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Exhibition Reviews
Edward T. Linenthal and Kym S. Rice
Contributing Editors
Introduction
The contributing editors encourage readers to suggest representations of history in American public culture that might be reviewed. In addition to continuing coverage of museum exhibitions, they are interested in covering living history projects, historical pageants and reenactments, memorials, historic preservation projects, and virtual museums. Please contact:
Kym S. Rice
Museum Studies Program
George Washington University
2035 F St., NW
Washington, DC 20052
<kym@gwu.edu>
We would like to thank the American Association for State and Local History for providing information on the work of its members.
"Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America." New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park W., New York, NY 10024.
Temporary exhibition, Sept. 10, 2004-Feb. 28, 2005. 5,000 sq. ft., James Basker, project director; Richard Brookhiser, chief historian; Ralph Appelbaum Associates, architects/designers.
Alexander Hamilton, American. By Richard Brookhiser. (New York: Free Press, 2004. 256 pp. Paper, $14.00, ISBN 0-7432-7201-3.)
Internet: exhibition virtual tour, timeline, document viewer, diary excerpts, and teaching resources <http://alexanderhamiltonexhibition.com> (Jan. 14, 2005).
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| You could tell something different was going on at the New-York Historical Society (NYHS). The classical facade of the block-long building was covered for the entire fall and winter of 2004–2005 with a massive ten-dollar bill—which currently has Alexander Hamilton on it (some conservatives would like to replace Hamilton with Ronald Reagan). It was a striking image. It was also disturbing, since it is money—and whether an institution has sold its integrity and its commitment to good history to a big donor—that was at the heart of the controversy that plagued the NYHS for much of the past year. |
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Full disclosure is usually a parenthetical remark. But since the engine behind "Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America" and the broader transformation of the NYHS was the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (GLI), more is required. The GLI has been one of the most visible forces in American history over the past decade, collecting early American documents, promoting the study and teaching of history, funding exhibitions, and supporting scholars. Some of the most eminent American historians are on the GLI's advisory board. The Organization of American Historians (OAH) is a beneficiary of the GLI's largess; many members, including me, have benefited from the GLI's generous grant programs, which provide support for research at a variety of New York institutions, including the NYHS. All members of the OAH were given free admission to the Hamilton show. I have the added connection of serving as the curator of one of the exhibitions canceled by the new leadership of the NYHS this past June. That show, a history of Times Square, marking its centennial, opened in December 2004 at the AXA Gallery in New York City. |
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