The Stories We Tell: Marietta Museum of History

 This week I visited the Marietta Museum of History. During the visit, I had a chance to meet the Curator of Exhibits, Amy Reed, and get to see the current exhibits they have at the museum. She started off by telling our group how her job is to get history out into the community. This museum is one of the only museums in the county that focuses on our local Cobb County history and she feels that it is her job to inform the community and visitors about our history. The first exhibit we looked at was The Man with the Camera and it was my favorite part of the museum. Amy told us the story of how back in the 1940s-60s when civil rights were being fought for, people did not know necessarily what was going on “on the other side of the tracks.” What she meant by this is that Whites did not necessarily know what Blacks were doing because they were in separate communities. However, there was a man with a camera known as Mr. Burford, who took photos of the African American community and their lifestyle. What was impactful to me in this exhibit, as well as other members in the community when they saw the photos, is how similar life was between both Whites and Blacks. They were segregated at the time, but all still seemed to enjoy and partake in the same activities. What struck me the most about this exhibit is how many photos there were and how Amy laid out these photos into groups based on different parts of life, for example, events, weddings, etc. I imagine that it must have taken the museum and archive staff a lot of time to find people in the community with these photos, passed down by family members. The other parts of the museum focused on history of other parts of the community, particularly Native American culture, war times, and even women history. What struck me about the women’s exhibit was how it was constructed of just quilts that women in the community had made. What this tells about the history of women is how for a long time, individual history on women was just not written down. In fact, there are many women who just will not be remembered because of the patriarchal society they lived in. The only things they left behind were things they made- like quilts. Seeing this exhibit made an important statement to me and raised questions. First, it showed me that some history just simply is not documented. But on top of that, it also raises the question of why? Oftentimes, it would lead to the question of who documented this history? Who were the ones in that society who had the privileges of sharing their histories to document and which marginalized groups (example: women) did not get to have their stories told? Simply put, going to this museum, and seeing the history of the community, some parts with more artifacts and some parts without, made me realize that history is never quite fully understood. Sometimes we are lucky enough to find archives, for example Mr. Burford’s photographs and sometimes we do not. It also laid a stronger foundation for how I approach my Latinx project. I must remember when researching the history of the Latinx community that not every question may be answered and not every story has been told.

To read more about The Marietta Museum of History and their mission, click here







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