09.04.05
Doing History - The Public Historian
The latest edition of The Public Historian (27:2) (2005) is thematically based on Disability. There are several articles about how museums and public historians approach this topic. Honestly, I skimmed over most of them, because it’s not something I’m very interested in. But, 2 articles did catch my attention.
1. Abstract: Deaf People in Hitler’s Europe: Conducting Oral History Interviews With Deaf Holocaust Survivors in which Donna Ryan tackles the issue of conducting interviews with a very specific population. She outlines the issues facing a hearing person who wishes to interview deaf people who survived the Holocaust. Many of the hurdles she encountered were: being accepted into the deaf community, finding interpreters that spoke the right kind of sign language (like all languages, there are many different flavours that have sprung up around the world) as well as speaking the right language/s and being able to translate them into English, finding people who were willing to discuss their Holocaust experience in front of a video camera, as well as all the logistical questions of making sure the electronics worked on the right converter and getting where they needed to be.
In what must have been a very rewarding but time consuming and exhausting project, Ryan’s speaks to the difficulties any historian may encounter as well as those specific to her area of expertise. It’s interesting and amazing work.
2. Abstract: The Local History Museum, So Near and Yet So Far, Catherine Kudlick’s experience as a vision impaired visitor to a museum whose staff, apparently, doesn’t care that Kudlick and her blind friend are unable to enjoy their visit. Kudlick not only describes how frustrating it is to visit museums who haven’t taken the handicapped into consideration but does decribe how museums can better serve this audience and gives the example of one museum who has done it well.
This 2 articles are worth reading if for no other reason than to explore niches in history that are overlooked but don’t need to be.