CHAPTER EIGHT:
New Uses for an Old Story
"We ought to make this Society a real power for
Americanization and I am doing all that I can to bring it to the
attention of the people," Dr. Burk wrote his wealthy neighbor E. B.
Cassatt in 1920. [1] To another contact,
Burk spoke of the importance of Valley Forge "with its history,
traditions and ideals in the development of the American citizen" and
his expectation that his museum could foster "the development of a truer
spirit of patriotism and devotion to the ideals of America." [2] In yet another letter, he referred to his
museum as a school, calling it "a school of history and patriotism for
the American people." [3] Dr. Burk was
among the first to suggest that there might be new uses for the old
Valley Forge story. Motivated by the nationalistic spirit of the 1920s
and 1930s, a time when loyalty to the state was considered vital to
America's interests, Burk echoed the voices of many other administrators
of museums and historic sites in proposing that these institutions could
be used to Americanize immigrants and their descendants, then sometimes
derogatorily referred to as "hyphenated Americans."
It was one more thing that put Burk at odds with the
park commission and other influential groups involved at Valley Forge.
These people had developed a proprietary attitude about the place, and
their actions reveal a kind of fear that such outsiders would somehow
harm Valley Forge. In 1926, Israel R. Pennypacker wrote:
Just as many Negroes, migrating to the North and
finding that their conduct has a wider latitude than in the South,
pattern their behavior after the lower class whites, so the recently
arrived Hebrews, Greeks and Italians outdo the older stock of Americans
in their lack of decent respect for the associations of Valley Forge.
The young orator of the 1878 celebration said, "Americans, take your
shoes from your feet, for the spot where you stand is holy ground!" But
that it is not holy ground to large groups of newly-made Americans may
be inferred from their disregard of warnings not to leave behind their
paper boxes, newspapers, stuffs for the garbage pail, and other such
evidences of their picnics. [4]
In 1928, the POS of A complained to the park
commission that a group of Italians was holding an annual picnic at the
park. Burk was on the commission at the time, and the minutes record his
statement that the Italians were there at his invitation. The minutes
also indicate that the suspicions of the other commissioners were not
allayed. They directed the superintendent to arrest any "disorderly
persons" at the next Italian picnic. [5]
That same year, the Italian Federation of the Sons and Daughters of
Columbus was grudgingly allowed to use the park, provided they abide by
the law. [6] In 1933, the request of
another Italian group was "granted after discussion, subject to inquiry
by the Superintendent as to the nature of this Society, and the
observance of the visitors of the rules of the park." [7] In 1934, the fact that a member of a Polish
women's alliance had placed a wreath at Washington's Headquarters was
remarkable enough to be recorded in the park commission minutes. [8]
Besides immigrants, Burk extended his Americanization
program to younger Americans. In 1926, a teacher wrote to him when she
discovered a form letter composed by Burk inviting youngsters to join
the "Valley Forge Legion" and form "camps" at their schools, Burk
described this organization as a junior branch of the Valley Forge
Historical Society and called it "America's Americanization Association."
The teacher objected to the group's badge of membership and its
requirement that members pledge their allegiance to it. Such emphasis on
uniforms and badges, she contended, had "an insidious and unconscious
effect upon our children in the direction of making war a glorious
thing." [9]
This teacher's pacifist attitude was shared by many
others as World War II loomed ahead in the late 1930s and Burk's
successor, Dr. John Hart, attempted to use the Washington Memorial to
further his own interpretive program, which was initially one of
promoting peace. He established a peace committee and hoped to associate
with other international peace organizations, such as that at
Westminster Abbey. [10] Hart's attitude
changed dramatically after Hitler's blitzkrieg and the occupation of
France by Germany. In 1941, he mounted a paper on the church bulletin
board enumerating the faults of Hitler, and when a parishioner objected
he publicly addressed his congregationdenouncing the Hitlerization
of Germany, which had "destroyed the home, breaking every sanctity and
tradition. Why do we wait?" he asked. "Why are we uncertain? Why does
America not enter the war?" [11]
Once America was at war, Hart used his position to
drum up support. Volunteer workers gathered at the chapel to knit and
sew garments for distribution by the American Red Cross. British
comedienne Gracie Fields was invited to the chapel, where she sang "The
Lord's Prayer," "Ave Maria," "God Bless America," and "There'll Always
Be an England." In 1943, Hart dedicated an honor roll of parish men and
women who had joined the armed forces. [12]
Unlike the first two rectors at the chapel, the park
commission did not consciously use Valley Forge as a soapbox before
America's entry into World War II and were anxious that no other outside
groups be permitted to do so. In 1939, a league of German war veterans
in the United States planned to convene in Philadelphia and asked for
permission to hold a memorial service at the Von Steuben statue at
Valley Forge. [13] The chairman of the
park commission wrote the governor suggesting that he talk to the state
department, saying, "We are loathe to permit a display of swastika
flags, under existing circumstances, the nazi salute, heils, etc." [14] The organization was informed that the
park commission would not even permit a furled German flag, and in the
end the German war vets simply drove around the park and conducted no
ceremonies of any kind. [15]
After America entered World War II, the park did join
the Washington Memorial in making material contributions to the war
effort. Reproduction cannon that had been cast in 1918 were donated to
the nation's scrap metal drive. The commissioners put some of the park's
acreage under cultivation but found that the state would not finance a
project to raise beef cattle. [16] The
park became a training ground for the 102nd Artillery Brigade, the 59th
Hospital Unit, and a group of cadets from Valley Forge Military Academy.
[17] The 601st Anti-Aircraft Corps of the
Coast Guard Auxiliary used the park's observation tower as a lookout.
[18] The park struggled along with a
reduced staff as employees resigned to enter the armed forces or
essential war industries. Those who remained dutifully purchased war
bonds and stamps. [19]
There was no question that the park's administration
supported the war effort, but at no time did those associated with the
park use Valley Forge to actively promulgate a point of view. Instead,
they cooperated in allowing the Valley Forge experience to be drawn on
as a source of inspiration for Americans in crisis. A Valley Forge
flagpole was formed from a red cedar that had stood near where the
Virginia troops had camped. It was presented to President Franklin
Roosevelt, together with a flag hand-sewn by the Betsy Ross Seamstresses
of Philadelphia. [20] The park commission
honored the request of an army private that some ivy from Washington's
Headquarters be sent to a cemetery in the Philippines so American
soldiers from the Philadelphia area who had died there could be honored
with a living link to Valley Forge. [21]
On Evacuation Day in 1944, a radio program
originating at Washington's Headquarters included an interview with
Sergeant Al Schmid, a Marine who had distinguished himself at
Guadalcanal, A script listed the questions Schmid would be asked and
suggested how he might want to frame his answers. The replies were to be
generally upbeat regarding military progress, but he was also to remind
Americans that the struggle was not over and encourage them to make
their own sacrifices by purchasing more war bonds. Dr. Hart connected
the interview with the Valley Forge experience when he spoke of how
Washington "gave unstintingly to the task of wresting independence from
tyrants, often suffering hardship and calumny." [22]
The huge number of visitors who trooped through
Washington's Headquarters around V.J. Day was evidence that Americans
found inspiration in the Valley Forge experience during World War II.
The park superintendent reported that on August 15 and 16, 1945, some
3,500 people visited this historic house. Around Labor Day the same
year, he recorded 8,700 visitors on a weekend when the site usually
accommodated around 1,100, [23] Valley
Forge continued its inspirational role after the war's end when the name
"Valley Forge" was given to a 27,000-ton aircraft carrier that went into
service in 1946. Park officials attended its commissioning at a ceremony
where Dr. Hart gave the invocation. Park commissioners also presented
the Navy with a Revolutionary cannonball and a piece of iron that had
been excavated from the forge site on Valley Creek so that this vessel
could have a constant symbolic link with Valley Forge. [24]
Dr. Hart was no doubt thinking that the Valley Forge
experience could inspire the whole world when he suggested in 1945 that
Valley Forge become the site of the new United Nations. In a letter to
London, he mentioned the architectural element at his own chapel called
the "Porch of the Allies," which he said had foreshadowed the current
trend toward peace and unity. Hart contended: "An invincible inspiration
awaits the United Nations on this ground. . . . Valley Forge is the
place for the Parliament of Man." [25]
Hart's suggestion was rejected when the Philadelphia area in general was
eliminated as being too close to Washington, D.C.
The end of World War II severed the tenuous alliance
the United States had enjoyed with the Soviet Union, and America entered
a period now known as the Cold War. The establishment of satellite
states in Eastern Europe by Joseph Stalin, Soviet Premier and General
Secretary of the Communist Party, pitted the Soviet Union against
America and her Western allies in imposing a system of values on postwar
Europe. Americans began to view Stalin as an aggressor bent on world
domination. Fears were heightened when the Soviet Union developed the
atom bomb in 1949, and many Americans came to believe that a vast,
unseen conspiracy threatened their freedom and way of life. Americans
grew even more fearful when the Soviets launched their satellite Sputnik
in 1957 and there were widespread feelings of panic during the Cuban
Missile Crisis in 1962, followed by a wave of national pride when the
Soviets backed away from a confrontation with the United States.
Because communism was regarded as a radical break
with the past, Americans increasingly glorified their own history during
the Cold War period. In his Mystic Chords of Memory, Michael
Kammen speaks of Americans in the Cold War era drawing on history to
teach democratic beliefs and thus enhance national security. [26] Aggressive programs to bring visitors to
places like Williamsburg, where they could appreciate the origins of
modern concepts such as self-government, individual liberty, and
opportunity, were established. [27] The
Cold War raised the question of whether Valley Forge park should also
play a more active teaching role, and whether those in charge of the
park should utilize the Valley Forge experience to foster patriotism and
combat the threat of communism. A 1951 park commission report read:
We are at another Valley Forge. . . . Today there
remains no doubt that the sinister forces of Communism are intent on
world domination either by psychological aggression or armed aggression
or both. Nor is there any doubt that the purpose of their psychological
aggression is to destroy Freedom by creating among free peoples
confusion, disunity and frustration so as to break their will to
resist.
The report mentioned the "educational value" of
Valley Forge, describing it as "one of the bestif not the
bestmeans at our disposal for neutralizing the insidious methods
of Communism in the psychological war it is waging on us." [28]
When the park hosted National Boy Scout Jamborees in
1950, 1957, and 1964, park commissioners probably believed they were
advancing such laudable goals. Groups of Boy Scouts had been camping in
the park on Washington's Birthday since 1913, and in 1950 officials of
the Boy Scouts of America requested the use of Valley Forge for the
first national jamboree to be held since 1937, when the approaching war
had limited such activities. Although this would constitute the largest
gathering ever held in Valley Forge up to that time, the park
commissioners welcomed the Boy Scouts, acknowledging in the commission
minutes their expectation that a stint at Valley Forge would be good for
the general development of American youth. [29]
Between June 30 and July 6, 1950, more than 47,000
Boy Scouts camped in the park, some directly on the sites of the
eighteenth-century brigade encampments from their home states. They
built "gateways" to serve as entrances to their sections, each one
symbolizing something about the boys' geographic regions, such as the
gateway replica of the Empire State Building built by Scouts from New
York, and the gateway replica of the Golden Gate Bridge, identifying a
California group. The boys attended classes on scouting skills and
mounted massive pageants. They cooked their meals over charcoal burners,
set up their own telephone system, post office, and bank, and dug holes
for underground sewers and water pipes. Their presence at Valley Forge
attracted an overwhelming number of sightseers and created
bumper-to-bumper traffic when visitors stopped to photograph Valley
Forge's second great encampment. [30]
John M. McCullough reported daily on the gathering
for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and his articles clearly
reiterated that the jamboree really served the national cause of
freedom, It was the largest youth gathering in the Western world to
date, and a "ringing challenge and rebuttal to the appeal of Communism
to world youth." [31] It was not to be
compared with a recent "sordid" Communist youth rally in Berlin,
McCullough claimed, The American boys had come together voluntarily, and
no one was making them goose-step. [32]
McCullough wrote: "American youth took up the challenge flung down in
Berlin by the rejuvenated panoply of East German youth at the behest of
their authoritarian mastersand hurled it back with a spectacle
that had even veteran newspapermen and State Police clearing suddenly
husky throats." [33] He was particularly
inspired by hearing thousands of Scouts pledge allegiance in unison, and
by the spectacle they made one evening when they each lit candles
honoring their freedom of worship and symbolizing enlightenment in a
dark and frightening world. [34]
The world became a little more frightening that very
week when North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel, an issue that
the jamboree's principal speakers, President Truman and General
Eisenhower, both addressed. McCullough wondered whether Truman would use
the occasion to make a policy speech, but his message was a cautious one
advocating fellowship and human brotherhood and building a world of good
neighbors. [35] Eisenhower damned the
invasion, to a roar of applause. Hinting at U.S. military intervention,
he asked, "How can we doubt eventual success if we meet these issues
firmly?" Yes, there would be a cost in the lives of young American men
just like those gathered before him, but the alternative was an
"enslaved world." [36]
Once the jamboree was over, each boy took home some
souvenirs: the candle he had lighted, a Valley Forge guidebook, and a
package of dogwood seeds. About half the boys also took home a case of
poison ivy. After the boys were gone, Pennsylvania's civil defense
organizers studied photographs of the jamboree taken from the air to
determine how well Valley Forge would serve as an evacuation area in
case of atomic attack by the Soviet Union.
When the Boy Scouts held another national jamboree in
Valley Forge in 1957, the intent was again to allow each boy to draw
inspiration from the setting and learn to appreciate his freedom. A map
issued to Scout leaders said: "It is the earnest desire of all jamboree
leaders that each boy should go home inspired and filled with a deep
appreciation of what this historic setting means to every American. Make
it live in the hearts of your boys." [37]
President Eisenhower, then in his second term, was
unable to attend, and Vice President Richard Nixon arrived to address
the boys. The Scouts cheered when the president of the Boy Scouts of
America accidently introduced Nixon as President of the United States
rather than Vice President. Nixon's theme was civil rights, not the Cold
War. He stressed equal dignity among Scouts regardless of color or
creed, and the importance of valuing an individual's achievements rather
than his background. [38]
The 1964 jamboree brought the Scouts back to Valley
Forge for a third and final time. The purpose was once again to show the
world a grassroots youth gathering in a free society. This time one of
the points of interest was a pageant with a history lesson where a
fictional Scout patrol took a trip through time, witnessing the Boston
Tea Party, Paul Revere's Ride, the battles of Bunker Hill and Trenton,
and finally the arrival in America of an ethnically diverse group in the
shadow of a 20-foot Statue of Liberty. [39]
By the mid-1960s, liberal intellectuals together with
certain members of Congress and the media were questioning the old Cold
War agenda, and the question at Valley Forge became whether the
inspiration to be gained there was worth the trouble of letting nearly
50,000 young men live in the park for a week. A reader wrote to the
question-and-answer column in the Valley Forge Historical Society's
journal, asking, "Is not a Jamboree a desecration of Valley Forge? Is
not the ground too sacred, historically, to be tramped upon by thousands
of careless youths?" [40] The park
commission also recognized that the jamborees essentially closed the
park to other visitors and created a "disturbance of turf" requiring
major rehabilitation projects to bring the park scene back to normal.
[41] Indeed, a study done in 1979 reported
that, more than any other postencampment park activity, the Boy Scout
jamborees had had the greatest impact on subsurface remains. The Scouts
had created their own remains which would have to be differentiated from
earlier artifacts in all subsequent research. In 1979, one test pit was
dug because a sensing device had been attracted by the presence of Boy
Scout tent pegs. Further research revealed that these particular young
men had pitched their tent directly on the fill of a genuine hut hole,
which might have been truly inspiring to them had they only known it.
[42] The Boy Scouts were invited in 1969
but chose to convene elsewhere. [43] And
in 1971, a directive from the park commission's parent organization made
it clear that Valley Forge was no longer considered appropriate for Boy
Scout jamborees. [44]
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