Philip White
While you’re hashing out ways to avert the fiscal crisis, please spare a thought for historians. Sure, we don’t have the power or influence of Wall Street or lobbying groups, but if you can’t figure out a way to fund the government soon, we’re going to suffer. How? Our beloved presidential libraries and other federally funded archives and historical sites could close indefinitely if you can’t compromise and come to an arrangement.
No, this won’t stop the world spinning, cause the moon to bleed red or set off mass hysteria, but for we humble few for whom the contents of dusty archival boxes are like treasure, it’s a real problem. We have publishing deadlines to meet, secrets to uncover, myths to debunk. So in the name of John Quincy Adams, please put aside partisan pettiness and pull our books, dissertations, and theses away from the raging waters below.
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As we stand on the other side of the fiscal cliff (or whatever metaphor we're using now) it seems clear that history organizations are under threat. Which is why this recent research on Federal support of museums is so disheartening:
http://peabodyslament.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/the-separation-of-museum-state/
T.H. Gray, Director-Curator
American Hysterical Society
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