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38-571: The William H. McGuffey House is a historic house museum at 401 East Spring Street, on the campus of Miami University in Oxford , Ohio , United States. Built in 1833, it was the home of author and professor William Holmes McGuffey (1800–1873) from then until 1836. It is believed to be the site where he wrote the first four of the McGuffey Readers , widely popular instructional texts used to educate generations of Americans. The house

76-417: A collective memory and that this memory is dependent upon the "cadre" or framework within which a group is situated in society. Thus, there is not only an individual memory but also a group memory that exists outside of and lives beyond the individual. An individual's understanding of the past is strongly linked to this group consciousness because every person can contribute a different memory or perspective to

114-677: A Law of Fragmentation, and a Law of Concentration. Halbwachs also wrote an important book on suicide, Les Causes du suicide , 1930 ("The Causes of Suicide"). In this book he followed the footsteps of his mentor Émile Durkheim (who was also a French Sociologist) expanding and elaborating upon the former's theories on suicide. Specifically, he focused on ideas such as, the ways in which rural and urban styles of life explain variations in suicide rates. Halbwachs also continued to further Durkheim's conceptualization of how specific family styles and religious backgrounds alter rates of suicide. Halbwachs included in his Les Cadres Sociaux de la Memoire (1952)

152-461: A bracketed cornice in the front, and the side gables are adorned with Gothic style drip moulding. A single-story porch extends across the front, with a flat roof supported by four Tuscan columns, and a spindled balustrade. The main facade is three bays wide, with the main entrance in the left bay, topped by a transom window. The interior has a restored 19th-century appearance, and includes artifacts generally of that period, as well as items specific to

190-669: A collection consistent with the historical structure. Some museums choose to collect pieces original to the period, while not original to the house. Others, fill the home with replicas of the original pieces, reconstructed with the help of historic records. Still other museums adopt a more aesthetic approach and use the homes to display the architecture and artistic objects. Because historic homes have often existed through different generations and have been passed on from one family to another, volunteers and professionals also must decide which historical narrative to tell their visitors. Some museums grapple with this issue by displaying different eras in

228-592: A major influence on his thinking. Halbwachs' early work on memory was in some measure pursued to coincide with Bergson's view on the subject of memory being a particularly personal and subjective experience. Bergson taught Halbwachs for three years. He then aggregated in Philosophy in 1901. He taught at various lycées before traveling to Germany in 1904, where he studied at the University of Göttingen and worked on cataloging Leibniz 's papers until 1907. He

266-486: A professor of history and political science, further adds to social history and its relationship to locations by saying – Following this historical movement, the concept of " open-air museums " became prominent. These particular types of museums had interpreters in costume re-enact the lives of communities in earlier eras, which would then be performed to modern audiences. They often occupied large wooden architecture buildings or outdoor sites and landscapes, that were true to

304-400: A year, more than fifty percent of historic house museums received fewer than 5,000 visitors per year. These museums are also unique in that the actual structure belongs to the museum collection as a historical object. While some historic home museums are fortunate to possess a collection containing many of the original furnishings once present in the home, many face the challenge of displaying

342-429: Is a term used to suggest that the museum contains a collection of the traces of memory of the people who once lived there. It is often made up of the inhabitants' belongings and objects – this approach is mostly concerned with authenticity . Some museums are organised around the person who lived there or the social role the house had. Other historic house museums may be partially or completely reconstructed in order to tell

380-551: Is not only associated with the individual but is a shared experience. It also focused on the way individual memory is influenced by social structures, as a way of continuing socialisation by producing memory as collective experience. An example of a site that utilizes collective memory is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan. It was restored and is based on the dialectics of memory, however it also has

418-593: The Collège de France in Social Psychology . During this time, Halbwachs dedicated his time to in-depth research in the field where sociology and psychology overlap to provide a bit of a timeline. Towards the end of his life, Halbwachs was recognized for his contributions to sociology. He was elected into the Conservative Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. He was also recognized as

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456-551: The 1970s and 1980s, as the Revolutionary War's bicentennial set off a wave of patriotism and alerted Americans to the destruction of their physical heritage. The tradition of restoring homes of the past and designating them as museums draws on the English custom of preserving ancient buildings and monuments. Initially homes were considered worthy of saving because of their associations with important individuals, usually of

494-406: The 20th century. McGuffey only lived here until 1836, when he moved to Athens . The house then went through a succession of owners, before it was acquired by the university and restored as a historic house museum . [REDACTED] Media related to William McGuffey House at Wikimedia Commons Historic house museum Historic house museums are sometimes known as a "memory museum", which

532-753: The Vice President of the French Psychological Society, while also being called to chair at Sorbonne. He was married to Yvonne Basch, who introduced Halbwachs to her father, the president of the League for the Defense Human Rights and also influenced him to join the Jewish religion (he was born Catholic). He had a son, Pierre Halbwachs , who influenced Deleuzian theory in the 1940s. A longtime socialist , Halbwachs

570-540: The War Ministry. Beginning in 1919, shortly after the end of the war, he became professor of sociology and pedagogy at the University of Strasbourg (1919). He remained in this position for over a decade, taking leave for a year in 1930 as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago , when he was called to the Sorbonne in 1935. There he taught sociology and worked closely with Marcel Mauss and served as

608-573: The collective group memory. Group memory is also different for every group that experiences a certain event, therefore "every group has its own collective memory and that collective memory differs from the collective memory of other groups. This idea of memory being pursued proves people's expression of commemoration in our culture. Commemoration offers collective memory ties to society and its conceptions where physical monuments and rituals fix and affirm collectivity. Halbwachs Collective Memory includes two laws governing how this form of memory will evolve:

646-516: The editor of Annales de Sociologie , the successor journal to L'Année Sociologique . He taught as a professor of sociology in Sorbonne, Paris from 1935 to 1943 and a professor of social psychology at the College de France from 1943 until death. From 1935 until his death he also served as the secretary-general of Annales de Sociologie . In 1944 he received one of France's highest honors, a chair at

684-605: The editorial board of L'Année Sociologique , where he worked with François Simiand and Lévy-Bruhl editing the Economics and Statistics sections. In 1909 he returned to Germany to study Marxism and economics in Berlin . Durkheim gave Halbwachs the idea of societal movements and how the environment, people are influenced by Sociological research. This also goes into how different class systems function in broad networks of society. Throughout World War I , Halbwachs worked at

722-403: The elite classes, like former presidents, authors, or businessmen. Increasingly, Americans have fought to preserve structures characteristic of a more typical American past that represents the lives of everyday people. Historic house museums usually operate with small staffs and on limited budgets. Many are run entirely by volunteers and often do not meet the professional standards established by

760-420: The era, adding to authenticity. Collective memory is sometimes used in the resurrection of historic house museums; however, not all historic house museums use this approach. The notion of collective memory originated from philosopher and sociologist Maurice Halbwachs , in "La Memoire Collective" ("On Collective Memory", 1950). This extended thesis examines the role of people and place, and how collective memory

798-504: The home's history within different rooms or sections of the structure. Others choose one particular narrative, usually the one deemed most historically significant, and restore the home to that particular period. There are a number of organizations around the world that dedicate themselves to the preservation, restoration, or promotion of historic house museums. They include: Maurice Halbwachs Maurice Halbwachs ( French: [mɔˈʁis ˈalbvaks] ; 11 March 1877 – 16 March 1945)

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836-446: The inclusion of joyous festivals to mask the turmoil. The Hiroshima Traces (1999) text takes a look at the importance of collective memory and how it is embedded in culture and place. Thus, collective memory does not only reside in a house or building, but it also resonates in outdoor space – particularly when a monumental event has occurred, such as war. Problematic creation of collective memory occurs within historic house museums when

874-518: The library of the Centre d'études sociologiques and are now held at the Human and Social Sciences Library Paris Descartes-CNRS . In 1950, his work on collective memory was published posthumously by his daughter. Halbwachs' most important contribution to the field of sociology came in his book La Mémoire collective , 1950 ("The Collective Memory"), in which he advanced the thesis that a society can have

912-403: The moment but what they also need in the future, which forces them to put into perspective what is necessary in the moment. His research is a modification of Durkheim's theory of collective representation. Halbwachs showed how memory can not exist without society influencing the mind, embracing how collective consciousness impacts us each and every day. This taught us that social structure shapes

950-553: The museum industry. An independent survey conducted by Peggy Coats in 1990 revealed that sixty-five percent of historic house museums did not have a full-time staff, and 19 to 27 percent of historic homes employed only one full-time employee. Furthermore, the majority of these museums operated on less than $ 50,000 annually. The survey also revealed a significant disparity in the number of visitors between local house museums and national sites. While museums like Mount Vernon and Colonial Williamsburg were visited by over one million tourists

988-403: The narrative of all people who lived there is dangerous. While some plantation museum narratives have changed following an outcry from the public and the academy, "plantation museums reflect, create, and contribute to racialized ways of understanding and organizing the world" by limiting or eliminating the narrative of the enslaved inhabitants. A degree of authenticity is also to be considered in

1026-554: The narrative of non-family members is dismissed, ignored, or completely rejected. Within the Southern United States, plantation museums (the former homes of enslavers) constitute a significant portion of the museum community and contribute to the racialized collective memory of the United States. Because museums are responsible for "the building of identity, cultural memory and community", neglecting to include

1064-421: The ownership of William H. McGuffey. The house was built in 1833 for William H. McGuffey, then a professor at Miami University. McGuffey had an abiding interest in public education, and it is here that he began to produce and publish the McGuffey Readers , a series of graded instructional texts. These were hugely popular, selling millions of copies nationwide, and were used by schools as instructional texts into

1102-587: The past. Whereas historians analyze history from a completely unbiased perspective, analyzing it in a critical way from a distance. Halbwachs contributed to the world of social psychology as well with his thesis on La Classe ouvrière et les niveaux de vie which translates to, "The Working Class and the Standards of Living". This work allowed Halbwachs to analyze and observe how working-class families managed their budgets. He discovered that families and individuals not only plan out their budget for what they need in

1140-472: The previous inhabitants through an explanation and exploration of social history . The idea of a historic house museum derives from a branch of history called social history that is solely based on people and their way of living. It became very popular in the mid-twentieth century among scholars who were interested in the history of people, as opposed to political and economical issues. Social history remains an influential branch of history. Philip J. Ethington,

1178-468: The public good and the preservation of American history, especially centered on the first U.S. president, General George Washington. Since the establishment of the country's first historic site in 1850, Washington's Revolutionary headquarters in New York, Americans have found a penchant for preserving similar historical structures. The establishment of historic house museums increased in popularity through

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1216-405: The restoration and creation of a historic house museum. The space must be authentic in terms of truly replicating and representing the way it once stood in its original form and appear to be untouched and left in time. There are three steps when declaring if a space is authentic: The earliest projects for preserving historic homes began in the 1850s under the direction of individuals concerned with

1254-408: The significance of the collective memory operating on the systems of family, religion and social communities. Halbwachs takes an interesting perspective regarding the relationship between memory and history. He believed that memory and history oppose each other when it comes to reliability. Memory can be transformed based on perspective, which makes it a questionable form of scholarly appreciation for

1292-512: The story of a particular area, social-class or historical period. The " narrative " of the people who lived there guides this approach, and dictates the manner in which it is completed. Another alternative approach, deployed by nonprofit organization House Museum , includes contemporary art integration, where artists are invited to respond to the physical and conceptual history of a site, thus injecting contemporary perspectives and value into historic places. In each kind of museum, visitors learn about

1330-607: Was a French philosopher and sociologist known for developing the concept of collective memory . Halbwachs also contributed to the sociology of knowledge with his La Topographie Legendaire des Évangiles en Terre Sainte ; study of the spatial infrastructure of the New Testament. (1951) Born in Reims , France , Halbwachs attended the École Normale Supérieure in Paris . There he studied philosophy with Henri Bergson , who had

1368-483: Was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. It is now operated by Miami University as the William Holmes McGuffey Museum . The William H. McGuffey House is located southeast of uptown Oxford, at the southeast corner of East Spring and South Oak Streets. It is a two-story brick structure with a gabled roof, and a two-story wood-frame ell extending behind it. The main roof line has

1406-648: Was detained by the Gestapo in Paris in July, 1944 after protesting the arrest of his Jewish father-in-law. He was deported to the concentration camp, Buchenwald , where he died of dysentery in February 1945. In 1940, Halbwachs' brother in-law, Georges Basch committed suicide. His parents in-law Victor and Mme Basch aged 84 years old at the time were murdered by Germans. Part of his books were offered by his widow to

1444-428: Was nominated to co-edit an edition of Leibniz's work which never came to fruition. He returned to France in 1905 and met Émile Durkheim , who sparked his interest in sociology. Initially, when meeting Durkheim, Halbwachs was looking for advice on how to move from his previous focus on Philosophy to Sociology. Halbwachs also began to focus on scientific objectivism rather than his Bergsonian Individualism. He soon joined

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