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28-587: The Segui-Kirby Smith House is a historic house at 12 Aviles Street in St. Augustine, Florida . Built in the late 1770s, it was the childhood home of Confederate States Army General Edmund Kirby Smith (1824–1893), the commanding general of the Trans-Mississippi Department from 1863 to 1865 and the chancellor of the University of Nashville from 1870 to 1875. It is owned and operated by

56-534: 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, a professor of history and political science, further adds to social history and its relationship to locations by saying – Following this historical movement,

84-440: 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 the narrative of non-family members is dismissed, ignored, or completely rejected. Within

112-452: 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 the story of a particular area, social-class or historical period. The " narrative " of the people who lived there guides this approach, and dictates

140-505: The International Council of Museums . Houses are transformed into museums for a number of different reasons. For example, the homes of famous writers are frequently turned into writer's home museums to support literary tourism . Historic house museums are sometimes known as a "memory museum", which 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

168-513: The British occupation. St. Augustine was ceded back to the Spanish with the 1783 Treaty of Paris . At this time, a Menorcan man named Bernardo Segui bought the lot from Pablo Cortina; the home had a first floor made of coquina and a wooden second floor. The lot also accommodated a small two-room building on Artillery Lane. Bernardo and his wife had six children and most likely made additions to

196-600: 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 the narrative of all people who lived there is dangerous. While some plantation museum narratives have changed following an outcry from

224-548: The St. Augustine Historical Society and is home to the St. Augustine Historical Society Research Library. The first record of a building at this lot appears in a Spanish map dated January 22, 1764. The building was most likely used as a dwelling during the First Spanish Period . During St. Augustine's British Period (1763-1783), the house belonged to a British Captain, Henry Skinner, and changed hands several times during

252-426: The United States as a way to resuscitate neighbourhoods and increase the economic health of surrounding urban areas. Designating a house as historic tends to increase the value of the house as well as others in the same neighbourhood. This can result in increased development of nearby properties, creating a ripple effect that spreads to surrounding neighbourhoods. In some cases, fees are assessed of homeowners during

280-419: 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 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

308-688: The city on suspicion of spying for the Confederacy. Alexander Darnes , the son of the enslaved woman Violet Pinkney, also lived in the house. In 1855, Darnes left St. Augustine to serve as valet to Edmund Kirby Smith during his military service in the Western Territories and throughout the Civil War . After the South lost the war, Darnes went on to earn a medical degree in 1880 at Howard University , moved back to Florida, and became one of

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336-401: 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 the era, adding to authenticity. Collective memory is sometimes used in

364-514: The courtyard of the Segui-Kirby Smith House today (2020). The house and its outbuildings are used by the St. Augustine Historical Society to serve as the location for its research library, archives, and collection storage. The space includes a public reading room. Historic house Houses were first thought of as historic rather than just old or interesting , during the early nineteenth century. Government protection

392-401: The designation process, so there is not necessarily an economic benefit to doing so. Historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum . Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of standards, including those of

420-516: The dwelling. In 1824, Bernardo Segui's widow rented out the house to Judge Joseph Lee Smith , a judge in the Supreme Court of Florida . Judge Smith's son Edmund Kirby Smith, who would go on to become a Confederate general, was born there. The Smith family later became full owners of the building. In 1863, the Union occupiers of St. Augustine banished Edmund's mother, Frances Kirby Smith, from

448-591: 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 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

476-517: The first African American doctors in the state. In 1887 the Smiths sold the house to E.P. Dismukes. Mr. and Mrs. John L. Wilson bought the home in 1894. According to the will of the Wilsons, the Segui-Kirby Smith House was to be used as a library for the citizens of St. Augustine. At first it was the property of the St. Augustine Library Association . In 1894 a public library moved into the house, from

504-506: 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

532-470: 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 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,

560-440: 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 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

588-461: 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 the previous inhabitants through an explanation and exploration of social history . The idea of

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616-478: 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 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

644-399: 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 the restoration and creation of a historic house museum. The space must be authentic in terms of truly replicating and representing

672-434: 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 is not only associated with the individual but is a shared experience. It also focused on

700-480: The second story of what is now the Governor's House Museum and Cultural Center . Outside the house on Aviles Street stands a historical marker designating the home as one of the thirty-six remaining Spanish Colonial homes in St. Augustine. Maria Kirby-Smith , great-granddaughter of Edmund Kirby Smith, completed a bronze statue of the general and of Darnes titled "Sons of St. Augustine" in 2004. The statue stands in

728-557: 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 the inclusion of joyous festivals to mask the turmoil. The Hiroshima Traces (1999) text takes

756-413: 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 the public good and the preservation of American history, especially centered on the first U.S. president, General George Washington. Since

784-585: Was first given during the late nineteenth century. Historic homes are often eligible for special grant awards for preservation. What makes a historic home significant is often its architecture or its importance to the culture or history of the area. There are some organizations that offer services to research the history of a home and others that provide repositories for users to document the history of their homes. Historic homes may still be inhabited, and thus should not be confused with historic house museums . Houses are increasingly being designated as historic in

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