One of our stops in our live oak letterboxing tour of the South was the Stephen C. Foster Folk Culture Center in White Springs, FL. There are five letterboxes at the park, including two-in-one hidden near this beautiful gazebo on the Suwannee River. It was raining quite a bit when we were there, so we didn't get to take the planned hike, but we toured the visitor's center and walked around the park a bit.
Stephen C. Foster is the composer of such American classics as Camptown
Races, Oh Susanna!, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, Old Folks at Home, My Old Kentucky Home and more. There is a carillon tower at the park with 97 bells. Every two hours, there is a bell concert of some of his music (different selections). We timed it so we arrived at the visitor's center at 11:45, which gave us enough time to look at some of the dioramas (there are dioramas that represent about 10 of his songs--they have moving parts and you peer at them through a glass window) before the concert started. Then, we walked through the rain listening to the bells to the Tower itself, where there are additional pieces of memorabilia and much more information about his life. Listening to the carillon and the drip drip drip of a gentle rain was just amazing.I have to confess. This w
hole visitors' center creeped me out. The bell music was lovely; as was the gazebo on the river. I bet the hiking trails are gorgeous. But, the dioramas? They were a 1950s view of the Antebellum South, complete with happy darkies whistling tunes (see Old Folks at Home, to the left) while they work. We were stunned to see this viewpoint prominently on display throughout the visitor's center.Stephen C. Foster's music is emblematic of the period in which he composed it (mainly from 1850-1864, when he caught pneumonia and died shortly thereafter). It is worth remembering and recognizing; the music is a part of our American cultural legacy. But it is time for a re-evaluation of how this era and Stephen C. Foster's amazing music are presented at the park, now that we are no longer looking at the Antebellum South through an idealized lens.
Next up: Potent Potables in Savannah.
4 comments:
wow, what a great trip. I bet the bells were really impressive, a 5 bell song is beautiful, I'm wondering what a 97 bell song would sound like. Maybe a bit like a huge music box.
What in the heck did you tell you kiddos about the "happy slaves" motif? How odd and inappropriate in this day and time. It almost seems like a psychological avoidance of the issue, like 'Look, they are happy working. That means that what we did wasn't so bad.' It also brings back up the issue of how an artist should present a people and place in true historical context. I think the people-toiling-in-the-cottonfields-with-massive-dignity has been done to death, but how do you portray an unhappy and difficult subject and the image still be comfortable enough for a family on vacation?
Did you happen to comment to the museum about those paintings? (not that it probably would have done much good) And in all fairness, there probably were a lot of days when people would sing and whistle while they worked to pass the time, every day most likely was not miserable drudgery or beatings. It just seems like those paintings miss the mark completely, I can't believe they haven't had some complaints. It would be like going to a WWII museum and seeing Jewish families happily boarding trains for Bergen-belsen and naming it "Bon voyage".
I have a curious love for out-of-date museums, because they are such an interesting mirror of the times in which they were created. But this? One wonders.
I want to point you toward something that you might find very interesting. Quite some time ago, the Maryland Historical Society (a ver-r-r-r-ry white organization in a black-majority city) teamed up with another museum in Baltimore (The Contemporary) and invited independent (and African-American) curator Fred Wilson to put together an exhibition.
What he created was a show that explored the presence - and absence -- of black people in the Museum's holdings. The show was called "Mining the Museum," which was a three way pun.
1. He had access to the entire contents of the museum's collections.
2. He was claiming ownership of the African American artifacts (making them his own, or "mining" them).
3. He was blowing the whole place sky-high.
Google "Mining the Museum" and go from there. I think you will find this exhibit, and the curator's subsequent career very interesting.
Seems like the Foster museum could use the Fred Wilson touch!
Lisa
ps -- I'll bet that if you could ignore the content of the moving dioramas, they probably had great kitsch appeal, huh?
this is something that really irks me, for people to say "in light of the current political and social scene, this art is no longer acceptable because it reflects currently outdated ideas and feelings." Slavery happened. It wasn't right, but it happened. So did a lot of atrocities throughout the world. Art and music were created by both the oppressors and the oppressed. ALL of it valuable, and ALL of it is still relevant today. What you say to the children is this. "This art was created in a time when the majority of the people thought this. It reflects the ideas that were held at this time period. Now we think this way. It is different." Art and music can be a huge window into the past, both in ideas, feelings, and attitudes, if we don't allow censorship to hide it in a dark closet. We have to be big enoug to say "Yes the American people once felt this way about people with colored skin. Many of them still feel this way today. It is not true to believe that they were not as good as people with lighter colored skin. Many people today have recognized the error and corrected it. Some haven't. But that is history, and history must be honored in its entirety, and not whitewashed."
night writer
I respect everyone's viewpoint. This is a contentious issue, and as long as you're polite you're welcome to express your own view.
My point is not about the era and Stephen C. Foster's music, but about the outdated interpretation of the way it is represented.
At some point, people began to romanticize the Antebellum era. The nostalgia for something that never truly WAS is problematic in my book. For instance, I loved reading and watching Gone With The Wind, but I also understand that it is a fictionalization and not representative of reality.
In this case, the dioramas are great kitschy fun, 50s technology at its best. The ones that deal with other subjects such as Camptown Races are adorable.
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