Inclusion, Collections, & Public Interactions

This weeks post is a little different from my usual post. This week in class Dr. Pearson asked us to sit down with our internship supervisors and discuss the following three questions and reflect on them.

1. What was the most contentious interaction/issue you have had at this site with regard to diversity and inclusion? 

For this question, Lauren said that the biggest interactions she has had with people, since starting at Vance, have been through the sites Social Media accounts. People have often had a preconceived notion of what the site is and get upset when it doesn't match their ideas. She gave me three examples of the most recent interactions she's had. The first being from a man who didn't agree with a post on Facebook about the reasons for the start of the Civil War. He had a stereotypical reaction of it not being about Slavery and more about Northern aggression. He also felt that being inclusive was not a good thing. The second was from a woman who thought the site and everyone who worked there were racist. Lauren's three reaction came from an African American women who did not like Lauren's language surrounding a post she wrote about digitizing records. This woman felt that Lauren was not qualified to talk about Slavery and African Americans because she is white. In the last case Lauren handled it by giving the woman more info, and handing it over to Kimberly to talks to the woman privately about internship and volunteer opportunity.

2. Do your collections plans/mission statements address concepts of diversity and inclusion? How?

Lauren says that the only plans/mission statement that exists is the one relating to Zebulon B.Vance, but they are trying to change that. While the site is the birthplace of Zebulon Vance, he only lived there until he was seven. So their real focus is his Grandfather David Vance Sr. and his father David Vance Jr. Lauren also takes issue with the word "Redemption" which is used in the current mission statement. But overall, No, their is no inclusion of Slavery. We are, however, working on a furnishings plan for the house and slave cabin because there is not an existing one.

The sites current mission statement is: “The Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace Historic Site is dedicated to the preservation of the birthplace of North Carolina’s Civil War Governor and to providing, for public benefit, the continuing interpretation of Southern Appalachian history and culture, emphasizing the contributions made by Zebulon B. Vance, and other members of the Vance family, to regional, state, and national history during the period spanning the American Revolution through the Southern Reconstruction and Redemption.”

3. What does your supervisor think may be missing from their collection(s) that might allow visitors and researchers to gain a more complete picture of the time and place that their collections represent?

The Collection has over 1,000 artifacts, so they're not adding more pieces. The sites problem is that they have pieces not from the period they are interpreting which is from the 1790s to the 1840s. But Lauren and I are currently assessing what is in the collection and getting rid of what we don't need on site. So that we can better arrange what we have to fit the narrative of the site.

Other that my experience last weekend with the man on tour using a racial slur, I've not had any negative reactions from visitors of the site. The script we have for the tour is very inclusive. The language in the script has been written to emphasize the fact that the Vance family had enslaved people living and working on their farm.

I think that it's important for people to know that slavery was everywhere during this period in history and we should not shy away from it because it's not pretty. The ugly parts of history are what we should be looking at the hardest because there are lessons for us to learn in those periods of time.

Not only is it important for people of all colors and creeds to learn is history, it is important to put that history into proper context. Without context, events are just random moments in time. Context helps those moments fit into the larger picture of human history. If  pieces of the puzzle are missing, then the whole thing doesn't make sense.


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