The States Act to Conserve Their Heritage

THE STATES ACT TO CONSERVE THEIR HERITAGE

By S. K. Stevens

State action in the field of conservation of natural resources, including streams, forests, game and the land itself, has become a common feature of governmental policy in the last fifty years. It is only within the last decade or so that very much attention has been directed toward conservation of historical resources. These include letters, diaries and records, early newspaper files, archives of governments, both state and local, object materials such as tools, utensils and implements used by former generations, and historic sites and buildings which were the places with which notable persons had an association or where great events took place. The loss or destruction of such materials can be more permanent than the depletion of natural resources. The latter can be replaced. Forests can be replanted, streams purified and cleared, game supplies restocked, and land improved. Original historical resources, once lost or destroyed, can never be fully recovered. Historic buildings, it is true, can be restored, but the accuracy of such restorations is almost entirely dependent upon documentary historical evidence. Even the adequate marking of historic sites and buildings must rest upon basic source materials for authentication.

Accurate and comparative figures are not available, but it is a considered judgment that fifty years ago no state spent more tiian a few thousand dollars which could be considered as devoted to conserving or restoring any of its historical resources. Pennsylvania, with its historical riches, did not create an official state historical commission until 1913. The principal early pattern of activity at the state level was that of the state historical society, so termed because it was chartered by the state and utilized the name of a state as the prefix to the words "historical society." New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania were leaders in establishing such societies early in the nineteenth century.

Actually, these societies were largely semiprivate institutions. As Americans moved westward, they took with them the idea of the state historical society. But there developed one very important difference. While the eastern societies basically were both privately supported and controlled, many western states subscribed to the idea that the state government should have more responsibility. In return for aid to the society in preserving state historical records, the state itself was given representation on the governing board of the state historical society. State funds were appropriated in small sums to aid in this work. In such typical midwestern states as Ohio and Wisconsin, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the Ohio Historical Society today receive an increased portion of their financial support from the state, and the state is represented on the board of trustees in each case, although the societies retain the idea of individual memberships and operate essentially as semiprivate associations.

PATTERNS OF ORGANIZATION

Several states now combine the privately supported and directed society with a state department of history or historical commission which is an official unit in the state's governmental organization.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is the official state historical agency. It is concerned with research and publications; marking historic sites; preserving, administering, and interpreting historic buildings and sites placed under it by act of the General Assembly; operating the State Museum and the Pennsylvania Farm Museum; caring for the state's public and historically important records, and carrying on a general program of informational and publication services in the field of Pennsylvania history. At Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania sits serenely as one of the nation's oldest privately endowed and managed state historical societies, with one of the largest and finest historical manuscript collections in America.

New York has the even older New York Historical Society, in New York City, with marvelous manuscript and other collections, and the New York State Historical Association, based at Cooperstown, has its nationally famous Farmer's Museum. Both are private rather than public institutions. In Albany, in the Department of Education, a state Division of Archives and History administers state historical markers, sites and museums, preserves state and local records, and promotes a program of statewide historical activity.

Michigan has both a privately functioning Michigan Historical Society and a Michigan Historical Commission — the latter the official state agency, with archival, research, publication, historical marking and related functions under its official direction, and using state funds. Other examples could be cited. Obviously there is today no fixed pattern of state-supported historical work in terms of the way this function is organized.

STATE ATTENTION RISES

The more important point, however, is the fact that, whatever the pattern of organization may be, there is a noticeable increase in state attention to conservation of historical resources. More money is being spent out of state budgets to support this work. On the other hand, no taxpayer need yet be frightened at the size of the state historical agency budget in any state; it remains a mere drop in the bucket. Pennsylvania is a fair sample of the present trend. The biennial budget of the Pensylvania Historical Commission in its early years averaged a few thousand dollars; today it has climbed over the million mark. Wisconsin, New York, and Ohio are states with comparable budgets for this purpose.

Why are states turning more attention to state history, and spending more money in this area despite mounting pressures on total state budgets? One reason certainly is that Americans today are searching as never before for an understanding of their historical tradition. The search has been intensified by world events of the last few years and a realization that the American tradition needs to be revitalized more than once a year on the Fourth of July. As Americans reach out for this understanding of their heritage, there is a growing realization that it rests upon knowledge of the nation's history. A quick look at the dates when a majority of the national historic sites and monuments administered by the National Park Service were taken under the wing of the federal government will indicate that a majority were acquired less than thirty years ago.

THE ROOTS OF HISTORY

In part, at least, the growth of state activity in historical conservation may be attributed also to a growing recognition tiiat the roots of American history are in the soil of the states and the communities within the states. There is indeed an increased realization that the American heritage is best understood when it is examined at state and local levels, where it is closer to the life and experience of people, than is possible at a national level. State shrines and state history implement basic appreciation and understanding of the American past.

Increased state attention to the problem may also be said to be a part of a revolt against national centralization. Half a century ago Josiah Royce in his The Philosophy of Loyalty wrote: "We need . . . in this country a new and wiser provincialism . . . which makes people want to idealize, to adorn, to ennoble, to educate their own province." He went on to say, "Further centralization of power in national government, without a constantly enriched and diversified provincial consciousness, can only increase the estrangement of our national spirit from its own life."

The essence of this thought is that achieving a philosophy of loyalty to an abstract and general thing we know and think of as "America" is not enough. Indeed, it is the most difficult of all loyalties to cultivate in a land so broad and so diversified as ours. People tend more readily to understand and to idealize and venerate those things which are close to them than those which are remote. It is my considered opinion, based on twenty years of association with historical activity at the state level, not only in Pennsylvania but throughout the country, that the growing attention to conserving and emphasizing state and local history on the part of our state government is in large measure a response to a realization that it is important as the very foundation for preserving our national heritage.

ATTRACTING TOURISTS

Yet another important reason for cultivating the historical heritage of the states is that it is proving to be good business to do so. A recent survey by Redbook Magazine presents further striking evidence of the interest of Americans in America. More than 90 per cent of those queried indicated that their future vacation trips would be limited to the United States. Granted that much of this travel is purely recreational, who can deny that in its course increasing hundreds of thousands are being brought into contact with more recreational benefits? The very scenery of America is an inspiring panorama which cannot help but create a new spirit of appreciation of the greatness of the nation. The American landscape is truly a vital part of the American heritage. Every person in charge of state historical shrines, as distinguished from those administered by the National Park Service, will testify that visits to these places are increasing by leaps and bounds, just as they are at the federally administered historical parks, buildings and monuments.

Recognition that there "is gold in them thar hills" in tourist travel is leading many states to take a new look at their history. Virginia went all out last year in celebrating the Jamestown tercentenary and with resulting economic benefits. Every tourist who can be attracted by a state's historical shrines into spending a few days in that state will spend on an average of $12.00 to $15.00 a day for food, lodging, gasoline, and odds and ends. National Park Service statistics show that national historical monuments, for the first time, are competing with and even running ahead of scenic areas in the percentage of increase in tourist visitation. Like figures are not available at the state level, but it is reasonable to believe that they represent a comparable trend.

To conclude and summarize, conservation of the history of our states is an increasingly important concern of state government. It is, and should be a concern, in terms of its very real place in the pattern of a rising consciousness of the need to translate the American heritage into terms which will lead Americans to become educated in the historical tradition of their own particular states. Provincialism is no longer a "dirty word" to those concerned with developing a truly national spirit. It is rather, perhaps, the indispensable means to that end. At the same time, with increasing thousands of Americans milling about — searching out the physical evidences of their past as preserved in museums and historical monuments and buildings, or as pointed out by increasing thousands of state historical markers alongside the highways, or as recorded by the landscape itself — there is a very practical aspect to increasing state budgets of the agencies entrusted with historical tasks. In most states conservation of our state historical heritage is at once a contribution to better citizenship and a sound business practice.

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