COLLEGE STATION - The chief historian of the National Park Service said the nation’s parks must have something meaningful for everyone and be able to explain their purpose not just historically, but also their current significance.
Dr. Dwight Pitcaithley, chief historian, kicked off a distinguished lecture series Wednesday hosted by the department of recreation, park and tourism sciences at Texas A&M University. His lecture, “History in the National Parks and Preservation of Cultural Resources,” focused on the chronology of history and preservation of federal land and parks.
Pitcaithley said national parks “are only meaningful if they say something that is meaningful to us” and justify spending tax dollars.
“They (the parks) must ask What? What happened here?’ And they must ask Why? Why did it happen here,'” he said. “And our parks must ask So what? Why is it significant?’ If we answer all three of those, you’ve got your money’s worth.”
Before 1970, national parks primarily reflected history, “which was heavy on men and military. There was no reflection on women, no reflection on writers … no blacks, little mention of slavery,” Pitcaithley said.
But in the late 1970s, a new movement began. The “new history,” Pitcaithley said, came about as historians began looking in the past and asking different questions.
“They began asking, What about women, what about blacks?’,” he said. “These historians began challenging our own history.”
After scholarly journals began circulating and new philosophical views were studied, Congress was lobbied to set aside new kinds of parks with a different historical perspectives, he said. One of the first parks to recognize women was the Women’s Rights National Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y. Later, poets and artists began to be recognized, including the Edgar Allan Poe historic home in Pennsylvania.
Today, Pitcaithley said the National Park Service’s philosophy is much different than when he first came on board.
“We’re far more sophisticated than when I first joined the organization,” he said. “Our superintendents are more sophisticated.”
He said the National Park Service embraced the “new history” concept in the 1990s, particularly with its two former directors who”embraced new ideas.” Robert Stanton, who was National Park Service director from 1997-2001, was one of these. Stanton is now in residence with the department of recreation, park and tourism sciences at Texas A&M, leading an initiative that focuses on minority and under-represented communities.
Stanton’s ties to the National Park Service prompted Pitcaithley’s visit to Texas A&M. More speakers from the National Park Service and abroad are scheduled throughout the fall semester as part of the lecture series “People, Parks and Environmental Justice.”
Pitcaithley is a native of Carlsbad, N.M. His National Park Service career began in 1963 as a seasonal laborer at the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. He served in the United States Marine Corps in California, Hawaii and Vietnam from 1964-1967. Pitcaithley’s research interests over the past two decades have dealt with the historic preservation movement, public memory and the role of historic sites and other places in public education.
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