Transcripts For CSPAN3 Interpreting Womens History For The Public 20150119

Even industry has grown rapidly. The camps outside israels borders where more than a million refugees maintain a miserable existence. Israel says it would be impossible to readmit them. The arab states sporting the refugees do not accept any condition at all. Up next on American History tv, a panel of historians and Museum Professionals talk about methods and challenges for presenting womens his to a nonacademic audience. They make recommendations and discuss upcoming projects. This round table was part of the american historical Associations Annual meeting and is about two hours. Thank you very much let me commence with introductions. We have the president and ceo of the society they are fostering Greater Public understanding of history and the impact on the world today to support and encourage historical scholarships. Mira recently lead the campaign for a major renovation of a land mark building on Central Park West that raised more than 100 million. The New York Historical societies has launched Ground Breaking exhibitions and in recent years she has been honoredhonor honored with the league of womens medal, education and advocacy award. Also many, many other awards that we dont have time to read today because we want to hear what she has to say. She has also done research herself that focuses on the creation of narratives and how to hap, shape, and define social institution. So the president and ceo of the New York Historical society, liz mira. Thank you maria for organizing this panel. We have been developing a Brand New Center for womens history. Im very interested today to learn about the work of my fellow panelists and to hear the views of those of you in the audience. At the New York Historical society, one of our greatest challenges in thinking about how best to advance the very complex story of womens ovlk ju k is inviting people to learn with us and improve their performance on the statewide bench mark examinations. To a determine graph ir that skews on the one hand toward older visitors and on the other towards children and parents. So we have really a challenge of addressing, with this story, multiple variable audiences. We decided after a good bit of discussion and debate that we would do what we had always done best. Those strengths are, are in a nutshell, our collectioning collections, donations and donors. I want to say a few words about each one of these strengths and then i would like to show you a brief demonstration of where we are in our work. The seeds of our determination to create this new center for womens history resides in one of our most important Decorative Arts collection. That is our tiffany lamps. There is 132 exquisite pieces that were given to us in the 1930s. Under any circumstances, our tiffany collection would be worthy of its own display. But our interest in this instance was driven by the story behind the lamps. About a decade ago less than a decade ago, in fact, three scholars found out that they were designed by women. There was a young woman faired Clara Driscoll who came to new york to try to be an artist. She studied at the metropolitan museum of art and she was offered a job at tiffany studios in manhattan. She people one of the best compensated women in new york city. I know it wont come as a surprise that by 1903 her male colleagues were threatening to strike to downgrade her 35 all woman department. And following the custom of her day, in 1909, she left tiffany studios when she got married. One of our most important Decorative Arts collections gave such rich evidence of womens history and struggle and advancement towards full participation in american society. Motivation enough to think more broadly about how we could connect the story of womens history with our institution and the collection of clampslamps. We wanted to dazzle our audience and also tell the story. We always thought we could use this story and display as a spring board for looking back wards towards the suffrages movements and forward towards womens eventually securesing of the right to vote. We saw the potential for telling the story in glass and words and we hired a great architect that works almost exclusively in class to define a great allglass gallery of us. Focussed on the late 19th and early 20th centuries in new york. I want to mention that one of my colleagues is one of the three scholars that made this discovery, and we have been able to depend on other great colleagues. And we formed an advisory committee. Location is, of course another great strength of our institution. We consider oust a museum and library. And we thought that as Clara Driscolls story was a great new york story and that it wasnt all that different from the stories of other women, some unsung, and others quite a bit better known. And that we would do what we had done before quite successfully and that is toklpflop a multimedia film. It would be unfamiliar to our students and visitors but would provide an orientation to what they would see on display. We hired the filmmaker that helped us with the film that we have on view in our auditorium right now. I will show you have brief trailer at the end of my remarks. Donors are another great strength. Our trustees are great and i would like to speak about a few of them. Roger at the time we began developing this project, he was always interested in the story of Clara Driscoll, but he became a expert because of his wife who was writing a book on the topic of women in this era. He was succeeded by pam and she also became very engaged in the subject. This all came together in a way that allowed our ambitions to evolve now from telling our story in glass words, and film to telling our study for the center of womens history. We apply for a grant that would enable us to attract fellows and scholars working in the field who would Work Together with the New York Historical Society Staff to make this now great grand ambition come true. We have seminars and lively discussions and debates and enriching the audience that we have that is a great audience of scholars that use our collections. Happily we were successful with our application to the millen foundation, and hope that some of you will be interested in joining us. You may make introductions to others who might be and were beginning our recruitment right now. Were at a very very exciting point and we he will be moving forward with a physical project which consumes substantially the fourth floor of our institution and an intellectual project that is pushing forward the frontiers of scholarship. So, i brought with me a very brief railer, very conceptual for the film that were working on, and im going to show it. I would like you to bear in mind it is very conceptual. Give that very small sample of what we want to be doing. This is very much a work in progress. New York Historical society will soon open its stunning tiffany gallery. New york women in a new light will take you into the surprising history behind the art. We join the story in the first two decades of the 20th century. Forces across the country are intensified and unleashed in new york. Setting up conditions for profound change. Out of this dazzling and transformative moment in history, a generation of women working without the vote, take actions that will affect the course of the nation. Many young women are drawn to new york to pursue opportunities for women. Others working in buildings and halls of power, on the factory floor and in settlement houses. On a stage and in the street. Set in motion changes that will reverberate across the 21s century. Until now many of these are lost on history. We witness a unique time in history and change the course of a nation. Finally we hear the voices of leaders on similar stages today reflecting on the creative installation that we may draw from remarkable figures in history. u,x . Fb÷ [ applause ] so our next speaker is karen op optin. She is a affiliated with the michelle r. Claim institute for gender research. Western thought and politics with reference to family gender and the relative status of women. In 2010 she was elected to the bureau of International Committee for the Historical Sciences based in ars. And is past president of the association of women historians. He held fellowships for stud you and research for the rockefeller foundation. She has directed four disciplinary summer seminars focusing on the woman question for college teachers. He organized historical text and translation, and directed a seminar on motherhood and the nations state in stanford in 2002. She is a widely published author. Many of you no doubt have read her foundational argument compares feminism and historical female analysis. European feminism from 1700 to 1958 a political history which came out in 2000 and has just been translated to french as well. In addition to that work and many other articles and collective volumes she globalizes feminism from 1798 to 1945 which i highly recommend to nip in the field. She lives in stanford, and she just completed a book. Debating the woman question. So without further adieu also, she is still involved in the project in San Francisco with, a Womens History Museum, and i think we will hear about that now. Thank you, can you all here me . Thank you for the nice introduction. The reason that im here is not because of the historical scholarship piece, but because of my experience at the International Museum of women. From 1990 to 2011, i was part o of the working board of the initiative of women. I played a key role in the launch of what has since become a Virtual Museum at www. Imow. Org. They have joined forces with the global fund for women which many of you may be familiar with. Coming to the projects and to the board as a scholar historian in 1999 i received a crash course in museum building, culture, and costs. I chaired the crucial exhibition and Program Committee for over five years until we hired a Vice President , paid of course, who took over notionthose duties. I work closely with Elizabeth Colton from kahn september definition, to site location, to fund raisingz fundraising, working with, fwieding, content developers, interviewing architects and to crafting the interpretive plan for the brick and mortal museum project. By 2004 we thought we had all of the pieces in place. Site architects, content developer, project manager, et cetera. Then, we sent the tooifers down under the peers on the San Francisco waterfront. When they came up and filed their reports, it became clear that this pier that belonged to the San Francisco Port Authority had major structural problems underneath. And the estimate for retro fitting the substructure was around 20 million. We decided to rethink the project at that point because prooifs donors are not interested in funding substructures and you cant but blacks on steel beams under water that anyone will be able to see unless they happen to have a diving suit. So we spent nine months rethinking the project. What we came up with was a very different direction for the museum. A virtual project that has since won honors from the museum community. And we have, now, no collections, no objects. But we have a huge number of exhibits and things that are available on the website. And the exhibits that we have put together, a number of on that website. You can see them from where ever you are in the world in you have an internet connection. Elizabeth and i copublished a handful of articles about our project international including in the museum international,n . Qx in space, and italy. Our staff developed Worldwide Networks and has been coproducing events with partners on the ground and all over the world. So thats the background. Next we come to the context questions. And we took a stance for Simultaneous Development of both the difficult structure, and the content. As a published author i have developed the difficulties of incorporating difficult cop septembers for lay audiences that have developed during the years of International Womens history scholarship. I wrestled with the problem of how to convey, not only in an appropriate manner. And how to make content entertaining and educational. The business side of the museum if you will. I helped accomplish a International Womens history advisory board. And helped organize exhibit content and development in europe and in the United States. Which brought together various interesting people, not all of whom were historians, but in the world of museum culture. I quickly learned after attempting to education and especially the museum staff as it was growing. What we needed was several fulltime womens history experts in the Office Working hand and glove with the administrative and cure tor yal staff and with the interns in particular to embed a historical consciousness. To inform and integrate the most pertinent findings of womens history and to teach Fact Checking and double sourcing to young people who would rather consult wikipedia than read books by scholars. This is not a bad thing, but because there were no women historians on staff, it did not bblg the womens become the Womens History Museum we want it had to become. And that it perhaps could have become. For contemporary women around the world, and our website has hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. The material archived on the website is spectacular and it will become a Historical Research including for teachers. We already had courses based around some of the exhibit material. You should check out these spiritual exhibits, imagining ourselves, women, poweanc3 politics. We are working on women, technology science, and engineering around the world. I think that will be out pretty soon. My small continuing contribution is linked to imas blog the blueprint, which since 2007 i have published a periodic blog called cleo talks back. I had to explain who cleo was to the nonhistorians and it shows the desperation. She decided to speak for herself. And i put up all kind of sper taning, mostly Historical Documents but also commentaries. Including one that was the author of the declaration of the rights of women as the first female blogger. As she had no internet, but she put up posters with her declaration all over the city of paris, and that was the way you blogged in those days. 1792. As to the concept and content development, it is my Firm Conviction that in any kind of historical situation it must not be put off. Decisions need to be made at the outset. And i made the decision to be edgy. We tried to figure out, you know, what sort of character out there we might like to emulate. And Oprah Winfrey came up but qhgv especially whoopi goldberg. We based our effort in a forward looking concept that would incorporate gender analysis. The complex interactions between women and men. We decided we would offer a feminists perspective on women past and present, and we did not limit her scope to . Rehearsing a catalog of womens rights campaigns. Granted public audiences certainly want to learn about achieving women and womens rights campaigns but that is not enough. It may also be that they that we need to know, and to let other people know our audience about the conditions that blocked womens achievements. The conditions that permitted their achievements. Visitors also want to know and we did a lot of audience talks as well about how women challenged and struggled against the patriarch of status quo. How they engaged with the major issues of the day. They also want to know about women who are content with the status quo and why and how they depended it. This is perhaps theless less popular side. The j0n museum that celebrates women, and is just a show case for the hat worn by so and so, cannot satisfy hue seem or funders or Museum Audiences in our opinion. It is fun to look at the stuff of famousp women, taking examples for womens exhibitions outside of the United States and princess dianas ball gowns. Or even in the Smithsonian National museum of American History, the inaugural red gowns of the first ladies. But the real challenge is to present context rich. It does not go without saying that focusing on womens his necessarily does rewrite history and rewrites peoples perceptions. It can be disturbing and jar jarring. By now the literature in womens and general history has provided the materials to shatter the old stories whether at the local national, international, or transnational levels. And we have such a rich body of scholarship now, and the findings have been so big here in the United States and abroad, that the to build any museum today without integrating this moj base, or retro fitting a museum that exists without going to this knowledge just the throw away of incredible student. Let me conclude by quoting an editorial that appeared a few years ago when a columnist was thinking about a memorial for the 9 11 bombing in new york city. When the Sterling Library was going up the yale in the 1930s, there was a big todo over the building. It was one of the more impressive modern wildbuildings of its time in the world. Some proposed posting a sign outside of the entrance when the building opened saying this is not the library, the library is inside. And indeed the same thing is true for museums. The museum is inside. The concept and content, the exhibitions and their ability to channel viewers. To make us think and reflect, and to learn from women past,less sops that will serve us in the present and the future, these are important things. It is my conviction that Museum Audiences these days, and this is based on my 11 years withings imal need to be provoked not placated. They need to see women in the experience of any society including american society, as they have never been seen before. Museums, present or future, that take on the challenge with history, womens history, womens experiences, and the politics of knowledge in which womens his zero is imbedded will do their audiences a Great Service and will challenge them to see womens experience as it has never been seen before. Thank you. We move now to the president elect. R 4s about 6 00 p. M. She becomes the president of the aha today. She a professor of history at the university of california irvine. And she has been one of the towering figures of developing and enriching chicana history in the last 30 plus years. She is the author of she is the author of over 50 essays, and one dozen books including canterbury women. She coedited selections. And the amazing three volume latinas in the United States, a historical encyclopedia. A committed educator contributed to the American History projects including museum exhibits, high school workshops, and teacher seminars. She was the president of the burks for a good long time and served as an administrator at a university and her colleagues tell me good things. We cannot wait to be led by her in the aha. The floor is yours. Thank you. Im going to talk to the podium because do i better at the podium. That way i can see everybody. Im short. I would like to talk in a larger discussion about public history in general an what our roles are as historians. The next time you find yourself in atlanta for our 2016 annual meeting perhaps, i encourage you to visit the center for national and civil rights. Prepare yourself for a virtual onslaught of racial taunts and threats that rise in volume as the seconds tick by. One leaves the exhibit shaken with a sense of jim crow in the every day. Along with a profound appreciation for those courageous Young Americans that took their seats in history. Many examples abound of the historical immediacy. As innovators and Story Tellers they calibrate and transform academic scholarship into journeys for another audience. Publish history touched by teaching at every turn. At times satisfies or frustrating. My participation in over 70 projects including museum exhibits, documentaries, and a historical themes amusement part reinforced my belief that our professional responsibilities extend past the confines of the campus. Each project took on a life of its own. Showing how meaningful collaborations are rooted in Mutual Respect and shared goals. They consider when were presented with opportunities for public engagement, the things that i think are guidelines to consider when asked to participate. First of alll set expectations. Please set your expectations from the start. Set clear parameters for the project and your potential participation. And you realistically reinvest the effort. Once i scoured archival ackn resources. And to rub salt in the wounding this is was scholar that was publicly critical for my work. I received compensation, but if i understood my role more clearly, i could have made a better decision about my involvement. I once deeply disappointed a team when i could not commit to the time and travel the project required. The second is own your words if for an on camera interview prepare, prepare prepare. Request the questions in advance, or at least anticipate them. Approach a taping session like youre on a Job Interview mindful of what you say and how you say it. You may have to deflect temps to feed you lines. I was told more than once by a filmmaker youre not giving me what i need. Remember your words will be edited. So strive for interesting sentences. You can create greater opportunities for editorial mischief. I was taken out of context is a bitter admission. The third, know your audience. Consider the stakes involved when engaging multiple publics. Over 20 years ago, i was part of a consulting trio and a young curator that had focused on the areas rich heritage. During the formal presentation to the trustees the curator revealed plans for a section highlights everyday lives at the turn of the century. To the more modest dwellings for asian and mexican families. Tightening his jaw in one trustee made the connection between inequality in the past and current inequality. Ill have none of that in my museum. Anticipating such criticism the staff secured board support for a closer depix of the immigrant roots. Many farm workers had parents or grandparents and it would resonate with them. Making clear why our scholarship matters constitutes the first step in any public history enterprise. Guidelines and Cautionary Tales aside, moments of serendipity occur. Creating a space of meaningful possibilities. In the summer of 1996, a laned a great deal from colleagues. We moved towards a shared vision. Guided by the director and president of chicagos museum of science and industry. The goal was to create quote, the first Museum Dedicated to the history of women of all cultures in the american west. The impresents from those meetings have lingered in my work and also when the women of the west museums mission. Despite the efforts that span almost a decade, and recruiting five former first ladies, a briek brick and mortar museum never materialized. Virginia sharp professor at the university of new mexico cocreated the landmark exhibit homelands, how women made the west using material culture to tell the stories of womens lives. Northern new mexico, colorado, and washingtons puget sound. Women were at the heart of turning western places into homes and fighting over who has the right to make a home. Reflecting on the meanings the previous work. Homeland informed me as a scholar, and the exhibition book is still in print. As plans get under way for congressional commission, dedicated to the creation of a womens natural History Museum, i cannot stress the importance. We cannot replace the universal math of American History with a universal woman. Scholars must be involved from the outset on program planning. Not just brought in after the fact or in some cases the fiction as was in the case of the ill fated latino website, and i really do appreciate that you took it down. I really do appreciate that. I think that rather than a triumphful story of progress, we should search die lolgs about womens conflicts and contributions. And there are literally dozens of public historians and academics eager to provide assistance. On a institutional level, and the National Collaborative offer two terrific examples of informed dynamic partnership. For well over 20 years, the National Park service worked with historians across the country to revise dated narratives and create new lapd landmarks. They were named the national historyic the National Register of historic places. One of the first sites not associated with span irk colonial settlement. Another prominent example is dedicated to a hidden chapter of the american civil war. The sand creek massacre. It was 200 mostly women and children who were slaughtered. Despite the controversy sand creek is a place of pilgramage. You feel a presence here rather than just taking in the sites. They interviewed one local that connected the sand creek site to another story. What else in our history were we not told about . In a recent testimony before the texas state board of education, distinguished historian disappoint. Unless we enable them to understand the historical roots of the here and now and those roots are admittedly tangled and messy. In conveying americas story that include events like the tragedy at sand creek pub lib historians stand the front lines of historical knowledge and collective memory. Thank you. [ applause ] excellent. So far everyone stayed in the 15 minutes and im so grateful because we have more time for discussion. We have our last presentation, and we are very glad to have among us the president and ceo of the Womens National History Museum, joan wages who leads a organization about a diverse historic cob try bugss of women and raising awareness for the need for a womens natural History Museum in our capital. In addition to oversee e. G. The Museums Development programming, events communication, and external affairs, she has been lobbying congress to pass the legislation that just passed three weeks ago to establish a legislation to produce a feasible plan for the museum including government, organizational structure fundraising operations. She has championed womens issues through her career as a lobbyist she worked with womens organizations to affect positive change on a host of issues. It was no surprise when she teamed with a small group of women to advocate for the portrait portrait monument. She was instrumental in the development and passage of legislation including raising the funds for the cost of the move. Prior to joining the nwhn, she severed as part of a Government Affairs consulting firm. With influence, with Proven Expertise in state and federal legislation, National Grass roots lobbying campaigns. And political campaigns mrs. Wages accomplishments include a number of items, among them, the passage of the family medical leave act. As a Political Action committee director, he has frequent contact with members of congress. She participates in women in Government Relations and the womens leadership forum. She served on the board of the Virginia Alliance for health care freedom. As a result of her efforts on behalf of the museum, she was honored as part of the remarkable women seize so without further adieu, joan wages. [ applause ] im following vickys footsteps to the podium. Thank you so much, maria. Thank you to aha for inviting the museum to have a presence here at this panel. I pretty much in just listening to whats been said here im going to chuck my notes and address some of the issues i have heard come up. I would like to give you a little history of how we got to this point. 18 years ago, a woman who was not a historyian, but who had a passion for but who had a passion for womens history came up with the idea that we needed a Womens National History Museum. She looked around the nation. She talked to people she thought for sure there was one in the works, and learned that there was not. So literally around her Kitchen Table a group of people started coming together. Karen staser was from alaska. She knew very few people. So her neighbors introduced her to people. And one by one people started coming together to support this idea. And a number of us came together to work on this effort to move the portrait monument from the basement of the capitol up into the rotunda. And we used that as a metaphor of whats happened to womens history. Because that statue had been carved in 1921 to celebrate women getting the vote. It was offered to congress and the allmale congress didnt want to september statue. The suffragettes had become quite good at campaigns at that point. So they kept lobbying congress and going to the media. So finally congress was embarrassed into accepting the statue. They accepted it dedicated it in the rotunda, and the very next day had it moved downstairs into the crypt. Into the land of the dead. So it would be there with the brooms the mops, and the suffrage statue. Thats where it stayed for 76 years. There have been five major attempts by womens groups to move this statue upstairs. So our lesson from working on that project was that when all of the when the members of congress are all out of excuses the one they come up with is we dont have the money to move the statue. And those of us working on it said okay, fine, well pay. None of us knew how to raise money, but we decided we would go do it. So we did. We raised the money. When we went back to Newt Gingrich with the check, he that was the last straw. So he agreed for us to have the statue moved. And we did. So that was a lesson to us about how you can work with congress to get something done. Over the last 18 years we have looked at more than 40 potential sites for the museum. And what we kept coming back to was that we wanted the museum as close to or on the National Mall. The reason for that is museum thats are only five blocks off the National Mall will get Something Like 200,000 visitors a year. There is no museum on the National Mall that gets less than a million. American history 4 million. Air and space 7 million. Holocaust i think is 7 million. So we learned it is very important that we be as close to the National Mall as possible. And of course from our humble perspective Women Deserve to be on the National Mall so that women are recognized and symbolized there in a place where our nation shows what we honor. So weve had three legislative attempts. We first pr sooud a site that was part of an existing building right on pennsylvania avenue. Its the Old Post Office building. It was the annex of the Old Post Office building. So we went through about i think it was five years working to get that site. We thought this was a nobrainer because the building was empty. It had already at that point been empty for ten years. So we thought okay well, take it off the governments hands. We will offer to pay for renting a longterm lease on this building. So we worked on it, worked on it. And there were Factions Within Congress that wanted to see that particular building renovated along with the Old Post Office building. So there was opposition. And after five years we thought okay were not going to overcome this. So we learned this site that had just been vacated that is across the street from the mall on independence avenue. Its at 12th and independence. Its a vacant lot. The problem with it is that a road runs through it. Goes down and goes under the National Mall. 12th street tunnel. So we worked on that for two sessions of congress. And we had believed the General Services administration who had control of that site when they told us that we would be able to build at least 250,000 square feet on this site, what we learned over time and working with Different Developers and engineers, that gsc was not accurate, and even if we could do it it was going to be immensely costly to deck over this. But that legislation ended up passing the house and then it went to the senate. And so besides the technical difficulties around that site we also ran into some political problems. This was our First Exchange with senator then jim demint, who opposed our legislation because we had a biography of Margaret Sanger on our website. So it it ended up that there was a very conservative group concerned women for america who had gone to senator demint said we oppose this action for a museum because of this biography. So i met with staff on demints staff and tom coburn, he was also in opposition at the time. And so it was very clear that they were not going to back away from their opposition. And they were able to push the time frame back so far that that congress ended. So after that congress we had some soul searching to do about how were we going to even if we went back how were we going to get around this hurdle. And then was that even the right site for us to continue to be working toward. So we learned at that time that there was one more site on the National Mall. The park service had told us there was not another site on the National Mall. But we got some Historical Information that verified that there is one vacant site on the mall. And if youre wondering where it is, its the flip side of the mall from where the africanamerican museum is currently being built. Between 14th and 15th on independence. So at that time we did some homework and learned that the only way to really all out pursue a site on the National Mall was to get a congressional commission. And there had been precedents set by the africanamerican museum and the latinoamerican museum. Both of them had commissions. And both of them ended up with] recommendations of sites on the National Mall. The Holocaust Museum also had a commission, but it was a president ial commission, not a congressional. So we worked with Carolyn Maloneys office to do research lu the Congressional Research service, and found out what we needed to do to have legislation introduces and how it would be best to structure that language so it had the best likelihood of passing congress. And in the course of that congresswoman Carolyn Maloney reached out to Marcia Blackburn, a congresswoman from tennessee and a very conservative congresswoman, and Marcia Blackburn understood that a museum a national Womens History Museum has to reflect all of womens history not just conservative or liberal womens history. So she was willing to step up and be a lead cosponsor in the house. Susan collins is has been our longtime lead in the senate. And senator Barbara Mikulski is the democratic cosponsor. So we got the legislation introduced, and there have as was mentioned, we are delighted that it passed in congress on december the 12th. And it passed as part of the defense appropriations im sorry, defense reauthorization bill. Yeah. The irony of that. But we wont even go into that. Politics is just very strange. And this was just the way that we were able to begin the support that we needed in order to get the bill passed. So id like to talk about just a couple of aspects of the commission. Now congress has president obama sign the bill on december 19th. So that starts the clock ticking. There are 90 days for the eight commissioners to be named. The leadership in the house, boehner and pelosi leadership in the senate, reid and mcconnell, will each name two commissioners to the commission. The commission will have 18 months to report back to congress and the president. The commission will then terminate after 30 days after the report has been filed there are six qualifications listed as far as commissioner thats are needed to be on this commission. And i will say this is the first time that legislation has passed congress which provides for private funding for a commission on a national museum. And we did this we had to swallow hard. This was certainly not our first choice. But we got to a point in lobbying for this bill where we were told if you dont agree to pay for this privately we will not move it forward. So we had to swallow hard. Again, its back to the suffrage statute. That was going to be the last excuse. So we said fine well pay. Luckily, we have over a Million Dollars in our bank account. Not that thats the way we want to spend it. Wed rather spend it on building the museum. But if this is what it takes this is what it takes. So the commissioners there are six qualifications that are listed. And in the latinoamerican the africanamerican, and this commission, they have all provided that commissioners will be named with some of the following qualifications. So in this case it is a commitment to womens history a Museum Administration expert fundraising expertise for nonprofit or cultural institutions, a womens history teacher or professor that was intended to be to cover having a scholar on the commission. Women in art, life, history, and culture at smithsonian. Or a public or elected official. And then the sixth is expert in museum establishment and planning or an expert in Museum Facility planning, design or construction. So the commission will report back on the cost and availability of collections that could be housed in the museum. It will not identify what will be housed. Its what could be housed. Impact on regional women historyrelated museums. Potential locations in washington. A key role for this commission. Whether the museum should be part of smithsonian governance and organizational structure for the museum engaging women in the development and design of the museum and the cost of constructing, operating, and mangt the museum. So we have to come back with a fundraising plan to show we can raise the money to build the museum, to sustain the museum, and to sustain the museum in perpetuity. And then that report will go back to six different committees on capitol hill. I would like to stress that we have the highest regard for the role of historians. We have worked with historians from virtually day one on every project that we have done. We have a website where we are getting 3 million hits a year. Now our social media has taken off like gangbusters over the last year. A year ago we had 4,000 facebook fans. Now we have 180,000. Museum experts have said this just shows weretze÷ tapping into a nerve, that there is a desire for information about womens history and thats what were looking to provide. We are studying a relaunch of our website. The study has gone on for the last year. And one of the interesting things that weve learned is that 52 of the people coming to our website are either Grade School Teachers or students. So it shows you that theres really a need for this information to be out there. Educators continue grade School Educators continue to tell us that the information is not in the history textbooks. Its still not in the history textbooks. And that they need a resource. And thats how we want to provide information and help them. So we will we know there will be historians who will be added to this commission. Weve just added a historian to our board. And we look forward to working with historians and developing this museum that will be a beacon to the world. Because of all the international and domestic tourists who come to our nations capital, they will see that our nation honors our women. And they will want to go back and create a museum to honor their nations women. Thank you. [ applause ] so as i mentioned at the beginning, im going to give a chance to the panelists if they wish to ask questions comment, address each other briefly, and then well open it up to the whole audience. And im not requiring anybody to say anything here unless they want to. But are there any thoughts questions, followups . I just think that you know if you can speak okay. Joan, i wish that before the latina website had gone up that you had contacted me. Oh, the exhibit. Yeah. Before you put it on the web you would have contacted me. Because when you contacted me and said we were getting complaints about, it you wanted me to read it and give you some cover. And i read it and was like oh, please take it down. And i asked you who had worked on it. And you said an undergraduate intern. We had a full professor over i cant tell you the name right now. Ill get it to you. Absolutely. But we had a full professor who was the the key person and then the undergrad worked on drafting. And so it was a mess. Okay. We took it down. Yes, thank you very much. Youre welcome. Honestly, we are happy to take something down or correct it or its not to anyones benefit that we have incorrect information. Exactly. Thank you. Did you want to add anything orxh ask questions . Im still thinking. One thing i didnt address in my remarks to any specific degree was the issue of the sort of sound bite or short paragraph approach to womens history, which is not a womens history problem so much as it is a means of communicating in public spaces and museums and so forth. So my question is really to our New York Historical Society President as to how you handle that sort of thing. Putting complicated ideas into publicly accessible material. I think we have a lot of experience now doing that with complex and difficult topics. You know, weve tried a few different strategies. One of them is in cases where there are objects available to try to allow the object to tell its own story. And i can give you a couple of examples from exhibitions that weve done that relate to women since thats the topic of this panel. So for example my first exhibition at the New York Historical society was a show called slavery in new york. And we actually had very few its a series of three shows that we did over an 18month period so we could start in Dutch Colonial new york and end at the end of the civil war. So it spanned a long period. We had to do three shows. The first show, which began in 17th century new york there were very few objects available to tell that story. So we actuallyqf created some something that offhand im not really fond of doing, but i think it worked successfully. So let me give two examples. One, we naturally have any representations of any new york africanamericans in the 17th century to draw on. So we commissioned a sculptor. It happened to have an africanamerican sculptor in brooklyn. To do wire figures which were abstract but they showed people at work. So we did know what kinds of work africanamerican women in 17th century new york were doing. So thats how we represented that. We also created a tableau with it was k5u8d the well. I was not in favor of it at all. I thought it just created a set of circumstances and conversations that we had no record of. Im a historian. It just didnt it didnt really seem right. But it actually was tremendously effective. You could hear voices of women who had gone to the wall carrying buckets. We actually weighted buckets. So at that part of the exhibition students going through the show could lift up the bucket and see how heavy it was. And then they overheard voices. They looked down into the well and saw again shadowy figures because we didnt know what the figures looked like. And they heard voices overheard conversations that wereie] . c sufficiently plausible in my view to tell that story. I would say now ive talked about how important it is to use objects to tell stories andg have given a few examples of objects that were really representations more than true objects. For our womens history for the suite of galleries that were planning, we actually, you know do have objects and documents since were talking about a later dt period. We do hope also to look back on an earlier period. And actually my colleague, valerie paly, found in my collection a shoe. Its a very small shoe from 17th century new york. Shes very keen on trying to use that shoe. Its obviously not a childs shoe. Its a womans shoe. And to really exam that shoe, how its worn, what it looks like, and so on and so forth to try to evoke the circumstances and life of a woman in Dutch Colonial new york. That would be my number one strategy. Its very hard to present a lot of documents in a museum exhibition. We have a lot of them. About 10 million or more in our collection. Not all of them focusing on women. But many of them do. One of the reasons why we decided we should douj ah r t hahp hc orientation film which will be about 15 minutes in length is because you know it really enables us to dramatize a story. In ways that no other, you know no other media can. We try to avoid sound bites as best as possible. We like our0t1 visitors to be agents as they go through our exhibitions exhibitions. We like them to make connections. We hope they provide enough information for them to do that. But we you know, we hope that we dont determine for them how theyre you know, how theyre thinking. We hope to provoke them to think themselves. But its complicated. I cant say its not. Thats one thing ive really learned we do avoid sound bites. Definitely. Thank you. While people get up to the microphone to ask questions, im going to ask the first question. Im going to take a proactive opinion up here. The one thing that i struggle with as a historian and in terms of communicating to those who are my audience and are not as obsessed and passionate about the topic as i am is the issue of lack of change. Or failed attempts to change. Right . The more things have changed in some areas the more theyve stayed the same. Right . I mean we look at Race Relations andf sort of not changing or reverting back. You mentioned that in your attempts. And i wonder in your experience of dealing with public history how you engaged with sort of the lack the failure to change. Jz1tq how do you make an interesting entertaining compelling case 230r9 need to think about that which has failed to change . Anybody . My sound bite two minutes or less. Should i begin . We have a lot of debates as you can imagine. We had a group of great they happened to all be women historians around the table on several occasions. Well continue to do that. I actually was feeling much more optimistic than and i think its warranted. Things have changed. Its just not true to say nothings changed. Things have changed. I think historians have gotten very sour. My mother was a historian. She was very triumphalist. Shes 91. She still thinks that things have really improved hugely. And i think swinging the pendulum in the other direction, you dont want to be too sour because then the young people youre trying tone gauge in history feel like why bother . Why should they learn this gloomy story . I think you have to be balanced. Sure. I was amazed. Ive been talking to a lot of people. I was talking to somebody whos a bus driver, very active in the transit workers union. He said would you like to meet the first woman to drive a train in new york . Zpunl it struck me. The first woman to drive a train, shes probably still driving a train. Its been that short a period of time since women have been doing those jobs. Thats pretty amazing. And you know those are stories that oflf had tell and we do plan to tell them. But you have to balance that. You have to balance the lack of change with the fact that its just not true to say thing are the same as they always were. Theyre not. Anybody else wants to comment or i would just say that this speaks to why not only do we need a national Womens History Museum but like the historical societyik. That these ways to get the information out to the public, because i think that there is some change going on but even in the ways we havent changed. If the information doesnt get out to the public then its not having an impact. So thats the role of this public history and getting it out there. I was just going to say that for example, i spent, you know, over 30 years researching the contributions and achievements and conflicts and failures and just the whole messy experiences, diverse experience of mexicanamerican women. Okay . Theyre still in disability. Were still racking up that invisibility. Now, the latinoamericans. I dont know if you saw the pbs series. There are some parts of it im like cringing at some of the not quite accurate historical interpretation. But the fact, though, this wask ; the first series in which you actually had omi and it was really important. And its something the public engaged in. I did several film screenings. And to have people talk about being able to see2 ,i latinos on screen being able to oh the repatriation of my grandmother. Those stories were in that documentary. And it was from where i live in southern california, it was a very powerful statement. Thank you. So lets proceed with questions. Would you mind identifying yourself . I dont mind at all. Im louise bernikow. Im a writer. Im working on the new york suffrage story. I want to i want to tell a story because it picks up especially what karen was saying. To me ive been a writer and historian also with all of you for 40 years. The job of womens history has been to question the conventional wisdom i would say. So that all the stories weve inherited in our work weve interrogated the truth of that. I was asked by Pbs Television for their history detective show to identify a purple suffrage banner which they sent me. And because of my work i could. And the producers ill say this as quickly as i can. But its about the oneparagraph womens history. The reliance on what the web will pop up when somebody whos 20something years old an assistant producer for pbs, right . Doesnt have a lot of time. Is trying to put together a segment. Wants a piece of drama and film. And theres the banner laid out in 19 takes so that my finger doesnt cast a shadow. This is talking about history to the public. Right . She insisted that this banner was related to Carrie Chapman katt, who was solely responsible for winning the vote for women in new york state. And the reason she knew that was that she had read the history of womens suffrage. Which is an authoritative text. Now, if anybody knows anything that storys not true. Katt was not in new york state in the year this banner was being used, and she traded with Woodrow Wilson support of the war for votes for women. This producer did not want to hear that and thought i waox÷ wrong because she could bring up on the web 90 references that say Carrie Chapman katt is responsible for the victory in this campaign. So i want to underline again the need for people who are interrogating the story and finding the evidence as experts. Otherwise, youre going to repeat the same old same old. And i would say picking up on what vicky said id like to hear what the new Womens History Museum is thinking. I want to say also the history of womens suffrage doesnt mention jewish women or black women, who were the backbone of the Suffrage Campaign in new york city. Okay . What are you thinking about how to represent what you said, all american women . Whats your vision of how youre going to do that . Briefly. Because we have more questions. Thank you. For anybody to say im going back to the history of the world part 1. First of all, we are not contemplating the interpretive plan for the museum. We have taken a step back from taking a position about the interpretive plan because one of the key things you need to develop your interpretive plan is to know how much space youre going to have to do this. And until we at least identify and have some sense of location and space, then well deal with that. V2 and i am not a historian. So those who are working on the . C6q program and on specific projects could tell you more. And id be happy to get you in touch with them. R0h im rochelle rothschild. Im producer of a film on second wave feminism called left on pearl, which will be coming out next year. And also ill be teaching a course on soviet history at m. I. T. ut next semester. Thats. 8g my kind of bipolar life. But my question actually, first i wanted to make just a very brief comment, which is on plus ca chose and plus ca la ca la meme chose. I went to the other museum, the museum of the city of new york, which has an exhibit about activism. To its half i would say in the right direction because it does have something about womens suffrage. But in its part that has to do with contemporary act advise vm theres absolutely nothing]cf3 second wavenn1w feminism at all. Which i thought was pretty astounding at this point. But my question is not about that. My question is first of all i think youve all made really interesting contributions to the discussion. But the range goes from brick and mortar to virtual. And i was wondering because brick and mortar will get some people but virtual will get other people. And of course as has already been stated virtual has its own problems but there are some museums like im on now and the jewish womens archives is another that are totally virtual. So how do you see the two kind of coming together to reach as many people as possible . Those of you who have brick and mortar as your basis, 40u are you thinking of integrating the virtual side . Thank you. Go ahead. Weve had to deal with justr2s exactly that issue because we saw from very early on as we have grown so has the internet, so have we been growing up with the internet and learning what we can do and we are very clear that millions of more people will learn about history and womens history than will ever walk through our door. So the building is essentially significant because of the symbol that it represents. But we hope that eventually there will be multiple tiers on our website, those who are doing research on womens history and for grade school children. So you know, thats quite a range, and you have to create the information to address each audience. We already have more than 1,000 pages on our website, and it will just continue to grow. So you just have to deal with each in the way that we are all learning that the websites can be used in the best way. We do virtual exhibitions and we do versions of our exhibitions that are physical exhibitions and put them online. And i would anticipate continuing to do that. I dont have a crystal ball. I have no idea what the museum of the future will look like. But right now for us the experience of visiting a museum, if youre a student, visiting a museum with your class or i mean very few people visitoc museums by themselves. So its a social experience. I think particularly as we develop our suite of galleries around womens history we see the opportunity for discussion and debate and you know to borrow a word thats been used here interrogation of that history to be much greater with physical presence, visitors actually being in a place. So were very excited thatxu we actually have space within which we can develop what were the project that were developing. So both things important but theyre probably two completely different experiences. And you need to accommodate both kinds of audiences. Anybody else want to comment on anything . On this one. I can oh. Simply say that now that we have no building and everything is virtual it presents challenges of its own. But they can be met in very different ways. The difference there is thatca because im always now virtual it attracts an International Audience as well as a local audience. And so different kinds of things happen when youre getting viewers in sierra leone or australia or indonesia. So there are some interactive aspects where people can i think put questions up and do that sort of thing. But its a work in progress. And its really inventing something that wasnt out there before. So its constantly evolving. Beyond that i would have to refer you to the vp for exhibitions. I teach at the university of maryland in college park. Im a member of what has been called the desbandidas. I was part of a Scholars Committee that had been appointed by the national Womens History Museum and was disbanded for reasons were still not clear about just as the current legislation that became successful was going before congress. I want to thank marcia for organizing this panel and i want to thank the panelists. The word accuracy has come up several times in the course of this panel and i just want to try to raise a couple questions we have about the account of the history of this national Womens History Museum. One of the things you said is the museum has always worked with historians. Karen staser as you know was not a historian and i understand that some historians were invited to participate with the museum early on. One of them was mary rothschildgac r t hahp hc whos a historian of the girl scouts among others. And she told me when you,fp joan, and various other people came on board that in fact the historians were dismissed. This was back in the 90s. I and my colleagues were not didnt come on board until i think 2010 when you started working with Ralph Applebaum associates and Ralph Applebaum which is a very wellknown Museum Design firm in d. C. Said as i understand it said to you where are your historians at which point i kp÷ believe you or Ralph Applebaum contacted kay sklar and she gave you a list of historians and they were invited to a number of regional meetings and i happened to offer the yale Woodrow Wilson center working at the time as the venue for the first of those. And it was after that that these two bodies of scholars were convened as a scholars advisory committee. It was a national one. It never was quite clear what the distinctions were. Our experience in working on those committees was that we were sort of like what vicky ruiz said, we were often asked were never asked what we thought what exhibits we thought would be useful using our perspective as womens historians and coming from quite variedgj some of us were called upon to consult from time to time to vet again exhibits that will h. Been prepared by these interns. Often by that time they were already up. Most professional organizations if youre a surgeon you dont go to med school and figure out how to do an app endekt mi after you botch one. Usually you try to get thing right before it goes public. So there were a number of occasions where we thought the things that were puteb5c up were not appropriate. But then as i mentioned one of the things we asked among other things was that we could have scholars put on the board. The board of directors, which seemed to have quite a lot of power, did not include anybody any womens historians. And we were told several times it was a conflict of interest to have a scholar on the board. So i wonder what the thinking was that finally led to the appointment of a scholar on the board. This was after of course the ii a been dissolved. A couple of things about the bill itself. My understanding of the bill, and ive read it many, many times, the legislation is that the six qualifications you that listed, what the bill says is they may be. Theres no requirement that any of them has to be represented on the board. The people who are appointed have to have at least one of those qualificationses but there may not be a historian on the board. Its entirely possible that the whole board would be made up of political appointees. And in fact given whos doing the appointees thats quite likely. There was as i understand susan kahns actually amended the senate bill to strengthen the requirement. But that amendment did notp7 make it into the final legislation as ive read it. So i wonder one question i have is what prospects you think there will be for having at least one historian on the commission. Second, you speak about we. I wonder what you see as the relationship between the national Womens History Museum as a nonprofit as a 501c3 which again according to the legislation is to be considered for a financial role, for a role in fundraising and given your own record of fundraising which is not exactly stellar how you see that is going to work out. And when you speak of we, what influence do you think the national Womens History Museum is going to have on the content or whatever the substance is of this report that comes out of the commission. Thats a lot of questions. So thank you. Joan, would you any of that . No. But i will. This has been a very long process and because we are working with congress we have first and foremost in our minds has been the political ramifications of what its going to take to get this legislation passed so we have i think i have said very clearly that two years ago we changedccs our strategy. We no longer were going to go specifically fcb[ a site. We were going to go for the commission. That was the change that caused us to back up. Because we are privately funded. Which means that any director of an organization will tell you that when you change your strategy you need to look at how youre;gkcn allocating your resources. If we are spending a clph lot of time and energy working with a group that it doesnt align with the strategy at the moment then it no longer is what the Organization Needs to be doing. So sonia didnt accept le that. Other historians by the way, have stayed in touch. They have said that they would like to work with us in the future, and we look forward to working with them. We were able to work out withp2gfiahp hc our board that we agreed that there should be a historian on our board. And it was the board can decide to change its plans. And thats exactly what it did. And thats going to continue to happen. We are not going to be held to a specific path. And if you think that its got to go from a to b to c to d, youre going to be very unhappy with us. us thats not how its going to happen. We are going to do what we have to do in order to make this museum work. And as far as our fundraising ability, that was a very snide remark, sonia. No its not accurate because we have raised more money than any other museum, i mean, by a thousandfold, we have raised nor money than any other museum at this stage in their development. The Holocaust Museum had not even begun to raise money like we have raised money. At this stage in their before they got their building site. After they got their building site of course they took off and they were and they did a fantastic job. But before we have something to point to we have done an extraordinary job. So i would say that i think that you are wrong about that. Let me just tell you what it comes down to is that we need to be with people whom we can work with. And if we change our minds then maybe youre going to be angry about it. But you know to go off to the press and to go off and to say inaccurate things about us is really its not helpful to us. But its particularly, its not helpful to the historical community. So i hope that we can i know there are historians we can work with because were working with them. And were going to continue to work with historians. But we all have to be respectful of one another. Sonia has actually said to me she does not respect me, she does not respect now, i dont care what she thinks about me. But if she doesnt respect the organization, then just walk away. You know, there is no reason for us to even try to Work Together. Thats where i feel like that were not of like mind. And she can go out and start her own Womens History Museum. That would be fine. But we are going to work with congress. And i mean the Reason Congress passed this legislation is that theyve seen us up there for 18 years knocking on doors, saying we want to honor women in this nation. So that makes a difference. Its like all of you have been i mean been wne0jt together for 30 years and you know one another and so you trust one another. And that is grand. But thats the same way that congress feels about us. So we are going to continue to move down that path and we welcome those who are supporting our efforts and those who want to be helpful and those who want to work with us. But if you dont, that is fine too. uht i have a question, though, about this issue of whether the commission intends for the purposes of the report that isoh g forthcoming to have a historian thats just a very direct yes or no. Okay. I mean, i know from talking with members of congress and with staff that they fully intend to name at least one historian. There was never any intention not to name a historian. So its its on the list because thats the way Congress Writes these bills. Theres got to be some flexibility. And what i suspect is there might end up being two historians on it. Thank you. Youre welcome. Anybody else want to comment . Okay. Next question. My name is glynna matthews. And this is not a question so much as a little burst of effusiveness. I have never been in the same room with louise before. But i live in california. I travel to new york a lot. And the exhibitions at the New York Historical society have just been stunning. Thank you. I saw the exhibitions on slavery. They were a revelation. There was one that you didnt mention that i think was about the civil war in new york. I thought that was stunning. But the one i really the 100 years anniversary of the armory show. Stunning. But the one i particularly want to mention because it does bring in women was Something Like home front and battlefield. Yes. And it was such a wonderful way to bring women into the story of the civil war because what it did was focus on0i÷ textiles. And all the different ways in which textiles were part of soldiers need uniforms. They need blankets. The objects were stunning. The object that i have to tell you moved me to tears was seeing a piece of clothing worn by a slave child. I never thought id ever see Something Like that. Its such a perishable item. And so i as you say i went with a group. I went with my daughter whos easily embarrassed but has had to live with her emotional mother for a good many years. So i kind of cried my way through the exhibit because it was so thrilling to see how beautifully you brought women into the story of the civil war and thank you. [ applause ] thats great. Lfx÷ hello. Oh this works. Im a student at central connecticut university. And i would like to just say i find it problematic that we have, or we will have on the mall an africanAmerican History museum, a latino History Museum, and a Womens History Museum because i feel like were segregating history. And i was wondering if it may be a more prudent eujtk to integrate womens history into the museums that we already have the way that the New York Historical society is doing. Yeah. So i just would like you to comment on that. Thank you. Yes, that question has come up from very early on. Early on we have members, one particular member of congress anyway, who said lets just take half of American History and do it on . Owomens history. Now, i think vicky would tell you many a reason why internal politics would not allow that to happen. So while from the outside that may seem like a ration alal goal its just not going to happen because of the way that smithsonian is structure edd, the ways that other museums are structured. Smithsonian has hardly enough space to do American History in the way they want to do it. So theyre always jockeying for or at least thinking through more space more space, more space. z v each museum has all of these stories that they want to tell. And what happens is that with womens history it just falls to the bottom of the list. And early on we were in touch with a woman who had been curator at American History for 34 years. Anditwier quote was when it came to a fight for the dollars internally womens history always lost. So it is still that way. There are certainly more women who are in managerial positions and more curators who are making some of these decisions but not nearly enough. And it will be a long time before that chano; . P i think the question is a really good one. Ive thought a lot about it. Because i think that there is a risk of marginalizing becoming marginalized if you say particularly, im not sure the reason, i have thought about this a lot too but i havent drawn any conclusions. Particularly with women. On u womens history. Hahp hc womens studies. It seems to attract women only. Everyone feels we did an exhibition on slavery in new york, and sure we had a huge number of africanamerican visitors, but we also had a huge number of visitors who werent africanamerican. Right now on view is anv5 exhibition called chinese american, exclusion inclusion. Its the history of chinese in america. Sure, we have a huge number of chinese visitors, but we also have a huge number . Zez other visitors. And theyre all learning this really important and eyeopening story. I really have to say that i think that for whateverr, reason that doesnt happen with womens history. It is worrisome that you might develop a Museum Dedicated to womens history and find that people just say well thats about women. I hope that doesnt happen. Weve been with our project you know, we do have the context of the whole museum. So weve our take is that the story that doesnt get told is women are actually part of American History. Theyre actually integral to American History. And thats you know thats going to be what we hope we will show and stress. But notwithstanding that, i think i think its an excellent question. And one that ive certainly wondered about quite a lot. We have time for maybe one or two more questions. So if theres anybody else who oh, youre standing there. Being very courteous. Oh, lovely. Thank you so much. I guess this is a question for miss wages but the other panelists might want to weigh in also. My name is greg cantrellg just finished a term as president of the Texas State Historical association which is a 118yearold organization. And while were not a museum we do a lot of Public Outreach in various programs. And from the very beginning of our organization, by our bylaws first set down in 1897 weve had a board the current number of Board Members is about 20 and by our bylaws we are we must be 50 scholars and 50 nonacademics. Typically the nonacademics are political figures, rich folks who are adept at fundraising but are avocational historians and so forth. And what weve learned through all this is while it can create a lot of interesting scenarios in board meetings and we sometimes go behind closed doors, go at each other what weve found is that each side of our twoheaded monster sort of tends to check the other side and when the academics, of which im one, think that the nonacademics have gone too Davy Crockett on us that the academics push back and when the academics have got their head in the cloud and the nonacademics think weve gone too f race class and gender or something, they push back on us. The presidency of our board rotates a set term and rotates between a nonacademic and academic. So i was president a year ago. This year its a houston beer billionaire whos one of the republican partys biggest donors. And not only do we maintain that balance while maintaining the scholarly integrity of the organizationqn but we actually find that because were forced jqlo Work Together we end up working together much better than you might expect. And im just wondering at some point down the road might a model like thiseit be one that would be appropriate for the national Womens History Museum and have you ever considered a model like that . Thank you. Yes, we have considered a model. It will thats part of this commission, is to makehjsy ag governance of the tuzmuseum. Possibilities that could come out of this. One could be that the museum as we know it, the incorporated c 3 that i headkb effort, the commission may come out and say, you know, proceed. Or with this in mind the commission could come back and say, half the board should be this or that. The other consideration is going to be should we be looking at a site on the mall . What kind of governance structure will be needed to address . Because congress will have governance of an entity on the National Mall would be. So its all an open book right now. Can i ask you,w i ca primarily get yourisqufunding . Is that a state entity . We reside on a State University campus, and therefore get office space and ultimately from the state. But were a private group. Okay, yeah. Yes. Welcome to the group. So i would just say at this point, its unknown. But certainly moving forward and as we get to the point where we know what the space is going to be and then we start seriously considering the interpreted plan,t space, then for sure more scholars and historians will be on board and involved. At the New York Historical society, theres a proportion, ratio of so many scholars to nonscholars . Im just curious. We have a lot of scholars. We have a very big board, we have a lot of scholars on our board. For the most part our board is a fundraising board. We dont ask the scholars to fund raise but they contribute a lot of intellectual capital and its worth a lot to us. Very important extremely important. But, you know, i mean we work with historians all the time. Its just you know were a historyfnch museum thats what we do. I had a career as an academic before my current career. So its kind of Second Nature to me. I mean i think its more just in all fairness i think its much more complicated when you have government than when youre private as we are. The fundraising burden is huge. I mean ours is. Because we get virtually no money from government. But on the other hand, we are, you know we are at liberty to tackle a lot of issues that are complex, very controversial and difficult and will excite a lot of emotions that i think would be, you know quite hard to do. So, you know when you have a lot of academics around, they may really want to push you in the direction of being controversial. Thats a controversy, you should hit it headon. For me i can do that. I work closely withzdn my board. You know we have a very diverse, politically very diverse board. But i can work with them. And, you know, i can talk to them and explain to them why you know well do this, you know, sort of makede in presentations so that we come out in the right place. But, you know, i think its just a lot harder to dov that when youre part of the public, in the public eye part of the public arena. So im probably more sympathetic than a lot of other people to your issues. ; last question because we have time to show i think the problem was fixed with the av so that we can have that little video at the very end. Im ann boyle from university of delaware. That was a very interesting panel. I want÷ points. One is theres a very long history of attempts to represent womephistory to the public. You can go back to the 18th century and find that in history textbooks there are representations of women. But i think Teresa Murphy has reminded us rather importantly that any representation of women to a larger public audience is always going to create or limit womens possibilities in the present. And so i worry, when somebody refers to a museum as one that will honor, because some women are not necessarily worthy of being honored. 7 pmn so the history of womens suffrage, as you pointed out, the statue of the three suffragists, those are all representations of a history of women to the public. So my other point is more of a question, and that is when one does that how does one therefore provide a way for the public to understand how4v historians themselves think about history . Because when you get corporate sponsors, and ive done some work on a dupont companysponsored Radio Program on history, once you get that kind of involvement by a group that is interested in history for a particular purpose the way historians think, the way historians attempt to validate use primary sources, so on that tends to get lost. And i wonder if any of you have tried to deal with that challenge, and if so, how successful . Again, two minutes off less. Do1n or less. r we have not had corporate sponsored that interfered with mucho ;h of anything when we were building the International Museum of women. But there was a museum organized for womens history in dallas. Thats right. Which has not survived also a few years back. And they did have bigtime corporate sponsors for their exhibitions. And one woman involves very involved in this went public. In ms. Magazine. In the ways in which corporate sponsors were tweaking the exhibits or saying you can do this but not that. And theres a real issue there, i think, which one can probably see in other venues as well. Its certainly something to be concerned about. And i think anybody who is really interested in pursuing these questions should have a look at that dallas Womens Museum experience. Well, so1 y weve arrived at the end of our q a, i think. We have time for that video. So please just join me in thanking this Wonderful Group of speakers. Weve been engaged for two hours. Thank you so much. Youre watching American History tv. 48 hours of programming on American History every weekend on cspan3. Follow us on Twitter Twitter cspanhistory for information on our schedule, upcoming programs, and to keep up with the latest history news. Each week American History tvs american artifacts visits museums and historic places. Founded in 1923 the museum of the city of new yorks collection contains nearly 750,000 objects. We visit it to learn about the exhibit gilded new york. My name is janine fellino and im one of the cocurators of hxo gilded new york fashion, society, and culture thats being shown here at the museum of the city of new york. A show that opened in november of 2013 and choseloses in october of 2014. In this beautiful little jewel box of a gallery weve assembled a variety of objects that helpv l the public appreciate what life was like for the 1 in the original gilded age, the period that followed the civil war from about the 1880s through about 1910. And that period was characterized by great wealth kind of like the dot com people of our own era, but in those days the money came from various kinds of Industries Mining railroads, smelting iron, and also the rise of the modern corporation. All those businesses yielded enormous wealth at the same time that there was Mass Immigration to the area, a time when new york was unified by all of its boroughs and its total population was over 3. 5 million people. Kkc3n with all those that mixture of people coming the lower classes this uxc rising upper class, there was this desire to sort of set oneself apart from the teeming masses. And so this. 1 of people, they decided to move up fifth avenue establish their own beautiful homes, import all theo work they could from europe and hire Great American architects to design their homes and add to the beauty within them and fashion their clothes and live their own beautiful life. Our contemporary public is absolutely, absolutely mesmerized by those who are glamorous and rich and famous and beautiful. Vs and most of the materials innn this gallery were owned by4i78 individuals who everybody emulated in their day. So from our perspective, we in our ego sen trach manner think that weve invented the cult of celebrity and the cult of glamor. I think its important to know, au contraire, we didnt do it there was an echelon of socialfx figures and theatrical figures who were constantly in the press, who were constantly interviewed, and whose clothes and jewels were described in great detail in the latter part of the 19th