PROVENANCE As with fine art,
avoid stolen or looted material. Schrag points to an example of an Allied
soldier who recovered Adolf Hitler’s globe from his Eagle’s Nest headquarters.
"At that point, it’s not clear who he was stealing from, but it was also clear
it was not his to take."
Consider, too, whether you want the seller to profit from a
sale if your ideologies clash, such as a collector of Jim Crow memorabilia
buying from a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
CONTEXT Preserve educational value by maintaining context and
displaying items as accurately as possible. Resist any urge to sanitize the
past. "One thinks simply of acquiring things in a legal matter, but if you then
want to display it in some way, be truthful about the context in which you find
it," Schrag says.
EXHIBITION Whether at home
or at museum exhibitions, Schrag says, weigh how others will view the material
and consider the idea of inflicted insight—forcing someone to look.
Collectors of important historical artifacts also sometimes
face difficult choices about whether their purchase or display of a piece may
unintentionally support an individual or group whose beliefs they oppose. Schrag
sees parallels in the ethical issues already debated concerning genetics
research conducted by Nazi scientists. The scientific community avoids Nazi
research because of its violation of ethical practices, according to Schrag, who
also serves as the acting director of the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics
and American Institutions.
"When one is collecting and displaying things to help us
understand a part of history, that may outweigh an issue of where they came
from," Schrag says.
James Allen first looked at the photograph showing a crowd of people outdoors and did
not fully comprehend what he was seeing. Allen, an antiques dealer and an editor
of Without Sanctuary: Lynching
Photography in America saw the photo after
someone called to ask if he would be interested in an oak desk. He declined the
offer. But the caller then said that there was something very strange in one of
drawers that he might want to see. It was an image of the 1915 lynching of a
Jewish businessman, Leo Frank, who had been convicted of murdering an employee
based on circumstantial evidence. Allen bought the photograph.
"No one ever identified it as a lynching," Allen says of the
photo. "Leo Frank was killed within 30 miles of our house; it really woke me up
to the idea that this was a repressed history and set me to wondering just how
many images there are."
Allen began calling local historical societies and state
archives and asking about their lynching records. More than 4,700 of the crimes
were recorded, but many, of course, were not officially documented. Still, in
the 19th and early 20th centuries, lynchings were public events unofficially
documented by gruesome photography and even postcards. Allen and his partner,
John Littlefield, began discovering more and more of these images at flea
markets and with other collectors. "We were able to buy the images as they came
up," Allen says. "There was a sense of purpose—that we were really making a
historic contribution."
Not every potential seller, however, shared that purpose and
ideology; members of the Ku Klux Klan—the organization responsible for many
lynchings—also collect these photos and postcards. Once Allen felt personally
threatened when he and Littlefield made contact with a member of the KKK who
offered to sell a rare photo for several thousand dollars. Allen and
Littlefield drove across Georgia and finally arrived at a junkyard in Alabama
around midnight. When they saw the images in question, though, they weren’t
interested.
"He took a noose out," Allen recalls. "By that time, I think he
knew we were intimidated and was getting a rush out of it."
Allen and Littlefield had little trouble finding a publisher
for their book, which includes 99 images, along with essays from historian Leon
F. Litwack and writer Hilton Als, among others. They had hoped to mount a
companion exhibit in the South, but could not find a venue initially, and
eventually partnered with the New-York Historical Society in New York City.
Finding a permanent home for the collection is proving more
difficult. Several years ago, an individual offered Allen and Littlefield $1
million and promised to give the items to a northern university. However, the
two rejected the money, wanting the collection to stay in the South where most
lynchings occurred. Allen and Littlefield thought they had found a partner in
Emory University, but the deal fell through, and they have since started looking
again. They find it frustrating at times to deal with institutions that fear
backlash from the exhibit. Allen says they have sought to "modify the exhibit
and the theme so it did not offend white patrons." He adds, "In this case, I
felt that our entire obligation has been to tell the truth."
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