Fire!

This semester my HIS 143 class is exploring the Winter Park Fire Department. As always I expect they will make some unexpected discoveries. The chance to consider the growth of a public institution such as the Fire Department is another way to think about historical change over time. Getting into the archives and researching different aspects of the Fire Department will, I think, force students to understand how changes in work, technology, and society affect everyday life. On the other hand, they might just think its weird. I think that the Winter Park Historical Association will get some new web-pages (eventually) for Historic Winter Park. At the end of the day, I think it will add a level of engagement to the class that would not have existed without the project. Between the speakers that have joined us (Fire Chief Jim White and the author of Orlando FireFighting Ginger Bryant) and the supplemental reading related to firefighters and fire fighting, I think students are getting a big view of the topic. Since I received a Service Learning Grant for the semester for the project, students will also interview retired firefighters, a task I know many are not looking forward to. However, this like other aspect of the project will engage the students in a way that books and articles cannot. Let hope they don't cause any fires in their quest to get their interviews done.

The Historian's Craft: Revision

Funny title I know, but it is the truth. I worked with a colleague on an museum exhibit for the Winter Park History Association. Our exhibit on the Colony Theater was meant to be an exploration of the problematic use of memory associated with the theater. The community's desire to preserve the vertical marquee while gutting the inside over and over again represents a conflicted understanding about the nature of preservation and the need to develop that has transformed Florida. The exhibit work out well and really fueled an ongoing research agenda into Florida identity and consumption. One element that jumped out during the research was the existence of a African-American movie theater called the Famous and another called the Star. One question we had was whether or not African-Americans were allowed in the Colony. Its a tricky issue. I suspect they were not, but hadn't found concrete evidence. There remain a possibility that, at the end of the theater's life (early 1970s) they could have been allowed into the balcony. I recently talked to several African-American residents who said they were never allowed into the theater. So, while the oral history of a small sample may not represent the last word, it is pretty compelling. This is made all the more problematic by the fact that a new article in Orlando Magazine on the exhibit does quotes me as saying African-Americans did attend the theater. The revision which I probably won't get to share in Orlando Magazine, look more and more like no African-American patrons for the Colony. Whether this was official policy or unspoken rules that prevent African-American from crossing the railroad tracks even well into the 1970s, I don't know. I am coming to understand that Winter Park's black and white communities had a strange relationship, one that distorted by the affluence of the community and an emphasis on paternalistic cooperation. Although a very nice piece, the Orlando Magazine article does not and cannot deal with the problem represented by the Colony. I think that any public history exhibit has to operate on many levels (honestly, I don't believe many people read the text panels), it is a balancing act that requires constant adjustment between the audience's desire and scholarly inquiry.