Independence Hall in American memory / Charlene Mires.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mires, Charlene.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Independence Hall (Philadelphia, Pa.)--History.

Independence Hall (Philadelphia, Pa.).

Buildings--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.

Buildings.

Historic sites--Social aspects.

Historic sites.

History.

Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.

Philadelphia (Pa.)--History.

Philadelphia (Pa.).

Memory--Social aspects--United States.

Memory.

Memory--Social aspects.

United States.

Public history--United States.

Public history.

Historic sites--Social aspects--United States.

National characteristics, American.

Genre:

Authors' inscriptions

Physical Description:

xviii, 350 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2002]

Summary:

Covering more than two centuries of social, economic, and political change, and offering a challenging, innovative approach to urban as well as national history, First City tells the Philadelphia story through the wealth of material culture its citizens have chosen to preserve. Though history is necessarily written from the evidence we have of the past, as Nash shows, rarely is that evidence preserved without intent, nor is it equally representative. Full of surprising anecdotes, First City reveals how Philadelphians -- from members of elite cultural institutions, such as historical societies and museums, to relatively anonymous groups, such as women, racial and religious minorities, and laboring people -- have participated in the very partisan activity of transmitting historical memory from one generation to the next. This is a book I have long awaited, one that tells the life of a single building so as to illuminate American history from almost every angle -- cultural, social, and political." -- Mary Ryan, author of Civic Wars: Democracy and Public Life in the American City During the Nineteenth Century

Independence Hall is a place Americans think they know well. Within its walls the Continental Congress declared independence in 1776, and in 1787 the Founding Fathers drafted the U.S. Constitution. Painstakingly restored to evoke these momentous events, the building appears to have passed through time unscathed, from the heady days of the American Revolution to today. But Independence Hall is more than a symbol of the young nation. Beyond this, according to Charlene Mires, it has a long and varied history of changing uses in an urban environment, almost all of which have been forgotten.

In Independence Hall in American Memory, Mires rediscovers and chronicles the lost history of Independence Hall, in the process exploring the shifting perceptions of this most important building in America's popular imagination. According to Mires, the significance of Independence Hall cannot be fully appreciated without assessing the full range of political, cultural, and social history that has swirled about it for nearly three centuries. During its existence, it has functioned as a civic and cultural center, a political arena and courtroom, and a magnet for public celebrations and demonstrations. Portraitist Charles Willson Peale merged the arts, sciences, and public interest when he transformed a portion of the hall into a center for natural science in 1802. In the 1850s, hearings for accused fugitive slaves who faced the loss of freedom were held, ironically, in this famous birthplace of American independence. Over the years Philadelphians have used the old state house and its public square in a multitude of ways that have transformed it into an arena of conflict: labor grievances have echoed regularly in Independence Square since the 1830s, while civil rights protesters exercised their right to free speech in the turbulent 1960s. As much as the Founding Fathers, these people and events illustrate the building's significance as a cultural symbol.

In a fascinating portrait that illuminates the connections between collective memory and history, investigates how traditions and heritage emerge and change, and examines how a heterogeneous society constructs and preserves its history, Mires reveals Independence Hall, the most revered symbol of the American republic, as a place of contradictions, where the nation's ideals have been both defined and contested, expanded and limited.

Contents:

1. Landmark: A British Home for the American Revolution 1

2. Workshop: Building a Nation 31

3. Relic: Survival in the City 57

4. Shrine: Slavery, Nativism, and the Forgotten History of the Nineteenth Century 80

5. Legacy: Staking Claims to the Past Through Preservation 114

6. Place and Symbol: The Liberty Bell Ascendant 147

7. Treasure: Eighteenth-Century Building, Twentieth-Century City 182

8. Anchor: A Secure Past for Cold War America 213

9. Prism: Redefining Independence for a Third Century 242

10. Memory: The Truths We Hold to Be Self-Evident 268.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [281]-327) and index.

Athenaeum literary award ;2002 (special citation)

Local Notes:

Given to the Penn Libraries by Margy Ellin Meyerson in memory of her husband, President Emeritus Martin Meyerson.

Athenaeum copy: Literary Award copy inscribed by author; gift of the publisher.

ISBN:

0812236653

OCLC:

49743696