Greek Vandalism

Last week, a group of thieves looted the museum in Olympia, making off with over 60 historical artefacts. The thieves threatened a female employee, who refused to give them the artefacts, so they bound and gagged her after waving a gun in her face. There are literally no words to describe how I feel about this. I’ve visited the museum, and it has some incredible objects, all of which are priceless! Questions have been raised about museum security, as only a few weeks before the National Gallery in Athens was robbed of a Picasso painting The Mayor of Olympia has argued that there is a link between the economic crisis and the lack of security. (How about employing some of the 35% of young people who are currently out of work in Greece).

Museum officials are still unsure on what was taken. I really hope they find these horrible people and lock them up for a VERY long time, as well as the objects of course. These objects are literally irreplaceable, and it makes my blood boil when they are treated for their monetary value alone, which is presumably why they were stolen, instead of their incredible cultural significance. Bastards. 

WW1 letter uncovers soldier's heroism

A letter written in 1915 uncovers the hidden story of Captain Reggie Salomans’ heroism during the Gallipoli campaign. His ship, the HMS Hythe, tragically crashed into another Royal Naval vessel, and Salmomans died trying to save his men.

The author, one Major Alfred Ruston, an eyewitness, sent the letter to Salomans’ father detailing the heroic actions of his only son:

"At the beginning, the two vessels clung to each other for a few minutes and about 50 men and several officers scrambled across on to the other vessel…but though Captain Salomons was warned to get over also himself, he would not do so and I am sure that it was because he would see his beloved men off first."

Over 128 men died in the attack, all of whom were from Kent. Most of the men could not swim, and many did not have lifejackets. Captain Salomans gave his only lifejacket to one of his men.

A historian found the letter in a shop in Hastings, Sussex. The letter is going to be on display in a museum dedicated to the Salomans family, organised by Canterbury Christ Church University.

Mental note to self - must spend more time going to random antique shops.

Great War Centenary

http://greatwarphotos.com/

This is a great site about the Great War Centenary (2014-2018) – it’s got some incredible photographs just on the first page! I love looking at old photographs like this. Who were these men? What did they think of the war? Each other? Did they have families?

Although I’ve studied American history since school, I was really interested in the First World War in Year 9 after we briefly studied the conflict and visited the battlefields in France and Belgium. It was only for a weekend, but it remains one of the best trips I have ever done. It was really emotional to see row upon row of headstones, the scars of trenches on the landscape, and to hear the Last Post Service at Menin Gate, where every night, the names of soldiers who died in the war are read. I’d really like to go back, as the Great War still fascinates me.

I didn’t watch the recent television programme Birdsong, though I read the book many years ago. I did watch an interview with Eddie Reymayne, who played the lead character in the series, about his reaction to visiting the tunnels and trenches of France. In one particular tunnel, they came across a poem written by a soldier, etched in chalk:

“If in this place you are detained, Don’t look around you all in vain, But cast your net and you shall find, That every cloud is silver lined… Still.”

Frederick Douglass and the Evangelical Alliance

Continuing my research into Frederick Douglass’s life, 1846 was an incredible year for antislavery in Britain. Douglass, along with many Scottish abolitionists, had created a storm over the Free Church of Scotland and their decision to accept money from slaveholders (see an earlier post on this). This campaign was to have a huge effect on events in London in the summer of 1846…

Members of the Evangelist church across the globe convened in London to form a united organization – the Evangelical Alliance. However, the impact of the Free Church campaign and subsequent antislavery agitation divided the Alliance over the question of slavery and religion. A debate erupted between those in favour of excommunicating slaveholders from the Alliance, and those that were against it. Some men, like the Reverend J.H Hinton denounced the idea slaveholders should be invited, for the religious community could not afford “to prop and bolster up the system of American slavery.” He rebuked those who thought it pointless to debate slavery, stating, “The alliance is divided already.” In reply, an American Reverend S.L. Pomroy argued for a distinction between slavery and the individual – slavery was a sin, but a slaveholder could be a Christian, and it would be wrong to tar them with the same brush.

Frederick Douglass seized upon this indecision. Firstly, he pointed out that the Alliance did not invite Quakers, a religious group who had done much for the abolitionist cause. So why did they invite slaveholders? Secondly, he used the issue to target the American church itself, further exposing and ridiculing the relationship between slavery and Christianity. He argued that the Americans at the Alliance were under control of the churches:

“I do believe the Evangelical Alliance was hoodwinked, that they were misled; I do not think they really understood the matter...It was these reverend doctors [Americans] who led astray the British ministers in the Evangelical Alliance, on this question of slavery; they dared not go home to America as connected with the Alliance, if anything had been registered against slavery by that Alliance; they knew who were their masters, and that they must be uncompromising…” (Frederick Douglass, “Slavery in the Pulpit of the Evangelical Alliance”: An Address Delivered in London, England, September 14 1846)

Some were outraged at Douglass’s comments. A disgusted reader of the Fife Herald wrote:

“…although Mr Frederick should be detained a few years longer in bonds, this reflection ought to console him. That his exertions in the cultivation of coffee are vastly more calculated to benefit himself and his country than those nauseous speeches he is in the habit of addressing to those old women of both sexes, who conscientiously believe negro emancipation in our own colonies was the legitimate consequences of their own privations... It is the duty of all the friends of human freedom, ministers as well as others to unite in any well-concerted political movement which has for its object the abolition of slavery but to excommunicate the individual slave-holders would be on their part an act of persecution…”(Fife Herald, Thursday 14 May, 1846.)

Eventually, the decision was put to a committee, but little became of it. However, this important event highlights the divisive nature of American slavery, something that was not confined to the South. Britain needs to know about this history, as it is a crucial part of British and American transatlantic history.

While in partnership with other organizations across the world, the British Evangelical Alliance still exists today.

Digitisation is necessary

The Internet is a powerful and essential resource for historians in the modern world. Hundreds of museums and universities have used the Internet to display their collections, including objects or documents that would have been hidden away in storage. In the current climate, digitisation of such resources requires time, effort, and money, something that is not available or affordable for some museums. However, digitisation is necessary to ensure the survival of these collections. While it should not be used as a substitute for the real thing, digitising material and placing it on the Internet removes it from the archive and into the public eye. Furthermore, material from a past exhibit can be preserved on the Internet, for those who wish to see the particular object again or for those who did not see it in the first place. From my own experience as a student, the Internet has been an invaluable resource. I wrote my dissertation on African American women in domestic service during the American Progressive Era, a rather obscure topic, and it could not have been completed without access to digitised content from university libraries or museum collections. There were hundreds of primary sources, a chance to view objects displaying the “mammy” caricature from museums across the United States, as well as the ability to read slave narratives, articles by domestics themselves and even listen to a 1920’s jazz song about the hard life of a domestic. The content has the potential to reach across the globe. An audience for history often depends on its availability and accessibility. The Internet is crucial for this, and more than anything it brings history back to the majority. It can no longer be claimed history is purely about the elites. Letters, diaries, memoirs, all can be accessed within a click of a button. This illustrates that all history is public history.