Birthplaces of a nation: public commemorations of American origins in the early twentieth century
Date
2015
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries many Americans—especially politicians, community leaders, and cultural elites—poured a great deal of time and money into commemorating the events that they believed were foundational to the creation of the United States. Major historic anniversaries provided an opportunity to celebrate American wealth and greatness, with the goal of strengthening the bonds of nationhood. This dissertation examines the contested process that led to the creation of memorial landscapes at the landing sites of the Jamestown, Plymouth, and New Sweden colonists for their tercentenaries in 1907, 1920, and 1938, respectively. The commemorators transformed these landing sites, which had been neglected or developed rather than preserved, into sacred ground. They hoped that once reinvented—both physically and in the popular imagination—these sites would become shrines for modern American pilgrims. They believed that by altering the landscape they could produce patriotism; the physical spaces would inspire visitors to emulate the colonists. ☐ The construction and propagation of national myths centered on these settlements reflected a preoccupation with place and an assumption that the northern Europeans who arrived in the seventeenth century established what it meant to be a true American. By rooting American identity in the colonists and celebrating a series of “first” events, elites excluded other groups who threatened their cultural and political power. The commemorators bolstered their claims to authority by championing Anglo-Saxonism, Protestantism, and representative government as foundational to the United States. Memorialization became a tool for strengthening national reunion following Reconstruction, for Americanizing immigrants and suppressing socialists following World War I, and for encouraging economic development during the Great Depression. ☐ However, achieving these goals proved difficult given the competition over the physical sites. This dissertation considers how individuals and competing interest groups—women’s patriotic organizations, state and federal commemorative commissions, local landowners, businesspeople, preservationists, and architects—appropriated public space and secured the money to erect memorials at the landing sites. It also addresses those memorials that could have been erected but were not, due to poor planning, insufficient funds, and the inherent competition of memorialization.
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Keywords
Plymouth, New Sweden, Memory, Memorial landscapes, Jamestown, Commemoration