Summary
That review began before the current economic collapse, says Steven Miller, who heads the PHMCs Bureau of Historic Sites and Museums. "Even then, our allocations were very limited," he says, and bureau staff began assessing which facilities were financially sustainable. But the work took on new urgency when the state's budget crisis hit this spring. Released in February and titled "Planning Our Future," the PHMC's report was supposed to be followed by community discussions. But suddenly, Miller says, "We needed to take action" and prepare for massive cuts.
[Jamie Pennisi] says "it's tough to find French and Indian War artifacts," so the museum features a lot of wall-text instead. It's "focused on the scholarly approach," Pennisi says, and "the visitor with kids in a stroller isn't going to read all that." [Andy Masich], he says, has a strong background in "giving people reasons to come back, which is something scholars can forget."Such experiences naturally appeal to [Roger Kirwin], whose re-created colonial-era site features interpreters like [Mike Homza] against a historic backdrop that is "like being on a movie set." And he says Pittsburgh still lacks a sense of its historic bearings. During last year's 250th anniversary celebrations, he says, "the fireworks displays were well attended," but more serious events drew little interest. "I think people didn't just quite understand what it was about." The way forward, he says, is not through virtual experiences, but in letting visitors "lay their hands on a log hewn 250 years ago, so they can still feel the axe marks."See the full content of this document
Extract
Last Stand?
HISTORY, WE ALL KNOW, is written by the winners. So it's little wonder that in 2008, Pittsburgh celebrated the 250* anniversary of the British seizing control of the Point. True, the French had already abandoned Fort Duquesne, their installation there. As George Washington told his superiors, "The enemy, after letting us get within a day's march of the place, burned the fort, and ran away by the light of it, at night." Washington attributed the victory to "the weakness of the enemy, want of provisions, and the defection of their Indians."
Still, the British conquest ensured that Pittsbuighers would fbrevermore be speaking English (sort of). The British built their own fon, from which Pittsburgh took shelter and its very name.But consider the events of 1758 from the French side. For years, they'd thwarted British attacks with the help of Indian allies. But in the end, the English were simply too numerous, had too many resources. And so the French had to give up.Donn Neal, who lives a musket ball's flight from the museum, in Gateway Center, has some idea how the French felt.A retired historian whose credentials in...See the full content of this document
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