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Rebirth: Creating the Museum of the Reconstruction Era and the Future of the House Museum: Chapter 5: Interpreting Domestic Terror

Rebirth: Creating the Museum of the Reconstruction Era and the Future of the House Museum
Chapter 5: Interpreting Domestic Terror
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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

Chapter 5: Interpreting Domestic Terror

  1. 1. Christina Marcos, “Pelosi: Trump Is a ‘Clear and Present Danger,’” The Hill, January 13, 2021, https://thehill.com/.
  2. 2. Associated Press, “Transcript of Trump’s Speech,” https://www.usnews.com.
  3. 3. Natasha Bertrand, “Justice Department Warns of National Security Fallout from Capitol Hill Insurrection,” Politico, January 7, 2021, https://www.politico.com/.
  4. 4. Marshall Cohen, “Questions Swirl Around Possible ‘Insider’ Help for Capitol Attack,” CNN, January 13, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/.
  5. 5. Jaclyn Diaz, Bill Chappell, and Elena Moore, “Police Confirm Death Of Officer Injured During Attack On Capitol,” NPR, January 7, 2021, https://www.npr.org/.
  6. 6. Specific attacks include poisoning a water supply with cyanide and bombing infrastructure, a nuclear power plant, and the Hoover Dam. Belew, Bring the War Home, 1–10, 15–16, 184, 210, 216, 221, 224, 231–34, 236–37, 239; Pineda, “Turner Diaries,” https://www.latimes.com.
  7. 7. In 2018 the Southern Poverty Law Center’s census identified 1,020 hate groups, the most since the survey began in 1990. In 2019 the Department of Homeland Security added the movement to its priority list of threats to the United States. In 2020 Belew and the Homeland Security threat assessment both agreed that white supremacy was the greatest terrorist threat to the country. Heidi Beirich, GPAHE’s founder, political scientist, and an expert in white supremacist movements, agreed that the movement was “more energized and emboldened than it has been in decades.” In October more officials, including FBI director Christopher Wray, confirmed their concern over white supremacy’s threat and relationship to violence. Brooks, “SPLC Testifies Before Congress”; Beirich, “Testimony of Heidi L. Beirich,” 1–2, 22; Mark Hosenball, “Acting U.S. DHS Security Intelligence Chief Says He Agrees with FBI on White Supremacist Threat,” Reuters, October 2, 2020; Kathleen Belew, “The Plot Against Whitmer Won’t Be the Last White Supremacist Threat,” Washington Post, October 8, 2020; Pineda, “‘Turner Diaries’ Didn’t.”
  8. 8. Brooks, “SPLC Testifies before Congress”; Belew, Bring the War Home, 238.
  9. 9. “WWFH Training Session Planning,” Historic Columbia, November 13, 2013, Historic Columbia Collection.
  10. 10. Page 276 →Clinton, “Bloody Terrain,” 314; Zuczek, State of Rebellion, 3–6; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 6, 11–12, 87, 89, 108–9, 145, 147, 158–60, 162.
  11. 11. The official version is a product of cultural leaders, mostly comprising middle-class professionals, who use memory and commemorations, such as anniversaries, monument dedications, landmark designations, reunions, and centennials, to create an idealized reality that can control anxiety over change, promote their goals or reinforce the status quo, eliminate threats to that goal or messaging, and foster citizenship. Vernacular stems from “firsthand experience in small-scale communities” and expresses what “social reality feels like rather that what it should be like.” Bodnar, Remaking America, 13–16, 19, 246.
  12. 12. Author visit to Oakley Park, Edgefield, SC, June 2014; Porter Barron Jr., Oakley Park Museum and Red Shirt Shrinein “Day Trips! 17 Neat Places to Visit That Aren’t Very Far from Columbia,” Free Times, May 7, 2014, http://www.free-times.com; Associated Press, “Nevada Rancher Standoff Turns on a States’ Rights Debate,” CBS News, April 14, 2014, http://www.cbsnews.com.
  13. 13. In addition to seditious conspiracy, the fourteen men in the Fort Smith trial stood accused of interstate transport of stolen money and conspiracy to manufacture illegal weapons and murder federal officers. Belew, Bring the War Home, 172–73, 237.
  14. 14. Blee, Women of the Klan, 2; Cox, Dixie’s Daughters, 1, 3, 5, 26, 29, 65, 95–99, 120, 122–23.
  15. 15. Cox, Dixie’s Daughters, 2, 4; Blight, Race and Reunion, 390, 397; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 12, 145, 158–60, 162; Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow, xix–xx, 82–90.
  16. 16. Belew, Bring the War Home, 8, 157–61, 166–70, 173–77, 180–81, 217. Blee argues that Indiana Klanswomen of the 1920s were more than racists and nativists. These white Protestant members believed the Klan would protect women’s suffrage and expand women’s rights. Blee, Women of the Klan, 1–3.
  17. 17. Clark first interview.
  18. 18. Writers’ Program, South Carolina, v, 6, 9; Hirsch, Portrait of America, 1, 6–7, 9, 48, 51–54, 56, 58, 125; DuBose, interview by Office of Oral History, South Caroliniana Library.
  19. 19. Hirsch, Portrait of America, 189 (quotes), 191; Duck, Nation’s Region, 52, 57, 61, 74 (last quote).
  20. 20. Writers’ Program, South Carolina, v, vii, 8–13 (quote from original preface); Hirsch, Portrait of America, 123, 125–26, 188–89.
  21. 21. Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina, 234–44; Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 85–90, 299, 305; Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 38–41.
  22. 22. Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina, 245–46; Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 291–92.
  23. 23. Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 38–41, 254, 399, 426.
  24. 24. “Political Terrorism,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014.
  25. 25. Edgar, South Carolina, 398; B. E. Baker, This Mob Will Surely, 17–18, 23–24; Zuczek, State of Rebellion, 56; Parsons, Ku-Klux, 103, 115, 230–31, 233, 236, 288.
  26. 26. Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina, 245–46; Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 291–92.
  27. 27. Zuczek, State of Rebellion, 88–89; Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 384.
  28. 28. Page 277 →The three representatives were Samuel Nuckles, Junius Mobley, and Simeon Farr. During this time state representative Samuel Nuckles received a threat. The home invasion took place at Silas Hawkins’s Yellow House following rumors that armed Black men were there. Parsons, Ku-Klux, 235, 244–54, 256, 260; B. E. Baker, This Mob Will Surely, 9, 15–16, 18, 20–33, 35–39; Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 401.
  29. 29. Parsons, Ku-Klux, 24–25, 163, 236, 264–65, 291–92, 294; Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 401.
  30. 30. Parsons, Ku-Klux, 23, 87, 218, 233–35, 237, 239–41, 249, 255–56, 259, 262, 265–66, 269, 276, 278, 280–82, 292, 294. Baker analyzes seven lynchings in the Carolinas from 1871 to 1930 through the peak of the lynching epidemic. B. E. Baker, This Mob Will Surely, 1, 4–5, 14, 17.
  31. 31. In New Orleans, for example, the local White League defended their armed but short-lived coup d’état (which was memorialized as the Battle of Liberty Place) because the biracial, Republican-controlled police seized a secret arms purchase. The White League also sent messages to white allies who were in biracial coalitions. Emberton, “‘Violent Bear It Away,’” 169–70, 172; Prince, “Memory Battles,” 190–91.
  32. 32. Emberton, “‘Violent Bear It Away,’” 173; Prince, “Memory Battles,” 190–91.
  33. 33. “The Red Shirt Campaign,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014.
  34. 34. Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina, 248; Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 294.
  35. 35. Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 160–63; Zuczek, State of Rebellion, 163–64, 175–76.
  36. 36. Barron, “Day Trips!”
  37. 37. “The Red Shirt Campaign” panel; B. E. Baker, This Mob Will Surely, 39.
  38. 38. Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 160 (quote), 161–163; Zuczek, State of Rebellion, 163–64, 175–76; B. E. Baker, This Mob Will Surely, 39.
  39. 39. Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina, 249; Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 294.
  40. 40. Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 297.
  41. 41. WPA Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 161–63.
  42. 42. WPA Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 165–66.
  43. 43. WPA Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 267–69.
  44. 44. As Poole describes the scene, a “shadowy figure flung off its chains and cast aside its robe of mourning, revealing a beautiful young woman, white of skin, dressed in gauzy white, and wearing a tiara emblazoned with words South Carolina.” He places the battle cry later that evening. Poole, Never Surrender, 116-117.
  45. 45. Poole, Never Surrender, 48, 126–28, 130–32.
  46. 46. Tour 9 included two sites: the Hampton family plantation, Millwood, and the governor’s last home. The tour also detailed his life, doubts about slavery, and war service, including evacuating Columbia and being falsely accused by Sherman of burning the city. Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 375–76, 454.
  47. 47. Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina, 249; Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 38–41, 216–17.
  48. 48. “Resistance Organizations,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014; “The Red Shirt Campaign” panel; B. E. Baker, This Mob Will Surely, 39.
  49. 49. Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina, 250–251 (quotes); Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 295.
  50. 50. Page 278 →B. E. Baker, This Mob Will Surely, 9, 15, 39–40; “Remembering ‘Redemption,’” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014; Historic Columbia, “Wade Hampton III Monument,” HistoricColumbia.org, accessed July 6, 2021, https://www.historiccolumbia.org; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 41–43.
  51. 51. Westcott interview; Clark second interview; Hogan interview; Stickney interview; Storm interview.
  52. 52. Poole, Never Surrender, 122–24, 173.
  53. 53. Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 36, “The Red Shirt,” Museum and Library of Confederate History.
  54. 54. Storm interview; Hogan interview; Morgan interview; Gunter interview.
  55. 55. Brazier interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Gunter interview; Storm, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Belew, Bring the War Home, 168.
  56. 56. Bacon-Rogers interview; Brazier interview; Posner, email message to Taylor, “Friday,” November 14, 2013; Galens, email message to Taylor, “Walt’s Tour,” June 12, 2014. Walt revealed during training while speaking with evaluators that he was not sure if he wanted to mention his family connections.
  57. 57. Lee interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Morgan interview.
  58. 58. Brazier interview; Clark second interview.
  59. 59. Brennan Center for Justice, “It’s Official”; Grimmer, “No Evidence for Voter Fraud”; Bump, “Despite GOP Rhetoric,” https://www.washingtonpost.com.
  60. 60. Gunter interview; Storm interview; Morgan interview; Bacon-Rogers interview (quotes); Taylor, “Docent I Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, March 17, 2014.
  61. 61. Docent Doe interview.
  62. 62. Thompson, Ousting the Carpetbagger, 59; Bacon-Rogers interview; Sherrer, “Wilson’s Perspectives on African Americans,” January 8, 2016, Historic Columbia Collection.
  63. 63. Sherrer, “Wilson’s Perspectives on African Americans.”
  64. 64. Clark second interview; Docent Doe interview; Bacon-Rogers, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  65. 65. Morgan interview; Stickney interview; Bacon-Rogers interview.
  66. 66. Conn, Do Museums Still Need Objects? 43.
  67. 67. Brazier interview.
  68. 68. Christopher Blank, “Do the Words ‘Race Riot’ Belong on A Historic Marker In Memphis?,” NPR.org, May 2, 2016, http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/05/02/476450908/in-memphis-a-divide-over-how-to-remember-a-massacre-150-years-later.
  69. 69. Bacon-Rogers interview; Hogan interview; Nast, Union as It Was; Nast, One Vote Less; “Political Terrorism” panel.
  70. 70. Lee interview; Hogan interview; Stickney interview; Brazier interview; Clark first interview.
  71. 71. Hogan interview; Stickney interview; Clark first interview.
  72. 72. Brazier interview; Bacon-Rogers interview.
  73. 73. Brazier interview; Gunter interview; Lee interview.
  74. 74. Gunter interview; Lee interview.
  75. 75. Gunter interview; Storm interview.
  76. 76. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 76.
  77. 77. Brooks, “SPLC Testifies Before Congress”; Beirich, “Testimony of Heidi L. Beirich,” 13–14.
  78. 78. Page 279 →Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to institute the zero-tolerance policy requested by the Southern Poverty Law Center and forty members of Congress in 2006. The Pentagon denied problems after forty-six active-duty members identified themselves as New Saxons. By 2008 the FBI revealed in a report titled “White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11” that there were more than a dozen investigations and crimes involving veterans and active-duty personnel. They discovered two hundred neo-Nazis with military training. Beirich, “Testimony of Heidi L. Beirich,” 6–7, 13–14.
  79. 79. Beirich, 15, 19.
  80. 80. Trump condemned the Proud Boys and other “Western chauvinists” two days later. Hosenball, “Acting U.S. DHS Security”; Belew, Bring the War Home, 237; Belew, “Plot Against Whitmer”; Kathleen Belew and Elizabeth Neumann, “Leaving Trump in Office Now Will Just Encourage White Nationalists,” Washington Post, January 8, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/; Pineda, “‘Turner Diaries’ Didn’t.”
  81. 81. Brooks, “SPLC Testifies Before Congress”; Beirich, “Testimony of Heidi L. Beirich,” 10, 13.
  82. 82. Adam Serwer, “The Capitol Rioters Weren’t ‘Low Class,’” The Atlantic, January 12, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/; “The End of Reconstruction,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014; Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina, 245–46, 249; Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 291–92, 294; Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 38–41, 254, 426.
  83. 83. Zuczek, State of Rebellion, 101–2, 179; Edgar, South Carolina, 401–4.
  84. 84. “The End of Reconstruction” panel; Oliphant, Simms History of South Carolina, 245–46, 249; Oliphant, Furman, and Oliphant, History of South Carolina, 291–92, 294; Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 38–41, 254, 426.
  85. 85. As well as a violent white supremist, Tillman was a passionate orator and “crude champion of the farmer,” whose populism included the advancement of scientific agriculture and manufacturing schools in the New South. Poole, Never Surrender, 157–60, 162–63, 172–73, 175–76; Prince, “Memory Battles,” 193–96; Emberton, Beyond Redemption, 208; Serwer, “Capitol Rioters.” Though Tillman is not featured on the panels, they do include the Hamburg massacre, Martin W. Gary, and the 1895 state constitution. “Red Shirt Campaign” panel; “End of Reconstruction” panel.
  86. 86. Most of the Beirich’s recommendations spoke to stronger screening measures, data collection, reporting, tracking, enforcement, and study by the military. Beirich, “Testimony of Heidi L. Beirich,” 17–18, 20–21.
  87. 87. In addition Belew also recommended a swift investigation of infiltration into law enforcement and the military. Belew and Neumann, “Leaving Trump in Office.”
  88. 88. Sturken, Tourists of History, 1–7, 9, 12, 16–17, 25, 31, 94–95, 141.
  89. 89. William Luther Pierce, head of the neo-Nazi group the National Alliance, published the book under a pseudonym. Belew, Bring the War Home, 35, 56–59, 11, 110–11, 210, 212, 214, 224; Belew and Neumann, “Leaving Trump in Office”; Pineda, “‘Turner Diaries’ Didn’t.”
  90. 90. Belew and Neumann, “Leaving Trump in Office”; Pineda, “‘Turner Diaries’ Didn’t.”
  91. 91. Associated Press, “Transcript of Trump’s Speech.”
  92. 92. Associated Press, “Transcript of Trump’s Speech.”

Page 280 →Chapter 6: Interpreting the Craft

  1. 1. Brazier interview.
  2. 2. Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility,” 51.
  3. 3. Cook, “WWFH Tour Observation Report,” 3.
  4. 4. Lee interview.
  5. 5. Bacon-Rogers interview.
  6. 6. Brazier interview; Morgan interview; Docent Doe interview.
  7. 7. Clark second interview.
  8. 8. Lee interview; Brazier interview; Gunter interview.
  9. 9. Grantham, “Southern Historiography,” 253–54; O’Brien, “C. Vann Woodward,” 591–92; Kirby, Media-Made Dixie, 8; Van Tassel, “From Learned Society to Professional Organization,” 931, 933, 943, 946, 954; G. E. Hale, Making Whiteness, 73; Blight, Race and Reunion, 295, 357–59; “New Beginning, 1892–1945,” 83–84; Berg, Wilson, 93–94; Smith, introduction, 3, 9, 21, 36.
  10. 10. Ayers, What Caused the Civil War? 148.
  11. 11. Smith, introduction, 4–6, 37–38.
  12. 12. Grantham, “Southern Historiography,” 253; Blight, Race and Reunion, 295; Van Tassel, “From Learned Society to Professional Organization,” 943, 946; Smith, introduction, 4, 14–18.
  13. 13. Ayers, What Caused the Civil War? 147; “New Beginning, 1892–1945,” 84–85; Behrend, “Facts and Memories,” 428–29; Grantham, “Southern Historiography,” 254; G. E. Hale, Making Whiteness, 75, 80–81; Smith, introduction, 38.
  14. 14. B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant: 33–36; B. E. Baker, “Whom Is Reconstruction For?,” 17–18; Smith, introduction, 7, 9, 16, 20, 25, 38.
  15. 15. Macaulay, “South Carolina Reconstruction Historiography,” 20–21, 28; Lowery, “Paul Leland Haworth,” 211; Smith, introduction, 3, 9, 21, 36; “Politics and the Press,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014.
  16. 16. Allen used select documents, letters, speeches, and newspaper clippings to write Governor Chamberlain’s Administration in South Carolina. Macaulay, “South Carolina Reconstruction Historiography,” 21–22; Lowery, “Paul Leland Haworth,” 211.
  17. 17. Dunning directed eight dissertations on Reconstruction in individual states, ten theses on aspects of the Civil War or Reconstruction, several others on other topics in southern history, and numerous dissertations on political theory. Most theses were the first scholarly discussions of their topics, especially on the state level. Ulrich B. Phillips is Dunning’s most famous student. John David Smith and J. Vincent Lowery’s 2013 chronological anthology on the Dunning School includes a historical reassessment of the founders and eight Columbia doctoral students and their dissertations. Smith, introduction, 1–3, 8–9, 21, 25, 36–37.
  18. 18. Macaulay, “South Carolina Reconstruction Historiography,” 21, 23; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 36–37; Lowery, “Paul Leland Haworth,” 211.
  19. 19. Haworth took a break from history to farm and write about wilderness adventures. He involved himself in Progressive causes and served in the Indiana state legislature in 1921–22. Afterward he spent the last fifteen years of his life in the Department of History and Political Science at Butler University. Lowery, “Paul Leland Haworth,” 203, 211–12, 215–19, 221–23.
  20. 20. Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation,” 690–91; Benbow, “Birth of a Quotation,” 525, 526–27.
  21. 21. Page 281 →“Woodrow Wilson on Reconstruction,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, Columbia, 2014.
  22. 22. Wilson’s essay was first published in Atlantic Monthly in January 1901. Wilson, “Reconstruction of the Southern States,” 368, 379, 388–389, 392–394.
  23. 23. Fifty years after the Red Shirt movement began, Henry T. Thompson published Ousting the Carpetbagger from South Carolina, which heavily drew on Reynolds’s and Ambrose Taylor’s scholarship but neglected Gary. Three years later Bowers, Tragic Era, depicted Gary as “the grimly practical politician quietly superintending the machinery of the movement,” while Hampton became the symbol. In 1952 an English professor at Winthrop, Hampton M. Jarrell, revived the Gary debate in Wade Hampton and the Negro, which attacked Gary and praised Hampton’s moderation. Another extremist view on Gary was Sheppard’s Red Shirts Remembered. Macaulay, “South Carolina Reconstruction Historiography,” 26, 27 (quote), 30–32.
  24. 24. The work of Charles and Mary Beard and David Duncan Wallace’s three-volume History of South Carolina (1934) were also part of the economic turn. Macaulay, “South Carolina Reconstruction Historiography,” 28–30; Ayers, What Caused the Civil War? 147–48, 157; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 110, 117–18, 123–24, 128–32, 145; B. E. Baker, “Whom Is Reconstruction For?,” 25–27.
  25. 25. Smith, introduction, 3, 9, 31, 35–36, 39; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 146–47, 149, 155–57.
  26. 26. Smith, introduction, 36; Baker and Frantz, “Against Synthesis,” 219–20; Foner, Reconstruction.
  27. 27. Domby and Lewis, Freedoms Gained and Lost, 4–5, 11–12; Pinheiro, “Idealism versus Material,” 144–45, 150–53.
  28. 28. Ayers also identified ten commonalities of “reconstructions.” Ayers, What Caused the Civil War? 148, 155–62, 164–65; Doyle, “International History,” 181–83; Domby, “Lessons from ‘Redemption,’” 233, 236–37, 239–41. Academic Dr. Nicolau Joaquim Moreira, US consul to Brazil Henry Washington Hilliard, and engineer and writer André Rebouças were central to spreading this narrative. Pinto-Handler, “Dream of a Rural Democracy,” 212–24; Roberts, I’ve Been Here All the While.
  29. 29. Ayers, What Caused the Civil War? 147–48, 157; Baker and Frantz, “Against Synthesis,” 218–21, 225–30, 232–33, 237–40, 242–44; Domby and Lewis, Freedoms Gained and Lost, 3–5; Domby, “Lessons from ‘Redemption,’” 3, 5–7.
  30. 30. Baker and Frantz, “Against Synthesis,” 223–35; Parsons, Ku-Klux, 217–18; South Carolina ETV, “40 Acres and a Mule.”
  31. 31. Baker considers gerrymandering, voting restrictions, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, corporate personhood, and mass incarceration to be modern issues that threaten the Reconstruction Amendments. B. E. Baker, “Whom Is Reconstruction For?,” 17–18, 22, 24.
  32. 32. B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 6, 11–12, 87, 89, 108–9, 145, 147, 158–60, 162.
  33. 33. “Remembering ‘Redemption’” panel; Anderson and Darby, “Richard T. Greener,” 70.
  34. 34. Du Bois identified Pike and Reynolds as among those authors who “select and use facts and opinions in order to prove that the South was right in Reconstruction, the North vengeful or deceived and the Negro stupid.” Macaulay, Page 282 →“South Carolina Reconstruction Historiography,” 19–26; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 36–37, 111, 113–16; Lowery, “Paul Leland Haworth,” 211. In 1920 Howard University student Norman P. Andrews criticized J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton’s 1914 dissertation Reconstruction in North Carolina for overstating Black political rule and Burgess for questioning Republicans’ appointing Black officers to positions of power. Woodson, Andrews’s mentor, also dismissed the scholarship of Rhodes and the Dunning founders as prejudiced and deficient. Smith, introduction, 16–18, 31–32; Behrend, “Facts and Memories,” 428–33, 436, 441–43; Kirby, Media-Made Dixie, 5–7, 22.
  35. 35. Macaulay, “South Carolina Reconstruction Historiography,” 29–30; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 122–24; Smith, introduction, 32–35; Baker and Frantz, “Against Synthesis,” 219.
  36. 36. Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation,” 691; Wilson, “Reconstruction of the Southern States,” 371.
  37. 37. Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Hillary Clinton Goes Back to the Dunning School,” The Atlantic, January 26, 2016; Kevin Drum, “Does Hillary Clinton Know Her Post-bellum History?,” Mother Jones, January 26, 2016; Matthew Yglesias, “Clinton Campaign Clarifies Her Support for Reconstruction,” Vox, January 26, 2016, http://www.vox.com; Wilson, “Reconstruction of the Southern States,” 385, 390; Lee interview.
  38. 38. “A Landmark Controversy,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, Columbia, 2014; Taylor, “Adult Tour Script,” 20–21.
  39. 39. Levine, Highbrow/Lowbrow, 48; Winter, Life and Art of Edwin Booth, 98–99; Wentworth, “First City Hall Opera House,” 58; “Edwin Booth,” Daily Register, November 4, 1875, SCL; “Local Items—Booth as Hamlet,” Daily Register, January 13, 1876, SCL; “Opera House January 26. Mr. Edwin Booth’s Southern Tour,” Daily Register, January 13, 1876, SCL. This same advertisement ran January 14–16, January 19–22, and January 26, 1876: “Local Items—To See Booth,” Daily Register, January 21, 1876, SCL; “Local Items—A Card,” Daily Register, January 23, 1876, SCL; “Local Items—Booth,” Daily Register, January 24, 1876, SCL; Edwin Booth to William Winter, “Mammoth Cave,” March 5, 1876; “Home Gossip,” New York Times, March 11, 1876; Booth to Winter, “Louisville,” March 14, 1876, in Watermeier, Between Actor and Critic, 58–59.
  40. 40. Cook, “Tour Observation,” 3.
  41. 41. The transition statement read: Woodrow Wilson was certainly a complicated historical figure. The history and memory of Reconstruction proves to be just as complex. Following Reconstruction, citizens who regained power embraced the concept of the Lost Cause. White Americans generally accepted this interpretation in the spirit of national reconciliation but at the expense of racial equality. But it is important to remember the remarkable changes in the South during Reconstruction could be viewed as the first civil rights movement. Wilson’s derogatory racial views aligned with the majority of white Americans in the early twentieth century; however, many white and black Americans were working to advance equality. Yet despite his racial biases, which allowed for the segregation of Washington D.C. during his administration, Wilson won a Nobel Prize and eventually endorsed suffrage for women. Page 283 →Taylor, “Adult Tour Jen’s Revision,” Historic Columbia, December 10, 2013, 16; Blackwell, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour-SAB Edits per 12.11.13 Meeting,” Historic Columbia, December 11, 2013, 13; Waites, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour Jen’s Revision 2 Dec 16 RW Notes,” Historic Columbia, December 20, 2013, 13; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour Jen’s Dec 30 Revision,” Historic Columbia, December 30, 2013, 12; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour 01 31 14 Working Draft,” Historic Columbia, January 31, 2014, 23; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour 02 04 14 Working Draft,” Historic Columbia, February 4, 2014, 23; “Remembering Woodrow Wilson,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, 2014; “Remembering ‘Redemption’” panel.
  42. 42. Taylor, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home Adult Tour Script,” Historic Columbia, June 13, 2014, 28.
  43. 43. Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility,” 42–44, 51, 60.
  44. 44. Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility,” 44–45, 49–50. Early French and English melodrama was simply musical drama with songs and accompaniment. Levine, Highbrow/Lowbrow, 38; Williams, Playing the Race Card, 313; Hays and Nikolopoulou, Melodrama, quote vii, viii–ix; Meer, Uncle Tom Mania, 109–10.
  45. 45. Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility,” 47–49; Foner, “Continuing Evolution,” 12.
  46. 46. Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility,” 51–52.
  47. 47. Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility”; “Visit—Emily Dickinson Museum,” Emily Dickinson Museum, https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org; “Emily and Sue,” Emily Dickinson Museum, https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org.
  48. 48. Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility,” 45–47, 58.
  49. 49. Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility, 52; Christopher, “House of the Seven Gables,” 63.
  50. 50. Christopher, “House of the Seven Gables,” 63–65, 74.
  51. 51. Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility,” 53.
  52. 52. Christopher, “House of the Seven Gables,” 72, 74.
  53. 53. Alexander, New Jim Crow; Equal Justice Initiative, “Criminal Justice Reform”; American Civil Liberties Union, “Mass Incarceration”; Álvarez, “Are Today’s Voter Suppression Laws”; Katie Nodjimbadem, “The Long, Painful History of Police Brutality in the U.S.,” Smithsonian Magazine, May 29, 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/; Perry, Steinbaum, and Romer, “Student Loans”; Lawrence Hurley, “Supreme Court Strikes Down College Affirmative Action Programs,” NBC News, June 29, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/.
  54. 54. Only 8 visitors felt bored, and 116 lost track of time. Taylor, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home Trends,” slides 6–7. Eight specifically labeled the tour as highly educational, and 7 revealed they learned a great deal. Another visitor remarked that it was an “experience that I will not find in any history books” and, after thanking the site for the Reconstruction education, expressed the desire to buy “a DVD or pamphlet with the info” or an online tour subscription. Of those that described their extensive learning experience, two visitors claimed the information broadened their perspective and knowledge. Sixteen visitors noted the tour and information was interesting. Another dozen remarked on how informative their experience was, with nine specifically calling it “very informative.” Wright, “April 2014 Survey,” slide 13; Taylor, “May 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slides 11–12; Taylor, “September 2014 Survey,” October, 2014 slide 12; Taylor, “October 2014 Survey,” slides 12–13; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” December 2014, slides 12–13; “December 2014 Survey,” January 2015, slides 11–13.
  55. 55. Page 284 →Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility,” 54–56.
  56. 56. Lowe, “Dwelling in Possibility,” 46, 57.
  57. 57. Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, “Non-traditional Museum.”
  58. 58. Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, “More Programs.”
  59. 59. Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, “Board.”
  60. 60. Bacon-Rogers and Allen, Zoom interview.
  61. 61. Dahl et a., “Is Our Fascination,” 167; Falk and Gillespie, “Investigating the Role of Emotion,” 112–14, 118–19, 122–27.

Chapter 7: (Re)Writing History with Lightning

  1. 1. Tom Gerken, “Black Panther Style ‘Repatriation Specialist’ Required,” BBC News, March 1, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/; Mary Carole McCauley, “‘Black Panther’ Raises Difficult Questions in Museum Community,” Baltimore Sun, March 2, 2018, https://www.baltimoresun.com/; Cascone, “Museum Heist Scene”; Gaston, “Black Panther and the Ethics of Representation”; Feiger, “Colonizers Stole Africa’s Art,” https://www.vice.com.
  2. 2. Conn, Do Museums Still Need Objects? 15.
  3. 3. As discussed in part I of the book, the interpretive team consisted of executive director Robin Waites and the heads of the programming, education, preservation, and museum wings of Historic Columbia. The organization contracted my labor to write the scripts and conduct the majority of tours in the first year of opening. Robin Waites, email message to Sherrer, Freed, and Taylor, “Room 15 Video,” December 7, 2013; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “Birth,” January 22, 2014; Sherrer, email message to Taylor, “Birth,” January 22, 2014; Waites, email message to Sherrer et al., “Draft Script for Wilson and Reconstruction Video,” January 23, 2014; Sherrer, email message to Waites et al., “Draft Script for Wilson and Reconstruction Video,” January 22, 2014; Phillips, email message to Waites, “Draft Script for Wilson and Reconstruction Video,” January 23, 2014.
  4. 4. Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation,” 711; “A Young Man Finds His Profession,” panel, WWPLM, 2015. When I brought up Birth of a Nation on an S Street tour, the group discussed how the Ku Klux Klan was romanticized and contemplated whether Wilson enjoyed the film for its spectacle, racist ideology, or both. Toegel, guided tour, June 20, 2015.
  5. 5. The discussion about the term racist and scene selection occurred over a series of emails and film revisions: Taylor, email message to Sherrer and Waites, “Room 15 Video Voiceover,” January 24, 2014; Cook, email message to Waites, “Room 15 Video Voiceover,” January 27, 2014; Phillips, “The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson and Reconstruction CP Edits,” Historic Columbia, January 23, 2014, 1–3; Taylor, “The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson and Reconstruction Jen’s Edits,” Historic Columbia, January 27, 2014, 1–3; Cook, “The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson and Reconstruction DAC Edits,” Historic Columbia, January 27, 2014, 1–3; Taylor, “The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson and Reconstruction Fielding Edit with Jen’s Comments,” Historic Columbia, June 12, 2014, 1.
  6. 6. “Wade Hampton Day, Boy Scouts—Czarnitzki—Home Movies,” video/H264, 1926, Moving Image Research Collections, University of South Carolina, https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/p17173coll6/id/1905/rec/2; B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 28–29, 54–64, 75–77, 92, 165.
  7. 7. Page 285 →In a previous chapter, I discussed that the weekend docents were paid and often came from the University of South Carolina’s public history program. Volunteer docents typically worked during the week. Brazier, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey,” 2016.
  8. 8. Brazier interview; Hogan interview.
  9. 9. Grantham, “Southern Historiography,” 254; “New Beginning, 1892–1945,” 85; G. E. Hale, Making Whiteness, 80–81; Cox, Dreaming of Dixie, 83, 85, 97; Eileen Jones, “The Cinematic Lost Cause,” Jacobin, Struggle and Progress, Summer, no. 18 (2015), https://www.jacobinmag.com/, xix.
  10. 10. Waites, email message to interpretive team, “WWFH Action Items,” May 21, 2014; Waites, email message to volunteers, “WWFH June Follow-Up,” June 13, 2014; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “WWFH Videos,” July 22, 2014; Freed, email message to Taylor, “2nd Revision,” August 7, 2014; Freed, email message to interpretive team, “WW Script First Draft,” October 16, 2014; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “WW Script First Draft,” October 16, 2014; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “Lee Ann Kornegay Shared a Video with You!,” February 5, 2015.
  11. 11. Quint, email message to Taylor, “Birth Film 1st Draft Revision,” August 1, 2014; Jennifer Taylor, “Jen’s First Revision of The Legacy of Wilson and Reconstruction,” Historic Columbia, August 1, 2014, 5–6; Taylor and Freed, “Jen’s Second Revision of The Legacy of Wilson and Reconstruction-FF Edits,” Historic Columbia, August 11, 2014, 6; Blackwell et al., “WilsonReconstruction-2 JMS Edits JTs Edits JQ Edits FF Edits SB Edits,” Historic Columbia, October 16, 2014, 4; Freed, Sherrer, and Taylor, “WilsonReconstruction30Oct2014REV,” Historic Columbia, November 19, 2014, 4; Sherrer, Taylor, and Waites, “WilsonReconstruction28Nov2014REV,” Historic Columbia, November 28, 2014, 6; Taylor, email message to Kornegay, “Lee Ann Kornegay Shared a Video with You!,” February 5, 2015; Freed, email message to interpretive team and Kornegay, “HC Wilson Video Input,” February 9, 2015; Taylor, email message to Kornegay and interpretive team, “WW Drop Box Link,” March 5, 2015; “Remembering ‘Redemption’” panel.
  12. 12. Taylor, email message to Robin Waites, “WWFH Videos,” August 12, 2014; Taylor, “Jen’s First Revision of Legacy,” 1–3; Taylor and Freed, “Jen’s Second Revision FF Edits,” 1–3; Taylor et al., “Third Revision of The Legacy of Wilson and Reconstruction Everyone’s Comments,” Historic Columbia, August 12, 2014, 1–3; Quint, email message to Taylor, “Birth Film 1st Draft Revision,” August 1, 2014; Posner, email message to interpretive team, Phillips, and Galens, “WWFH Videos,” August 12, 2014; Freed, email message to Taylor, “WWFH Script,” November 14, 2014; Galens, email message to interpretive team, “WW Script First Draft,” October 14, 2014.
  13. 13. Freed, email message to interpretive team and Kornegay, “HC Wilson Video Input,” February 9, 2015; Taylor, email message to Kornegay, “Kornegay Shared a Video,” February 5, 2015; Richardson interview; Gunter interview; Welch, “Pounding Heart of Woodrow Wilson.”
  14. 14. The team hoped the audio could be added as a separate exhibit feature on the smart board or as a push-button sound effect on the engraving image of Wilson in the memory room. As of publication there were no plans to include the audio in the current exhibit. Taylor, “Legacy Fielding Edit,” 1; Taylor, “Jen’s First Revision of Legacy,” 1; Taylor and Freed, “Jen’s Second Revision FF Edits,” 3; Taylor Page 286 →et al., “Third Revision of Legacy,” 2; Celia Galens et al., “WilsonReconstruction-2 JMS Edits JTs Edits JQ Edits CG,” Historic Columbia, October 14, 2014, 3; Freed, Sherrer, and Taylor, “WilsonReconstruction30Oct,” 1; Galens, email message to interpretive team, “WW Script First Draft,” October 14, 2014; Fielding Freed, email message to Robin Waites, “WWFH Script,” November 21, 2014; Freed, Sherrer, and Taylor, “WilsonReconstruction30Oct,” 1; Sherrer, Taylor, and Waites, “WilsonReconstruction28Nov,” 2. Freed sent two emails on the thread on the same day. Fielding Freed, email message to Lee Ann Kornegay and interpretive team, “WW Drop Box Link,” March 5, 2015; Kornegay, email message to interpretive team, “Woodrow Wilson Reconstruction Video,” March 2, 2015; Taylor, email message to Kornegay and interpretive team, “WW Drop Box Link,” March 5, 2015; Robin Waites, email message to Lee Ann Kornegay and interpretive team, “WW Drop Box Link,” March 5, 2015; James Quint, email message to Lee Ann Kornegay and interpretive team, “Revised WW,” March 9, 2015.
  15. 15. Taylor et al., “Third Revision of Legacy,” 6.
  16. 16. Galens, email message to interpretive team, “WW Script First Draft,” October 14, 2014; Galens et al., “WilsonReconstruction-2 JMS JTs JQ CG,” 4; Black-well et al., “WilsonReconstruction-2 JMS JTs JQ CG FF SB,” 4.
  17. 17. Taylor, email message to Blackwell, “Evaluations,” March 26, 2014.
  18. 18. There are two emails from Riggins with the same title and date: Riggins, email message to Posner, “Reminder,” May 7, 2014; Posner, email message to Taylor, “Reminder,” May 8, 2014; Taylor, email message to Posner, “Reminder,” May 8, 2014; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “Reminder,” May 8, 2014; Freed, email message to Posner and Taylor, “Reminder,” May 8, 2014.
  19. 19. Riggins, email message to Taylor, “Two Books about Thomas Dixon and Reconstruction in N.C.,” June 2, 2014; Riggins, email message to Taylor, “Two Books about Thomas Dixon and Reconstruction in N.C.,” June 4, 2014.
  20. 20. Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation,” 702–4; Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow; Benbow, “Birth of a Quotation,” 512–13, 529; Cox, Dreaming of Dixie, 84–85; Berg, Wilson, 348–49. See also the 1915 New York Globe review, “Capitalizing Race Hatred”; Staiger, “Birth of a Nation,” 164–65, 201–2.
  21. 21. Galens et al., “WilsonReconstruction-2 JMS JTs JQ CG,” 2.
  22. 22. Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation,” 693, 689–90, 710; Berg, Wilson, 94; Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow, 67–68; J. H. Moore, “South Carolina Views,” 339–40.
  23. 23. Dixon delivered the commencement address at Wake Forest and convinced the trustees to give Wilson his first honorary degree, which strengthened Wilson’s national profile. Two years before Birth of a Nation, Dixon dedicated The Southerner to Wilson, for which Wilson thanked him. Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation,” 693–95, 698–99, 703; Benbow, “Birth of a Quotation,’” 512, 515; Berg, Wilson, 349; Wolgemuth, “Woodrow Wilson and Federal Segregation,” 158–59; Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow, 66.
  24. 24. According to Benbow, MacKaye and The Rise of the American Film Industry, released the following year, are generally the sources cited from this point forward. Wilson’s quote is frequently and incorrectly attributed to a New York Evening Post article of March 4, 1915. Memoirs of movie star Lillian Gish and producer Roy Aitken placed their own spin on the quote, but surprisingly Page 287 →Dixon’s memoir and fictionalized accounts of the Wilson meeting omit it entirely. Benbow, “Birth of a Quotation,” 509, 515 (Griffith quote), 517–19, 521–23, 527, 529; Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation,” 704; Berg, Wilson, 349.
  25. 25. The title card reads: “The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation…. until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country.” “Woodrow Wilson on Reconstruction,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, Columbia, 2014; White, “Birth of a Nation,” 217; Berg, Wilson, 348–50; Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation,” 702, 704–5, 710–11; Benbow, “Birth of a Quotation,” 512, 514, 520; Taylor, email message to Waites and Freed, “Birth of a Nation,” June 10, 2014.
  26. 26. Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation,” 710–11; Clark, email message to Waites, “Birth of a Nation,” June 2, 2014 (quotes); Clark, email message to Taylor, “WWFH 2014 Trends PowerPoint”; Freed, email message to Waites and Taylor, “Birth of a Nation.”
  27. 27. Mimi White argues that Griffith’s use of Wilson quotes was a strategy to grant historical authority to the film’s racially biased narratives, such as the rise of the Klan, that risked being construed as invention. White, “Birth of a Nation,” 217; Taylor, email message to Clark, “WWFH 2014 Trends PowerPoint,” January 28, 2015; Galens et al., “WilsonReconstruction-2 JMS JTs JQ CG,” 3; Blackwell et al., “WilsonReconstruction-2 JMS JTs JQ CG FF SB,” 3; Taylor, “Jen’s First Revision of Legacy,” 4–5; Taylor and Freed, “Jen’s Second Revision FF Edits,” 4–6; Taylor et al., “Third Revision of Legacy,” 4; quotes from the following: “Wilson-Reconstruction-2 Jenny’s Comment,” Historic Columbia, October 8, 2014, 3–4; Freed, Sherrer, and Taylor, “WilsonReconstruction30Oct,” 3; Sherrer, Taylor, and Waites, “WilsonReconstruction28Nov,” 4;
  28. 28. Fielding Freed, email message to Lee Ann Kornegay and interpretive team, “Revised WW,” March 9, 2015; Fielding Freed, email message to Lee Ann Kornegay and interpretive team, “Revised WW,” March 10, 2015; Kornegay, email message to interpretive team, “Revised WW,” March 10, 2015.
  29. 29. Taylor, email message to Waites and Freed, “Birth of a Nation,” June 10, 2014;
  30. 30. Blackwell, email message to interpretive team, “WW Script First Draft,” October 16, 2014; Kornegay, email message to Waites, Sherrer, and Freed, “WW Script First Draft”; Storm, interview by Taylor, digital recording, February 4, 2016, DWWHM; Freed, email message to Waites and Taylor, “Birth of a Nation,” June 9, 2014; Taylor, email message to Waites and Freed, “Birth of a Nation,” June 10, 2014; Galens et al., “WilsonReconstruction-2 JMS JTs JQ CG,” 3; Blackwell et al., “WilsonReconstruction-2 JMS JTs JQ CG FF SB,” 4.
  31. 31. Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation,” 704; Berg, Wilson, 349; Benbow, “Birth of a Quotation,” 514–28.
  32. 32. The film is considered the most profitable silent movie ever made as well as the most watched. By 1931 the film grossed eighteen million dollars. Estimates placed global viewership at two hundred million people by 1946. Cox, Dreaming of Dixie, 83, 85.
  33. 33. I began to analyze Birth’s connections to Columbia and South Carolina via my blog, “Reconstructing Reconstruction,” https://reconstructingreconstruction.wordpress.com. Page 288 →Taylor, email message to Waites and Freed, “Birth of a Nation,” June 10, 2014; Taylor, “Legacy Fielding Edit,” 1.
  34. 34. Taylor, “Jen’s First Revision of Legacy,” 3–4; Taylor and Freed, “Jen’s Second Revision FF Edits,” 3–4; Taylor et al., “Third Revision of Legacy,” 3–4; Blackwell, email message to interpretive team, “WW Script First Draft,” October 16, 2014.
  35. 35. Taylor et al., “Third Revision of Legacy,” 4; Taylor, email message to Kornegay, “Kornegay Shared a Video”; Taylor, email message to Kornegay and interpretive team, “WW Drop Box Link”; “Detail from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated April 21, 1877,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, Columbia, 2014 (a thumbnail of this image can be found at the Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov); White, “Birth of a Nation,” 218.
  36. 36. Lipscomb, “D. W. Griffith’s ‘Historical Facsimile”; Writers’ Program, South Carolina, 38–41, 254, 426; J. H. Moore, “South Carolina Views,” 339, 346; Taylor, email message to Waites and Freed, “Birth of a Nation,” June 10, 2014.
  37. 37. The exhibit film used less than one minute of footage from Birth, which runs three hours and fifteen minutes.
  38. 38. Everett, Returning the Gaze, 89; Wood, “With the Roar of Thunder,” 147.
  39. 39. Courtney, Hollywood Fantasies of Miscengenation, 69–70; Allen Wallace, “Columbia Unveils Marker Commemorating 1865 Burning of City,” ColaDaily.Com, February 17, 2015, http://coladaily.com; Jeff Wilkinson, “Who Was Really Responsible for the Burning of Columbia in 1865?,” The State, February 7, 2015, http://www.thestate.com/.
  40. 40. Zuczek, State of Rebellion, 50, 65n15; Edgar, South Carolina, 397; “Records of the Field Offices for the State of South Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872,” 3, http://www.archives.gov/research/microfilm/m1910.pdf.
  41. 41. Edgar, South Carolina, 398, 400–401
  42. 42. Victor B. Howard probably invented the term “military arm of the Democratic Party” to define the Klan in his 1973 article “The Kentucky Press and the Black Suffrage Controversy.” Baker and Frantz, “Against Synthesis,” 238.
  43. 43. Wood, “With the Roar of Thunder,” 150; J. H. Moore, “South Carolina Views,” 339 (quote), 339–41: Lipscomb, “D. W. Griffith’s ‘Historical Facsimile,’” 1, 3.
  44. 44. Wood, “With the Roar of Thunder,” 153, 165–67; Lipscomb, “D. W. Griffith’s ‘Historical Facsimile,’” 4; J. H. Moore, “South Carolina Views,” 337–38 (quotes), 346–47.
  45. 45. J. H. Moore, “South Carolina Views,” 344–46.
  46. 46. Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “WWFH Adult Tour Summer Revision Marking Changes RW JMS Comments,” 26.
  47. 47. Robin Waites, email message to Fielding Freed, John Sherrer, and Jennifer Taylor, “WWFH Script,” November 20, 2014; Freed, email message to Waites and Taylor, “Birth of a Nation,” June 9, 2014; Freed, email message to Waites, “WWFH Script,” November 21, 2014; Jennifer Taylor, email message to Fielding Freed, “Paul Miller Pic,” January 28, 2015.
  48. 48. DJ Spooky, “Rebirth of a Nation Talk Back,” Burn to Shine, Nickelodeon, January 19, 2015; Steedman, Dust, 2, 17–18.
  49. 49. Andrea Mock, “Nick Theatre Holds Historic Film Screening,” WLTX News, January 20, 2015, http://www.wltx.com/; “Burning of Columbia - Events Gallery,” 2014, http://burningofcolumbia.com/; “DJ Spooky, Recasting ‘Birth of a Page 289 →Nation,’” NPR, October 17, 2004, http://www.npr.org/; J. H. Moore, “South Carolina Views,” 344. Timing prevented the team from asking DJ Spooky to situate his work within a much longer story of Black dissent against Birth of a Nation. Waites, email message to Taylor and Freed, “DJ Spooky,” January 2, 2015; Freed, email message to Waites, “DJ Spooky,” January 7, 2015; Taylor, email message to Freed, “DJ Spooky,” January 7, 2015; Waites, email message to Kornegay, “DJS,” January 14, 2015; Kornegay, email message to Waites, “DJS,” January 14, 2015; Taylor, email message to Waites and Kornegay, “DJS,” January 15, 2015.
  50. 50. Bacon-Rogers interview; Clark second interview; Lee interview; Morgan interview; Doe interview; Taylor, email message to Kornegay and interpretive team, “WW Drop Box Link”; Waites, email message to Kornegay and interpretive team, “WW Drop Box Link”; Taylor, email message to Kornegay, “Kornegay Shared a Video”; Lee Ann Kornegay, dir., The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson and Reconstruction, digital video exhibit, Historic Columbia, 2015.
  51. 51. Spooky, “Rebirth Talk Back.”
  52. 52. Cox, Dreaming of Dixie, 83–84; Glick, “Mixed Messages,” 174, 180–86; Stewart, Migrating to the Movies, 27, 240–44; Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation,” 702; Kirby, Media-Made Dixie, 3–5, 8.
  53. 53. Taylor, “Legacy Fielding Edit,” 2; Stewart, Migrating to the Movies, 189, 220, 226–27, 230–31, 234–37, 239–44, 277.
  54. 54. Taylor, email message to Waites, “WWFH Session 3,” December 15, 2013.
  55. 55. Stewart, Migrating to the Movies, 228–30, 238–41; Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow, 68–80; Benbow, “Birth of a Quotation,” 525.
  56. 56. Taylor, email message to Sherrer and Waites, “Room 15 Video Voiceover,” January 24, 2014; Taylor, “Legacy Jen’s Edits,” 2; Cook, “Legacy DAC Edits,” 2.
  57. 57. Taylor, “Legacy Fielding Edit,” 2.
  58. 58. One team member recommended three Rebirth scenes with graphics and music edits that more clearly conveyed DJ Spooky’s style and the period of Reconstruction for the revision. But Legacy retained the original clip of Union soldiers burning the Cameron home during the Civil War, which at least expressed continuity with the burning of Columbia B-roll from DJ Spooky. Kornegay, email message to Waites, “DJS,” January 14, 2015; Waites, email message to Taylor and Freed, “DJ Spooky,” January 2, 2015; Waites, email message to Kornegay, “DJS,” January 14, 2015; Taylor, email message to Waites and Kornegay, “DJS,” January 15, 2015; Waites, email message to Freed, Sherrer, and Taylor, “WWFH Script,” November 20, 2014; Jennifer Taylor, email message to Fielding Freed, John Sherrer, and Robin Waites, “WWFH Script,” November 20, 2014; Jennifer Taylor, email message to Fielding Freed et al., “WWFH Script Update,” November 28, 2014; Taylor, “Jen’s First Revision of Legacy,” 4; Taylor and Freed, “Jen’s Second Revision FF Edits,” 5; Taylor et al., “Third Revision of Legacy,” 5; Lee Ann Kornegay, email message to interpretive team, “WW Drop Box Link,” March 5, 2015. Freed sent two emails on the thread on the same day. Freed, email message to Kornegay and interpretive team, “WW Drop Box Link,” March 5, 2015; Waites, email message to Kornegay and interpretive team, “WW Drop Box Link,” March 5, 2015; Taylor, email message to Kornegay and interpretive team, “WW Drop Box Link,” March 5, 2015; Quint, email message to Kornegay and interpretive team, “Revised WW,” March 9, 2015; Freed, email message to Kornegay and Interpretive team, “Revised WW,” March 9, 2015; Freed, email Page 290 →message to interpretive team and Kornegay, “HC Wilson Video Input,” February 9, 2015; Taylor, email message to Kornegay, “Kornegay Shared a Video,” February 5, 2015; Waites, email message to interpretive team, “Kornegay Shared a Video,” February 5, 2015.
  59. 59. Freed, email message to Waites, “Final WWFH Video Rollout,” March 26, 2015; Freed, email message to Bacon-Rogers and interpretive team, “New and Improved WWFH Video,” April 2, 2015; Bacon-Rogers, email message to interpretive team, “New and Improved WWFH Video,” April 2, 2015; Taylor, email message to Bacon-Rogers and interpretive team, “New and Improved WWFH Video,” April 2, 2015; Kleinfelder, email message to Bacon-Rogers and interpretive team, “New and Improved WWFH Video,” April 2, 2015.
  60. 60. Blackwell, “Tour-SAB Edits,” 13; Waites, “Revision 2 Dec 16 RW Notes,” 11/ The previous scripts had these elements as talking points. They became full sentences for this script. Taylor, “Tour Jen’s Dec. 30 Revision,” 12; Posner, email message to Taylor, “Adult Tour,” December 23, 2013.
  61. 61. O’Brien, “Woodward and the Burden,” 590; “New Beginning, 1892–1945,” 84–85; Benbow, “Birth of a Quotation,” 524–25.
  62. 62. Westcott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Hogan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Clark second interview.
  63. 63. Welch, “Pounding Heart of Woodrow Wilson.”
  64. 64. Morgan interview; Clark first interview; Clark second interview; Doe interview; Taylor, “Docent H Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, March 12, 2014; Posner, “Docent H Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, March 12, 2014; Clements, “Discussion Questions about Woodrow Wilson in Columbia,” December 2013, Historic Columbia Collection; Freed, email message to Waites, “WWFH Materials for Ken and Tom,” December 4, 2013.
  65. 65. B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 101–2. The quote is a reference to the election of 1876, which ended Reconstruction in South Carolina through white Democratic fraud and violence. See pages 94–102 for Bruce Baker’s extensive discussion of how Cotton Ed Smith frequently exploited a white supremacist memory of Reconstruction in 1938. Thomas J. Brown, “Main Points for Training of WWFH Volunteers,” November 12, 2013, Historic Columbia Collection; Freed, email message to Waites, “WWFH Materials for Ken and Tom,” December 4, 2013.
  66. 66. Clark second interview; Westcott interview; Westcott, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Morgan interview; Richardson, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Docent Doe interview; Storm, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Schneider, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  67. 67. Clark first interview; Hogan, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Hogan interview; Storm interview; Docent Doe interview; Stickney interview.
  68. 68. Storm interview; Clark first interview; Docent Doe interview; Wolgemuth, “Woodrow Wilson and Federal Segregation,” 158–59.
  69. 69. Docent Doe interview; Wolgemuth, “Woodrow Wilson and Federal Segregation,” 163–68, 170; Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “Marking Changes RW JMS,” 27; Taylor, “WWFH Script,” June 13, 2014, 28–29.
  70. 70. Lee interview. Vagnone and Ryan argue that “speculative” and “subjective” traits when combined with the professionalized tour make for good museum practice. The blending of the historical record with “presumed life” can create a “relatable Page 291 →experience.” Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 34–37, 86, 108.
  71. 71. Clark first interview; Clark second interview. For a discussion of southern exceptionalism, see the essays in Griffin and Doyle, South as an American Problem (particularly Griffin’s “Why Was the South a Problem to America?”); and Lassiter and Crespino, Myth of Southern Exceptionalism (particularly the editors’ introductory essay).
  72. 72. Waites, email message to interpretive team, “Reminder,” May 8, 2014; Taylor, email message to Posner, “Reminder,” May 8, 2014; Freed, email message to Posner and Taylor, “Reminder,” May 8, 2014; Freed, email message to Waites and Taylor, “Birth of a Nation,” June 9, 2014; Taylor, email message to Waites and Freed, “Birth of a Nation,” June 10, 2014; Morgan interview; Westcott, email message to Taylor, “March Results,” April 30, 2015.
  73. 73. Randy Barnett, “Expunging Woodrow Wilson from Official Places of Honor,” Washington Post, June 25, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/; Jennifer Schuessler, “Woodrow Wilson’s Legacy Gets Complicated,” New York Times, November 29, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/; Andy Newman, “At Princeton, Woodrow Wilson, a Heralded Alum, Is Recast as an Intolerant One,” New York Times, November 22, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/; Taylor and Sherrer, “Coming to Terms with Woodrow Wilson’s White Supremacy and the Difficulty of Discussing America’s Racist Past in Public Spaces.”
  74. 74. Morgan interview; Docent Doe interview.
  75. 75. Storm interview; Gunter interview; Docent Doe interview; Betsy Kleinfelder, email message to Jennifer Taylor et al., “Woodrow Wilson Controversy,” December 9, 2015.
  76. 76. Stickney interview; Bacon-Rogers, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Bacon-Rogers interview; Hogan interview.
  77. 77. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 108, 111, 140.
  78. 78. Storm interview; Hogan interview; Stickney interview.
  79. 79. The qualitative evidence is lacking in determining whether alteration or reinterpretation with written contextualization makes a difference in the way people think about monuments and memorialization. Most public historians and preservationists prior to Charlottesville in 2017 opposed removal, although “some protesters suggest memorials be placed in less prominent locations or in museums.” Labode, “Reconsideration of Memorials and Monuments,” AASLH Blogs (blog), November 30, 2016, http://blogs.aaslh.org/.
  80. 80. Cook, “Tour Observation,” 3; Clark, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Taylor, “Docent J Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, April 2, 2014.
  81. 81. Blackwell, “Tour-SAB Edits,” 13–14; Waites, “Revision 2 Dec 16 RW Notes,” 11; Taylor, “Tour Jen’s Dec. 30 Revision,” 12; Taylor, “Tour 01 31 14 Working Draft,” 23; Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “Marking Changes RW JMS,” 27; Taylor, “WWFH Script,” June 13, 2014, 28–29.
  82. 82. Docent Doe interview; Blackwell, “Tour-SAB Edits,” 13–14; Waites, “Revision 2 Dec 16 RW Notes,” 11; Taylor, “Tour Jen’s Dec. 30 Revision,” 12; Taylor, “Tour 01 31 14 Working Draft,” 23; Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “Marking Changes RW JMS,” 27.
  83. 83. Bacon-Rogers interview; Lee interview.
  84. 84. Page 292 →“State Government,” panel, Woodrow Wilson Family Home, Columbia, 2014; Historic Columbia, “Hampton-Preston Mansion and Gardens,” https://www.historiccolumbia.org; Schaffer, “‘Bitter Memory Upon,” 203–15.
  85. 85. Wilson, “Reconstruction of the Southern States,” 369.
  86. 86. Hogan interview; Posner, “Docent B Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, February 20, 2014; Taylor, “Docent B Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, February 20, 2014; Taylor, “Docent I Tour Review,” Historic Columbia, March 17, 2014.
  87. 87. Kirby, Media-Made Dixie, 162.
  88. 88. Cox, Dreaming of Dixie, 93–96; McPherson, Reconstructing Dixie, 44, 46–47.
  89. 89. Storm interview.
  90. 90. Gunter interview. Gone with the Wind is popular in Japan. For example, tourists flock to a rice field in Japan re-creating an iconic image of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara. genderedjapan, “Takarazuka Revue Does Gone With the Wind,” Gendered Japan, February 9, 2014, https://genderedjapan.wordpress.com/; “Grown with the Wind: Tourists Wowed by Japanese Rice Art,” BBC News, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/.
  91. 91. Brazier interview; Rosenberg, “Why We Should Keep Reading ‘Gone with the Wind,’” Washington Post, July 1, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com.
  92. 92. Morgan interview.
  93. 93. Toegel, guided tour.

Conclusion

  1. 1. Simon, Participatory Museum, 140–41, 147, 149; Benfield et al., “‘Honest Visionary,’” 58–59, 61–62, 70; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour 02 04 14 Working Draft,” Historic Columbia, February 4, 2014, 4; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour 02 06 14 Working Draft,” Historic Columbia, February 6, 2014, 4; Taylor, “WWFH Interpretation Adult Tour Second Training Version,” Historic Columbia, April 2014, 4; Waites, Sherrer, and Taylor, “WWFH Adult Tour Summer Revision Marking Changes RW JMS Comments,” Historic Columbia, June 3, 2014, 4; Wright, email message to Waites, “Feedback on the WWFH Tour,” March 18, 2014. Some guides found that the question worked better for them in the first large exhibit space in the formal parlor. Ann Posner, email message to Taylor, “Revised WWFH Script Summer 2014,” May 14, 2014; Brazier interview.
  2. 2. Vagnone and Ryan, Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums, 101; Falk, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience, 52.
  3. 3. Wright, “April 2014 WWFH Visitor Survey Update,” PowerPoint, Historic Columbia, May 2014, slide 14.
  4. 4. Wright, “Draft: WWFH Visitor Survey,” January 14, 2014, Historic Columbia Collection; Taylor, email message to Waites, “Draft of Visitor Survey for WWFH,” January 14, 2014; Taylor, email message to Ann Posner, “Visitor Evaluations,” March 27, 2014; Weiler and Ham, “Development of a Research Instrument,” 188–92; Dahl et al., “Is Our Fascination,” 164.
  5. 5. Waites, email message to interpretive team, “WWFH Action Items,” May 21, 2014; Taylor, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home Trends,” slide 11; Taylor, “June 2014 WWFH Visitor Survey Update,” PowerPoint, Historic Columbia, July 2014, slide 7; Blackwell, email message to Quint and Taylor, “May Update-WWFH Visitors’ Data,” June 27, 2014; Waites, email message to volunteers, Page 293 →“WWFH June Follow-Up,” June 13, 2014. In June the education department placed me in charge of processing the evaluations for monthly reports. Taylor, email message to Jowers, “Survey Monkey Intern,” July 1, 2014; Taylor, “July 2014 WWFH Visitor Survey Update,” PowerPoint, Historic Columbia, August 2014, slide 7; Taylor, “August 2014 WWFH Visitor Survey Update,” PowerPoint, Historic Columbia, September 2014, slide 7; Taylor, email message to interpretive team, “August Survey Monkey Results,” September 5, 2014; Taylor, email message to James Quint, “October Survey Monkey Results,” December 3, 2014; Waites, email message to Taylor, “October WWFH Results,” December 9, 2014; Taylor, “November 2014 WWFH Visitor Survey Update,” PowerPoint, Historic Columbia, December 2014, slide 7; Jennifer Whitmer Taylor, “December 2014 WWFH Visitor Survey Update,” PowerPoint, Historic Columbia, January 2015, slide 7; Taylor, email message to Interpretive Team, “March WWFH Results,” April 28, 2015; Stickney, email message to Waites, “WWFH,” June 25, 2014; Hogan, interview by Taylor, digital recording, February 16, 2016, DWWHM.
  6. 6. The analysis of data is from February through December 2014. In January 2015 Historic Columbia had a year-in-review meeting about the WWFH. The meeting highlighted evaluation data about the exhibit’s and tour’s strengths and weaknesses, misleading and inaccurate data, visitor statistics by gender, age, and race, and finally the most consistent criticism and lingering questions appearing in the comments section. At that time there had been 2,952 total visitors, 2,549 of them adults. I created the “Trends” presentation using monthly Survey Monkey data. I also ran demographic profiles in Survey Monkey of the data by race and ethnicity, gender, and decade of birth from the 1920s forward. Sixty-six percent of respondents identified as women and 38 percent men, in line with larger museum attendance trends, where six in ten museum visitors are women. Women were thus more likely to complete an evaluation. Baby boomers visited more than other generations. One hundred and thirty-seven visitors born in the 1940s took an evaluation. A close second was 131 visitors born in the 1950s. A distant third was the seventy-eight visitors born in the 1960s. For the purposes of classification, the Greatest Generation includes those born in the 1930s through 1946, when the baby boomers begin. Generation X is considered those born between 1965 and 1984, but those born late to this generation may find themselves among the oldest millennials, which cohort began in 1982 and ended in 2004. Taylor, “WWFH Trends,” slide 3, 13–15, 17, 19–20; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” slide 3; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slide 3; Falk, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience, 28; Bump, “Each Generation,” https://www.theatlantic. com.
  7. 7. No one checked that the overall quality was poor, just as no one reported being disengaged. Two-thirds of respondents were fully engaged throughout the tour, and 32 percent felt engaged at many points. Wright, slides 2–5; Taylor, “WWFH Trends,” slides 4–5, 8; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 3; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 3; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slide 6.
  8. 8. Sixteen visitors said that they enjoyed the tour, five of them very much so. Fourteen described the tour or museum as excellent, eleven as great, one as very good, and another as “engaging.” Twelve guests thought the tour well done, some extremely well done. Three called the tour a “good presentation.” Six visitors described their visit as an “experience,” often with positive adjectives such as Page 294 →“wonderful” and “good.” In general five called it wonderful. Similarly others wrote that they “loved” the tour, thought the house was “awesome,” and were glad they had taken the tour. Adjectives used to describe the tour ranged from neat, nice, and terrific to pretty cool. Wright, “April 2014 Survey,” slide 13; Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slides 11–12; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slides 11–12; Taylor, “September 2014 Survey,” October 2014, slides 12–13; Taylor, “October 2014 Survey,” slides 11–13; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” December 2014, slides 11–13; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slide 13. 9. Four visitors expressed appreciation for “preserving history” and providing “the opportunity to reflect and remember the past.” Five visitors remarked on the MoRE’s beauty. One visitor called the kitchen frame outlined by the accessibility ramp “brilliant.” Annie Wright, “WWFH Visitor Survey Preliminary Findings,” PowerPoint, Historic Columbia, March 10, 2014, slide 6, Historic Columbia Collection; Wright, “April 2014 Survey,” slide 13; Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “September 2014 Survey,” slides 12–13; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” slide 13; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slides 12–13.
  9. 10. Palau-Saumell, Forgas-Coll, and Sánchez-García, “Role of Emotions,” 158–59, 168.
  10. 11. C. Moore, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home,” 190, 192.
  11. 12. For example, the Svalbard Museum Study revealed that exhibit displays about which docents told stories fascinated Norwegian teenagers most, especially when content featured large or threatening animals and intense, foreign living conditions. Dahl et al., “Is Our Fascination,” 161–67; Palau-Saumell, Forgas-Coll, and Sánchez-García, “Role of Emotions,” 157.
  12. 13. Of people who responded, 450 said that the docent had their full attention. Less than 8 percent of evaluators preferred self-guided portions of the tour. Taylor, “WWFH Trends,” slides 4, 6, 10–11.
  13. 14. Nineteen visitors left comments praising docents, with a third of them noting the knowledge of docents. One visitor was “so glad I was able to take this tour with my host,” and another one called their guide a “great communicator.” Additionally, docents were described as “excellent,” “interesting,” “absolutely fabulous,” “superb,” “wonderful,” “delightful,” “personable,” “nice” and “patient.” Wright, “April 2014 Survey,” slides 13–14; Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “September 2014 Survey,” slide 13; Taylor, “October 2014 Survey,” slides 12–13; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” slides 12–13; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slide 13.
  14. 15. Wright, “April 2014 Survey,” slide 14; Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slide 12.
  15. 16. The fifth question on the survey generated 556 responses. Artifacts, panels, and interactives saw significant dips and growth during fluctuations, varying from 5 to 15 percent. Overall the docent received 6 percent of responses, while panels received 23 percent and artifacts 21 percent. Simon, Participatory Museum, 37; Taylor, “WWFH Trends,” slide 4, 10-11; Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slide 7; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 7; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 7; Taylor, email message to interpretive team, “August Survey Monkey Results,” Page 295 →September 5, 2014; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” slide 7; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slide.
  16. 17. Six visitors positively mentioned the material culture, appreciating that “the home was not over crowded” with random artifacts and finding it “refreshing to be on a tour that focused more on substance of information than related artifacts.” Fourteen visitors wanted more objects in the traditional HHM staged style or furnished for the Wilsons rather than a “modern” museum presentation that left the rooms spartan and heavy on text panels. Taylor, “WWFH Trends,” slide 22; Wright, “April 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Jennifer Whitmer Taylor, “May 2014 WWFH Visitor Survey Update,” PowerPoint, Historic Columbia, June 2014, slides 11–12; Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slides 11–12; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slides 11–12; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slides 11–12; Taylor, “October 2014 Survey,” slides 7, 11–12; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slides 11–12; Wright, “WWFH Visitor Survey Preliminary Findings,” slide 6; Robin Waites, email message to Cook et al., “WWFH Notes from Guides,” April 21, 2014.
  17. 18. Bacon-Rogers interview; Docent Doe interview; Clark first interview.
  18. 19. Taylor, “May 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Weiler and Ham, “Development of a Research Instrument,” 204.
  19. 20. Historic Columbia modified the survey so visitors could make multiple selections for the most interesting types of information. The organization wanted to see what other information visitors valued beyond what was provided by the docent. Initially visitors chose only one option on the mobile device. Visitors completing paper copies sometimes took the initiative to mark more than one option. After the update the two weakest categories started registering with visitors at 10 percent. This was a 2 percent increase for interactives and a 6 percent surge for questions. Taylor, “WWFH Trends,” slides 4, 10–11; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 7; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 7; Taylor, email message to interpretive team, “August Survey Monkey Results,” September 5, 2014; Taylor, “September 2014 Survey,” slide 7; Taylor, “October 2014 Survey,” slide 7; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” slide 7; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slide 7.
  20. 21. Visitors mentioned interactives in general, one welcoming them as “ingenious and informative” tools that needed ample time for exploration. Two visitors praised the concept of the museum and how the combination of components worked together. Others listed specific interactives. The favorite part of one visitor’s “breathtaking” experience was dressing up as the president using reproduction clothing located in a trunk in Tommy’s bedroom. Several docents commented on the map’s popularity, with Bacon-Rogers calling it “one of the coolest things” Historic Columbia had ever done. Seven docents revealed that visitors rarely interacted with the family tree or only “fiddled” with it before losing interest. One lone visitor commented on evaluations that the exhibit was too digitized. Wright, “WWFH Visitor Survey Preliminary Findings,” slides 4, 6; Taylor, “May 2014 Survey,” slides 11–12.
  21. 22. One study dealt with active recruitment as part of research on how long participants spent with an interactive math exhibit. The results suggested that when visitors are cued to an interactive and observed, they spend 10 to 100 percent more time than visitors who are not cued. In another study of 128 families using Page 296 →a laser light show activity in a Design Zone exhibition at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, those that were actively recruited spent on average over four minutes longer at the interactive and created six more laser patterns than visitors passively recruited through signage. Pattison and Shagott, “Participant Reactivity in Museum Research,” 216–18, 222–24, 226; Yalowitz and Bronnenkant, “Timing and Tracking,” 58; Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Morgan interview; Gunter interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Clark second interview; Westcott interview; Lee interview; Storm interview.
  22. 23. Simon, Participatory Museum, iii–iv, 18, 26–28.
  23. 24. For example, some visitors associated Jim Crow with the period immediately after the Civil War. They learned that Black people were temporarily allowed to vote and that Reconstruction’s failure allowed Jim Crow to be codified with the new state constitutions in the mid-1890s. Storm interview; Hogan interview; Clark second interview; Gunter, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Bacon-Rogers interview; Docent Doe interview; Morgan interview.
  24. 25. Stickney, email message to Waites, “WWFH,” June 25, 2014; Hogan interview; Richardson, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Menne, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey,” 2016; Gunter interview; Stickney interview; Morgan interview.
  25. 26. Falk, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience, 27; Dahl et al., “Is Our Fascination,” 163, 175–76.
  26. 27. Clark first interview; Lee interview; Bacon-Rogers, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  27. 28. Lee interview; Gunter, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Gunter interview; Storm interview.
  28. 29. Wright, “WWFH Visitor Survey Preliminary Findings,” slide 6; Taylor, “May 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “September 2014 Survey,” slide 12.
  29. 30. Morgan, email message to Taylor, “WWFH,” May 4, 2015; Storm interview.
  30. 31. Lee interview; Storm interview.
  31. 32. Safranek, “Historic House Museum Review,” 122–23.
  32. 33. C. Moore, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home,” 191.
  33. 34. Simon, Participatory Museum, iv; Luke, “Museum,” 24.
  34. 35. Fifteen percent of evaluations were left blank in the section asking racial and ethnic identity, making it the least answered question. Although the MoRE was visited primarily by white patrons, people of color had positive responses to the site, and in some cases their evaluation selections were higher than average. For example, 3 percent more Black respondents than average gained a new appreciation for people unlike themselves. All four Native American and twelve Hispanic/Latino visitors found the tour excellent. The latter were also all fully engaged and believed the site handled sensitive issues extremely well. All Native American visitors and all seven Asian/Pacific Islanders responded that they received new information that they found interesting. Taylor, “WWFH Trends,” slides 3, 6–7, 16–20; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 4.
  35. 36. Taylor, “May 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “September 2014 Survey,” slide 13; Taylor, “October 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slide 12.
  36. 37. Both Doe and Stickney used the language open rather than open-minded.
  37. 38. Page 297 →The exhibit films received eight comments by evaluators. Wright, “WWFH Visitor Survey Preliminary Findings,” slide 6; Taylor, “May 2014 Survey,” slides 11–12; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “October 2014 Survey,” slides 7, 12; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slide 12.
  38. 39. C. Moore, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home,” 192.
  39. 40. Moore, 190; Safranek, “Historic House Museum Review,” 122.
  40. 41. C. Moore, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home,” 192.
  41. 42. Safranek, “Historic House Museum Review,” 120, 123; C. Moore, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home,” 192.
  42. 43. The board named Waites executive director in 2004. She brought eight years of museum experience, two with the organization and six at the South Carolina State Museum. As of early 2024, Historic Columbia employed twenty-one full-time and twenty part-time staff. Waites, “Robin Waites Announces Retirement”; Nicholson, “Historic Columbia’s Robin Waites to Retire after 20 Years of ‘Reconstructing History,’” https://www.postandcourier.com.
  43. 44. West, Domesticating History, xi–xii, 1–2, 37, 43–45, 102, 159–60.
  44. 45. C. Moore, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home,” 189; Taylor and Miller, “Postscript to ‘Reconstructing Memory,’” http://journalofthecivilwarera.org.
  45. 46. Downs and Masur, “Perfect Spot.”
  46. 47. West, Domesticating History, 162.
  47. 48. Pharaon et al., “Safe Containers for Dangerous Memories,” 61–62, 68–71.
  48. 49. Downs and Masur, “Perfect Spot.”
  49. 50. C. Moore, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home,” 189, 193.
  50. 51. Gordon-Reed, “What If Reconstruction Hadn’t Failed?,” https://www.theatlantic.comThe seminal work detailing the Hemings family relationship with Thomas Jefferson, including the offspring he produced with Sally, is Gordon-Reed, Hemingses of Monticello. See also Thomas Jefferson Foundation, “Plantation and Slavery,” https://www.monticello.org; Thomas Jefferson Foundation, “Landscape of Slavery: Mulberry Row,” Monticellohttps://www.monticello.org.
  51. 52. C. Moore, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home,” 191–92.
  52. 53. Graham, Framing the South, 191–92.
  53. 54. Carpio, “‘I Like the Way You Die, Boy,’” 1; Gates, “‘Unfathomable Place,’” 51–53.
  54. 55. Barnes and Buckley, “Nate Parker’s Heralded Film,” https://www.nytimes.com; Alexander, “Epic Fail,” https://www.thenation.com.
  55. 56. Newkirk, “Faux-Enlightened,” http://www.theatlantic.com; Scott, “Review: Matthew McConaughey,” http://www.nytimes.com; Schuessler, “Confederate Dissident,” http://www.nytimes.com; Taylor and Miller, “Reconstructing Memory,” 58.
  56. 57. Wilson, “Reconstruction of the Southern States,” 369.
  57. 58. B. E. Baker, What Reconstruction Meant, 10, 136–38; B. E. Baker, “Whom Is Reconstruction For?,” 26; Binette, “Pulitzer Prize Winner,” http://www.sc.edu; Duncan, “Celebrating the 70th Anniversary,” http://auntiebellum.org.
  58. 59. Bacon-Rogers and Allen, Zoom interview.
  59. 60. Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Clark second interview; Lee interview.
  60. 61. Wright, email message to Waites, “Visitor Feedback,” March 10, 2014; Wright, “April 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Taylor, “December Page 298 →2014 Survey,” slides 6, 11; Jowers, email message to Taylor and Quint, “Mailed in WW Survey,” June 30, 2014; Jowers, email message to Blackwell, “Tour Comment,” April 25, 2014; “The Building Is Nice,” Woodrow Wilson Family Home Visitor Survey, June 2014, Historic Columbia Collection; Bacon-Rogers and Allen, Zoom interview; State of California, “Governor Newsom Statement on Constitutional Amendment to Repeal Prop. 8,” California Governor, February 15, 2023, https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/02/14/governor-newsom-statement-on-constitutional-amendment-to-repeal-prop-8/.
  61. 62. For example, the Pauli Murray Project Working Zone Venn diagram visually expresses intersectional overlap. Pharaon et al., “Safe Containers for Dangerous Memories,” 62–64, 66–69.
  62. 63. Taylor, email message to Booraem, “Letter for AASLH Grant,” February 26, 2015; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 11.
  63. 64. Bacon-Rogers and Allen, Zoom interview; Historic Columbia, “Modjeska Monteith Simkins House.” For a discussion of the long civil rights movement, see Hall, “Long Civil Rights Movement,” 1233–63, https://doi.org/10.2307/3660172.
  64. 65. Safranek, “Historic House Museum Review,” 120, 123; C. Moore, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home,” 192.
  65. 66. Thirteen visitors left comments about the home’s importance. Related comments included that the home avoided being a presidential shrine while “tackling a difficult subject in the south.” Having taken the tour at Staunton, a visitor exclaimed, “You stand up well against Wilson birthplace considering your size in comparison.” The tour inspired another to visit Wilson HHMs “to see the whole picture.” Wright, “April 2014 Survey,” slide 14; Taylor, “May 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “September 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “October 2014 Survey,” slides 12–13; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slide 12.
  66. 67. Taylor, “March Results,” April 30, 2015; Taylor, “WWFH Trends,” slides 21–22; Taylor, “May 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “June 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Taylor, “September 2014 Survey,” October 2014, slide 12; Taylor, “October 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Taylor, “November 2014 Survey,” December 2014, slide 11.
  67. 68. Bacon-Rogers and Allen, Zoom interview.
  68. 69. Four docents expressed concerns about backlash in their oral histories. Bacon-Rogers, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Brazier interview; Hogan interview; Docent Doe, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; “WWFH Training Session Planning,” Historic Columbia, November 13, 2013, Historic Columbia Collection; Taylor and Miller, “Reconstructing Memory,” 39, 57. “Heritage, Not Hate” is a white supremacist slogan from the 1990s representing support for Confederate iconography and flags. P. Charles Lunsford, a Sons of Confederate Veterans member with links to more radical heritage groups with white supremacist ties, coined the phrase. Beirich, “Struggle for the Sons of Confederate Veterans,” 286.
  69. 70. In September 2007 the preservation firm conducting the study of the home, which included structural, archeological, and paint analysis, told the press that the home had “so much to tell about Columbia and South Carolina during Reconstruction”; however, Historic Columbia’s executive director, Robin Waites, said the organization would approach the WWFH “as the preservation of an Page 299 →historic Columbia home and landscape and as a look at Wilson as the president of the United States.” Wilkinson, “Building Our City.” Other sources made no mention of Reconstruction. Knauss, “Funds Sought”; “The State Briefly,” Columbia (SC) State; Smith, “$1.5 Million Needed”; Smith, “Saving a Part of History”; “Welcome, Tourists,” Columbia (SC) State; Chourey, “Haley Vetoes Money”; Cope, “State Boasts $87,” 3.
  70. 71. Menne, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Bacon-Rogers, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Lee interview; Clark first interview; Clark second interview; Schneider, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Stickney interview; Gunter, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.” Other docents experienced mild microaggressions, such as a visitor’s calling the Civil War the “War of Northern Aggression” throughout the tour. The tour never caused any backlash in person for three docents. Hogan interview; Brazier interview; Docent Doe interview; Holmes, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey.”
  71. 72. Clark first interview; Clark second interview; Schneider, “Historic Columbia Docent Survey”; Stickney interview; Gunter interview; Bacon-Rogers interview; Docent Doe interview.
  72. 73. Nearly 84 percent of 628 respondents thought sensitive or controversial issues were treated extremely well. Taylor, “WWFH Trends,” slides 4, 9; Taylor, “August 2014 Survey,” slide 5; Taylor, “September 2014 Survey,” slide 5; Taylor, “October 2014 Survey,” slide 13.
  73. 74. Wright, email message to Waites, “Visitor Feedback,” March 10, 2014; Wright, “April 2014 Survey,” slide 12; Taylor, “July 2014 Survey,” slide 11; Taylor, “December 2014 Survey,” slides 6, 11; Jowers, email message to Taylor and Quint, “Mailed in WW Survey,” June 30, 2014; Jowers, email message to Blackwell, “Tour Comment,” April 25, 2014; “The Building Is Nice”; Ham, “Monday Letters: Visit to Wilson House Disappointing,” Columbia (SC) State, September 15, 2014, http://www.thestate.com.
  74. 75. The interpretive team discussed details of the encounter via email immediately following Morgan’s tour. Morgan interview; Freed, email message to interpretive team, “Follow Up Call from Jean Morgan,” January 26, 2015.
  75. 76. Bacon-Rogers and Allen, Zoom interview; Benson, “Getting New Name.”
  76. 77. Only 36 percent of 1980s millennials found the guide most interesting. Over a third of late millennials and the oldest zoomers preferred the self-guided portions. Just over 35 percent of 1990s millennials were fully engaged, and 16 percent were more likely to believe no sensitive issues were raised. Twenty percent of millennials found the interactives most interesting, 12 percent higher than the average. They also liked the question prompts more than most visitors. Most astonishing, nearly two-thirds gained a new appreciation for people different from themselves, an impressive 38 percent above average. Taylor, “WWFH Trends,” slides 19–20.
  77. 78. Wilson, “Reconstruction of the Southern States,” 388; C. Moore, “Woodrow Wilson Family Home,” 139. Page 300 →

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