#16 - Importance of the history of History

 Historiography, the study of history writing. Or really, the history of History, as a discipline. 

I am not going to try to unpack what historiography is or how it developed. The important part is understanding that it is imperative to start a new research project by reading the old stuff... mindfully. This post is focused on the general picture of what historiography is and how it can help you read between the lines of history writings. Secondary sources written in the past - the 1880s, the 1760s, the 1980s, etc; they will all have a different flavour and emphasis. 19th century writers loved to use historical events to establish the unity and/or superiority of the True America. So, elevating the founders to the Founding Fathers, whilst ignoring the roles played by women, people of color, the lower classes, etc. Later on were a series of 'exoticisms,' interest in the Other in a sort of creepy, fetishistic way. You'll read about the mystical Chinese, or the savage Natives, etc. Then in the 1960s, the fashion was to write about under represented groups like women and people of color. And currently the common thread tends to be about connections, how one place or person interacted with or impacted something or someone else. Each period has good and bad writing, and many times good and bad exist in the same source. This is by no means a definitive description, nor is this post meant to discredit earlier writings. But it is important to understand what you're reading, who wrote it, what phase of history writing it is an example of, and why it was written before using the writing as a source.

For the Ryves Holt House, understanding historiography is important because if the house was originally from a Dutch settlement, it would have been overlooked by a lot of early scholars for its Un-English-ness; they would have focused on Lord Baltimore, the Duke of York, and William Penn instead. Think about the story of the original owner of the Ryves Holt house being a cup-bearer for William Penn and the erasure of the original Dutch names in the area. Also, since many of the original primary documents would have been Dutch in origin, the property deeds, letters, and so on could have been overlooked and then left to gather dust during the ensuing centuries. ...They could also be in Amsterdam as part of the New Netherland and the Dutch West India Company records. I am so not ready for that complication. Once historians moved to embrace the non-English history of much of the United States, the Dutch story started to be researched and written about. But it was in a very idealistic way. This is the origin of many of the tales of open/inclusive Dutch towns. Which, granted, has a grain of truth, but this is also where Zwannendael enters the story. Tales originating from this 'Dutch Revival' period should always be investigated to find the truth under the stuffing. Finally, as we approach contemporary history writings, we start to see more fact based history. The use of actual primary documents, archaeological finds, and architectural documentation to tell stories. Unfortunately, the fad has often been to research more common and easily accessible sites, leaving many in small towns to start to wither beyond saving. And they tend to be really inconsistent in the use of local folklore and oral histories.

So, historiography is important to think about, just like when we talked about how important it is to evaluate an author's background and motivations as a way to analyze the utility of their writings. All research and writing is a product of its time, and like permed hair, it doesn't always age well. In the case of the Ryves Holt House, it provides me with some hints about why and where some tales come from (Whorekill, Zwaanendael, the cup bearer), but it also can help explain why so little is available for the house. It would have been overshadowed earlier on by English cousins nearby and other more English settlements; a lot of its primary documents would be scattered (Amsterdam, England, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, etc); and until recently the RHH would have been passed over as unimportant. It isn't even part of HABS! This all might mean I've found a nice little mystery to solve. Stay tuned!

This week's post was inspired by a paper I found on Academia by Daniel London, written for a college course, I'd assume. It isn't something I'd use in my research, since it doesn't reference the RHH or give me any more information for my project. However, it did get me thinking about why I can't find as much information about the RHH and Lewes as I had originally assumed I would.