014, 5. However, these instructions appeared in the earliest drafts of the script.
  74. 74. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 12–14, 26, 45, 115, 117.
  75. 75. Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “Marking Changes RW JMS,” 4; Taylor, “WWFH Script,” June 13, 2014, 4.
  76. 76. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 35.
  77. 77. Taylor, “WWFH Script,” June 13, 2014, 6; Waites, “Tour Review First Floor.”
  78. 78. Storm interview; Gunter interview.
  79. 79. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 112, 127; Chen and Tsai, “Influence of Background Music.”
  80. 80. Hogan interview; Brazier interview; Westcott interview.
  81. 81. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 18; Storm interview; Brazier interview; Hogan interview; Lee interview.
  82. 82. Brazier interview; Storm interview; Lee interview.
  83. 83. Gunter interview; Clark second interview; Docent Doe interview.
  84. 84. Clark second interview; Gunter interview; Hogan interview.
  85. 85. Docent Doe interview.
  86. 86. Hogan interview; Hogan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  87. 87. Gunter interview.
  88. 88. Serrell, Exhibit Labels, 41.
  89. 89. Lee interview; Stickney interview; Gunter interview; Docent Doe interview.
  90. 90. Serrell, Exhibit Labels, 54.
  91. 91. Gunter interview; Stickney interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Lee interview.
  92. 92. Serrell, Exhibit Labels, 57–58.
  93. 93. Stickney interview; Gunter interview.
  94. 94. Page 259 →Holmes, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  95. 95. Simon, Participatory Museum, 4.
  96. 96. Schneider, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  97. 97. Storm interview; Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 81, 107.
  98. 98. Stickney interview.
  99. 99. Taylor, “WWFH Trends”; “Evaluation 2014 Summary,” 2; James Quint, email message to Taylor, “Question Added to Wilson Survey,” March 31, 2015; Taylor, “WWFH April 2015 Survey Monkey Stats,” Historic Columbia, May 2015, 13.
  100. 100. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 97.
  101. 101. Waites, email message to interpretive team, “WWFH Follow Up,” December 7, 2013.
  102. 102. Posner, email message to interpretive team, “Staff WW Tours for March,” February 27, 2014; Posner, email message to interpretive team, “April Staff Tours,” March 26, 2014.
  103. 103. Posner, “March WW 2014 Calendar,” Historic Columbia, February 27, 2014.
  104. 104. Posner, “April Woodrow Wilson Tours Calendar,” Historic Columbia, March 26, 2014; Posner, “May 2014 Woodrow Wilson Tours Calendar,” Historic Columbia, April 2014; Posner, “June 2014 Woodrow Wilson Tours Calendar,” Historic Columbia, May 13, 2014; Posner, “July 2014 Woodrow Wilson Tours Calendar,” Historic Columbia, June 2014; Posner, “September WW 2014 Calendar,” Historic Columbia, August 2014.
  105. 105. Posner, “September WW 2014 Calendar”; Betsy Kleinfelder, email message to interpretive team, “October Woodrow Wilson Schedule,” September 24, 2014; Kleinfelder, email message to interpretive team, “November WW Schedule,” October 17, 2014; Kleinfelder, “November 2014– WWFH Calendar,” Historic Columbia, October 2014; Kleinfelder, email message to interpretive team, “January WWFH Schedule,” December 19, 2014; Kleinfelder, email message to interpretive team, “February WWFH Schedule,” January 23, 2015; Kleinfelder, email message to interpretive team, “March Woodrow Wilson Schedule,” March 3, 2015; Kleinfelder, email message to interpretive team, “April WWFH Schedule,” March 17, 2015; Heather Bacon-Rogers, email message to weekend staff, “Weekend Updates 6/27–6/28,” June 25, 2015. The new tour schedule launched April 7, 2015. “New Tour Times,” April 2015, Historic Columbia.
  106. 106. Gunter interview; Docent Doe interview.
  107. 107. Gunter interview.
  108. 108. Bacon-Rogers interview.
  109. 109. Serrell, Exhibit Labels, 165, 174.
  110. 110. Docent Doe interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Serrell, Exhibit Labels, 75, 127; Menne, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Clark second interview.
  111. 111. Bacon-Rogers interview; Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 47.
  112. 112. Lee interview; Westcott interview; Falk, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience, 64.
  113. 113. Bacon-Rogers interview; Docent Doe interview.
  114. 114. I evaluated the visitor evaluation data for 2014. Taylor, “WWFH Trends”; “Evaluation 2014 Summary,” 5.
  115. 115. “Survey Monkey Download.”
  116. 116. Gunter interview; Scott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Lee interview.
  117. 117. Page 260 →Bacon-Rogers interview.
  118. 118. Heather Bacon-Rogers and Katharine Allen, interview by Jennifer Whitmer Taylor, Zoom recording, May 11, 2023.

Chapter 3: Docent Training

  1. 1. Constitutional Convention, Article 10, S 131081, 1868, 42–44, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia.
  2. 2. Edgar, South Carolina, 390–91; Williams, Self-Taught, 4, 193–94.
  3. 3. The occupant of the public education bedroom is unknown, but it was not Tommy or his parents. See the relevant panels at the MoRE: “A Religious Posting”; “A Center for Religious Thought”; “Tommy Grows Up”; “Public Schools”; “The University of South Carolina”; “Training New Leaders.”
  4. 4. Taylor, “Home Adult Tour Script,” 26; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 6, 9, 11–12, 22, 24, 34, 69, 149; Poole, Never Surrender, 1–3, 121.
  5. 5. Waites, “WWFH Tour Training Opening 1.8.14,” Historic Columbia, January 8, 2014; document sent by Waites, email message to interpretative team, “WWFH General Calendar,” January 13, 2014. This was also the deadline for school, garden, and preservation tours, which took less precedence during the relaunch.
  6. 6. Robin Waites, “Exhibit Content Training Session 3,” Historic Columbia, December 12, 2013, Historic Columbia Collection; Waites, email message to Posner and Quint, “WWFH Session 3,” December 12, 2013. Images from an unlabeled file folder in Historic Columbia’s collection.
  7. 7. Waites, “WWFH Tour Training Opening 1.8.14”; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “Dialoging about Race,” November 15, 2013; James Quint, email message, “WWFH Training-Final Schedule,” January 13, 2014; Sarah Blackwell, “Wilson Training Update,” March 19, 2014, Historic Columbia Collection. Blackwell circulated this document via email.
  8. 8. Two charts presented during the session listed the occupations, literacy rates, and servitude status before the Civil War of South Carolina’s Black legislators during Reconstruction. A third broke down the state legislature by party and race. Jennifer Taylor, “General Overview of Reconstruction Lecture and Questions to Consider,” presentation, Historic Columbia, November 2013; Quint, email message to Ann Posner, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home Training Session 1 Reconstruction Era,” November 13, 2013. I used charts 1–3 from Thomas Holt, Black over White, 39, 52, 97.
  9. 9. Brown has an extensive list of authored publications related to the Civil War and Reconstruction, including Civil War Canon: Sites of Confederate Memory in South Carolina (University of North Carolina Press, 2015) and, most recently, Civil War Monuments and the Militarization of America (University of North Carolina Press, 2019), which received the Tom Watson Brown Book Award of the Society of Civil War Historians. He has edited several books, including the coedited work Hope and Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment (University of Massachusetts Press, 2001); Reconstructions: New Perspectives on the Postbellum United States (Oxford University Press, 2006), which includes his essay “Civil War Remembrance as Reconstruction”; and Remixing the Civil War: Meditations on the Sesquicentennial (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). According to Brown’s lecture, Reconstruction was “the renewal of nationhood” and the “destruction of slavery” through the “reconstitution of a financial system” Page 261 →and citizenship. To achieve these goals, the Republican Party, which controlled the federal government and initially was committed to Black rights, introduced a two-party system to the South and allowed federal courts “to determine and enforce” citizenship for Black Americans as well as for women, immigrants, veterans, and former Confederates. Reconstruction was both “an open-ended process” and a “historical period.” Waites, “WWFH Tour Training Opening 1.8.14”; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “Dialoging about Race,” November 15, 2013; Thomas J. Brown, “Main Points for Training of WWFH Volunteers,” November 12, 2013, Historic Columbia Collection; Fielding Freed, email message to Waites, “WWFH Materials for Ken and Tom,” December 4, 2013.
  10. 10. Clements, “Discussion Questions about Woodrow Wilson in Columbia,” December 2013, Historic Columbia Collection; Freed, email message to Waites, “Ken and Tom,” December 4, 2013.
  11. 11. Posner, email message to Taylor, “Woodrow Wilson Training,” November 14, 2013; Posner, “WW Volunteer Training Attendance,” Historic Columbia, December 10, 2013, Historic Columbia Collection.
  12. 12. The discussion took place during a meeting held after the New Year between the interpretive committee and select long-term or elite volunteer docents to discuss the Wilson home’s script. Annie Wright, “Results of WWFH Volunteer Training,” slide 15, PowerPoint, Historic Columbia, March 10, 2014, Historic Columbia Collection; Docent Doe interview; Richardson, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  13. 13. Vagnone and Ryan would likely identify Cook’s session as offering examples of N.U.D.E. traits of interpretation (Non-linear, Unorthodox, Dactylic, and Experimental). Rather than training, they call for encouragement of thought and behavior that promotes greater interaction. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 93. Waites, email message to Taylor, “WWFH Staff Engagement Training,” November 12, 2013; Waites, “WWFH Tour Training Opening 1.8.14”; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “Dialoging about Race,” November 15, 2013.
  14. 14. “Volunteer Training,” Historic Columbia, 2013, author’s personal files; “WWFH Training Session Planning,” Historic Columbia, November 13, 2013, Historic Columbia Collection; Daniella Cook, “Application of Adult Learning Theory,” n.d., Historic Columbia Collection. The handout was adapted from M. Knowles’s “Adult Learning” in the ASTD Training and Development Handbook.
  15. 15. Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives revised Benjamin Bloom’s 1956 book. Daniella Cook, “Support HCF Staff Prepare Volunteer Trainings,” PowerPoint, slides 1, 4–5, 9, Columbia, SC, December 9, 2013.
  16. 16. Brazier interview; Wright, “Results of WWFH Volunteer Training,” slide 6; Stickney, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Clark, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  17. 17. Delays in installation and a rare snowstorm derailed plans to give docents a week to practice tours and another week to be evaluated.
  18. 18. The second week of January was devoted to the first floor and the following week to the second floor. Five sessions each week meant that the number of participants in each group was limited to five or fewer for questions. Posner, email message to Volunteer Docents, “Upcoming Woodrow Wilson Training,” January 9, 2014; Page 262 →Waites, “WWFH Tour Training Opening 1.8.14”; document sent by Waites, email message to interpretive team, “WWFH General Calendar,” January 13, 2014; Posner, “First and Second Floor Training Sessions Sign-Up Sheet,” January 21, 2014, Historic Columbia Collection; Posner, “Questions and Suggestions from WW Training Session First Floor,” January 21, 2014; Quint, email message to Taylor and Sherrer, “Tour Notes,” January 24, 2014; Posner, “February WW 2014 Calendar,” Historic Columbia, February 2014; Daniella Cook, “Historic Columbia Foundation WWFH Tour Observation Report,” March 13, 2014, 1; Clark second interview.
  19. 19. Wright, “Results of WWFH Volunteer Training,” slide 4; Gunter interview; Brazier interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Docent Doe interview; Hogan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Menne, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  20. 20. Blackwell, “Wilson Training Update”; Wright, “Results of WWFH Volunteer Training,” slide 6; Gunter interview; Brazier, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  21. 21. Scott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Richardson, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Docent Doe interview; Stickney interview.
  22. 22. Morgan interview; Hogan interview; Hogan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Wright, “Results of WWFH Volunteer Training,” slide 14.
  23. 23. Storm interview; Docent Doe interview; Schneider, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Weir, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Wright, “Results of WWFH Volunteer Training,” slide 6.
  24. 24. Hogan interview; Storm interview; Scott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Clark second interview.
  25. 25. Bacon-Rogers interview (“prepared”); Stickney interview (“deflect”).
  26. 26. Wright, “Results of WWFH Volunteer Training,” slides 2, 9 (charts), 10. Wright cautioned that post-evaluations were a smaller sample size. Thirty-four docents completed pretraining surveys, but only fourteen completed the post-evaluations.
  27. 27. Storm interview; Gunter interview; Westcott interview; Morgan interview; Clark second interview; Stickney interview; Hogan interview; Hogan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Brazier interview (quote).
  28. 28. Waites, email message to Taylor, “Technique Recommendations for WWFH,” January 21, 2014 (imagine quote); Cook, “Tour Observation,” 3 (stick quote); Annie Wright, email message to Waites, “Feedback on the WWFH Tour,” March 18, 201.
  29. 29. Lee interview; Storm interview; Stickney interview; Morgan interview.
  30. 30. Cook, “Tour Observation,” 1; Docent Doe interview.
  31. 31. Gunter interview; Brazier interview; Docent Doe interview; Westcott interview; Storm interview; Hogan interview.
  32. 32. Twenty-three percent of first-round trainees wanted more time. Two docents wished the more sensible form of training finalized by Historic Columbia had been possible the first time. Wright, “Results of WWFH Volunteer Training,” slide 5; Brazier interview; Docent Doe interview.
  33. 33. A lunch break separated the two sessions each day. Weekend staff adopted this format too.
  34. 34. Historic Columbia used the new model for its April, July, and September 2014 training programs. The interpretive team lectures replaced those of University of South Carolina faculty Ken Clements and Tom Brown. Porchia Moore offered different content but supported the sessions originally conducted by Daniella Page 263 →Cook. Historic Columbia also removed the expectation that docents should initially colead a tour with a small group, which offered the real environment of a tour but with staff support. Posner, email message to interpretive team, “April Staff Tours,” March 26, 2014; Taylor, email message to Posner and Quint, “April 7th-Training Session 1,” April 3, 2014; Taylor, email message to Posner, “June 2014 Volunteer Training Class,” June 24, 2014; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “WWFH Action Items,” May 21, 2014; Taylor, email message to Docent P and Jean Morgan, “WWFH June Follow-Up,” August 6, 2014; Waites, email message to volunteers, “WWFH June Follow-Up,” June 13, 2014; Posner, email message to Taylor and Quint, “Monday Afternoon Presentation with Portia,” April 9, 2014; Ann Posner, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home Training Schedule July 21 and 28,” Historic Columbia, July 15, 2014, Historic Columbia Collection; Blackwell, “Wilson Training Update”; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “WWFH Volunteer Feedback,” May 6, 2014; Wright, “Results of WWFH Volunteer Training,” slide 5; Bacon-Rogers interview; Taylor, email message to Bacon-Rogers, “Evaluations,” August 29, 2014; Betsy Kleinfelder, email message to volunteer docents, “Tour Coverage Needed and Training,” September 17, 2014.
  35. 35. Taylor, email message to interpretive team and Cook, “Revised Tour Review,” January 23, 2014; Sarah Blackwell, email message to Posner, Quint, and Taylor, “Volunteer Survey Review from Annie,” April 4, 2014.
  36. 36. This data is based on twenty-eight total evaluations of nineteen docents. Fifteen were volunteers, two were staff, and two were weekend staff. Sixteen passed the evaluation process. Additionally Daniella Cook evaluated two of those docents as well as one staff member and Docent U (a volunteer who did not pass the tour evaluation). She did not use the formal evaluation form, so her reflections on those evaluated are included but not factored into statistical analysis. I intentionally use gender-neutral plural pronouns to promote anonymity in the evaluation process. Jennifer Whitmer Taylor, “Docent B Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, February 20, 2014; James Quint, “Docent C Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, February 20, 2014; Ann Posner, “Docent F Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, March 4, 2014; Posner, “Docent G Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, March 6, 2014; Taylor, “Docent H Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, March 12, 2014; Posner, “Docent O Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, n.d.; Taylor, “Docent S Informal Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, June 18, 2014; J Taylor, “Docent S Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, July 18, 2014.
  37. 37. Posner, “Docent H Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, March 12, 2014; Taylor, “Docent I Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, March 17, 2014; Taylor, “Docent J Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, April 2, 2014; Taylor, “Docent K Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, October 30, 2014; Taylor, “Docent L Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, June 6, 2014; Posner, “Docent O Tour Review”; J Taylor, “Docent R Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, July 24, 2014; Taylor, “Docent S Informal Tour Review”; Cook, “Tour Observation,” 1.
  38. 38. Taylor, “Docent M Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, August 21, 2014; Posner, “Docent N Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, October 30, 2014, Historic Columbia; Posner and Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, February 11, 2014; Taylor, “Docent S Tour Review.”
  39. 39. Taylor, “Docent K Tour Review”; Posner, “Docent N Tour Review”; Posner and Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review,” Historic Page 264 →Columbia, March 26, 2014; John Sherrer, “Docent P Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, June 4, 2014; Taylor, “Docent S Tour Review.”
  40. 40. A stereoscope viewer creates a three-dimensional image from two different images at angles representing the left- and right-eye views. Taylor, “Docent I Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, June 4, 2014; Taylor, “Docent M Tour Review”; J Taylor, “Docent G Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, March 20, 2014.
  41. 41. Posner and Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent K Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review”; Zuczek, State of Rebellion, 50; Edgar, South Carolina, 397.
  42. 42. Taylor, “Docent R Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent L Tour Review” (quote); Taylor, “Docent S Tour Review.”
  43. 43. Posner, “Docent D Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, February 24, 2014; Wright, email message to Waites, “Feedback on the WWFH Tour”; Allison Marsh, email message to Waites, “Questions on Panels @ WWFH,” December 17, 2013; Docent Doe interview; Brazier interview; Bernadette Scott, email message to Taylor, “March Results,” May 1, 2015; Celia Galens, email message to Taylor, “Walt’s Tour,” June 12, 2014; Clark second interview.
  44. 44. Taylor, “Docent A Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, February 10, 2014; Taylor, “Docent G Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent L Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent M Tour Review”; Posner, “Docent N Tour Review”; Posner, email message to Taylor, “Jean Morgan,” August 21, 2014; Taylor, “Docent Q Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, October 1, 2014.
  45. 45. Taylor, “Docent K Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent R Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent S Informal Tour Review.”
  46. 46. Posner, “Docent B Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, February 20, 2014; Quint, “Docent C Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review,” March 26, 2014; Taylor, “Docent R Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent S Tour Review.”
  47. 47. Waites, email message to interpretive staff, “WWFH Trial Tours,” February 4, 2014; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “Guide Evaluations,” January 16, 2014; Cook, “Tour Observation,” 1; Posner, email message to Historic Columbia staff, “Please Be a ‘Audience Member,’” February 21, 2014.
  48. 48. Brazier interview; Taylor, email message to Posner, “Maria Schneider,” May 14, 2014; Posner, email message to Taylor, “Group Tour at Woodrow Wilson,” May 15, 2014; Kleinfelder, email message to Taylor and Posner, “Shadowing at WW,” August 14, 2014.
  49. 49. Taylor, “Docent A Tour Review”; Posner, “Docent B Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent E Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, February 28, 2014; Posner, “Docent F Tour Review”; Posner, “Docent G Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent G Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent H Tour Review”; Posner, “Docent H Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent I Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent J Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent K Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent L Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent M Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent S Informal Tour Review”; Taylor, email message to Kleinfelder and Holly Westcott, “Holly’s Evaluation,” October 30, 2014.
  50. 50. Taylor, “Docent K Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent I Tour Review”; Posner, “Docent N Tour Review”; Posner, email message to Taylor, “Jean Morgan,” August 21, 2014.
  51. 51. Page 265 →Taylor, “Docent B Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent E Tour Review”; Posner, “Docent G Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent G Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent H Tour Review”; Posner and Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review”; Freed, “Docent P Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, June 4, 2014; Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review,” June 4, 2014; Cook, “Tour Observation,” 2; Taylor, email message to Posner, “Docent P’s Evaluation,” March 14, 2014.
  52. 52. Posner, “Docent G Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent G Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent H Tour Review”; Posner, “Docent H Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent M Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent S Informal Tour Review.”
  53. 53. Posner, email message to Taylor, “Walt’s Evaluation 3/20/2014,” March 21, 2014; Taylor, email message to Posner, “Docent U,” March 5, 2014; Docent U, email message to Posner, “Woodrow Wilson Tour,” March 6, 2014; Posner, email message to Docent U, “WW Tour,” March 11, 2014; Cook, “Tour Observation,” 2; Taylor, email message to Posner, “Docent P’s Evaluation.”
  54. 54. As of February 2023, legislators in twenty-five states considered laws or other maneuvers to control how teachers teach race and racism. Eight Republican-controlled states banned or reduced the teaching of legal theories such as Critical Race Theory. Anthony Izaguirre, “Florida Gov. DeSantis Pushes Ban on Diversity Programs in State Colleges,” PBS NewsHour, January 31, 2023; “Florida Teachers Move to Block DeSantis Questions on CRT,” AP News, January 11, 2023.
  55. 55. At the time of the MoRE’s opening, Historic Columbia administered three other homes: the Mann-Simons Site, the Robert Mills House and Gardens, and Hampton-Preston Mansion and Gardens. Mills and Hampton-Preston were the most popular HHMs and focused on the household’s occupants and decorative arts, the more traditional style of HHM interpretation. The volunteer coordinator trained and approved volunteer docents, who shadowed tours and received a tour manual. New weekend docent hires shadowed weekend staff on tours and were evaluated by the weekend staff manager or director of education. In 2018 Historic Columbia reinterpreted its Hampton-Preston Mansion to center urban slavery within the household. This exhibit style and training resembles the MoRE. Historic Columbia, “Hampton-Preston Turns 200”; Historic Columbia, “House Tours.”
  56. 56. Clark second interview; Wright, “Results of WWFH Volunteer Training,” slide 6; Posner, email message to interpretive team, “WW Attendance Record,” January 15, 2014; Posner, “WW Volunteer Training Nov. 2013 Session 4,” January 15, 2014, Historic Columbia Collection.
  57. 57. Wilson’s home was so important to Docent U that they offered their schedule before passing the evaluation process and volunteered to work non-tour-related events at the home. Posner, email message to Waites, “WW Schedule,” January 31, 2014; Waites, email message to Posner, “WW Schedule,” January 31, 2014; Docent U, email message to Posner, “March Schedule,” February 18, 2014.
  58. 58. Kleinfelder, email message to Taylor, “Tour Coverage,” September 8, 2014; Kleinfelder, email message to Taylor, “WWFH Tour,” October 16, 2014; Taylor, email message to Kleinfelder, “WWFH Tour,” October 21, 2014; Taylor, email message to Posner, “Donna Stokes,” February 26, 2014; Kleinfelder, email message to Taylor, “Volunteers for WW Book Signing,” September 4, 2014.
  59. 59. Page 266 →Docent P, email message to Posner and Docent U, “Meeting with Ann,” March 25, 2014; Posner, forwarded email message to Taylor, “Meeting with Ann,” March 25, 2014.
  60. 60. Docent P needed tremendous support with content and themes and omitted half of the room statements. The second evaluation brought only slight improvement and only in selecting Wilson evidence. Taylor, email message to Posner, “Shadow Volunteers,” February 4, 2014; Posner and Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review,” March 26, 2014; Fielding Freed, “Docent P Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, April 18, 2014; Freed, “Docent P Tour Review,” June 4, 2014; Sherrer, “Docent P Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review,” June 4, 2014; Augusta tour information from Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 72–73; Herzberg, guided tour.
  61. 61. The docent’s progress declined to fair and/or needs support across the board on presentation and content, audience engagement, and to some degree procedures. Freed, “Docent P Tour Review.”
  62. 62. In most areas of content, timing, engagement, assessing the audience, and self-exploration, the docent ranked fair or between fair and good from all three evaluators. Drawn to controversial Reconstruction topics on previous evaluation tours, the docent spoke extensively on Sherman and the burning of Columbia. Freed, “Docent P Tour Review,” June 4, 2014; Sherrer, “Docent P Tour Review”; Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review,” June 4, 2014.
  63. 63. Taylor, email message to Posner, “Make Up Sessions,” May 14, 2014; Kleinfelder, email message to Taylor, “Tour Coverage,” September 8, 2014.
  64. 64. Lee interview.
  65. 65. Quint, email message to Erin Holmes, Jennifer Thraikill, and Halie Brazier, “WWFH Tours This Weekend,” February 18, 2014.
  66. 66. Posner, email message to Waites, “WW Volunteers,” December 19, 2013; Richardson, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Scott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Pris Stickney, email message to Waites, “WWFH,” June 25, 2014; Westcott interview; Holly Westcott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Schneider, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  67. 67. Stickney interview.
  68. 68. Morgan interview.
  69. 69. Clark first interview.
  70. 70. Posner, email message to Taylor and Quint, “WW Sample Tours,” February 26, 2014; Posner, email message to Taylor, “Make Up for Volunteers,” May 7, 2014; Posner, email message to Taylor, “Shadowing Jen Taylor’s Tours,” April 23, 2014; Posner, email message to Anne Weir et al., “Woodrow Wilson Training Session Make-Up,” May 14, 2014; Ray Hopkins, email message to Ann Posner, “Woodrow Wilson Training Session Make-Up,” May 14, 2014; Kleinfelder, email message to Taylor, “WWFH Tour,” October 16, 2014; Posner, email message to Vicki Cannon, “Vicki Cannon,” June 3, 2014.
  71. 71. Posner, email message to interpretive team, “July WW Schedule,” June 19, 2014; Posner, email message to Taylor, “Jean and Jeanette,” March 18, 2014; Jim Staskowski, email message, to Posner, “Tomorrow,” June 12, 2014.
  72. 72. Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 44; Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 97.
  73. 73. Waites, “WWFH Tour Training Opening 1.8.14”; document sent by Waites, email message to interpretive team, “WWFH General Calendar”; Cook, email Page 267 →message to Waites, “Follow Up from Training and Next Steps,” February 4, 2014; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “Volunteer/Staff Feedback Sessions,” April 17, 2014; Waites, email message to volunteers, “WWFH June Follow-Up”; Stickney, email message to Waites, “WWFH”; Clark second interview; Docent Doe interview; Kleinfelder, email message to Waites, “March Volunteer Meeting Notes,” March 5, 2015.
  74. 74. Clark second interview; Docent Doe interview; Hogan interview; Brazier interview.
  75. 75. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 92; Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 43–45.
  76. 76. Stickney interview; Hogan interview; Storm, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Storm interview; Clark first interview; Richardson, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Docent Doe interview; Holmes, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Brazier, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Menne, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Bacon-Rogers interview.
  77. 77. Gunter, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Clark first interview; Docent Doe interview. Gunter wrote her undergraduate thesis on Reconstruction in Mississippi.
  78. 78. Holmes, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Gunter interview.
  79. 79. Lee interview; Brazier interview.
  80. 80. Hogan interview; Westcott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Clark first interview.
  81. 81. Scott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Weir, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Menne, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Richardson, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Stickney, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  82. 82. Franklin Vagnone and Deborah Ryan argue that traditionally the majority of docents lack training as educators or performers. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 112; Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 44; Posner, email message to Waites, “WW Volunteers,” December 19, 2013; Richardson, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  83. 83. Morgan interview; Hogan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Scott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Westcott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Weir, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Posner, email message to Waites, “WW Volunteers,” December 19, 2013; Clark first interview.
  84. 84. Westcott interview; Lee interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Clark first interview; Clark second interview; Docent Doe interview; Morgan interview; Brazier interview; Zuczek, State of Rebellion, 62; Kimberly Johnson, “Ku Klux Klan Recruitment Drive Raises Old Fears in South Carolina,” Aljazeera America, August 1, 2014, http://america.aljazeera.com/; “KKK Drops Recruitment Candy Bags in Oconee Co. Neighborhood,” July 14, 2014, http://www.foxcarolina.com/; Carla Field, “Group Announces KKK Rally at Upstate ‘Headquarters,’” WYFF4, May 8, 2014, http://www.wyff4.com/; Andrew Reeser, “Klan Member Rides Across Two Upstate Towns Promoting Rebel Flag,” July 2, 2015, http://www.foxcarolina.com/.
  85. 85. Rhea, Stephen A. Swails, xii–xiii, 107–9, 128–31, 138–39, 142–44, 147–48, 150–51.
  86. 86. Clark first interview; Gina Smith, “Reconstruction History Long Ignored, Neglected: Are We Finally Ready to Talk?,” Island Packet, June 12, 2015; Jennifer Schuessler, “Taking Another Look at the Reconstruction Era,” New York Times, August 24, 2015.
  87. 87. Page 268 →Clark first interview.
  88. 88. Andrew, Wade Hampton, xiii, xi–xv, 500, 503–4.
  89. 89. Andrew, 499, 503; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 38–39; Poole, Never Surrender, 123.
  90. 90. Clark first interview.
  91. 91. Clark second interview.
  92. 92. Multiple authors reference the generations of students who read Oliphant’s textbooks. “Mary Oliphant, Author of S.C. History Text, Dies,” Columbia (SC) State, July 28, 1988, final edition, sec. Metro/Region; “Mary Simms Oliphant,” Columbia (SC) State, August 9, 1988, final edition; Will Moredock, “Palmetto State Mistaught Its Own History for Decades,” Columbia (SC) State, May 30, 2003, final edition, sec. editorial; Farmer, “Playing Rebels,” 57; Clark first interview.
  93. 93. Farmer, “Playing Rebels,” 57; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 168; Riley’s quote appeared in Oliphant’s obituaries. Associated Press, “Mary Simms Oliphant, 97, Author of S.C. Histories,” Charlotte Observer, July 28, 1988, six edition, sec. Metro; “Mary Oliphant, Author of S.C. History Text, Dies”; “Mary Simms Oliphant”; Moredock, “Palmetto State Mistaught Its Own History.”
  94. 94. Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 375; Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina, 244 (quote); B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 168.
  95. 95. Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina, 241; Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 285.
  96. 96. Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 283–91.
  97. 97. Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina,240, 243; Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 284, 291 (quote).
  98. 98. Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 290, 299, 305; “Robert Smalls House,” n.d., http://www.nationalregister.sc.gov.
  99. 99. The UDC also indoctrinated children with textbooks and membership in the Children of the Confederacy. Cox, Dixie’s Daughters, 1–5, 26, 29, 65, 95–99, 120–23.
  100. 100. Henry Eichel, “A Very Different S.C. History Textbook,” Charlotte Observer, December 1, 1985, sec. Viewpoint. #B; Michael Sponhour, “Professor Has Flair for History Flashy New Textbook Gains Teachers’ Favor,” State, August 18, 1991, sec. Metro/Region, 1A; Paul Tosto, “The History We Don’t Teach Confederate Flag an Invisible Issue in Most Schools,” State, January 26, 1997, sec. Front, A1; “Confederate Flag Isn’t an S.C. Classroom Issue,” Charlotte Observer, January 27, 1997, sec. Metro, 5C; Paul Tosto, “History Learns a Lesson: Blacks Also Built S.C.,” State, February 1, 1997, sec. Front, A1; Adam Parker, “Link to the Past - Perennial Debate Over Black History Month Is Considered Afresh,” Post and Courier, February 22, 2009, sec. Faith and Values, F1.
  101. 101. “Mary Simms Oliphant,” 8A; Bruce Smith, “S.C. Novelist Coker Is Honored Grand Lady and Writer Simms Inducted into Hall of Fame,” Charlotte Observer, February 8, 1992, 1C; “Mary Simms Oliphant, 97,” Associated Press, 5C; For quotes, see “Mary Oliphant, Author,” 1A.
  102. 102. Eichel, “Different S.C. History Textbook”; Moredock, “Palmetto State Mistaught Its Own History”; Will Moredock, “Mary C. Simms Oliphant’s Troubling History of South Carolina,” Charleston City Paper, May 9, 2012, sec. Opinion.
  103. 103. Page 269 →Cindy Sutter, “A Complex Relationship - Boulder Filmmaker Explores History of Slaveowners and Slaves on Her Ancestors’ Plantation,” Daily Camera, February 16, 2006, sec. Living and Arts, D01; Issac Bailey, “Textbooks Were ‘Racist to the Core’ - How S.C. Schools Taught History,” State, September 14, 2015, sec. Palmetto Voices, 17. Sutter, “Complex Relationship-Boulder”; Quote from Bailey, “Textbooks Were ‘Racist,’” 17 (quote).
  104. 104. B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 168; B. E. Baker, “Whom Is Reconstruction For?,” 20–21.
  105. 105. Westcott interview; Westcott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  106. 106. Docent Doe interview.
  107. 107. Brazier interview; Robles, “Dylann Roof.”
  108. 108. Bacon-Rogers interview; Posner, email message to Taylor, “Friday,” November 14, 2013; Ann Posner, “Docent F Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, March 4, 2014; Galens, email message to Taylor, “Walt’s Tour,” June 12, 2014.
  109. 109. Celia Galens, email message to Jennifer Taylor, “Walt’s Tour,” June 12, 2014.
  110. 110. Gunter interview; Holmes, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Morgan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  111. 111. Morgan interview; Morgan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  112. 112. Stickney interview; Weir, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Menne, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Storm, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  113. 113. Littlefield also consulted on the 2018–19 standards. Zais, “South Carolina Social Studies Academic Standards,” iii, iv; Spearman, “South Carolina Social Studies College-and Career-Ready Standards,” 164.
  114. 114. Shireese Bell, “District 5 Announces New Social Studies Coordinator,” Irmo-Seven Oaks, SC Patch, May 2, 2013, 5, https://patch.com/south-carolina/irmo/.
  115. 115. Taxonomy for Learning; Zais, “South Carolina Social Studies Academic Standards,” iii, 26, 36–37, 61, 66, 99, 103, 136–39; Vaughan, “Official Social Studies,” 120, https://scholarcommons.sc.edu.
  116. 116. Hogan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey” (“considerable controversy”); Hogan interview.
  117. 117. “WWFH Training Session Planning,” Historic Columbia Collection.
  118. 118. Vaughan, “Studies Curriculum Standards,” viii, 205–6, 122.
  119. 119. Paul Bowers, “Proposed S.C. Social Studies Standards Don’t Mention MLK, Rosa Parks or John C. Calhoun,” Post and Courier, February 2, 2018.
  120. 120. Charges the standards ignored the Holocaust and Nazism prompted revision. Bowers.
  121. 121. Spearman, “South Carolina Social Studies College-and Career-Ready Standards,” 28, 36–37, 73, 79–81, 111–14, 164.
  122. 122. Bacon-Rogers interview.
  123. 123. Clark second interview.
  124. 124. Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 43–44; Tyson, Wages of History, 5–6.
  125. 125. Tyson, Wages of History, 24, 172, 174.
  126. 126. Brazier interview; Posner, email message to Sherrer and Freed, “Make Up Tours,” February 18, 2014; Blackwell, email message to Waites, “Make Up Tours,” February 18, 2014; Quint, email message to Blackwell, “WWFH-Weekends,” March 14, 2014.
  127. 127. Bacon-Rogers interview; Holmes, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  128. 128. Tyson, Wages of History, 3–6, 8–9, 11, 14, 17, 19–20, 23–24, 172, 174–77.
  129. 129. Page 270 →Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 97; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “WWFH Follow Up,” December 7, 2013; Bacon-Rogers interview.
  130. 130. Posner, “March WW 2014 Calendar”; Posner, “April Woodrow Wilson Tours Calendar”; Posner, “May 2014 Woodrow Wilson Tours Calendar”; Posner, “June 2014 Woodrow Wilson Tours Calendar”; Posner, “July 2014 Woodrow Wilson Tours Calendar”; Posner, “September WW 2014 Calendar”; Kleinfelder, email message to interpretive team, “October Woodrow Wilson Schedule”; Kleinfelder, “November 2014–WWFH Calendar.”
  131. 131. Kleinfelder, email message to interpretive team, “February WWFH Schedule,” January 23, 2015; Kleinfelder, email message to interpretive team, “March Woodrow Wilson Schedule,” March 3, 2015; Kleinfelder, email message to interpretive team, “April WWFH Schedule,” March 17, 2015; Bacon-Rogers, email message to weekend staff, “Weekend Updates 6/27–6/28,” June 25, 2015. The new tour schedule launched April 7, 2015. “New Tour Times,” April 2015, Historic Columbia.
  132. 132. Bacon-Rogers and Allen, interview by Taylor, Zoom recording, May 11, 2023.
  133. 133. Bacon-Rogers and Allen.
  134. 134. Historic Columbia, “Hampton-Preston Mansion and Gardens”; Historic Columbia, “1615 Blanding Street”; Andrew, Wade Hampton, 3–4, 6–7, 11, 15–17.
  135. 135. Bacon-Rogers and Allen, Zoom interview.
  136. 136. Bacon-Rogers and Allen.

Chapter 4: Aren’t I a Citizen?

  1. 1. Deborah G. White, Ar’n’t I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South (New York: Norton, 1985), 5, 11.
  2. 2. Welter coined the term “cult of true womanhood,” and Kraditor coined “cult of domesticity.” Barbara Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860,” American Quarterly 18, no. 2 (July 1, 1966): 151–74; Aileen S. Kraditor, Up from the Pedestal: Selected Writings in the History of American Feminism (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1968), 8, 10–12; Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: “Woman’s Sphere” in New England, 1780-1835, 2nd ed. (Yale University Press, 1997), xii; Suzanne Lebsock, The Free Women of Petersburg: Status and Culture in a Southern Town, 1784-1860 (New York: Norton, 1984), xv; Joanne V. Hawks and Sheila L. Skemp, eds., Sex, Race, and the Role of Women in the South: Essays (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1983), 97, 102.
  3. 3. Other classes and races of women left few records, and being a lady carried far less weight in an underprivileged setting. Scott, Southern Lady, ix–xii, xv, 4–5, 247, 271–73; Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, xi–xii, 2–4, 9–13, 197, 200.
  4. 4. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 140.
  5. 5. Vagnone and Ryan, 76.
  6. 6. Posner, “WW Training Class April 2014”; Posner, “WW Volunteer Training Nov. 2013 Session 4”; Taylor, email message to Bacon-Rogers, “Evaluations,” August 29, 2014. This account of the cultural and language sensitivity workshops includes details from a History@Work blog post for the National Council on Public History. Jennifer Whitmer Taylor, “Inclusive Training at Historic Columbia,” National Council on Public History History@Work (blog), March 6, 2017, http://ncph.org/history-at-work/inclusive-training-at-historic-columbia/.
  7. 7. Page 271 →Waites, email message to interpretive team, “Dialoging about Race,” November 15, 2013.
  8. 8. Cook, email message to Waites, “Follow Up from Training and Next Steps,” February 4, 2014; McIntosh, “White Privilege.” Also in preparation for the workshop, Cook circulated a link to the second episode of the series Race: The Power of an Illusion on the construction of race and the contradictions of American independence and equality in the context of slavery. Episode 2, Race: The Power of an Illusion, uploaded by California Newsreel, YouTube, May 28, 2010, https://youtu.be/4UZS8Wb4S5k?si=bjQxzFCIBfXj4V4O; “Ten Things Everyone Should Know about Race,” California Newsreel, https://newsreel.org/guides/race/10things.htm (accessed September 4, 2024). A modification of the pamphlet “Cultural Etiquette: A Guide for the Well-Intentioned” by Amoja Three Rivers, the etiquette guide offered thirteen tips. Alison Bailey and Maura Toro-Morn, “Tour Guide Etiquette: A Guide for the Well Intentioned Volunteer,” n.d. (quotes); Amoja Three Rivers, “Cultural Etiquette: A Guide for the Well-Intentioned,” School of the Americas Watch, http://soaw.org.
  9. 9. Posner, email message to Taylor and Quint, “Monday Afternoon Presentation with Portia,” [sic] April 9, 2014; Quint, email message to Taylor and Posner, “Monday Afternoon Presentation with Portia,” April 9, 2014. The exercise in challenging assumptions was from Southern Poverty Law Center, Writing for Change, 29–32. Docents circled the “assumptions” in such sentences as “Fashion Tights are available in black, suntan, and flesh color” and “Our founding fathers carved this great state out of the wilderness” and explained their selections.
  10. 10. Posner, email message to Taylor and Quint, “Monday Afternoon,” April 9, 2014; Quint, email message to Taylor and Posner, “Monday Afternoon,” April 9, 2014. At the time Moore was a PhD candidate in library sciences at USC. Today she is assistant professor at the University of Florida in the School of Art + Art History and Museum Studies. Porchia Moore, “Radical Trust,” Incluseum (blog), May 7, 2014, https://incluseum.com/2014/05/07/radical-trust/.
  11. 11. Posner, email message to Waites, “WW Volunteers,” December 19, 2013.
  12. 12. Examples of privilege walk activities can be found here: “Privilege Walk Activity,” Inclusion and Diversity Education, Lakeland College, n.d., https://www.lakelandcollege.edu, accessed 10/7/2016; “Module 5: Privilege Walk Activity,” School of Social Welfare, University of Albany, n.d., http://www.albany.edu, accessed 10/7/2016.
  13. 13. Taylor, email message to Kleinfelder, “WWFH Tour,” October 21, 2014. The subject of the docent review email has been changed to keep the evaluation process confidential. Jennifer Taylor, email message to Ann Posner, “Docent A,” February 26, 2014; Taylor, “Docent A Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, February 10, 2014; Posner and Taylor, “Docent P Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, February 11, 2014; Cook, “Historic Columbia Foundation WWFH Tour Observation Report,” Columbia, SC, March 13, 2014, 2; Wright, “Results of WWFH Volunteer Training,” PowerPoint, Historic Columbia, March 10, 2014, Historic Columbia Collection.
  14. 14. Taylor, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home Trends,” slide 9.
  15. 15. Brazier interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Lee interview; Gunter interview.
  16. 16. Morgan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Westcott interview; Weir, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Docent Doe interview; Scott, “Historic Columbia Page 272 →Docent Survey”; Storm interview; Stickney interview; Hogan interview; Clark first interview; Clark second interview; Taylor, “Docent I Tour Review.”
  17. 17. Brazier interview; Bacon-Rogers, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Holmes, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  18. 18. Morgan interview. For an introduction to the Mann-Simons site, see “Mann-Simons Site,” Historic Columbia, http://www.historiccolumbia.org.
  19. 19. Brazier interview; Docent Doe interview; Lee interview; Gunter interview.
  20. 20. Hogan interview; Scott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Weir, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Richardson, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Stickney, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Clark first interview; Westcott interview.
  21. 21. Gunter interview; Hogan interview; Storm interview; Clark first interview.
  22. 22. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 45, 72; Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 34–35, 38–39, 42, 46–47, 50, 57–58, 67, 72, 212n7.
  23. 23. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 76, 139–41 (quotes); Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 11, 48; Taylor, email message to Waites, “WWFH Follow Up,” December 27, 2013; Lee interview; McPherson, Reconstructing Dixie, 5, 7.
  24. 24. Wamsley, “Staunton’s Indomitable Mrs. Herbert McK. Smith.”
  25. 25. Cynthia Polhill, the coordinator of visitor services and a twelve-year veteran of the WWPLM, conducted my tour. Polhill, guided tour, Woodrow Wilson Birthplace, Staunton, Virginia, June 18, 2015; Polhill, “Behind-the-Scenes Tour”; Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 49; Phillips, “Behind-the-Scenes Tour”; Brown, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, 5, 7, 23.
  26. 26. Polhill, guided tour, Woodrow Wilson Birthplace; Brown, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, 11.
  27. 27. Brown, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, 23 (emphasis added); Scott, “Reimagining Freedom,” 74.
  28. 28. Eichstedt, “Museums and (In)Justice,” 128. This study evaluated 130 plantation museums or related sites.
  29. 29. Jennifer Eichstedt, “Museums and (In)Justice,” 128, quote 131.
  30. 30. Brown, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, 7; Berg, Wilson, 30.
  31. 31. Wilson to Thomas Woodrow, April 27, 1857, Woodrow Wilson Papers, Presidential Papers Microfilm, S. 2 P. 4; Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 39.
  32. 32. Herzberg, guided tour, Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home, Augusta, GA, May 28, 2015; Montgomery, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 18, 39, 41, 53–54.
  33. 33. Toegel, guided tour, President Woodrow Wilson House, Washington, DC, June 20, 2015.
  34. 34. Taylor, “Notes from Meeting with Betty van Iersel,” President Woodrow Wilson House, Washington, DC, June 20, 2015.
  35. 35. Berg, Wilson, 704, 737.
  36. 36. EWB to Mrs. H. McK. Smith, 1954, folder 28, 1954, EWBP.
  37. 37. President Wilson House, “Tours.”
  38. 38. Bacon-Rogers interview; Gunter interview; Morgan interview; Brazier interview.
  39. 39. Hogan interview; Brazier interview; “Domestic Service,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014; Sanborn Map Company, “Image 56 of Sanborn Fire Insurance Map”; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour Jen’s Revision,” Historic Columbia, December 10, 2013, 7; Blackwell, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour-SAB Edits per 12.11.13 Meeting,” Historic Columbia, December 11, Page 273 →2013, 5; Waites, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour Jen’s Revision 2 Dec 16 RW Notes,” Historic Columbia, December 20, 2013, 4; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour 01 31 14 Working Draft,” Historic Columbia, January 31, 2014, 9; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour 02 06 14 Working Draft,” Historic Columbia, February 6, 2014, 9; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour Second Training Version,” Historic Columbia, April 2014, 9; Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “WWFH Adult Tour Summer Revision Marking Changes RW JMS Comments,” Historic Columbia, June 3, 2014, 12; Taylor, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home Adult Tour Script,” Historic Columbia, June 13, 2014, 12.
  40. 40. Storm interview; Clark, Second Interview; Docent Doe interview; Stickney interview.
  41. 41. Gunter interview; Holmes, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  42. 42. Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 60.
  43. 43. O. Cox, “‘Downton Boom,’” 113, 116.
  44. 44. Bacon-Rogers interview.
  45. 45. O. Cox, “‘Downton Boom,’” 115.
  46. 46. Gunter interview.
  47. 47. J. Jones, Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow, 56, 58–59; Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage, 9–11, 139, 150–51, 168–69, 172–73.
  48. 48. Bacon-Rogers interview; Gunter interview; Storm interview.
  49. 49. Brazier interview; Gunter interview; Hogan interview.
  50. 50. Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour Jen’s Dec 30 Revision,” Historic Columbia, December 30, 2013, 6; Taylor, “Tour 01 31 14 Working Draft,” 10–11; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour 02 04 14 Working Draft,” Historic Columbia, February 4, 2014, 10–11; Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “Marking Changes RW JMS,” 10; Taylor, “WWFH Script,” June 13, 2014, 12.
  51. 51. Taylor, “WWFH Script,” December 10, 2013, 7; Blackwell, “Tour-SAB Edits,” 5; Waites, “Revision 2 Dec 16 RW Notes,” 4; Taylor, “Tour Jen’s Dec. 30 Revision,” 5; Clark second interview; Stickney, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Brazier interview; Morgan interview; Hogan interview; Stickney interview; Jones, Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow, 52, 59, 77–78; “Marriage Divorce Orphans,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014.
  52. 52. Taylor, “WWFH Script,” December 10, 2013, 7; Blackwell, “Tour-SAB Edits,” 5; Waites, “Revision 2 Dec 16 RW Notes,” 4; “Domestic Service” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014.
  53. 53. Posner, “Docent D Tour Review”; Posner, “Docent N Tour Review”; Morgan interview; Docent Doe interview; Redfield, “Thoughts on the Scrip[t].”
  54. 54. Waites, “WWFH-Tour Review First Floor DC,” January 21, 2014, Historic Columbia Collection; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour 01 10 14 Post Volunteer,” Historic Columbia, January 10, 2014, 7.
  55. 55. Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 47, 63, 64.
  56. 56. “Domestic Service” panel; Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 52–53; Docent Doe, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  57. 57. Bacon-Rogers interview; Docent Doe interview; John Sherrer, “Woodrow Wilson’s Perspectives on African Americans,” January 8, 2016, Historic Columbia Collection.
  58. 58. Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 62–63.
  59. 59. Wright, email message to Waites, “Feedback on the WWFH Tour,” March 18, 2014; Freed, email message to Sherrer, Taylor, and Blackwell, “Tour Notes,” Page 274 →January 24, 2014; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “WWFH Action Items,” May 21, 2014; Robin Waites, email message to Cook et al., “WWFH Notes from Guides,” April 21, 2014; Waites, email message to volunteers, “WWFH June Follow-Up,” June 13, 2014; Waites, email message to volunteer docents, “Follow Up from WWFH Feedback Sessions,” May 27, 2014; Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “Marking Changes RW JMS,” 12; Docent Doe interview; Stickney interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Morgan interview. One volunteer ignored the portrait and gravitated to a formal dress as an example of expensive popular fashion requiring special labor. Redundancy deterred another, since the citizenship video in the next room also highlighted the image. Westcott interview; Clark second interview.
  60. 60. Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 60–62.
  61. 61. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll, 413–23, 459–61; Clinton, Plantation Mistress, 201, 204, 209, 211–14, 220–22; Jones, “My Mother Was Much of a Woman,” 248; Giddings, When and Where I Enter, 33–34, 37, 39, 43, 45; White, Ar’n’t I a Woman?, 5, 9–10, 33–39, 61, 146; Fox-Genovese, Within the Plantation Household, 189, 292, 294, 323, 325–26; Jennings, “Us Colored Women,” 45–74; Jones, “Race, Sex and Self-Evident Truths,” 23–24; King, “Suffer with Them,” 148, 158–59.
  62. 62. Jones, “My Mother Was Much of a Woman,” 248; White, Ar’n’t I a Woman?, 41–43; Jennings, “Us Colored Women,” 56, 63. Glymph was far less forgiving than Fox-Genovese of the plantation mistress’s violence. Fox-Genovese, Within the Plantation Household, 22–24, 96–97, 139–42, 309, 314–15, 379–80; Glymph, House of Bondage, 26, 54, 58–59.
  63. 63. Jones, “Race, Sex and Self-Evident Truths,” 23. For a discussion of sexual assault at the hands of younger male members of a slave-owning family, see Jennings, “Us Colored Women,” 62–63, 66; Fox-Genovese, Within the Plantation Household, 295; Davis, Inhuman Bondage, 201.
  64. 64. Clinton, “Whip in His Hand,” 206–11; Clinton, Tara Revisited, 36, 128–30; White, Ar’n’t I a Woman?, 164; Feimster, Southern Horrors, 17, 20–22.
  65. 65. White, Ar’n’t I a Woman?, 174–77; Giddings, When and Where I Enter, 30–31; Hine, “Rape and the Inner Lives,” 912–14, 916. See also Clinton’s body of work in the 1990s (“Bloody Terrain,” 315–18, 321, 326, 328–32; “Reconstructing Freed-women,” 310–12, 315–19; “With a Whip in His Hand,” 206–11); Cardyn, “Sexualized Racism/Gendered Violence,” 716–19; McGuire, “Us Had Been Raped,” 908–9; Rosen, Terror in the Heart of Freedom, 8, 10, 52–53, 62, 67–70, 212–18, 224; Feimster, Southern Horrors, 1, 49–51, 81–85, 89–103, 116–18, 203–5.
  66. 66. Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow, 68–69, 82–88, 105–13; Feimster, Southern Horrors, 130–35; 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission, “1898 Wilmington Race Riot—Final Report,” North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Office of Archives and History, Raleigh, May 31, 2006), 156, http://www.history.ncdcr.gov.
  67. 67. The five women who testified were Rebecca Ann Bloom, Harriet Armour, Lucy Tibbs, Lucy Smith, and Frances Thompson. Rosen, Terror in the Heart of Freedom, 1, 4–5, 6 (quote), 8–9, 61–62, 69–73, 77–82, 202–20, 224–33, 247–48n19; Bond and O’Donovan, Remembering the Memphis Massacre, 1; Rosen, “Words of Resistance,” in Remembering the Memphis Massacre, 102–4, 107–10, 113.
  68. 68. Blank, “Do the Words ‘Race Riot’”; Bond and O’Donovan, Remembering the Memphis Massacre, 1–3.
  69. 69. Jamie Self and Sammy Fretwell, “Essie Mae Washington-Williams, Daughter of Late US Senator, Dies,” February 4, 2013, www.thestate.com; The Associated Page 275 →Press, “National Briefing | South: South Carolina: Biracial Child Added To Thurmond Monument,” New York Times, June 29, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/.
  70. 70. Pustz, Voices from the Back Stairs, 65; Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 82 (quotes); Gunter, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Taylor, “General Overview of Reconstruction Lecture and Questions to Consider,” November 2013, slide 11; Waites, “Tour Review First Floor.”
  71. 71. Rosen details South Carolina upstate Klan members rape of Black women in retaliation for Black men exercising their voting rights and hiding in the woods during a wave of terror. Rosen, Terror in the Heart of Freedom, 216–17.
  72. 72. Vagnone and Ryan note that rape and other “difficult events” like war, slavery, and political unrest affected people who occupied historic house museums in the past, but the stories are often ignored in favor of sharing “the good times of a place.” They also write that historic house museums must embrace inclusivity, both in their interpretation and staffing, to reach minority and neighborhood communities. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide, 76, 82.

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