AN INCOMPLETE HISTORY

CHERISHED POSSESSIONS:
A NEW ENGLAND LEGACY
On view at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine
From July 16 to October 27, 2003

Reviewed by Laurie Meunier Graves

The victors write history in their own way.
—Isabel Allende

New England is not large yet it seems to me that its influence on the United States has been great. In many ways, for good and for ill, it has set the tone for this country. From individualism that at times borders on being virulent to bland food to a relentless work ethic to the emphasis on literacy, these things have been passed down to us from the English pilgrims who came here in 1620. These pilgrims, along with other immigrants from England, would form a powerful ethnic group, the Anglo-Americans, who in effect became this country’s ruling class. For over three hundred years, the Anglo-Americans were in power, and the hub of that power was, of course, New England.

Yet as dominant and as powerful as the Anglo-Americans were (and to some extent still are), their history is not the only history of either the United States or New England. Right from the start, there have been other ethnic groups that came here to live and to make better lives for themselves and for their families. Because I am Franco-American, my mind naturally turns to this ethnic group, so large (30 to 40 percent of the population of New England) that it’s almost not a minority and has been in New England as long as or longer than the Anglo-Americans. However, there have been many other groups that have settled here: people of Irish descent, Italian descent, Portuguese descent, and African descent (to name just a few). Then, of course, there were the native people who were already here, and their history is part of the story of New England.

Truly, despite the dominance of the Anglo-Americans, New England is a tapestry of many ethnic groups. However, you would never get that impression from a traveling exhibition from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, which focuses almost exclusively on the history of Anglo-Americans in New England. That exhibition is Cherished Possessions: A New England Legacy, and it’s currently on view at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine. In many ways, it is an astonishing show, beautifully exhibited, with antiques that are in mint condition. There are plaques with maps, history, and commentary. There are glass cases full of objects large and small. There are clothes, furniture, china, jewelry, paintings, and photographs. Unfortunately, the quality of the show in no way makes up for the narrow point of view. There’s only brief mention given to the various ethnic groups and only a few pictures of Italian-Americans and Portuguese-Americans. African-Americans fare a little better but mostly in terms of issues of slavery. The lion’s share of the show is devoted to upper-class Anglo-Americans in New England, their possessions, their institutions, their way of life.

Now, it is certainly fine to have an exhibition with a narrow focus, as long as it makes it clear that this is the case. However, Cherished Possessions bills itself as “300 hundred years of New England History,” as though it is the complete story. There’s even a quotation—“almost without exception…derived from one country and a single stock”—that is painted in huge letters across one of the walls of the museum. My Franco-American forebears would certainly disagree with that last statement, and I’m afraid I must take exception to it as well. In fact, Cherished Possessions is 300 hundred years of Anglo-American New England history, and an honest exhibition would have labeled it as such.

What is particularly distressing about this show is that it is a traveling exhibition, which presumably means it will be making the rounds to various museums throughout the United States. In all likelihood, people in New England will realize that Cherished Possessions is an incomplete history. However, will people in Indiana or New Mexico or wherever this exhibition goes know that the history of New England is more than the history of Anglo-Americans? Will they know that other ethnic groups in New England also had cherished possessions? Will they know that there are indeed many photographs documenting the history of these groups?

I certainly hope so. And I can also hope that the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities will either broaden its outlook or take more care with how it labels its exhibitions and presents the history of New England.

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