A Note from the Authors

Must History Look Old?

Dan Patterson and Clinton Terry

In this book we examine the profession of surveying in British colonial North America and the United States of America over the course of the eighteenth century, using period sources to the extent possible, combined with historical re-creation. We have made a concerted attempt to incorporate living history and public history into the type of interpretive history practiced by historians of the written word, whether those historians are academic or write out of an enthusiast’s devotion to the past. This book represents a joint effort between public history, historical reenactment, and photography that has taken nearly twenty years to come to fruition.

We combine photographic images of reenactors practicing what historical figures did in the past and tie that reenactment to analysis of the importance of surveying to the building of the American nation. In doing so, we use re-created images as primary source material, in the same way historians use written accounts of the past to help create historical interpretations. The use of such images may raise questions among historians. But we argue that images produced from scholarly research and with attention to historical detail serve as source material in the same way that secondary accounts of past events and trends serve historical interpretation. Using photographs of reenactors, in period settings and dress, using correct period equipment and techniques, we can show how work was done in the feld in the eighteenth century. If the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words'' has any validity, then the photographic narrative is at least equal to the textual description and interpretation.

We will not engage in a conversation over the validity of our choices here, but simply state what we have done and why. We hope to produce a history that holds up well to academic scrutiny while making the volume accessible to a general audience. We contend that with the availability of visual media today, the historian need not be confined to documentary evidence or the printed word to illuminate and interpret the past. Focusing narrowly on the profession and practice of surveying, we attempt to weave reenactment into the interpretive narrative.

In many respects, this work corresponds to increased interest in public history in university history programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level in the United States over the past several decades.The use of public history scholarship is still in its early youth, perhaps even infancy, in adding its voice to the interpretive narratives crafted by historical scholars. We expect and look forward to exciting new chapters using new ideas about sources. Challenges remain, however. Living history has not been universally accepted as part of historical representation by many historians. Tony Horwitz’s classic volume on Civil War reenactment, Confederates in the Attic, provides a humorous and honest account of his experiences participating in and associating with reenacting and reenactors, which both challenged and reinforced the idea that reenactors play at history.^[1]

The photographic essay, too, remains an important part of historiography. Jacob Riis demonstrated the power of the photography in his classic 1890 work, How the Other Half Lives, a stark depiction of what it meant to be faceless and nameless (at least at that time) in urban America. Few have revealed more than Riis did with his intense black-and-white images of human suffering.^[2]

Ken Burns’s body of video narratives has avoided the use of reenacting in favor of narrative and expert interpretation supported by images and documents. The tremendous success of Burns’s work has come to define the genre of what we will call the visual text of American history. Like so many, we find Burns’s work both entertaining and enlightening. Burns has been regularly criticized for what he emphasiz-es as well as for what he leaves out, but in all fairness, there is only so much that can be in-cluded in such a presentation. Of course, what is put in or left out reflects the author’s prefer-ence, if not prejudices, but in presenting general histories of complicated subjects, hard choices cannot be avoided.

The success of Burns’s work leads to the conclusion that historians should be open to reimagined sources as part of our study of the past. Here we argue that photographs of re-creations and reenactments done as well as possible can add to our understanding of the past, of how things were done. Images can, and should, be an inseparable part of the narrative. Indeed, the companion volume to the Civil War video narrative, The Civil War: An Illustrated History, does something similar to this effort, illustrated with period photography.^[3] With no period photography at our disposal, we have chosen to re-create historical images with twenty-first-century digital imaging technology, in full color, the details of which have been authenticated through historical research. Such re-creation, we contend, enhances the interpretive narrative, adding clarity and color, literally. It reminds us that history did in fact happen in real time and in real color for those experiencing it. Our contemporary photographs are supplemented by some historical illustrations and maps.

An important part of this project has been the collaboration with the reenacting organization known as the Department of the Geographer. Without their generous participation and cooperation, this project could not have been completed. The subjects of all the feld photography, both in military and civilian dress, are members of the Department of the Geographer. Beginning in 2004, reenactors formed the Department to re-create the “Geographers to the Army,” a technical staff department of mostly American soldiers, with a few French collaborators, whose work in the field supported the Continental Army in the American Revolution. Building on the work of Paul Walker, the historian of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, a small group began to research the activities, organization, and outfitting of the department. The Department of the Geographer formally organized in early 2005 and received acceptance by the Brigade of the American Revolution, the umbrella organization for reenacting units devoted to depicting the American Revolution, shortly thereafter. As the organization’s Unit Manual pledges, the members intend “to accurately portray a working interpretation of the Department during the period from 1777 to 1783 with the express goal of portraying the world of the Continental Army staff officer better than has been achieved to date.”^[4]

When actively engaged in reenacting, participants adhere to strict rules regarding attire, comportment, and military discipline. Again from the Department’s Unit Manual:

During duty hours, we follow proper military protocols and soldiers are expected to live a soldier’s life. Our clothing is typically hand finished and the materials all linen and wool, like what the men of the Continental Army would have worn. Our camp is functional, but not over furnished.The purpose is present a faithful representation of what life in the Continental Army was like to those who hope to learn from the events we attend, but also that we may have a deeper appreciation for the lives of the men we say we represent.^[5]

To the extent it is possible, Department reenactors live the life of American soldiers of the Revolution adhering to all aspects of the feld life of the American army from period dress to military discipline. The goal is to be observed as the Army might have lived in camp or on a campaign during the war. The Department uses the Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States of 1779 as its guide for determining proper protocol. Likewise, period sources determine surveying protocol and procedure.^[6]

With that in mind, part of what we want to accomplish with this project is to bring living history, or reenacting, into the mix of available sources for historical scholarship. Living history has much to teach us about how historical figures lived and acted. Of course, not all living historians practice the rigor required of sound historical scholarship. But many do. In working with the Department of the Geographer we have seen a group dedicated to accuracy above anything else. Precision instruments are often from the period or reproductions carefully crafted according to manufacturing techniques in use at the time. As one of the members reminded us, eighteenth-century surveyors often used new equipment and some of that equipment was made, repaired, modified, or adapted in the feld. Likewise, the clothing worn is period correct for the person wearing it. Most often it is made of period correct cloth and in many cases hand-stitched since the sewing machine had yet to be invented.

When possible, we have used source material on surveying from the eighteenth century that would have been available to practitioners of the period, although many surveyors would not have had access to them.We rely on more recent scholarship to supplement period sources when our narrative extends past the eighteenth century or when a topic has been addressed elsewhere in more detail. The result, we hope, is that the photographs and illustrations will show what surveyors accomplished and how they accomplished it. Our interpretations will fll out the picture of surveying as the basis for our system of recording property ownership that continues to serve the United States even today. Surveyors did not work outside the social, political, and economic considerations of the time. We hope to make some of those connections between work in the feld and deliberations in the various seats of power.

As always, nothing in history had to happen the way it did. Tere were always other options available.The actions of historical actors often set precedents that became accepted practice going forward. We should also note that common practice at any given time gave way to significantly different practice as time moved on. We have tried to be mindful of that, documenting what was done by the practitioners of the craft in the eighteenth century. Simply this book reveals, through research and image, what was practiced by these historical actors and the effect their actions had on history.