Guest Post: HBO’s Westworld and the Realities of Living History

October 26, 2016 By Mark Boonshoft in Film, Public History Tags: Colonial Williamsburg, Guest Posts, HBO, Living History, television 4 Comments

Cam Shriver is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate with the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, working in the Myaamia Center at Miami University. He has a PhD from Ohio State University, and his research focuses on surveillance among Native and European communities in early North America.

When I began watching episode one of HBO’s new show Westworld, I was prepared for something in the Western genre. I had seen a trailer that included horses, Indians, and a stereotypical Old West landscape. I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is Westworld in the mold of previously-successful HBO projects, it also forced me to think about the prospects of living history. “Living history” simulates and interprets the past. Attractions assert history-as-entertainment. In that vein, successful museums must constantly keep exhibits fresh, introduce new initiatives, storylines, and characters, and generally give visitors a reason to return. The same problem faces the Westworld theme park, as technicians and writers strive to provide an ever-more entertaining and realistic experience. The show raises a perplexing question: how “real” should we get? Continue reading →

The Many & the One

June 15, 2015 By Sara Georgini in From the Archives, Public History Tags: 1775, American Revolution, Amos Doolittle, Antebellum, Atlantic World, Boston, Boston Public Library, Brita, British Empire, British Museum, cartography, Colonial Williamsburg, Concord, Connecticut Historical Society, D.C., empire, engraving, George Washington, imperial history, John Adams, Lexington, mapping, maps, New-York Historical Society, Paul Revere, Print Culture, Slavery, Washington Leave a comment

Like many, Amos Doolittle struggled to turn in a decent first draft of American history. The 21 year-old engraver, later known as the “Paul Revere of Connecticut,” arrived in Lexington and Concord shortly after April 1775. Anxious to capture the battles’ action and aftermath, he chatted with local residents. He sketched terrain. For Doolittle, a trained silversmith, it was a chance to experiment with a craft he had yet to master. Part of what he produced, a set of four views storyboarding the “shot heard round the world,” hangs in the Boston Public Library’s new exhibit, “We Are One: Mapping America’s Road from Revolution to Independence.” By Doolittle’s lights, Massachusetts makes for a furious and frenzied tableau: gusts of redcoats’ gunpowder hazing the sky, and colonial ranks splintering on the advance. On the American side, it is hardly a picture of union. Patriots scatter, racing blindly to frame’s edge. In his rough draft of Revolution, Amos Doolittle demands that we unlock all hopes of what might come next. Continue reading →

The Week in Early American History

May 25, 2015 By Joseph M. Adelman in The Week in Early American History Tags: academic blogging, African-American history, Alexander Hamilton, American Revolution, Bancroft Prize, Boston Massacre, Colonial Williamsburg, Crispus Attucks, Fellowships, Founders Chic, Magna Carta, Maryland, microhistory, New England, New Hampshire, popular culture, Sephardic Jews, Slavery, Smithsonian Institution, Spain, trade, women Leave a comment

Here in the United States, today is Memorial Day, a holiday originally created in the late 1860s to honor the Union Civil War dead, and now a time to commemorate all of America’s war dead. Because it’s also observed as a three-day weekend, we’re bringing you a special Monday holiday edition of The Week in Early American History. On to your morning reading…

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The Week in Early American History

January 25, 2015 By Christopher Jones in The Week in Early American History Tags: American Indians, Black Confederates, Colonial Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, museums, Public History, Readex 1 Comment

Welcome to another edition of The Week in Early American History! Continue reading →

The Week in Early American History

May 26, 2014 By Jonathan Wilson in The Week in Early American History Tags: academia, Colonial Williamsburg, Declaration of Independence, Fatherhood, George Washington Book Prize, John Demos, Native Americans, Slavery, Supreme Court, Ta-Nehisi Coates Leave a comment

Happy Memorial Day to our readers in the United States. This week’s links begin with reminders about the origins of the holiday. Continue reading →

The Week in Early American History

April 21, 2013 By Michael D. Hattem in The Week in Early American History Tags: academia, adjuncts, American Enlightenment, Archives, Colonial Williamsburg, documentary editing, graduate school, Public History, Publishing, undergraduates 1 Comment

TWEAH It’s that time of the week and it’s my turn to do the roundup, so let’s just get started with some links from the past week or so… Continue reading →

The Week in Early American History

April 14, 2013 By Joseph M. Adelman in The Week in Early American History Tags: Colonial Williamsburg, Constitution, In Memoriam, Jack Larkin, Journals, North Carolina, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, popular culture, rap, religion 1 Comment

TWEAH Happy Sunday! Let’s get right to the links.

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The Week in Early American History

March 10, 2013 By Jonathan Wilson in The Week in Early American History Tags: Abraham Lincoln, antiques, Colonial Williamsburg, Cracker Barrel, Freedom Trail, Harold Holzer, James Oakes, liberalism, natural law, New-York Historical Society, pamphlets, Readex, religion, Sean Wilentz, Slavery, Tony Kushner, University of Virginia Leave a comment

This week brings a rich harvest of material on slavery, memory, and public history.

First, we have two fascinating filmed conversations. At the Graduate Center at CUNY, James Oakes talks to Sean Wilentz about his new book, Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865. And at the New-York Historical Society, Harold Holzer speaks with Tony Kushner on the subject of Lincoln (and, of course, Lincoln).

Next, we take a look into slavery at Jefferson’s university. In an article in University of Virginia Magazine and a blogpost for Encyclopedia Virginia, Brendan Wolfe contextualizes a recent archaeological discovery.

In the Washington Post, meanwhile, J. Freedom du Lac reports on Colonial Williamsburg’s difficulty recruiting slave interpreters. And how did 19th-century African American portray their own emancipations? Good interviews Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer about their photographic history.

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