Plain as Dirt: History Without Gimmickry
Archaeologist Jed Levin keeps a hand-held click counter at the ready, even while answering a busy cellphone and addressing the curious crowds that have gathered at the site he is excavating. Since March, when he began digging for historical remains in a small, square pit in this city's historic district, the onlookers have come in steadily increasing numbers. On a good day, his little clicker registers some 4,000 to 5,000 visitors.
Given how little there is to see, those are impressive numbers -- and a striking lesson about how history is told in this country. The site Levin is excavating once contained a structure many consider the first real White House, the presidential mansion where George Washington and John Adams lived while Philadelphia served as the capital of the United States in the 1790s. Plans to build a memorial marker over the site have kindled a broader interest not just in the house but in the people, including slaves, who lived there.
At the same time, spontaneous public curiosity about the dig (done in preparation for building the memorial over the house's remains) has shown how poorly Philadelphia, and the nation, has been served by efforts to generate tourist interest at all costs at Independence National Historical Park, where the site is located. All around this muddy little hole, private tour buses clog the streets, new and undistinguished buildings have risen, and the latest in interactive history with all the bells and whistles has been marketed to visitors. Yet in a low pit on a street corner near the Liberty Bell, a few archaeologists are carefully excavating some very minimal foundation walls, uncovering old wells and privies and sifting dirt for shards of crockery. And they're stealing the show.
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Given how little there is to see, those are impressive numbers -- and a striking lesson about how history is told in this country. The site Levin is excavating once contained a structure many consider the first real White House, the presidential mansion where George Washington and John Adams lived while Philadelphia served as the capital of the United States in the 1790s. Plans to build a memorial marker over the site have kindled a broader interest not just in the house but in the people, including slaves, who lived there.
At the same time, spontaneous public curiosity about the dig (done in preparation for building the memorial over the house's remains) has shown how poorly Philadelphia, and the nation, has been served by efforts to generate tourist interest at all costs at Independence National Historical Park, where the site is located. All around this muddy little hole, private tour buses clog the streets, new and undistinguished buildings have risen, and the latest in interactive history with all the bells and whistles has been marketed to visitors. Yet in a low pit on a street corner near the Liberty Bell, a few archaeologists are carefully excavating some very minimal foundation walls, uncovering old wells and privies and sifting dirt for shards of crockery. And they're stealing the show.