The Growth of Amateur History in South Australia

382 Pages·2015·23.86 MB·English

by  Kerrie Round

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CELEBRATING THE PAST:
The Growth of Amateur History in South Australia
Kerrie Round
Thesis presented as requirement for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts,
University of Adelaide
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME I
lll
Declaration
lv
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Introduction 1
Chapter One
Parti: "ANation of Joiners" - The Birth of Amateur History in the United l0
States of America,1607 to 1920
Part IL "The 'First Fleet' ... was no Mayflower" - The Birth of Amateur 24
History in Australia, 1788 to 1920
Chapter Two
The Birth of Amateur History in south Australia, 1836 to 1920 50
Part I: "an outlying English p rovince" - Historical Consciousness to 1885 53
Part II: "A history worth enquiring into" - Historical Consciousness from 60
1885 to 1920
Chapter Three
part i: "the historical society is a vital part of our community and national life" 8l
- The Growth of Amateur History in the United States, 1921to 1945
Part II: "no one is responsible for his ancestors" - The Growth of Amateur 93
History in Australia, I92l to 1945
Chapter Four
"we ln South Australia were particularly fortunate in our ancestors" - The 118
Growth of Amateur History in South Australia' l92l to 1945
Chapter Five
lsl
part I: "as a nation we need today something to which we can anchor our faith"
- The Maturing of Amateur History in the United States, 1946 to 1974
part II: "we are seeking for gteater awareness of ourselves as Australians" 160
- The Maturing of Amateur History in Australia,1946Io 1974
Chapter Six
"a nåw pride and interest in our origins" - The Maturing of Amâteur History 197
in South Australia, 1946 to 1974
Chapter Seven
Why do people join historical societies? 2s9
Chapter Eight
297
Focus on South Australia
34s
Conclusion
356
Bibliography
I
VOLUME II
Appendix I 1
for historical societies and museum societies sent to organtsattons
Quèstiorlnaire
in the United States, Australia, and South Australia
II
Appendix
euåstionnaire sent to individual members of historical organisations in South t
Australia
fII
Appendix
Historical organisations surveyed in the United States of Amertca 7
Appendix IV
Historical organisations surveyed in Australia 11
Appendix V
Historical organisations surveyed in South Australia 13
Appendix VI
Printout of Data Sets
l9
l. Coding sheet - questionnaire sent to historical organisations
2l
Data set - questionnaire sent to historical organisations
Z. Coding sheet - questionnaire sent to members of historical organisations 56
in South Australia
Data set - questionnaire sent to members of historical organisations in 61
South Australia
llt
DECLARATION
This thesis contains no material that has been accepted for the award of any other
degree or diploma in any university, and to the best of my knowledge and belief it
contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due
reference is made in the text.
Should this thesis fulfil the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy I
consent to it being made available for photocopying and loan.
KERRIE ROUND
Department of History,
University of Adelaide, 1995
H
ABSTRACT
South Australians have formed numerous organisations to celebrate and preserve
the past. However, compared with residents of the other states of Australia and of the
United States, the other settler-society in the new world, they were late to form societies
to commemorate their history'
This thesis attempts to explain the reasons for the tardy development of historical
organisations and in South Australia through a comparison of developments with the
United States and the rest of Australia. Chapters one to six trace the growth of amateur
history in the United States, in the other Australian colonies/states, and in South Australia
over three periods - from settlement of each region untll 1920; from 1921 until 1945; and
from 1946 until 1974, the year the Historical Society of South Australia was founded.
While the maìn focus of the study is South Australia, for each time period the thesis looks
first at developments in the United States and then at the movement in the other
Australian states, highlighting similarities and differences in the commemoration of
history in both regions. It then details the growth of historical awareness in South
Australia. The study outlines where South Australians followed the models already in
place in the other two regions, and where they acted independently.
Chapters seven and eight analyse the current state of historical organisations in
the three regions, and explore possible reasons for the staggering growth of amateur
history in the last 30 years. Chapter Seven examines fesponses to a questionnaire sent to
ofhcials of historical organisations in the United States, the other Australian states, and
South Australia. The data elucidate the similarities and differences in the development of
amateur history between the three regions. In addition, they challenge the often
unsubstantiated claims proposed by commentators to explain the phenomenal growth in
historicat awareness among the general public. Chapter Eight focuses on South Australia
and reviews data obtaìned from a questionnaire sent to individual members of historical
organisations. The collected information provides a profile of membership of historical
groups in South Australia and again questions the reasons for the rise in amateur history'
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
At last I can formally put on record my thanks to the many people who have
helped me during the last four years. My two supervisors, Dr. A. Lynn Martin and Dr.
Peter Cahalan, have shown immeasurable patience and fortitude in reading lengthy drafts
of rny work. Peter suggested the topic and helped me to develop a thesis from a mass of
facts. He constantly challenged my concepts and directed me when I went astray. Lynn
gave advice on the overall form of the thesis, alerting me to new ways of formulating my
ideas. He also made it his personal ambition to improve my prose style. Both Lynn and
Peter have been supportive and encouraging. Mr. Brian Samuels of the History Trust of
South Australia was always willing to share his knowledge with me. I would not have
been able to complete rny research without the assistance of members of historical
organisations in the United States, Australia and particularly South Australia, and I thank
them for their help. Mr. Phil Leppard of the Department of Statistics advised me on the
preparation of the questionnaires and assisted in transferring the data on to a computer
data set. My husband, David, showed endless patience in guiding me through the
mysteries of Excel. He has also supported me financially and emotionally through my
time at university. The support given to me by the successive heads and members of staff
of the Department of History has been invaluable. Finally, I have thoroughly enjoyed my
time as a postgraduate student and will miss the companionship of my fellow research
students.
CELEBRATING THE PAST:
The Growth of Amateur History in South Australia
VOLUME I
INTRODUCTION
South Australians proudly celeb¡ate the early settlement of their state and have
formed numerous organisations to accomplish this. The Historical Society of South
Australid concentrates on the history of the whole state while other societies research and
record the history of their own local area. Many of these societies also operate museums
that preserve artefacts relating to the history of their district. Other societies have formed
solely to operate local historical museums. Thousands of South Australians belong to
genealogy and family history societies and delve into their own family backgrounds.
Members of all these organisations, and many other South Australians, have w¡itten
copious volumes detailing the local history of their regions or the background and
exploits of their families. Yet, compared with residents of the other states of Australia
and of the United States, the other settler-society in the new world, South Australians
were late to form societies dedicated to recording and commemorating their past. This
thesis attempts to explain the reasons for the tardy development of popular history in
South Australia through a comparison of developments in the three regions, namely the
United States, the rest of Australia, and South Australia. It also examines why, in each of
the regions, the number of history-based groups has mushroomed from the 1960s.
The discipline of history at the present time is divided into three broad levels. At
the top stands academic history, which trained scholars pursue in universities. Its
practitioners have interests in periods of history dating back to ancient times and in
multifarious aspects of society. Academic historians carry out research that is generally,
although not always, of interest only to their fellow academicians or to their students,
some of whom are potential academics. Although the number of historians employed in
universities has increased greatly since the Second World War, it would currently be less
than 1000 throughout Australia andthe number is declining. The next level of history is
professional history. Professional historians usually have some academic training and
make their living by writing commissioned histories of businesses or other institutions, or
by working in a history-related field outside the academy such as a museum. This branch
of history has developed only over the last 20 years, prompted by both a decline in
employment opportunities for historians in the academy and a growing interest in
¿
recording their past for posterity by local governments, businesses and other
organisations. The number of such historians is fewer than those employed in
universities. Academic and professional historians combined make up only a fraction of
those devoted to the third level of history, amateur history, whose practitioners number in
the tens ofthousands.
Most amateur historians have no academic training and receive no compensation
for their efforts. They eschew the grandiose visions of their trained colleagues and
generally concentrate on the minutiae of the past. Since they concentrate on a confined
area, usually the town or suburb in which they live, they are known as local or community
historians and, because they write for a general, non-academic audience, the history they
produce is often referred to as popular history. They show their interest in history in
various ways: by founding or joining historical societies that research the history of their
towns, by founding or joining museum committees that collect and display artefacts
relating to their towns; by founding or joining heritage goups that work to preserve old
buildings, monuments and open spaces; by founding or joining descendants or
genealogical groups that record and venerate the lives of ancestors, or by writing histories
of their towns. Academic and professional historians practise a craft. in which they were
trained and which is their bread and butter. But why ordinary people preserve the past or
form organisations to commemorate the history of their area is less clear.
Amateur history is the oldest method of recording history. From the earliest
civilisations some men (and initially they were nearly always men) chronicled events of
the past. In the nineteenth century, particularly in the United States of America, the
number of amateur historians increased. These historians, who came primarily from the
educated classes, began to unite together in societies to collect and preserve documents
and relics relating to the past, to commemorate the history of their own regions, and to
advocate the preservation of buildings connected with founders and gteat statesmen.
Other Americans formed genealogical or hereditary groups to memorialise their ancestors
and their deeds. Still others, sometimes but not always members of these groups,
researched the history of their own locality and published their efforts in sizes ranging
from small pamphlets to monstrous tomes.
J
Whereas Americans were proud of their founding, their revolutionary war heroes
and their democratic heritage, Australians had no illustrious past nor few propitious
events to celebrate, Yet from the beginning of the twentieth century Australians also
combined to commemorate the foundings of the various states and then local areas, to
lobby for the preservation of colonial buildings, and to form hereditary societies, and
individuals recorded and published histories of their towns, districts and families. The
only state that had beginnings that it could unreservedly celebrate, since it was founded
without convicts, was South Australia. But South Australians lagged behind those from
the other Australian states in forming societies to celebrate the past.
For many years in the United States researchers have written on the development,
growth and relevance of popular history. Many historical societies have published their
own histories as either articles in their journals or as separate books. In addition, several
books look at the development of a group of societies. These are Leslie Dunlap's
American Historical Societies 1790-1860 Q9a\; Walter Muir Whitehill's Independent
Historical Societies: An Enquiry into Their Research and Publication Functions and
Their Financial Future (1962); and Clifford L. Lord's Keepers of the Past (1965), which
contains biographies of the founders of some early historical societies. The American
Association for State and Local History has produced many publications that include an
outline of the growth of the movement. David Van Tassel, in Recording America's Past:
An Interpretation of the Development of Historical Studies in America 1607-1884 (1960),
studied the contribution local historians have made to the development of historical
studies in the United States. He analysed the early gtowth of historical societies in
frontier communities and the impetus for the writing of popular history. Wallace Evan
Davies' Patriotism on Parade: The Story of Veterans' and Hereditary Organizations in
America 1783-1900 (1955) examined the development of descendants' groups. In Keepers
of Our Past: Local Historicol W'riting in the United States, 1820s 1930s (1988) David
Russo looked at the writing of local history by amateur historians. Charles B. Hosmer Jr.
has written two hefty volumes on the development of the preservation movement in the
United States, Presence of the Past: A History of the Preservation Movement beþre
Williamsburg (1965) and Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the National