Captain Smith, the Tides Are Shifting on the James (Exhibit/Virginia)
JAMESTOWN, Va. — At the banks of the James River here, not far from where an archaeological dig has found pottery shards and remains of settlers from 400 years ago, a proud Capt. John Smith faces the waters and the setting sun. A wooden stockade extends near the shoreline — the water has moved inland over the centuries — showing where his frail fort once stood. But Smith stands heroically tall, his bronze cape seeming to ripple in the brisk winter winds. Even the inscription proclaims his importance: “Governor of Virginia, 1608.”
Governor? Virginia? At the time Jamestown consisted of a paltry isolated settlement of several dozen souls, with disease, starvation and battles with local Indian tribes regularly claiming almost as many lives as Virginia Company could send in delayed relief ships from England, the funds raised from wary investors. But the Smith statue does give an accurate sense of the scale of the leadership, strategic thinking, ruthlessness and courage Smith demonstrated during the brief period (not even two years) he led that first English colony in the Americas — qualities reflected in his own memoirs and other accounts (many of which are about to be republished by the Library of America). Nearby, offering further testimony to Jamestown’s grandeur, a giant obelisk stands, erected, like the statue, a century ago, as part of the tercentennial celebrations of the founding.
But now, two months before the 400th anniversary festivities begin , the monumental hardly matters anymore, and neither, it seems, does John Smith. Other kinds of commemoration have been prepared. It isn’t that Jamestown is being treated as less important: it is still regarded as the place where the DNA of a nation was first laid out, where, in 1607, England established an early beachhead against the expanding empires of Spain and Portugal and so determined the main language we speak and many of the ideas we share.
But a different understanding is made explicit here in the two historical museums and outdoor facilities devoted to the Jamestown theme. Jamestown Settlement, run by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation (a state agency), was established in 1957 just before the 350th anniversary so the nearby historical site would not be disrupted with the Settlement’s outdoor “living-history” demonstrations, costumed guides, period crafts and reproductions of the Jamestown fort, an Indian village and the three ships that brought the first group of 104 men and boys to these shores. In October, Jamestown Settlement added a major 30,000-square-foot exhibition hall to its new visitors’ center, telling an unusually detailed history of the area through the 17th century.
Meanwhile the original site, now called Historic Jamestowne, is part of the Colonial National Historical Park and jointly run by the National Park Service and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. ...
These exhibitions are ambitious and often informative, particularly the Settlement’s, and provide much of the detail needed to begin to understand Jamestown. Yet a price is paid for the latest in museumware and historical thinking: One isn’t quite sure what is being celebrated or why, or whether in fact a celebration is even occurring....
Read entire article at Edward Rothstein in the NYT
Governor? Virginia? At the time Jamestown consisted of a paltry isolated settlement of several dozen souls, with disease, starvation and battles with local Indian tribes regularly claiming almost as many lives as Virginia Company could send in delayed relief ships from England, the funds raised from wary investors. But the Smith statue does give an accurate sense of the scale of the leadership, strategic thinking, ruthlessness and courage Smith demonstrated during the brief period (not even two years) he led that first English colony in the Americas — qualities reflected in his own memoirs and other accounts (many of which are about to be republished by the Library of America). Nearby, offering further testimony to Jamestown’s grandeur, a giant obelisk stands, erected, like the statue, a century ago, as part of the tercentennial celebrations of the founding.
But now, two months before the 400th anniversary festivities begin , the monumental hardly matters anymore, and neither, it seems, does John Smith. Other kinds of commemoration have been prepared. It isn’t that Jamestown is being treated as less important: it is still regarded as the place where the DNA of a nation was first laid out, where, in 1607, England established an early beachhead against the expanding empires of Spain and Portugal and so determined the main language we speak and many of the ideas we share.
But a different understanding is made explicit here in the two historical museums and outdoor facilities devoted to the Jamestown theme. Jamestown Settlement, run by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation (a state agency), was established in 1957 just before the 350th anniversary so the nearby historical site would not be disrupted with the Settlement’s outdoor “living-history” demonstrations, costumed guides, period crafts and reproductions of the Jamestown fort, an Indian village and the three ships that brought the first group of 104 men and boys to these shores. In October, Jamestown Settlement added a major 30,000-square-foot exhibition hall to its new visitors’ center, telling an unusually detailed history of the area through the 17th century.
Meanwhile the original site, now called Historic Jamestowne, is part of the Colonial National Historical Park and jointly run by the National Park Service and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. ...
These exhibitions are ambitious and often informative, particularly the Settlement’s, and provide much of the detail needed to begin to understand Jamestown. Yet a price is paid for the latest in museumware and historical thinking: One isn’t quite sure what is being celebrated or why, or whether in fact a celebration is even occurring....