Reading and Writing about Spokane

This week readings are about reading the community much like we are reading cemeteries for our paper. Chapter 9 in Nearby History describes the analysis of the cultural landscape, seperating it from the natural landscape and reading the development of a town by locating the "indicators of change" (179). I thought the authors make an important point about being careful when looking for symbolism in buildings and structures and instead encourage historians to look for "changes dictated by necessity" (186).

Many of the buildings historians will analyze are probably on the National Register for Historic Places. Chapter 10 describes the benefits and challanges to historic presertvation. There is an interesting balance between progress and remembering the past. It is important to remember history and the way life was before, but people also have to live their lives in the present and "the whole landscape cannot be locked in time" (199). The authors provide important information for not only people interested in historic preservation but for historians with their list of contact information. Historians, who might not be interested in preserving a certian piece of property, can use these sources when looking for information about a certian society's history.

The University of Wisconsin- Madison's information about reading landscapes will be very helpful when we start looking at the ghost signs in our section of Spokane. Though all of the information and advice is applicable to our project, the most helpful section is the Cities, Town, and Infrastructure. We will need to use all of our senses to get a feel for the neighborhood in the turn of the century so we can understand the context, though I would not recommend taking off your shoes so you can feel the concrete of the streets of Spokane under your feet. 

I have to admit, I did not enjoy John Fahey's essay When the Dutch Owned Spokane. This seemed to be a very important part in Spokane's history, redevelopment after the fire, but Fahey focuses on a business hisotry of the Dutch morgage firm, Northwestern and Pacific Hyoptheekbank and leaves discussion of its impact on Spokane for the last few paragraphs. He breifly states that because of Dutch investment, the city was able to recover so quickly, then adds, almost as if under his breath, that it would have happened anyway, just not quite as fast. He also comes just short of blaming the Dutch for the massive forclosures in the mid 1890's. I wish this essay would have examined the effect of the Dutch on the city of Spokane instead of focusing on the company and their financial history. It was nice to put the Dutch investors into context with the Spokane Historical stop of the Couer d'Alene Hotel.

Recovery after the 1889 fire. (image courtesy of The Spokesman-Review)

The advice given by Kyvig and Marty in Chapter 11 will be helpful, not only when we start to work on our projects, but when we work on any other historical paper or project. I know one of the problems I have when doing research is never taking notes on my sources, which the authors list as a "cardinal rule" (212). I always find myself frantically trying to remember a source for an important piece of information because I did not take correct notes.

I though the last chapter in Nearby History  was particularly interesting. It was a history of history and historians. It was interesting to see the development in the concentrations of studies change over time, based on what was happening in the present day. For example, the social-protest movements encouraged historians to study history through the lives of "ordinary people" and not just through the elite class. The best way to do this was making generalization through studies done in a concentrated area, local history, which was previously scoffed at by academic historians. Now the current emphasis in history is on the links between "elite culture and popular mass culture to social, economic and political developments"(251). Public History will play and important role in determining these links and presenting them to other historians and society.