Reflections and unanswered questions about public history in San Antonio

Intersections of public history downtown 

In the last couple of weeks, I have fond myself noticing things others ignore as they walk downtown near San Antonio City Hall.  The other day I had to walk downtown and noticed the dichotomy of the old vs the new in the form of new construction next to old buildings.   I noticed some old faded signs next to a brand new development by City Hall and I took a moment to realize that I was at one of the many intersections of public history and yet most people pass these pieces of history by without a second thought.  My thoughts ran to three questions.

Why does the public in general ignore these signs? How can we make these intersections of public history interesting? How can we engage citizens in fruitful and meaningful discussions about the past?  My best answer so far is that largely history has become a mystery to us as a public and we don’t easily see the connections to our present day. What can we as public historians do about that?

History as mystery

If history is a mystery, then I think it is up to public historians to look for public clues, ask why and give the mystery some context and some relevancy.  An example of a public clue is a faded building name downtown or maybe an old business logo preserved from years gone by.  I’ve noticed that when I start looking at clues through the lens of a curious citizen or those of a public historian I often have more questions than answers. These questions lead to research, photo taking and more research for future blog posts.  Below, I have taken photos of the Kallison building downtown right by the courthouse and city hall. As I have noticed these small mysteries, I start wondering how the public generally remembers history.

The telephone game

The history that we retell as a public is usually some version of the telephone game where someone remembers that someone told them something that might have been a historical fact.  While oral histories are important, it is just as important to reflect on why we sometimes choose to remember stories this way and not with bronze historical markers. Who is the authority on the oral histories that get passed down from friend to friend? As it turns out these stories often start as history and get distorted into myth and legend. In Texas these stories are known to transform into something even greater, known as ‘tall tales’.  So how do we navigate the myths, legends and ‘tall tales’ and solve these mysteries of history?

Preservation and progress-The struggle is real 

As history continues to progress, I am stuck with the thought that since we can not preserve everything we should be very deliberate about the things that we do preserve with limited resources and time. While preservation is a very important strategy for public historians, it is not the only strategy.  Another very important strategy for us a public historians should be the deliberate research of the stories of the past and drawing parallels to the present. As the ongoing pull between preservation and progress continues we should be discussing why the past is important, what it tells us about our present and what it could mean for our future.  While I have left a lot of unanswered questions, I hope to find some answers over the course of the semester and start a dialogue about our roles as public historians and how we can bring history to the forefront in the struggle between preservation and progress.  It looks like we have our work cut out for us.

2 Replies to “Reflections and unanswered questions about public history in San Antonio”

  1. I really enjoyed this piece. I do personally feel like a detective and definitely have my work cut out for me doing my project in Dr. Poyo’s course, Hispanic San Antonio. It is so crazy to me that local histories that are remembered are SO controlled by the local residents of these communities. Social memory is so important to think about as a Public Historian because we had to dig past the folklore and legends and attempt to find archives and collection about these certain histories.

  2. I really enjoyed reading this post! I will also be thinking of myself as a public history detective now, on the search for clues to solve the mysteries of the past. I completely agree that it is not easy to engage communities in discussions of history, as many do not see historical events as having significance to their present-day lives.

    I enjoyed your photos of downtown San Antonio! My mom has fond memories of going to Joske’s as a child, which is now Rivercenter mall. My grandmother would take my mom and all her siblings to Joske’s if they finished their chores on time. Apparently this department store was also a treasured place to visit around Christmastime. It is very interesting to see downtown San Antonio as it were in the past.

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