2.  Mid to late twentieth century ? Emerging Identities

By the late 1970s, three impetuses influenced the emergence of interest in ethnic heritage and contributions to the United States.  First, the children and grandchildren of immigrants now secure in their identity as Americans experienced a renewed interest in their heritage.  They sought to identify and revitalize some of the heritage their parents, grand and great grandparents had brought to this country.  As Dorothy Weyer Creigh wrote, ?This generation ? discovered ethnic culture.?(Creigh, 1978: 108 n.p.)  Second, at this time, the United States was preparing to celebrate its Bicentennial.  Immigrant groups wanted their contributions to the nation to be recognized.  Exhibitions that led to the permanent establishment of museums were thought as a way to achieve that goal over a long term.  Finally, among some groups, especially African-American and Native American, strong political movements demanding parity emerged.

Museum associations and public funding agencies were aware of this resurgence of interest and sought to financially support quality projects.  The former produced a number of publications to assist historical societies in incorporating ethnic materials into their exhibits.  In 1978, The American Association of State and Local History published two Technical Leaflets providing historical societies guidelines for researching local ethnic groups and for developing activities incorporating these groups.[2]  The latter made available grants which funded folk art documentation projects and ethnic history-oriented exhibits. 

Institutions whose primary mission was to document and present to the public the cultural history of many American ethnic groups emerged from this movement The Balch Institute of Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia[3] exemplified a number of research and exhibiting institutions whose focus was exclusively the contributions of hyphenated Americans to the society at large.  From their documentation projected in ethnic groups in Philadelphia, the staff of the Balch produced a number of exhibits and publications. 

Some emphasis was also placed on African American, Jewish American and Native American heritage and culture, in part because of the response coming from these communities in general.  Again, through the leadership of the American Association of State and Local History, several technical leaflets focused on these particular groups.  In 1981, one such leaflet addressed the issue of establishing tribal museums, ?a relatively new concept which developed out of a necessity of the times? (Horse Capture, 1981: n. p.).  According the George F. Horse Capture, ?Traditionally Indian groups had no need of museums because the culture was self-perpetuating ? they lived with their material culture and preserved knowledge of it by the oral tradition? (ibid).  These three specific cultural or ethnic groups after great efforts created distinct professional organizations to serve museum professionals in ethnically oriented museums.

[2]See attached bibliography for a sampling of these publications.

[3]The Balch Institute of Ethnic Studies merged with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 2002.