106 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
historical library building at
Pittsburgh, though delivered for the
promotion of a purely local enterprise,
are so replete with in-
formation and suggestion pertinent to
historical libraries in
general, that we take pleasure in
producing them in full.
WHAT AN HISTORICAL LIBRARY BUILDING
SHOULD DO
FOR PITTSBURGH.
BY REUBEN
GOLD THWAITES, LL. D.
Superintendent of the Wisconsin
Historical Society, and Lecturer in
American History in the University of
Wisconsin.
The immigrant from Europe, no matter how
unlettered he may be,
quite generally brings to our shores a
fairly accurate knowledge of
the most striking facts in the history
of his native land. Its heroes
are his heroes, and the ideals they
stood for are, in a measure, quite
apt to be his also. Especially do we
find, if we have occasion to ques-
tion him, that the newcomer is
conversant with at least the outlines of
the story of his native city or
province. He is proud to claim as fellow
citizens those men of past generations
whose heads have stood above
the throng. He knows something of the
partisan struggles that in
various generations have in his
community set neighborhood against
neighborhood, family against family, men
against their kin; something
of the long-enduring and often
devastating commercial and political con-
tests with other cities; something of
the fierce battles that through
successive generations have been waged
beneath the crumbling walls
that girt his town.
Sometimes on holidays I have watched
groups of these people
wandering through a European art gallery
or museum-peasants and
journeymen, with undoubted evidence of
their vocations still clinging
to them, yet pausing with awesome
although voluble admiration be-
fore some great historical canvas that
eloquently sets forth a chapter
in the story of their country's past; or
commenting intelligently upon a
skillful grouping of museum articles
illustrative of the life, manners,
methods in vogue among men and women who
trod this municipal
stage long generations ago.
When schools are in session, one cannot
tarry long at any historic
shrine in Europe without encountering a
schoolmaster or a school-
mistress having in charge an
enthusiastic bevy of boys and girls who,
either resident or from a neighboring
town, have come to see the house
connected with the career of some
notable citizen, or to study in much
Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual
Meeting. 107
detail the cathedral, the castle, the
municipal building-or whatever other
relics of bygone days bring pilgrims to
that place. Small wonder is it,
with these object lessons and the
persistency of this youthful drilling,
if the European appreciates that his
country has a past, of which he
is the logical outcome, and concerning
which he must be informed.
He migrates to America. No adult with
whom he is liable to
be thrown in social contact apparently
knows anything whatever about
American history, much less does he hear
it talked about. His children
obtain in the public schools a meagre
and often badly-taught smatter-
ing of our national annals, but practically
nothing whatever of that
state or local history in which they
should especially be well-grounded.
We cannot be surprised if our immigrant
comes to think that America
has no history worth the telling, at
least no state or city heroes worthy
of the name; that America never stood
for or meant anything, but is a
land that "just grew up," like
Topsy of old-a land in which there is
opportunity to earn dollars.
Can we hope to make American patriots
out of men coming to
us with such ideas, and finding no
reason for changing them? Can
a man love his country or his state or
city unless he knows that here
great deeds have been done, that here
high ideals are cherished? How
is the foreigner to know these things if
we do not teach them to him?
Are even our boys and girls being made
into the same sort of patriots
that they rear abroad?
Possibly the annals of our nation may in
time be cared for, in this
connection. Certainly, the school texts
are fast improving; more and
more is it being understood by teachers
and public that instruction in
American history lies very close to the
roots of civic patriotism. Com-
memorative celebrations like the present
have had a marked influence
in stimulating popular interest in
certain phases of our country's story.
The Centennial at Philadelphia, for
example, gave a considerable impetus
to the study of the causes and conduct
of the Revolution. The World's
Fair at Chicago brought home to our
people a genuine appreciation of
the stirring romance of that great
period of maritime exploration,
brought to a glorious climax by
Columbus, when on that fateful Octo-
ber morning he doubled the known area of
the world. The Buffalo
Exposition renewed and vivified our
knowledge of and sympathy with
the careers of the Latin American
republics. During the St. Louis
Exposition tens of thousands of
Americans read earnestly and probably
for the first time, of the Louisiana
Purchase, and gave some heed to
what resulted from it. At Portland, our
thoughts as a nation were
closely connected with the
ever-memorable story of Lewis and Clark's
triumphant exploration from the
Mississippi to the Northwest coast.
The Pittsburgh sesquicentennial
reawakened popular interest in the his-
tory of this locality. Again, during the
present week, there is unrolled
before us the panorama of early
trans-Alleghany settlement, and fresh
108 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
concern is being manifested by the
nation in the glowing tale of the
Ohio River when it was the broad highway
to the virgin prairies and
primeval woodlands of the West.
But important as are these celebrations,
they are necessarily spas-
modic. At best, they hold the slender
attention of the public for a few
weeks or months. We stand in need of
permanent instrumentalities for
the development, especially, of popular
taste for state and local history.
Ours is a period remarkable for earnest
popular demands for purer
and more efficient local government-for
the increase and improvement
of public parks and play-grounds, for
the development of the public
library through branches that shall
reach out to the citizen upon the
farthermost confine of the municipality,
for the use of schoolhouses
for lectures to the people and as
meeting places for neighborhood bet-
terment clubs. The time is propitious
for taking advantage of this
widespread civic re-awakening, for
redeeming our cities from the familiar
taunt of the foreigner, that American
towns are historically barren.
The study of local history is closely
akin in object and method
to the study of nature, of which so much
account is taken, and justly
taken, in our public schools. The child
who becomes familiar with the
habits and characteristics of animals,
birds, flowers, trees, and clouds,
finds that the great earth is teeming
with interesting neighbors of man,
with whom it is worth while becoming
intimately acquainted. He walks
thereafter in a broader and more
inviting land than is known to his
untutored fellows who neither see nor
hear the sights and sounds that
make beautiful this world of ours.
Exactly in the same way and for the same
purpose should the
child acquire an intimate knowledge of
the history of his locality. The
career, for instance, of a prairie
community may seem at first to afford
few incidents of distinction. But surely
some incidents there be that
may arouse attention. Merely answering
the why of the town's location
often involves much research, and
sometimes yields interesting facts.
Quite possibly it may lead the inquirer
back to the aboriginal village
that in our West frequently preceded the
white town; and this opens
up the field of local Indian
archaeology, which is sure to attract a
considerable group of students. Perhaps the first white to visit the
region was a fur-trader; if so, this
fact suggests picturesque possi-
bilities. Worthy of our earnest
attention is a study of the first agri-
cultural settler, his origin, and why
and how he came; perhaps afoot
across country, or in a "prairie
schooner," or on a flat-boat.
The story of the gradual growth and
development of a town around
this nucleus of the first settler is
food for the economist and the sociolo-
gist as well as the historian. What
reason was there for the coming of
these people? What induced them to stay,
when once they had arrived?
What social and civic institutions were
first established, and where?-
the first schoolhouse, with its teachers
and pupils; the first church, its
Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual
Meeting. 109
pastors and its congregation; the first
village, town, or city hall, and
the first public officials chosen; the
creation of clubs, societies, fraternal
organizations. Then there is the question of the beginnings of com-
mercial and industrial establishments;
the building of plank roads or
"gravelled" turnpikes, the
construction of bridges, the coming of steam-
boats or railroads. The smallest and apparently the least
interesting
or American communities presents
abundant problems for the local his-
torian or other student of life and
manners.
But particularly fortunate in this
regard is Pittsburgh. Here, two
pulsing streams combine to form yonder
giant river, which long served
as the principal pathway to the interior
of a great continent. Few Am-
erican towns have a history like unto
this. In the beginning, its traditions
throb with the varied incidents of a
strenuous aboriginal life-for here
at "The Forks", from time
immemorial, were held great councils and
intertribal markets; from here were
controlled the savages of a broad
area of wilderness; from here went war
parties, hideous in paint and
gay in feathers, softly treading the
warriors' paths that everywhere
streaked this storied land. The Forks
played a large part in the pro-
tracted drama of French and English
rivalry for the mastery of North
America, and with this particular scene
Washington's name will always
closely be associated. About The Forks
was waged the continued struggle
for territorial possession between
Pennsylvania and Virginia-one of its
episodes being that fateful colonial war
to which has been given the
name of Lord Dunmore. During the
Revolution, the garrison of Fort
Pitt was chiefly concerned in protecting
the Kentuckians from Indian
raids. Here really began the expedition
of George Rogers Clark, that
won the Northwest for the United States.
From here set forth that
little band of Marietta pilgrims who had
won their Western lands by
fighting under Washington and
Lafayette. Here, through many years
were built and launched those fleets of
picturesque pirogues, flat-boats,
keel-boats, "arks," and
"broad-horns," that carried teeming cargoes of
pioneers and their chattels for the
founding of American homes along
the banks of the Ohio and its
far-stretching tributaries. Here set forth
that strange, machine-paddled craft
which was soon to revolutionize the
West, and which gave occasion for our
commemorative exercises today.
From that time to this, Pittsburgh has
remained an important gateway
to the West; her history is in large
measure a synopsis of Western
history.
The story of Pittsburgh has never quite
adequately been told-
at least, in such fashion that we can
feel the thrill and glamor of this
old town's eventful career. But some day
it will be told, let us hope
as the outcome of this Centennial; and
then we shall see that that
story is unexcelled in romance and
significance by the records of any
other city in the world. Blessed will be
the Pittsburgh child who shall
come to his knowledge of it at his
mother's knee; for like the European
110 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
youth, he will come to feel that the
traditions and annals of the city of
his birth are a rich heritage which none
may gainsay him. He will be-
come a better citizen by far than the
lad to whom the town is an un-
meaning checker-board collection of
streets, sidewalks, and houses.
The sole excuse for the maintenance of
public schools by public
taxes is the fact that education makes
intelligent voters, without whom
the republic cannot long exist. A
general knowledge of American history
is recognized by every educator as an
essential factor in the education
of our people. But the history of his
state and locality should be con-
sidered quite as important an element in
the intellectual drill of every
child in our common schools, who is
being trained to effective citizenship.
"The curriculum is already
overcrowded," say the teachers when
this suggestion is made. It is the
long-familiar reply to every suggestion
for reform in educational methods. The
trouble chiefly lies, I fear, in
the lack of equipment on the part of
many of the teachers themselves.
Knowing nothing of local history, and having
small concern for it, they
are readily self-convinced that there is
no time for this study in the
treadmill of the scholastic day. Another
consideration, doubtless, is the
dearth of attractive state or local
texts, for undoubtedly among the most
dreary of books on our library shelves
are those of the local annalist.
But were school boards to insist that
state and local history should be
taught alongside of general American
history, incentive would thereby
be offered to text-book writers
possessed of attractive literary style, who
at present find but a narrow market for
this sort of ware.
But quite apart from class-work in the
common schools, there is
needed some other agency for the
instruction of all the people in the
history of the town and region. There is
no instrument quite so well
adapted or equipped for carrying on this
form of popular education as
the historical society-city, regional,
or state. Such an organization can
inspire archaeological explorations,
accumulate archives, collect reminis-
cences from pioneers, amass data
relative to social and economic history
and present conditions, conduct a
well-selected historical and ethnological
museum that shall be representative of
the locality, arrange for popular
lectures on these subjects, conduct
historical pilgrimages and commemor-
ative celebrations, influence school and
library boards, interest and in-
struct teachers and librarians, furnish
the newspapers with accurate his-
torical data, publish pamphlets and books
containing reports of their
discoveries, and in general awaken
within the locality which it seeks
to represent an active and enduring
historic consciousness.
The legislatures of many of our states
in the Mississippi Basin
recognize the importance and necessity
of this form of educational
work. Their interest is manifested by
more or less liberal subventions
of such societies, and in a few states a
somewhat similar duty is per-
formed by official departments of
archives and history. But of the
several municipal or regional historical
societies, that of Buffalo is, I
Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual
Meeting. 111
believe, unique in receiving an annual
appropriation ($5,000) from the
city government, to aid in its
educational propaganda.
In truth, there is no reason whatever
why this example should not
generally be followed by large American
cities. Exactly the same argu-
ment used in behalf of the school system
can and should be urged for
the historical society. But such a
society, state or local, can lay slight
claim to official aid if it be not
popular in its organization and methods.
It must perpetually demonstrate its
reason for being, by proving its
usefulness to the public. Its directors
must heartily believe in the enter-
prise, and be willing to spend freely of
their time and effort. Its sal-
aried staff must be headed by some one
holding office for the good to
be done-an historical expert, yet at the
same time possessed of a knowl-
edge of men and a capacity to influence
public opinion in a good cause.
He must be not a mere dry-as-dust
antiquarian, living in the world but
not of it, but be imbued with modern
ideas and familiar with modern
business management-an earnest,
practical man, in whom both scholars
and men of affairs may sefely repose
confidence.
It is gratifying to learn that there is
a project for the establish-
ment here in Pittsburgh of an
institution such as I have described-a
logical fruit of this remarkably
successful centennial celebration. Most
sincerely do I trust that the enterprise
may from the beginning be well
assured of its financial future. To many
of our municipal societies are
weakly and struggling, with means
insufficient for virile public service.
Either well endow your society and its
proposed historical building, or
make it an acknowledged part of your
general educational system, and
place it in keen rivalry with similar
institutions elsewhere.
Given such a society, adequately housed,
properly supported, and
Pittsburgh may in this matter easily
take first rank among the cities
of America. Her rich dowry of local
history will then become the com-
mon possession of her people. Every boy
and girl within her limits
will be proud to have sprung from such
historic soil. Every foreigner
will rejoice to dwell within the gates
of a city whose story, known of
all men, can kindle his affection.
WHAT AN HISTORICAL BUILDING SHOULD DO
FOR PITTS-
BURGH.
BY CLARENCE S. BRIGHAM,
Librarian American Antiquarian
Society.
"Among the singular advantages
which are enjoyed by the people
of the United States none is more
conspicuous than the facility of
tracing the origin and progress of our
several plantations. * * With