A Matter of Memory
Tuesday, April 23, 2024,

In this lecture, based on a current exhibition at the Portsmouth Historical Society, Gerald W. R. Ward will explore some of how museum collections intersect with the broad concept of memory within the context of the long history of Portsmouth and the Seacoast. 

Museums, by definition, are repositories and preservers of the belongings that embody individual and community memory.  To a degree less examined, these same institutions, consciously and unconsciously, are thus also active participants in shaping the contours and trajectory of our understanding of history.  

What histories do we choose to examine and share, both as a museum and as a community? Whose stories do we establish, legitimize, and perpetuate through the things we save and display? Most significantly, how are our current views of the past evolving, as they become more inclusive on the one hand but are also threatened by “alternative facts” on the other? Can our collective memories bind us together or can our interpretation of history be manipulated to distort the past and keep us apart?  What do loaded terms such as heritage and legacy actually mean?  Museum collections of all kinds are important evidence in addressing and potentially answering such questions, a crucial role in this age of widely disseminated massive amounts of disinformation.