Upcoming Webinars to Introduce Key Historical Figures and Events

As many of you may well know from this blog site, the Museum will be opening a major exhibit in 2012 that will be focusing on the role of human desires in the transformation of western New York from a vast wilderness dominated by the indigenous Iroquois peoples of the Six Nations to a bastion for white settlement formed around planned communities and framed by participation in the larger agrarian market economy. As part of our efforts, we are focusing much of our research on debunking the myths and erasing the stereotypes associated with western New York’s transitional period from 1650 to 1817 (Cut-off year currently undetermined). All too often, we may associate frontier settlement with savage Indians, corrupt federal officials, greedy aristocratic speculators, and the ideal rugged frontier settler who hacked out his existence through hardship after hardship fighting off weather, savages, disease, and wild animals while being isolated from civilized society and standing in stark contrast to the wealthy and indifferent speculators who time-and-again took the miniscule profits that the frontier settler was able to muster.

What we hope to create through our upcoming exhibit is the opportunity for the individual viewer to make their own well-informed judgments based on the information that we are able to provide.

• Were the Iroquois peoples actually naïve, savage, or stubborn in the face of the inevitable as one might expect? 
• Were the Iroquois in fact faced by a united front in the form of state and federal officials, speculators, and white settlers or were they the victims of an array of competing interests that drove western expansion further and faster than the natural rate of population growth among whites would have necessitated? 
• Were white emigrants to western New York predominantly poor New England discontents looking to free themselves from the demands of eastern society and religion? 
• Was their desire to establish a new egalitarian way of life in western New York where all men were equal? 
• And finally, are the speculator-developers who purchased the original rights to the near four million acres of formerly Indian inhabited lands west of Seneca Lake best characterized as greedy money grubbers hoping to turn a quick buck at the expense of the heroic settler and naïve Iroquois chiefs as we might imagine them to have been? 

 These are just a few of the questions that we hope will inspire you to not only come and visit our upcoming exhibit, but also motivate you to take an active interest in who the people were that influenced western New York in the formative years from 1650 to 1817. This exhibit will not only focus on informing the viewer, but more importantly, inviting the informed viewer to see a different perspective of events. In so doing, we hope to highlight that next to the elusive elements of truth and fact, subjectivity may be the most important aspect to our historical understandings. The judgments and conclusions will be left to you, the viewer, but our desire is that the exhibit presents these individuals and events in formats that allow for all sides of the story to be told without any skewed biases. It is not the Museum’s intent to point out the legitimacy of individual desires, but rather, to present our selected historical actors in a format that leaves their individual desires open to your interpretations.

 As part of our efforts to create an informed visitor to our upcoming exhibit, we would like to invite our membership and the general public to attend two live, web-based, lectures that will introduce many of the key individuals and events that shaped western New York in those formative years. We will begin on April 13th by presenting a lecture on Oliver Phelps, Charles Williamson, and Joseph Ellicott who comprised the three major speculator-developers that collectively played the greatest role in shaping the villages, towns, and counties of western New York that are still recognizable today. We will also highlight their combined role in establishing the security and economic opportunities that would ensure the success of the many eager and entrepreneurial individuals that initially made their way to western New York.

Then on May 18th, we will present another web-based lecture on the Canandaigua Treaty of 1794 highlighting the precarious position of the federal government in 1794, the importance of the treaty to settlement in both western New York and the Ohio Valley, and the motivations behind the Six Nations’ decision to negotiate the treaty in 1794. We will also point out the importance of the individual articles that establish the independent sovereignty of the Six Nations and outline the enduring relationship between the Six Nations and the federal government that the articles of the Canandaigua Treaty were intended to establish.

You will be able to attend these webinars from the comfort of your home or office after receiving an email link to a separate web-page. You will not need to be technically savvy or computer literate beyond opening an email and clicking on the enclosed web-link to attend the live webinar lectures and there will be plenty of opportunity for individual questions at the end of the presentation. Details on how to register and pay for these web-based lectures will be advertised in the coming weeks. Those involved in the Ontario County Historical Society and Museum’s upcoming exhibit hope that you will take this exciting opportunity to become an informed visitor in the months before our exhibit opens and we are excited to be hosting these presentations on behalf of Canandaigua National Bank and Constellation Brands. Hope to see you online!

What's Your Perspective?

Perspective and point of view are certianly part of our conversations as staff continue to talk about the 2012 exhibit on the history of Western New York, 1650-1825. An earlier blog related that staff members had each chosen a reading assignment to inform and broaden our thinking as early phases of work preparing for the exhibit are underway.
My reading assignment is Daniel K. Richter's Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. The prologue of Richter's book opens with the author looking East out his hotel room window through the St. Louis Gateway Arch. It occurrs to Richter that the eastward perspective was the point of view of native populations as Europeans landed on the Atlantic shores. Rumors about the Europeans and perhaps some physical evidence of their culture probably traveled from seaboard tribes to those in the interior over time. Eventually some trade goods may have traveled to the interior as well, perhaps long before native groups actually encountered any of the newcomers.
Although perspectives and native encounter experiences with Europeans differed, how were Europeans viewed?
Were they to be welcomed? Were they to be feared? Should they be driven away or redirected at neighboring tribes? Were they competitiors? Were they suppliers of sought after goods? Did a relationship with them bring status within a tribal group?
Did a relationship with Europeans provide status and control that neighboring groups may envy? How would the encounters reshape traditional cultures? How would encounters with Europeans change one's family's life, both day-to-day and long term?
Interesting points of view to think about for sure.

I'm still reading and will share more at a later time. Stay tuned.

Focusing in on Focus Groups

The IMLS Grant we received for this project required a Formative Evaluation. The effort will provide us with public input on the exhibit.

Rob Lillis from Evalumetrics Research helped us develop the questions and will serve as the facilitator for each focus group session.

• We will be asking the group to differentiate between surival, ambition and greed


• We will then ask how these characteristcs influenced those who shaped the history of our area. We will offer examples of people who were involved in the time period in question.


• Then we will ask what they would want or need to know about these characters to help better understand what motivated them. How would one know if they were ambitious, greedy or just trying to survive?


• Finally, What method or media would help the respondant better learn about the characters that shaped the development of WNY.

Simple? Maybe. We'll see

The focus groups will begin in Canandaigua. We have appointments with the schools. The other group of adults were solicited from the general public, the local Rotary Club and a history book club that meets periodically at the museum.

Then we will move into western New York to seek input. A post on the Museumwise (A regional musuem group) list serve seeking locations for focus groups was fruitless. Then we drafted a letter and sent it personally to all our museum contacts in the region. Two days after we mailed it we received an e-mail response from the Niagara Co. Historical Soceity, who were agreeable. They asked for a bit more information which we responded to immediately. We will likely hear from more next week.....

Speaking of next week, we will hold our information focus groups on Wednesday and Thursday; two each day. Then we will return to a local school for a Noon session on Friday.

Little by little the exhibit will come into focus.

What stories should we tell?

As we dig deeper into the history of Western New York we find that the geographic area we want to explore becomes harder and harder to define.

Western New York, in truth, did not exist under that name until sometime after the Revolutionary War. Until that time it was just a wild, unsettled territory that was the location of many competing interests.

Early - Is the story of the Jesuits and their encounters with the native Americans appropriate? Was their motivation religious or political? How about the fur traders, was the pursuit of beaver pelts an adventure or an economic effort. Then, of course there were the French including DeNonville who frequented this area skirmishing. Was their effort for Country?Louie XIV? or personal gain? Who was right?, The Indians who believed that the land was there to pass aolng to future generations or the Europeans who saw the forest as something they could sell?

Mid - In the mid 1700s the story of The Sullivan Campaign must be told. But, from what persoective, George Washington's; Oliver Phelps's, the Seneca nation or those that wanted to escape the issues of land and freedom in Connecticut, Maryland, or other established New England colonies, now states in the Union? How did Robert Morris the Financier of the Revolutionary War influence our area? Why did he have to send his son, Thomas to negotiate with the indians?

1800s - Treaties led to poineer settlement which led to conflict. Did money rule? Why did the Dutch want to invest in Western New York? Why did the Holland Land Company select Charles Ellicott to be their representative and land agent. Why did Oliver Phelps go bankrupt and die in debtor's prison? Who owned the property over which the Erie Canal was dug? Why did Ellicott fight so intensely to divide Ontario County into many new counties. Why did Canandaigua oppose the new political subdivisions of the state.

Was Greed the sourse of all this conflict? Maybe. But Greed is funny. It seems that few individuals claim to be greedy. It always seems to be the other person who is the greedy one....

We will be asking the public what they think in a series of focus groups starting in February. We are anxious to hear their take on motivations.

We promise great stories .

As we make our way through the many complexities of researching the history of Western New York from 1650 to 1850 we come to the issue of how we tell this story beyond words. What objects, maps, documents are available to be used for the exhibition? What stories will these artifacts tell? What do they mean to the different cultural and social groups involved in Western New York’s early history?

One of our challenges is to locate artifacts relevant to our story, particularly for the first half of the time period we are covering. While the Ontario County Historical Society holds some early items such as 18th century maps and documents, and some Native American archaeological artifacts, we need to look for other sources. We will be contacting other Western New York historical agencies to find out what artifacts they may hold that we can use in this exhibit. In particular we will be working with Ganondagan State Historic Site and the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum to learn more about what artifacts would best convey the culture of the Iroquois during this time period. As some artifacts no longer exist, are too fragile for exhibition or are not available, we also will be examining the use of appropriate reproductions.

As you can imagine, a given artifact can convey different meaning to different peoples. For example, what did a land deed mean to a New England settler and to a Seneca? This draws us into the discussion of the cultural concept of ownership of property. Another example would be the clothing worn by the Iroquois in the early 18th century which incorporated traditional and Western trade materials. This encourages us to ask questions about the complexities of western and Iroquois trade systems as well as the social and economic values placed on these items.

We’re just at the beginning of this process. More to come on what types of artifacts we will be considering and what stories and meanings they convey.

Settling in with a Good Book?

Although today is sunny, we know many cold, gray days are still left in a western New York winter.  That's why the Greed project team is inviting you to join our virtual reading circle.  As a part of this project, each of the team members have chosen a book related to the topic and we'll be reading and more importantly, posting our thoughts about the book--and we hope you'll join us.  Choose one to read, read more than one, or just dip in and out.  It's the easiest reading circle ever!

Here's what's on our list:

A Shopkeeper's Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837 by Paul E. Johnson.  From the publisher:

A quarter-century after its first publication, A Shopkeeper's Millennium remains a landmark work--brilliant both as a new interpretation of the intimate connections among politics, economy, and religion during the Second Great Awakening, and as a surprising portrait of a rapidly growing frontier city. 

Facing East From Indian Country:  A Native History of Early America by Daniel K. Richter.
From Kirkus Reviews:

An excellent, ambitious attempt to restore to history long-overlooked Indians who 'neither uncompromisingly resisted...nor wholeheartedly assimilated' in the face of white encroachment...A hallmark in recent Native American historiography that merits wide attention.

The Divided Ground:  Indians, Settlers and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution by Alan Taylor.

A superbly researched work of history... forces us to look anew at the American Revolution from a tragic –and necessary –perspective—The Washington Post Book World

The Treaty of Canandaigua:  200 Years of Treaty Relations between the Iroquois and the United States, edited by Peter Jemison and Anna Schein.  From the publisher:

This book tells the complex and intriguing story of the Six Nations and their relationship with the United States over the 200-year period following the American Revolution. Two hundred years after signing the treaty that was to protect their lands and sovereign rights, the Haudenosaunee -- the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy -- have been stripped of all but a small fraction leading up to the signing of the treaty and look at how the Haudenosaunee have fared under its terms.

One of us will be posting every week about our book, and we invite you to find the books (don't forget to check out your local library) and share your thoughts with us as well.  Your perspectives will be critical in helping us shape the new exhibit content.

Thanks to our colleagues at the George Eastman House who shared these historic images of readers on Flickr Commons.

Behind the Scenes in Exhibit Development

Our goal of this blog is not only to share content about the history of western New York, but to also pull back the curtain on the exhibit development process.   The support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services has meant that the historical society has an opportunity to experiment with and learn about a number of new exhibit techniques that will take its work to a whole new level.

One of those techniques is the use of evaluation in planning the exhibit.  For a long time, museums believed that what they put out was right and that single point of view was what you, the viewer should just  passively absorb.  Picture yourself with a big funnel on top of your head where the museum poured in the knowledge--much like all education used to be.

But in recent years, museums have embraced the idea of front-end and formative evaluation as a way of learning about visitors and their interests.  It's focused around two critical ideas in museum work right now.  The first is free choice learning.  Unlike school, museums are places where you chose to go--and chose to learn.   Your choices of what to do in your free time are many and so learning in museums must not only be useful, it must be fun and engaging.   And at the same time, we each make our own meaning of what we see in a museum.  That's the second idea--the concept that it's a good thing that visitors make their own meaning of what they see.

Just think about what different people might think about the same object--say a flatiron.  A older homemaker might sigh with relief about no longer having to iron; a blacksmith might appreciate the ironwork; a child might wonder what the heck it's used for.   All those individual meanings are valid--but for interpretive exhibit developers, the challenge is find the way to tell a cohesive narrative that is meaningful to many kinds of visitors.

How do we do that?  Formative evaluation--which is just what it sounds like--evaluation while a project is formed--not just when it's finished.  Over the next few months, we'll be talking with focus groups about our exhibit concepts.  We'll want to know which characters interest you the most,  which are confusing, which seem important or irrelevant to the story of western New York.   We'll be interested in learning about what kinds of knowledge most visitors start with about the area's early history and what misconceptions might be out there.

It's an exciting part of an exhibit development process--every time evaluation happens I learn something new and surprising that informs my work as an exhibit developer.   To read more about another evaluation process, you can check out my blog The Uncataloged Museum.  And if you're interested in participating in a focus group, please let the staff at the historical society know!