“Living History” and “Living with History”

MHC Executive Director, Geoff Giglierano 

At the recent MHC quarterly board meeting in Hannibal, our staff and council members had the opportunity to enjoy two excellent programs presented by the wonderful people at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum.  The Museum was the host site for our meeting, and as an adjunct to our “friend-raising” activities on Friday evening, Curator Henry Sweets gave a talk on the history of censorship of Mark Twain’s work, particularly the book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Henry is a fascinating and engaging speaker, and his perspectives on this ongoing story how various groups and individuals have had issues with Twain’s masterpiece were truly enlightening.   Among the insights that he shared with us was the understanding that although there have been attempts to censure, censor, and re-write Huckleberry Finn from its initial publication up through the present, there have been wildly diverse reasons why various people over the years have had problems with the book. 

 To grasp why different people at different times had trouble with Twain’s work, we have to try to comprehend the social and intellectual context of the times in which the criticism has arisen and still arises, just as we have to try to understand the context in which Twain created his books and stories if we are to really appreciate the importance and genius of his work.

 This was highlighted to us the next day when we extended the lunch break of our meeting just so we could hear storyteller Gladys Coggswell (who happens to be a Governor’s Humanities Award winner) as she gave a dramatic presentation of one of Twain’s other stories.  In her program, Gladys took on the persona of Twain’s African American housekeeper in Elmira, NY in the 1870s: a former slave, who recounted the story of her life.  Gladys is a superb storyteller and her presentation was both moving and powerful, and felt very, very real.  It was an extremely successful example of “living history”—bringing the past to life through a combination of good scholarship and good theater.  Gladys did an exceptional job of enabling the audience to be transported in their imaginations to a different place and time, and to have the sense that they were actually listening to Twain’s housekeeper in person.

 In part, she did this through the use of authentic dialect and vocabulary.  To great extent, the success of this aspect of the presentation was dependent on Ms. Coggswell’s abilities as an actor.  If this had been done badly, it would have completely destroyed the sense of immersion, and become an offensive distraction.  It was equally important, however, that Gladys—as a skilled practitioner of living history theater should–provide the context for the story and the character in her introduction and concluding remarks. 

 Living history, like interpretive storytelling–which ideally, is an element of successful living history—should be entertaining, but it is not simply “entertainment.”    When it works, the audience members are not only immersed in a different time and place and given a sense of connection with people in the past, they also gain insights and understanding of the context and conditions in that time and place. 

This issue of Missouri Passages has “living history” as a general theme.  You will be reading about some recent MHC-supported programs and projects that involved living history as we usually think of it, with its engaging marriage of scholarship and theater.  But there are also examples of how we can be “living with history.”   Our history is all around us, in layers that we sometimes are not always cognizant of, yet which still have shaped who we are and how we relate to each other.  We hope that you will enjoy learning more about these programs, and will be encouraged to be more aware of the stories associated

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