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A New Vision of Local History Narrative: Writing History in Cummington, Massachusetts Stephanie Pasternak University of Massachusetts Amherst

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A New Vision of Local History Narrative: Writing History in Cummington, Massachusetts Stephanie Pasternak University of Massachusetts Amherst University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 2009 A New Vision of Local History Narrative: Writing History in Cummington, Massachusetts Stephanie Pasternak University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses Pasternak, Stephanie, "A New Vision of Local History Narrative: Writing History in Cummington, Massachusetts" (2009). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 359. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/359 This thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A NEW VISION OF LOCAL HISTORY NARRATIVE: WRITING HISTORY IN CUMMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS A Thesis Presented by STEPHANIE PASTERNAK Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS September 2009 History © Copyright by Stephanie Pasternak 2009 All Rights Reserved A NEW VISION OF LOCAL HISTORY NARRATIVE: WRITING HISTORY IN CUMMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS A Thesis Presented by STEPHANIE PASTERNAK Approved as to style and content by: _________________________________________________ Marla R. Miller, Chair _________________________________________________ Joyce Avrech Berkman, Member _________________________________________________ Gertraud Gutzmann, Member ________________________________________, Audrey Altstadt, Department Chair Department of History DEDICATION To Tom, Willa and Larson ABSTRACT A NEW VISION OF LOCAL HISTORY NARRATIVE: WRITING HISTORY IN CUMMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS SEPTEMBER 2009 STEPHANIE PASTERNAK, B.A., AMHERST COLLEGE M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Marla R. Miller Scholars who have written about local history hold no consensus on the purpose, value, and even definition of local history narrative. This thesis seeks to move the discussion away from territorial definitions of the term local history narrative and provide a framework for thinking about the field. It argues for a broad interpretation of United States local history narrative and proposes the field of local history be integrated into the academic history curriculum. Drawing on a variety of local history scholarship, the thesis first delineates the development of local history writing from the early colonial narratives, through the nineteenth-century heyday of amateur history writing, across the complicated relationship between amateur and professional history during the twentieth century, to the current spectrum of writings that include those which defy the traditional distinction between amateur and professional history. Turning next to the reflective scholarship of local history, the essay discusses issues that arise in the practice of local history such as community pressure to censor work and the challenges of sharing authority. Finally, this thesis provides a working draft of public local history narrative in a chapter investigating a suffrage convention attended by Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe held in 1881 in Cummington, Massachusetts, a small remote hilltown in the foothills of the Berkshires. The narrative v traces the story of Henrietta Nahmer, a separated mother of two, who employed multiple tools when organizing for the cause of suffrage in a community that on the whole offered little support. Henrietta Nahmer’s story offers a case study of suffrage activity on the grass-roots level and invites questions of agency in the context of the organizational strategies of the suffrage leadership. Seeking to provide a history that engages a nonacademic local audience while exploring historical questions, this story of Henrietta Nahmer and the suffrage movement in Cummington demonstrates the challenges and opportunities of contemporary local history narrative. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................v! CHAPTERS 1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................1! 2. DEFINING LOCAL HISTORY ........................................................................................10! 3. THE PAST OF LOCAL HISTORY...................................................................................20! 4. LOCAL HISTORIANS AND THE PUBLIC: ISSUES IN THE PRACTICE OF LOCAL HISTORY......................................................59! 5. HENRIETTA S. NAHMER AND THE CUMMINGTON SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1881 .............................................................................83! BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................152! vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Rationale At the time I was entering the Public History program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst I was invited to write a series of essays on the local history of the town of Cummington, Massachusetts. Coincidentally and concurrently the University of Massachusetts graduate program in history began the process of establishing a narrative nonfiction track. In light of this, I decided to write some of my Cummington essays as a Master’s thesis. Thus the focus of the thesis became local history written narrative. Because the history department does not have a local history course or program, my advisor Marla Miller advised I undertake an independent study on local history in order to gain an understanding of the scholarship pertaining to the theory, history, and practice of writing local history narrative. The first chapters of this thesis introducing local history grew out of that independent study. While at first it seemed an introduction to writing local history would entail a straightforward summary of the limited existing literature on local history, it soon became clear that the scholars who wrote about local history (who as often as not did not specialize in local history) held no consensus on the purpose, value, and even definition of local history narrative. Some scholars considered local history to be narratives written by amateurs about their local communities; others appropriated the term to refer to highly academic narratives. In keeping with the few scholars who have tried to reconcile the two perspectives, this thesis seeks to move the discussion away from territorial definitions of the term local history and provide a framework for thinking about the field.1 Thus in Chapter Two I call for a broad definition of United States 1 For these different perspectives, see the following: Carol Kammen, On Doing Local History:Reflections on What Historians Do, Why, and What it Means (Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 2003); Robert 1 local history narrative and propose the field of local history be integrated into the academic history curriculum. In order to provide an overview of the current landscape of local history narrative, Chapter Three traces the development of local history writing from the early narratives in colonial Anglo-America through its maturation during the nineteenth-century heyday of amateur history writing. It continues across the complicated relationship between amateur and professional history during the twentieth century, to the current spectrum that includes writings that blur the distinctions between popular and academic, and amateur and professional. Because writing public local history requires that the historian work within the local community, Chapter Four considers issues raised in the small but growing reflective scholarship of local history practice. From pressure to censor content to questions of sharing authority with community members, local historians must navigate the complex terrain of writing history for and with the public. Finally, Chapter Five is a draft, by way of example, of writing local history narrative. Centering on a suffrage convention held in Cummington in 1881, the essay follows the life of one of its principal organizers, Cummington native Henrietta S. Nahmer, in an effort to unravel the circumstances that led to the blockbuster event in the small remote town. Written for the local community, the narrative seeks to balance the standards of academia with the requirements of engaging a local audience. In each chapter, this thesis illustrates the continued and varied intersections between academic and local history. Thus, as a whole, this paper provides a rationale for the general inclusion of the practice of writing local history narrative into the academic history curriculum. Dykstra and William Silag, “Doing Local History: Monographic Approaches to the Smaller Community,” American Quarterly 37 (1985), 411-425; Terry Barnhart, “Of Whole and Parts: Local History and the American Experience,” (accessed 2 August 2009), available from http://www.eiu.edu/~localite/journal/2000/Americanlocal.pdf. 2 Specifically, it is my hope that the writing of local history narrative can be incorporated jointly into the nonfiction narrative track and the public history program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. A Local History Project in Cummington As stated above, this thesis developed as part of a local history book project in the town of Cummington, Massachusetts. The following is the story behind that book project
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