I look back again on the Slow Art Day international event that was just held at the University of Alabama’s Gorgas House Museum, the oldest dwelling on UA’s campus. Built in 1829 before UA opened in 1831, it is one of four main buildings that survived the Civil War.
The event offered visitors a chance on A-Day to make a bracelet using blue beads owing to a bohemian blue bead being on display in the historic dwelling. Slow Art Day is a moment to ask people to slowly study something.
I’ve long heard the historic blue bead in Gorgas was likely owned by an enslaved person. If it was, they may have received it from an indigenous person. How did I come to that conclusion? I had the richest conversations with two UA archaeologists who attended the event and I discovered via this conversation how the bead likely entered the States via the Pacific Northwest. I immediately thought of the Gold Rush and the many people including African Americans and Russians who hurried to California, looking for gold in the late 1840s through mid-1850s. So, I’m thinking it may have been part of a trade network in that decade. Students enrolled in my “American Civilization to 1865” learn about how indigenous people traded with each other and of course, with newcomers and sometimes, not without great consequences to their community cohesion.
One of the archaeologists thought the blue bead may have arrived at the Deep South in the post-1840s. No matter, the conversation was the most rewarding part of this shared time together. I also enjoyed talking to undergraduates who are passionate about studying our shared past! In fact, I left the event, where people were invited to make bracelets using blue beads, feeling like we should have more conversations across disciplines and ranks on our campus.
As I have shared in my forthcoming Teaching Public History Creatively in Alabama: About (Public) Face (Routledge) book, I have greatly benefited from conversations with the many wonderful people who are involved with historical storytelling via the built environment and archives in our city. Of late, so many students in particular are interested in campus slavery. My dear former UA colleague Hilary Green, now a distinguished professor at Davidson College, laid a lot of the initial groundwork on this front. Her tours addressing this issue involved lots of time in archives that were not regularly used and even overlooked until her arrival in 2014. Like me, she took her students outside the classroom on a regular basis and why not? So much of what we need are structures we pass daily! Or in a special collections library we pass, too!
David Roediger, my doctoral adviser and one of the smartest people I ever met, said “The more hands in the pot, the better.” I agree with him as long as we cite each other and communicate from time to time. So many very different people are using the same archives. So many classes and departments are doing the same! Faculty, staff, undergrads and grads are all studying the past and each other, but not always in intentional ways. We are not alone in making such a missteps.
I’ve seen a lot since the pandemic began. Requests to speak are often accompanied by other tasks. It is as if the “speaker” is also on a planning committee. These are two very different chores and hours can pass before an event is even held. These are events that pay little or no money at all. This is especially true, it appears, with people working outside of academe. The burdens on academics and the burdens academics, let alone others, unleash on each other are tremendously huge even if we all want the same things: community and knowledge creation.
But there should be some limits on what the pursuit of such things looks like in these dire times. Scientists don’t even know the impact of recent world health crises and other social issues, including funding wars, on our bodies. As social media repeatedly shows, some people lash out at each other. They also quietly judge each other, believing their thoughts on a particular matter are real when they may, in fact, be just their thoughts.
Social media is especially toxic and I am often part of the often-whiny web because there are just as many opportunities to build community while complaining while also cheering on someone or sharing something good that has happened. But doing either too much can be a strained distraction from other things worth doing including resting. Sending good vibes and taking time to hear one’s own thoughts and quiet are sometimes a better option.
I am empath and doing these other things is very good for me as I care for my aging body and loved ones who are in failing health. I actually had someone invite me to do a talk and immediately mention that she had a small budget. When I told her I was heading to the home of someone who’d just lost a loved one, it was almost as if I’d said nothing at all. I would eventually be on the phone with this person for nearly an hour while I was grieving and watching my husband grieve. A day passed before I emailed and said I couldn’t participate. If someone can be so clueless about huge things, they were likely also clueless about little things in great abundance, too.
UA folks and folks in other learning communities, including organizations and museums working with academics, might be more thoughtful without making too many more demands, little and big on the already-tired. It would be great if we could talk about our shared goals and unique challenges and triumphs. In the case of Alabama, I even think the mere study of UA campus history should be studied!
Put more simply, and as posted on social media this past weekend, I’m really struck by the range of student engagement with the historical past in the archive and built environment. Some are asking incredible questions for the long haul and others are doing walk/drive-bys, if that. To be clear, some queries arrive as emails from people who have not even entered Gorgas House Museum! I’m curious about the learning outcomes as more students, researchers and others dive into our campus history.
This is an amazing place to study our shared past! But let’s pay attention to how it’s being done and by whom and for which reasons.
As we build knowledge, not all contributions have the same value. But there are lessons to learn from the mere study during these strained social times. It should be better documented, but where to start and who leads the way?
Who gathers what information and toward which end and for how long? Very different disciplines approaching the same archive is an especially interesting matter to observe as I discovered while speaking to the two archaeologists. More conversations should be had on our methods and transparency.
Most urgent thought: I’ve met quite a few people this week. These are amazing young folks. I think some of them should also be talking to each other and not just the professors overseeing their work. Community is so key while building knowledge.
I especially feel this way because Gorgas House is my absolutely favorite place on campus. Every director who has overseen its operations since my arrival in 2012 as a pre-doctoral student through my tenure track years and beyond has been abs0lutely supportive. Brandon Thompson, the director I worked with the most, is now a professor and Curator of History with UA Museums. He continues to make himself available. Sonya Harwood-Johnson, the new director, has been kind and supportive, too. And so have all of the docents working with her. Rebecca Johnson, the media maestro, as I call her for UA Museums, has also been fabulous.
Where do we go from here? I am not always sure but I am excited about the future. I shared on Twitter today that my students are — believe it or not — the easiest part of my job. The service and research are so much harder. But it is all rewarding. I say this on the day I shared “my years served” with 606 other faculty in a Capstone event delayed owing to the pandemic. I have been here 11 years. My husband has been here 31 years. We received ten year and thirty year pins, demonstrating the extent of the delayed congratulations for some of us.
No matter our challenges, I honestly believe most of us want to, again, build knowledge and community and live in a calmer world. Our present days are not easy. When asked how he was doing this week, a colleague sighed and said he was enduring “character-building days.” I heard him. I felt l his pain. As some of us work on many fronts, we might ponder what all is involved as we pursue this or that goal. We might consider intentionally moving forward with the needs of others in view, too. That’s character. Roll Tide!
PS A shout-out to so many community partners who help us do the work we do. I even spoke to a College of Education professor who nodded when I shared how much harder it has been to take students outside the classroom. So many initially learned online owing to the pandemic. There are other things that factor into their unwillingness to move around. The smartphones certainly don’t help. She says she has a colleague who has strategies. I will reach out to her colleague! There is much to celebrate.
There is much through which to sort – as usual. I can’t think of a better time than now. We’re blessed to be here at UA and in Tuscaloosa. Our “lab,” as revealed in historic sites and amazing archives, is rich, compelling and deserving of great research.
catalogue, too 
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