Preserving our past lets us know who we are

Spending time away from home, wherever the journey takes you, always serves a dual purpose: it allows you to recognize exactly what you miss most, while allowing you to make points of comparison. For instance, when I first moved to St. Louis, I constantly told friends what I missed about New Orleans – primarily family and the food. But I also noticed points that made St. Louis similar to New Orleans – both river cities with some of the same street names downtown – and unique in its own way.

This summer I spent some time in the United Kingdom, visiting London and Edinburgh. I had been to London before, and this trip was primarily about research for my dissertation. Nonetheless, I was still able to take in some of the sights. What has always amazed me about Europe is its history – it’s such an old world. And the cities remind you of that. In London, there are historical blue plaques announcing the name and years that a famous person lived there. My hotel, interestingly enough, was just down the street from 48 Doughty Street: one of the homes of Charles Dickens.

My only trip abroad had been to London, and while the architecture and the historical plaques and museums serve as reminders of its antiquity, the city itself remains very city-like and modern. The tube stations – while old – aren’t antique underground systems; they’re updated to work efficiently. It has the same shopping districts with similar stores. In my second visit, I noticed the modernity of the city. I suppose it no longer held the same fascination for me – until I remembered that there’s more to England than simply London.

Taking the train to Edinburgh, I watched as the landscape changed from modern to pastoral, from the picturesque to the sublime. Edinburgh is a city known for its views. The crags, the cliffs, the immense hills, the overlook onto the Firth of Forth.

From each direction, you’re reminded of the beauty and destructiveness of nature. They don’t believe in cliff railings over there, and – as it seemed to me – some people verge dangerously close to cliffs dropping off without warning.

In Edinburgh, nature and history take over to remind you that you’re in historical territory. Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace seemed – to my mind – visible from every direction. The majesty and splendor of Arthur’s Seat and the crags rise above the city, overshadowing it.

So, what am I driving at? I understand that the United States is a baby, compared to the legacy of Europe. But while the UK seems to preserve its history in its surroundings, it seems to me that here we tend to delegate certain areas of our city to history, rather than letting the beauty of the old surround us. New Orleans, I think, has certainly done a better job than most in its preservation of its history. We’re an old city, and we try to retain memories of it in our plantations, our historic homes, the French Quarter, the riverfront, etc.

If we can’t keep our history alive in our surroundings, how do we expect our history to survive? How do we preserve it?

I used to think that it was preserved through our re-tellings and learning it in school. Having taught students who couldn’t tell me the significance of the Vietnam War and the changes it brought to our country, who didn’t remember learning the mythology of the Greeks and Romans – and many similar examples – I no longer think this is the case.

History is important. It recalls our legacies, it recalls our mistakes, and it allows for us to continue moving forward. Perhaps we should begin thinking about the ways that we currently preserve that history, and look toward other – older – countries that have found means of doing so in a way that reminds its residents of its ancestral history while mixing in the contemporary.

Heather Bozant Witcher can be reached at [email protected].