Though the 80 original storage boxes of Boston 200 records truly do detail an impressive array of public history events, street fairs, historic reenactments and multiple featured presentations throughout the city, there is one archived document (aging news clip) that highlights an editorial Bicentennial question concerning, “What might have been.” Clearly, Boston officials (back in 1962) had the most grandiose of plans in mind when first thinking of the 1976 Bicentennial Celebration.
In 1974, a Lynn newspaper (otherwise unidentified) published an editorial taking Boston officials to task for failing to make good on extravagant projections for what the 1976 Bicentennial Celebration in Boston was to have been. Discussed here are a few of notable events, that never happened.
Another World’s Fair: Boston Expo ’76
The news clipping recounts that, “In December, 1962 a delegation from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, which recently visited the Seattle World’s Fair, unveiled a nine-point plan for a World’s Fair centered in Boston Harbor.” Four years later, that plan had matured, and the event, “was christened Boston Expo ’76.”
Excerpts from the 1974 news clipping below highlight some of the more intriguing details:
What Happened?
The Lynn news editorial went on to explain that “environmentalists” protested that Boston Expo ’76 would cause ecological damage to Boston Harbor, and further that it would, “inconvenience South Boston residents.” Shortly thereafter, the Expo ’76 plans were completely scrapped, The following highlights a somewhat outdated, but typical conservative view of resulting affairs.
Perhaps it’s quite fitting that a minor 1776-themed revolution prevented the politically powerful from using American patriotic enthusiasm as a means to profit well-positioned land developers. For some, therefore, it ultimately, and truly, was a Happy 4th of July in 1976!
The Boston 200 Collection at the Boston City Archives contains two interesting examples worthy of comment, re. Jules Schlesinger.
Within the structure of the Boston 200 Bicentennial Corporation, Mr. Schlesinger was the Assistant Director of Public Relations, and reported to immediate superior, Public Relations and Advertising Director, Lewis Carter, Jr. In has capacity as Assistant Director, Mr. Schlesinger was responsible for outreach to a number of parties who individually or collectively might be interested in American Revolution Bicentennial tourism involving Boston.
The first item of interest (see above) is a public relations essay authored by the PR Assistant Director in which he rather eloquently highlights the aura of Boston and interesting aspects of the City’s new and multiple Bicentennial exhibits.
“In New England, all roads lead to Boston. The visitor, the scholar, the tradesman and artist pass through acres of unconcealed wealth to share in Boston’s past or to shape her Future. The landscape, now heavy with the plum and apricot ransom of autumn, prepares the mind to anticipate further revelations. And like the attentive mother, Boston never disappoints.
“Two hundred years ago a new nation was born in Boston. Today her rich and varied forms of culture and entertainment honor that past. A traveler to Boston is greeted with a garland of Bicentennial attractions that will reward a visit of any duration.”
Jules Schlesinger’s prose is both colorful and inviting. Consider, however, a rather unfortunate, unexpected and (by today’s standards) unacceptable expression also authored by the same Boston-based public relations official.
An agent from the Japan Travel Bureau, Masatake Shiba, sent a congratulatory letter to Schlesinger reflecting praise about the beauty of Boston and the hospitality of the Boston 200 staff. M. Shiba pledged the Bureau’s commitment to promote Bicentennial Boston to their Japanese clients.
This generous offer of international promotional assistance should have sparked a thankful response by Schlesinger, and perhaps it did. However, the Shiba letter, with an insulting, handwritten annotation by Jules Schlesinger, was passed on to his boss, Lew Carter.
Negative Reality
Two lessons are rather obvious here. First, think before you write. And second, archival documents live for a very long time.
Letter from St. Margaret’s Hospital to the offices of the Boston 200, Inc. May 13, 1975 Boston City Archives
Bicentennial Birth Certificates
The Boston 200 Collection is full of interesting twists and turns, but the noted request from St. Margaret’s Hospital (90 Cushing Avenue, Boston) must of surprised all the bicentennial staff.
Caught up with the Bostonian spirit of the approaching 1776 American Revolutionary celebration, Mr. Paul H. Brennon, hospital community relations director, responded to a Boston 200, Inc. promotional call for logo licensing requests in May, 1975. Mr. Brennon stated with implied distinction, “As you know, St. Margaret’s Hospital for Women in Dorchester, has for 102 years been the place where Bostonians have entered our wonderful city. It is our hope to present a Bicentennial Birth Certificate to all these new Bostonians who enter Boston through our delivery rooms through the Bicentennial period.
St. Margaret’s requested (and was granted) permission to issue a redesigned birth certificate containing the standard language, but also adorned with the Boston 200 Logo-Type with the national and state logo.
An example of the Bicentennial birth certificate couldn’t be found within the Boston 200 Collection at the Boston City Archives, but walking about Boston and, undoubtedly, other cities, are citizens with a uniquely historic and revolutionary record of birth.
A December 31, 1972 Special Edition of The Chicago Daily Tribune found within the Boston 200 Collection at the Boston City Archives Photo: Daniel Morast
Unexpected Archival Item #1
In 1973, with the 1975/1976 American Bicentennial years fast approaching, Boston 200, Inc. Executive Director, Katharine Kane reached out to her advertising and marketing staff. Most were new hires; Katharine herself had been on the job for less than a year. All were likely facing the urgent pressure to immediately promote Boston as “the” bicentennial tourism destination.
A pleading note (and very interesting staff response) was found in the collection folder entitled, “Ideas.” Director Kane’s simple message to her team asked that those with ideas should pass them on to her in writing. One staff member (identity undocumented) replied with a 1972 Special Edition of The Chicago Daily Tribune, along with the suggestion that maybe they could get a Boston newspaper to undertake a special edition on behalf of Boston 200.
Someone in the Public Relations and Advertising office took the materials involved in this Chicago Tribune exchange and likely slipped them into a file cabinet for future reference. Subsequently, that folder, along with eighty (or more) archival boxes of similar Boston 200, Inc. records, (after temporary custody at the Boston Public Library) arrived at the Boston City Archives in West Roxbury. There, some forty-four years after the initial exchange, it was my processing task to extract the aging documents from their temporary housing and employ best procedures for long-term archival preservation and retrieval.
In the age of suggested (if not demanded), More Product and Less Processing, my immediate concern involved decisions regarding four, two-sided “broadside” sheets of aging (and browning) acidic newsprint. My first thought was to photocopy the top half of the title page for preservation archival purposes and toss (recycle) the special edition newspaper. I had to wonder, however, what was the Chicago Tribune doing in the Boston 200 collection? The answer to that question revealed that I was holding a truly unique archival find. Fortunately, the special edition came with an attached 1972 Chicago Tribune press release. That archival document had all the “historic” answers I needed; the ultimate questions regarding newsprint document disposition, however, were still up to me.
The Chicago Daily Tribune special edition singularly focused on the historic Chicago-based retail mail-order firm, Montgomery Ward. In fact, Ward had underwritten the entire publication (touted as a centennial commemorative anniversary edition), in recognition of the company being in business for 100 years. The story behind the publishing effort should truly interest all those involved in public history endeavors.
The Tribune press release exclaims the uniqueness of the publishing event, “Prepared by Montgomery Ward, this unusual anniversary section is believed by journalistic historians to be the first of its kind from the files of a single newspaper of any corporate or institutional history.”
Evidently, graduate fellowship students from the Universities of Northwestern, Chicago and Illinois, “… were retained by Montgomery Ward to conduct the necessary extensive research of corporate archives, public libraries in Chicago, New York, and the Chicago Tribune’s morgue.” Those involved worked to assemble, “… more than 1,000 articles and photos,” and, without any advertising, “News and feature items were selected and reproduced in original headline and type styles of the periods covered.”
The news release directly quoted (then) Ward vice president Robert V. Guelich, “this souvenir supplement was developed to provide Ward customers and employees with nostalgic and accurate reflections of the company’s illustrious 100 years of growth.”
Without background explanations, the news release documented the historic nature of the Special Edition information, “News items include accounts of the famous 1944 photo-story of two soldiers carrying board chairman Sewell Avery out of the company’s head office after the firm was seized by the federal government; the near take-over of the company by Louis E. Wolfson in 1955; the federal government complaint against Ward in the 1930s because its famous Riverside tires were priced too low; and the long and successful fight waged by company founder Aaron Montgomery Ward to preserve Chicago’s lakefront as a public recreational area.”
So what is a public historian to do with an aging archival document that is a truly unique example of public history … but yet, is of extremely minor importance to the overall historic theme and content of the American Revolution Bicentennial Boston 200 Collection? After much angst, and with authoritative oversight from Outreach Archivist Marta Crilly, I did photocopy the top half of the Special Edition front page for inclusion in the new “Ideas” collection folder.
In addition to the photocopy effort, however, I also assembled a protective multilevel sleeve of archival paper to house the original 8-page broadside newspaper for saving in the archival Boston 200 Collection. Marta theorized that a Chicago Tribune Special Edition newspaper would have to be available on microfilm at some or a number of repositories … and given the Edition’s content had extremely little to do with the greater Boston 200 Collection, that storage of the historic newsprint document within the climate-controlled vault at the Boston City Archives would be acceptable (albeit for the historic short term).
As I continue processing, I’m fairly certain more unexpected archival finds will present themselves soon.
Sample complementary and competing bicentennial newsletters and newspapers from the Boston 200 Collection, Boston City Archives Photo: Daniel Morast
From Within the Collection
When first delving into the assorted Boston 200 Bicentennial Collection files, it became immediately obvious that the city organization was dealing with a lot more than just the 1976 American Bicentennial Celebration in Boston.
Samplings from the Public Relations and Advertising series (within the Boston 200 Collection) quickly revealed that the nation was awash in Bicentennial information, promotion and tourism-related advertising and marketing campaigns. The listing of prominent entities (and their publications) demonstrate the point rather clearly.
American Revolution Bicentennial Administration (Washington, D.C.) – ARBA
ARBA – Bicentennial News – Press Release vehicle of the U.S. national bicentennial office
ARBA – Bicentennial Times – U.S. national bicentennial broadside newspaper, for general citizens
ARBA – Bicentennial Newsletter – 8 1/2″ x 11″ general program information brochure
ARBA – Bicentennial Bulletin – Circular distributed to cooperating bicentennial government officials
Massachusetts Bicentennial Commission – MBC
MBC – Bicentennial Times – Broadside newspaper highlighting American bicentennial activities in cities and towns throughout Massachusetts
MBC – Visible Cities – Bicentennial brochure specifically highlighting historic sites in the cities of Pittsfield, Springfield, Worcester, Lowell, Salem, and New Bedford
Boston 200 Offices of the Boston Bicentennial – Boston 200
Boston 200 – Associates Newsletter – Letter-type mailer updating companies and organizations partnering with the Boston 200 Bicentennial Office
ARBA – New England and our Bicentennial – Promotional publication detailing and exalting the singular efforts of the (separate, independent and competing) state Bicentennial Commissions of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont
Four Cities – If you miss Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington … you miss the Bicentennial – Tourism advertisement brochure promoting historic destinations:
Boston 200 ~ Where the Bicentennial Begins
New York City Bicentennial Corporation ~ The First Capital in the Second Centennial
Philadelphia ’76 Inc. ~ Philadelphia ’76 The American Evolution
District of Columbia Bicentennial Commission ~ Bicentennial FreedomFest
And if all of the above fails to garner organizational sympathy for the promotion-challenged Boston 200 Bicentennial administrators, please note that the city of Boston not only hosted offices for their Boston 200 organizers, but the national American Revolution Bicentennial Administration and the state Massachusetts Bicentennial Commission also had offices in the revolutionary city of Boston.
Though a number of additional American bicentennial efforts at state, city and town levels are evident in the Boston 200 Collection at the Boston City Archives, perhaps the most noteworthy (given the time and historical era of America in 1976) is the People’s Bicentennial Commission headed by Harvard’s anti-Vietnam War activist, Jeremy Rifkin.
More on the 1976 State of the American Union (and it’s impact on Revolutionary History tourism) will follow in future posts.
Reference Room, Boston City Archives, 201 Rivermoor Street, West Roxbury, Massachusetts Photo: Daniel Morast
The BCA Reference Room: Modern, Clean & Secure
As I share my initial exciting steps delving into the half-century-old Boston 200 Bicentennial archival collection, I should pause and comment on first impressions working within the Boston City Archives (BCA) building in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.
The above noted link transports you to 201 Rivermoor Street and the modern warehouse building that not only houses hundreds of years of Boston archival history, but also the City Archaeological Lab collections as well.
The BCA Rivermoor facility (acquired in 2004) boasts 140,000 square feet of climate-controlled space architecturally designed for protective record storage and timely retrieval. As all things archival, however, Boston’s multi-century documentation preservation effort houses its own historic story as well. City Archivist John J. McColgan highlighted the transformation saga from a “temporary” storage facility in the aging Hemenway School in Hyde Park, to Rivermoor Street, West Roxbury, in an October 2007 article in the New England Archivist newsletter.
Focusing on my archival mandate, I’m impressed with my new working environment, the BCA Reference Room pictured above. Open, well-lit via contemporary ceiling lights and an outer wall of large windows, the Reference Room features multiple reading and processing tables, computer work stations, and a number of image scanners and photo copiers. To my pleasant surprise, when Outreach Archivist Marta Crilly leaves for short periods of time, she recognizes my position as a graduate archival intern, and leaves me in charge. I’ll comment more on that responsibility and opportunity in future posts.
Processing Boston 200 Collection. A typed listing of file folders compiled when once-active office documents were transferred to boxes for records storage. Photo: Daniel Morast
Boston 200 Processing Plan
Once initially somewhat settled in to my Reference Room working area, the first order of business involved introductions to the City of Boston Archives Processing Manual, a quick view of the digital platform known as ArchivesSpace, and my first glimpse of the Boston 200 collection. The Processing Manual reminded me of the archival basics garnered from class readings and classroom projects. It’s important to recall that archival projects begin with a formal processing manual, and that if one doesn’t exist, one needs to stop what they are doing, and draft one. Fortunately, the BCA Plan is both well-written, clear to understand, and appears to have benefited from the test of time.
Given that the Boston Bicentennial Collection already resides at the BCA facility, and that prepossessing has already begun (thank you again Laura Kintz), one notes that the archival consideration of accessioning has already been addressed and accomplished. This leads back to the initial question, what is the processing plan?
Temporary archival “display” box depicts newly-processed Boston 200 collection folders “mimicking” original hanging green files withdrawn from file cabinets decades past. Photo: Daniel Morast
Follow the Leader
First steps (according to Archivist Crilly) involve noting that the collection is to be (and has been) processed at the file level. The entity known as Boston 200, Inc. finally shut down in 1977 (shortly after the close of the 1976 Bicentennial year). Extensive file cabinet drawers were transferred to boxes wherein the hanging green files were maintained in original order (with many bulging beyond intended capacity). Though I do not have enough experience to judge commonality with respect to my next discovery, it appears that during the document transfer process back in the late 1970’s, someone took the time to type up a master list of file headings (titles from the hanging green file tabs). These were complete with notation regarding original storage box numbers. This resulting “manual” serves as a processing guide such that Marta can direct me in drafting folder titles, and establishing a checklist for the sequential monitoring of file (and box-level) processing. I find myself consistently referring to transfer-files list typed decades past. As one of my more important archival tasks, I undertake the data entry such that the preserved original file-level structure is consistently (and hopefully, permanently) transferred digitally to the ArchivesSapce software storage (and retrieval) system.
The documented discoveries of an archives graduate student intern processing a major public history archival collection at the Boston City Archives.
Preface
The aims and objectives of UMass History graduate-level archival internship assignments are understandably straightforward, “…to build on students’ coursework in archives and history courses, providing the opportunity to put theoretical concepts into practice.”
Having completed multiple hours of graduate courses pursuing a Masters Degree in History (Public History track with Archival Certificate) at the University of Massachusetts campus in Boston, I was eager to take the next exponential academic step. When Boston City Archivist for Reference and Outreach, Marta Crilly, introduced me to the partially-processed Boston 200 Bicentennial collection, my initial academic determination was overwhelmed with an unexpected realization of personal good fortune.
The records of the Boston 200 Bicentennial Corporation constitute a rather complete account involving the management and conduct of a multi-year city-wide effort to highlight and publicly dramatize two hundred years of Bostonian and American history. Event organizers sought to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors from Boston neighborhoods, Massachusetts cities and towns, and tourists from across the U.S. and around the world. The intended central thematic draw for this unprecedented event was history as entertainment, historic site visits, open-air events, costumed-reenactments, and much more … it was history for public consumption on the grandest of scales.
And I get to process the collection! How sweet is that?
Here in, I chronicle my adventurous steps into the archival world of a major public history collection. If my initial inspection is even remotely symptomatic, interesting discoveries will surly entertain and amaze.
Acknowledgements
I readily acknowledge the initial work involving the Boston 200 collection conducted by BCA’s Marta Crilly and UMass Boston public history and archives alumnus, Laura Kintz. They established a template that readily correlates with the fundamental concepts of archival accessioning and processing (recalling my many classroom readings, lectures and exercises). Their significant first “chapters” of the Boston 200 BCA finding aid (established using ArchivesSpace software), constitute both an attractive and demanding archival path to follow.
I have known Marta Crilly through archival course work at the University of Massachusetts Boston, thankfully involving regular attendance at the Boston City Archives in West Roxbury. Marta’s gracious willingness to expand her “Outreach Archivist” duties to include mentoring archival graduate students deserves recognition from all who benefit from her professional guidance.
Of course, I willingly declare personal appreciation for UMB Archives Professor Marilyn Morgan. Her introduction to the archival world opened a door I never really new existed. Dr. Morgan’s educational hand attentively guides one through the academic, theoretical and practical applications of all things archival. Obviously, I continue to learn.
Tribute to Katherine Daniels Kane
As impressed as I am with the Boston 200 Collection processing opportunity, I cannot lift another archival box or rescue an additional aging staple-infected document without recognizing the corporation’s president and director, Katherine D. Kane (pictured here with an unknown man viewing a Boston 200 promotional sign honoring an event in Boston’s North End neighborhood circa 1975-1976 ).
The eighty or more boxes of raw Boston 200 files document five toilsome years in the life of a very busy female executive. The archival record contains seemingly endless examples of administrative, promotional and organizational skill. The city-wide celebration (and thirty-six months of planning) didn’t happen “automatically.” The success of the event, the coordination of Boston 200 staff, and the outreach to program partners from every walk of life imaginable, are well expressed in each letter, report and annotated note hiding in the bulging files. I’m not processing the records of an organization, it’s much more akin to discovering and reliving the history of a young woman charged with the public history assignment of a lifetime. This link is offered for a more complete insight to the remarkable executive, Katherine D. Kane.
Archives in Turn: Interns in Archives 