Museum of the Confederacy

[Dignann]

Museum Of The Confederacy

Museum officials seek new site in Richmond, but the White House won't move

BY JANET CAGGIANO

Richmond Times-Dispatch
October 17, 2006

The Museum of the Confederacy, struggling to survive beside Virginia Commonwealth University's sprawling medical campus, has decided to move its collection.

"If we stay, we die," said Waite Rawls, the museum's executive director.

The White House of the Confederacy, however, will remain open at 12th and East Clay streets, where it has stood since 1818. Officials had considered relocating the National Historic Landmark, which was home to Confederate President Jefferson Davis during the Civil War. "The White House is a public trust," Rawls said. "And the public doesn't want it moved. Everyone agrees it shouldn't be moved."

He hopes the museum will be in its new home by 2011, the beginning of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War. If officials can't find a new site in Richmond, they will consider moving outside the area, Rawls said.

"The top priority is keeping the collection together," he said. "A lot of work remains in front of us."

Rawls and his staff are considering a number of sites, including the area around the Boulevard and West Broad Street.

Rawls' announcement, to be made public today, comes eight months after a peer review committee began analyzing the institution's future. The group, made up of historians and preservationists, is expected to release its final report this week, but a draft is to be made available online this morning at www.moc.org.

In addition to relocating the museum collection, the panel is recommending to Rawls and his staff that they form stronger partnerships with other cultural institutions and concentrate on educational opportunities.

"They have to make some strategic calls," said H. Nicholas Muller III, former director of the Wisconsin State Historical Society and leader of the peer review. "The bottom line is, unless there is a substantial infusion of new funding, business can not go on as usual."

The Museum and White House of the Confederacy, which maintains the world's most comprehensive collections of Confederate artifacts, manuscripts and photographs, has been losing visitors and income for years as the continued development of VCU has nearly swallowed its small campus. Since the early 1990s, annual visitation has dropped from 92,000 to about 51,500. The museum's deficit is expected to reach $700,000 this year.

In response to its financial woes, the institution cut its operating hours last month. The museum is now closed on Wednesdays from Labor Day to Memorial Day, and the White House will be closed for public tours in January and February.

"They have grappled heroically with the whole issue," said Conover Hunt, executive director of Historic Richmond Foundation. "It's not a win-win situation. It's wrenching to separate an institution from its main artifact [the White House]. But they have weighed all the factors in the proper manner

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191191042

Eric

[Beaner]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

Unbelieveable!!! A Southern Institution forcing a Soutern Institution to move. I'm personally tired of the politically correct. Does anyone realize what a national treasure the museum is?

Sam Billingsley 4th texas Co. E

[dusty27]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

Sam, call me naive, but what does this situation have to do with "political correctness"?

The article implies that the museum is moving because it is being pushed out by the VCU construction. Do you know something that the article isn't saying about the situation?

[Beaner]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

I have been to the Museum within the last year. When we took the tour we were told that the university was the original steward of the museum and the White House. It appears that expansion and profits has left them behind. There isn't a lot of political support for the Museum so the expansion is being allowed to progress. The Hospital has completely surrounded the Museum and White House.

Sam Billingsley
4th Texas Co. E

[dusty27]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

Agreed, but to paint this as "politically correct" is a stretch, IMO. VCU is a business and it can make more money elsewhere.

While I don't like the idea of the museum having to move, I prefer this situation more than the alternative, which was to possibly move the White House!

Hopefully, there can be a partnership developed as stated in the article and the collection can be housed and protected in a facility worthy of such a collection. Maybe attendance will grow if one can get there easily?

I hope so.

[ley74]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

Dusty:

You are dead on correct. Moving the House should not have been on the table from the beginning. Time was wasted, yes wasted, getting to this point.

The collection is expansive and the real mission to to make sure it is accessable to the future generations. This has absolutely nothing to do with political correctness. It has everything to do with historical preservation. Land is important but, the contents of this institution could probably purchase three or four Slaughter Pen Farms (if that were even a possibility). It has everything to do with history, not my history or your history, our history.

The Board now needs to get their collective act together, develop a strategic plan and get to work. The Board of Trustees needs to make personal committments to contribute dollars, real dollars. They need to make committments to raise dollars, real dollars, the old fashion way.

We, the preservation community, need to support a well thought out plan and put this political correctness nonsense head first into the river, where it belongs. This Museum is as meaningful to: Union decendants as Confederate decendants, American historians as historians of world history and to black historians as white. It is all about preserving history.

There are many to blame for the circumstances. Richmond Magazine published a fine and fair-handed article in this month's edition. Enough. It is all about the collection.

Thanks to folks like Dusty, the CWPT, CVBT, much has been done. Let's hope this bunch has it in them to move ahead, forge the necessary relationships with VCU and VCU-MC and make the collection more accessable than ever.

[65thgainf]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

If the intent is to generate more funds. They need to consider a proximity close to a major highway, airport or tourist location. I went to Richmond, about 6 years ago on business. I was lucky enough to visit the MOC. I would love to go through it again. But, it is just too far for me. Unless I happened to be in the area. Like they say in real estate, "location, location, location"

Jerry Holmes

[Wounded_Zouave]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

If the intent is to generate more funds. They need to consider a proximity close to a major highway, airport or tourist location....

But I-95 is a major highway. Indeed, it is the major North-South interstate of the East Coast. It runs over, under and through downtown Richmond and is within spitting distance of MotC. And Richmond International Airport is only eight miles away from downtown.

The problem isn't location. The problem is a lack of information. Both MotC and RNBP get short shrift on the I-95 highway signs. If you are coming South on I-95 you will hardly notice the iddy-biddy exit signs for MotC, , Maggie Walker Home, RNBP's Tredegar Civil War Visitors Center, RNBP Civil War Medical Musuem or hardly anything else of historical tourist value in the city. And coming North on I-95 I don't even think there are signs on I-95 for these destinations at all... at least I've never noticed them. The location is perfect. It's the lack of advertising. If the casual visitor don't know it's there, they ain't gonna visit.

-Cyrus Simmons

[65thgainf]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

I don't think you can pull a casual visitor to it. Sure, people like us that love it will visit. But, not others, unless it is beside another place they are visiting. Like Colonial Williamsburg, or similar major tourist attraction. I just don't think the common people will take off I-95 and go downtown to visit it.

I'm a huge WW2 aviation buff. One of the top 3 aviation museums in the U.S. is in Warner Robbins,GA. Just below Macon, GA. I travelled to FL. almost every year of my life. I saw the billboards for the museum. But I never stopped, until about 2 years ago. I knew it was there. I just didn't want to get off the interstate to go there. Just my .02 cents.

[Busterbuttonboy]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

Not to further belabor Eric's post my concerns were these:

Would not either one building and its contents be under further pressure in the not to distant future while richmond continues to grow? More or less are we splitting up a marketable block, into to smaller physically less defendable positions? I will not ask to further discuss the marketability issues or concerns here, only i feel the two objects are a block supporting each other.

Reguardless i would further encourage everyone who is not a current member to consider joining to at least show our continued support of them reguardless of our personal opinions. http://www.moc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=md_mem_main
Most Respectfully
Drew Gruber

[Wounded_Zouave]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

I don't think you can pull a casual visitor to it. Sure, people like us that love it will visit. But, not others, unless it is beside another place they are visiting. Like Colonial Williamsburg, or similar major tourist attraction. I just don't think the common people will take off I-95 and go downtown to visit it.

There are LOTS of non-Civil War attractions in the Richmond area that pull in "casual" visitors:

* Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
* Richmond Riverfront
* Agecroft Hall
* Edgar Allen Poe Museum
* Stony Point Fashion Park & Regency Square
* Meadow Farm Museum
* Richmond International Raceway (NASCAR)
* Virginia Holocaust Museum
* Metro Richmond Zoo

Although we sometimes like to think that CW history only interests us Civil War "buffs", are we forgetting that our esoteric interest is not so esoteric after all? If it was, then how can we account for the huge "common" fan base of such "mainstream" properties like "Gone With The Wind" or Ken Burn's "The Civil War?" Are all those tourists streaming into Gettysburg every summer just Civil War "buffs." No. The vast majority are ordinary people who know next to nothing about history. Gettysburg is like Valley Forge; gotta take the kids there because that's what people do. Richmond could be like that, but it doesn't know how to market itself. Which is why I still contend that MotCs problem is not location, but rather information (or lack thereof).

Perhaps the root of the problem is that the Richmond tourist industry doesn't know how to market history. To the politicians, Richmond's Civil War past is an embarrassment. To civil rights activists it is racist. To neo-Confederates it is mythological. To developers it is an obstruction. To the avaerage visitor it is confusing, but that's why MotC, RNBP, etc. exist in the first place, to educate and, to some extent, entertain. And the best way to do that is to advertise. The inadequate signage on I-95 just don't cut it. If MotC moves to a more rural location, even if it sits next to a major interstate it will still face the same problem of lack of visitation if they don't pull their brain housing groups out of their solid waist disposal units and market themselves properly.


Had I any influence at all, I'd try an experiment. Place a billboard for MotC on I-95 with a huge battleflag and the words:

CONTROVERSIAL
Museum of the Confederacy.
Next Exit.

MotC needs to stop being so sedate in their advertising and started exploiting the obvious.

- Cyrus Simmons

[styler]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

It's water under the bridge but don't zoning laws apply to VCU? What about impact statements? Who paid for the garages and wings? Sounds like the Commonwealth and the City of Richmond hold no little responsibility for allowing VCU to build the hospital up around the Jeff Davis's office, not that I expect any nostrum culpum.

[Gary of CA]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

The new location of the MoC doesn't have to be off I-95. The folks who will visit the MoC or Richmond National Battlefield Park are those of us who are interested in history. If it's there, we'll visit it. Rather, a concern over parking arises and the MoC needs to move where there is good parking and easy access. Ideally, the MoC would be located near some other significant Civil War site like Tredegar Iron Works, some site atop of Capitol Hill (within walking distance to the Executive Mansion), Virginia Historical Society, Belle Isle (better the Moc than condos) if it is built high enough so as not to worry about the James River flooding or even Church Hill where Chimborazo is.

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

Mr. Simmons has some excellent points. What is tourism like in Richmond? What's working? What isn't? Who is going to see the tourist sites? Why aren't others?

Tourism is just down and it's something we must accept. It just didn't start last year with high fuel costs (summer and winter). Visitation at Richmond National Battlefield in 2003 was 98,825 and 85,116 (-13,709, see: http://www.nps.gov/rich/parkmgmt/statistics.htm).

Visitation is down at other sites such as Monticello's 2005 year with 450,112, down 8,464 from the previous year. (see: http://www.monticello.org/press/news...pring/news.pdf)

What can pull some people back in?

First, beyond the community of us Civil War types, who knows about the Museum and White House of the Confederacy? Likely few. Somehow they have got to publicize who they are, what they do, why they do it, and why should your average Joe Blow visitor care? Several forum members and myself went to an excellent lecture on Confederate Emancipation. But unless you go to www.moc.org regularly or you are a member then you missed a great FREE lecture. It may have been in the Richmond Times-Dispatch but I cannot speak on that.

Secondly, we must face the facts...in attempting to get Richmonders to go to the Museum there will be somewhat little hope. Richmond's 2000 census returns read that blacks made up 57.2 percent of the population and whites 38.3 percent. 17.1% of families and 21.4% of the population were below the poverty line. What do these things mean and why should you care? Poverty striken people are not going to the MoC as there are more important things going on in their world. It is also important that there are many who lived through the Civil Rights era and while we think of the Confederate flag primarily as a symbol of a country and a war, others think of it as a racial war of the mid-20th century. One in which they were spat upon, glared at, barred from educational facilities (and when present were subpar), and generally singled out as bad. Richmond in particular was a hot bed of activity during this period and much of the press (televised and published) was that black protests were unruly and disruptive, now these people and their children and perhaps even their children must deal with how will they view the South in the 21st century.

And personally, this is where I think the Museum could be somewhat of a healing center without divulging much from their purpose. John Coski's book on the Confederate flag could be easily transformed into an exhibit that would be a wonderful tracking of the varied uses of the flags associated with the wartime South and considerable information could explore contemporaries' (of the period, the 20th, and 21st centuries) thoughts on the object. Is it their job to cater to bitter people? No, but they also aren't getting the visitation of Richmonders.

Perhaps a relaunch of Before Freedom Came but using the research that was there and that has been GAINED since the late 1980s to offer a new interpretation of the nearly 4 million enslaved and also the free black population.

It would not hurt to better interpret the lives of enslaved people that were hired or owned by the Davis family while they lived in Richmond. I know that will mean challenging "faithful slave" theory, but they start their White House tours in the basement, a space that was set afire by a hired slave in January 1864 but in my numerous visits there, not once have I heard anyone mention this.

As to their moving the museum, I'm not sure what their best location would be and hopefully they will actively seek a place best suited to their needs. Sadly, locating the museum beside the Virginia Historical Society is really not an option. The area is largely residential with a few churches and the Virginia Historical Society and Department of Historic Resources. VHS/DHR have a parking lot (thankfully) but otherwise there would be no place for visitors to park than on the street and risk being towed or being privately cursed by some private property owner who can't park in front of their house (which they have the right to). Moving too far away would promote a longer trip to the White House (assuming in the first place they are going to ferry people there) and yet moving down the street may be too close.

I look on with hope that some resolution will come to promote something new (or revived) in exhibits and that they find a location suitable for it.

[Tucker49th]

Re: Museum of the Confederacy is Moving

For those who have not seen the construction I thought I would add a photo I took the other day on I95.The MOC is just on the other side of the buildings with the crane .

Nick Medwid