Reading Response: Independence Hall

Charlene Mires’ Independence Hall in American Memory tells a holistic history of Independence Hall. Mires stated, “If we organize history around buildings, the past we perceive may be limited by the boundaries that we establish.” (Mires, 55) The current historical interpretation of Independence Hall is specific to the American Revolution and Revolutionary ideology represented in documents such as the Declaration of Independence. Mires argues that Independence Hall’s whole history has shaped out memory of it and determined the things that we have forgotten.

The first third of the book was a little slow for me. Mires uses a lot of space pointing out ironies and contradictions between the popular vision of American Revolutionary ideals and the history. As a reader, I do not react well to an author telling me that something is surprising when the surprise is based on an assumption that I only believe in the most simplified, glorious version of the American Revolution. I would rather the author just tell me the history and let my surprise come naturally. Thankfully, Mires did this once she got beyond the revolution and delved more into the memory and interpretation of Independence Hall. Mires told this part of the story in such a way as to place the current popular interpretation of Independence Hall within context. Studying memory, it may have been easier and more natural for Mires to write the story after the Revolution, the prime focus of memory around the site, than to write about the earlier history.

One of the most effective aspects Mires’ story begins with Chapter 4, “Shrine: Slavery, Nativism, and the Forgotten History of the Nineteenth Century.” In this chapter, Mires begins the story of how Philadelphians used Independence Hall (and later mostly the liberty bell) as a place to support their personal view of freedom and liberty. The people that used Independence Hall included nationalists, labor workers, European immigrants, and African Americans. Late in the nineteenth century, after the centennial, the vision of Independence Hall became dominated by idealist interpretations of the Revolution and nation’s founding. This transition, that shows active changes in interpretations, adds the depth to the story that Mires set about to tell.

The other part of the book that caught my interest, and is relevant to our class project, is Mires’ account of the development of the museum at Independence Hall. Robert Tempest IV gave the Tempest Powder Horn to Independence Hall at this time. The background to the collection the Mires gives is very useful for putting Tempest IV’s gift in context.  

All in all, despite the rocky beginning, this book contains a lot of thought provoking history. For our upcoming visit to Independence Hall, the variety of activity that has gone into thinking about the meaning of this building since Lafayette’s visit in 1826 will put the current interpretation into a wider perspective.

Reading

Mires, Charlene. Independence Hall in American Memory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.