Ten Questions to
Ask at a Historic Site adapted from Dr. James Loewen
1. When did this
location became a historic site? (When was the marker or monument
put up? Or the house interpreted?) How did that time differ from
ours from the time of the event or person commemorated?
2. Who sponsored
it? What participant group's point of view was represented? What was
this group's position in social structure when the event occurred? When
was the
site established?
3. What were their ideological needs and the social
purposes? What were their values?
4. Who is the intended
audience for the site? What values were they trying to leave for us,
today? What does the site ask us to go and do or think about?
5. Did the sponsors
have government support? At what level?
6. Who is left out?
How would the story differ if
a different group sponsored the historic site? Another political party? Race? Sex?
Class? Religious group?
7. Are there
problematic words or symbols that would not be used
today, or by other groups?
8. How is the site
used today? Do traditional rituals continue to connect today's
public to it? Or it is ignored? Why?
9. Is the
presentation accurate? What actually happened? What historical
sources tell of the event, people, or period commemorated at the
site?
10. How does this
site fit in with others that treat the same era? Or subject? What
other people lived and events happened then but are not
commemorated? Why?
Source: Prof. James
Loewen, University of Vermont
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Basin Extension
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E-Mail:
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Phone: (435) 722-1736
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