On Friday afternoon, my group had a tour of the Pentagon. I was so thrilled to be enrolled in this 480 Public History seminar while touring the host site for our nation's Department of Defense--it allowed me to consider the tour on several levels that I wouldn't have thought of prior to the class.
*in the lobby--represents all branches of the military
First, I was surprised at how lax the security seemed--all we had to do was have two forms of identification, have someone check our bags (we were allowed bags?!), and walk through a metal detector. It was my understanding that our entire group had also had a background check prior to the tour day. We waited in a lobby with several military personnel sort of roaming about. In the lobby we were allowed to take photos, use the restrooom, eat, and purchase gifts from the giftshop--all things we would NOT be allowed to do on the tour.
*tourist attraction in the lobby. enough said.
The real fun started with the tour itself. We were escorted into a holding room with other groups. They gave us yellow security badges reading "escort needed" and then we were led into the the main part of the building by two petty officers from the navy. They explained that giving tours is a one year assignment given to low-ranking officers. One escorted at the front, the other at the back.
Here is where my thoughts on public history come in. I didn't realize that the Pentagon has memorials and displays (like a museum) throughout all of its five floors, outer and inner rings, etc. I got to thinking about why this would be necessary in an office building, especially such a high security one. I mean the "decorations" were nice, without them the halls would be so depressing--all white, everywhere! Also, I thought for practical purposes that these different displays could help one find their way around the building as it is HUGE and the only identifying factors are huge numbers on the outside of every room. They explained that the numbers signify which floor, inner/outer ring, section, wing, room, (I think that is all?) and I was already confused!
So turning my public history brain on, I thought, 1) why have all of this great historical stuff in a building which has such high security? 2) why have it in an office where people trying to see it could distract daily business?
On the first point--It seemed that the things had been put there precisely for public consumption--they wanted to give people something to look at on their tour. It also seemed that for some of the items, they didn't know where else to put them, AND they wanted them to have the high security provided in the Pentagon. They had one of the 5 original pens used to sign the treaty ending WWII--the other 4 reside at Pearl Harbor--each valued at 1.6 million dollars. They also had all of General MacArthur's decorations in a wing dedicated entirely to him. But they also had famous paintings that didn't seem to have anything to do with the Pentagon/defense/military specifically. For example, they had several of John Trumbull's paintings...you probably recognize the one below. I learned interesting facts about these, including that Trumbull paints himself into the photos. The one you see is replicated in the Pentagon--the original appears in the Capitol's Rotunda.
*Trumbull always locates himself fourth from the edge of the painting looking in the opposite direction--do you see him?
*Also, Thomas Jefferson paid Trumbull to look better than John Adams in this photo--notice the differences?
My favorite part of the tour was when they took us to the place where the plane hit the building on 9/11--they had built a memorial chapel there. The reason for this piece of public history/memorabilia/heritage was clear--mourning, grieving, remembering, respect. The windows from the chapel overlook the outdoor memorial. I don't know how to describe how moving this experience was...
But now to my second point--aren't all of these visitors distracting to the literally life and death work done in the Pentagon? Kyvig's book: Nearby History brings up this very point--that preserving history can be distracting when those buildings are still in use. Our tour guides were shouting, and we were stared at by almost everyone walking by. Also, aren't we a security issue? I would never even think of wandering the Pentagon for fear of becoming lost, but I wouldn't put it past some...
Overall, I would say that because of the nature of our political regime--liberal democracy--the people expect our government to provide us with opportunities to see all that goes on inside of it. I think we are only willing to give up our access to this history/heritage when we feel in danger--like when the WhiteHouse was closed to tourists after 9/11...but at what point are we given too much access? and at what point does the government cater to much to what the people want? I loved my tour of the Pentagon, but was it necessary?
No comments:
Post a Comment