DOCUMENT RESUME ED 393 735 SO 025 666 AUTHOR Auel, Lisa B. TITLE Ties That Bind: Communities in American History. INSTITUTION National Archives and Records Service (GSA), Washington, D.C. REPORT NO ISBN-0-911333-93-2 PUB DATE 93 NOTE 41p.; Corresponds to a National Archives and Records Administration exhibit, Spring 1992 through Spring 1993. PUB TYPE Guides General (050) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Community; *Community Characteristics; Community Study; Higher Education; History; Neighborhoods; Secondary Education; Social Studies; *United States History IDENTIFIERS National Archives DC ABSTRACT The communities that individuals have created are endlessly diverse. They have followed ancient patterns and have experimented boldly with innovative ideas. This publication and the exhibition it complements present only a few of the many ways that individuals have found to live together. It is divided according to the specific forces behind the creation of communities in the United States: "Family Tiest! and "Ethnic Environment" show associations organized around those basic bonds; "The Dollars and Sense of Community" describes groups that form for economic reasons; "Plans for Perfection" examines religious and secular utopias; and "From Crisis to Community" deals with people forced by circumstances or discrim;-ation to congregate. Census pages, petitions, maps, photographs, and other federal records are included. Individually, these documents can tell only incomplete stories of the specific groups represented. But taken together they reveal some of the subtleties and complexities of the U.S. style of congregation--and of the human bond itself. (JAG) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** BIND TIES THAT COMMUNITIES IN AMERICAN HISTORY --- - J 11 U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 011ice ol Educaloonal Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION THIS "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE CENTER (ERIC) BY This document has been reproduced as MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED received from the person or organization ti.eigateikk originating it. I3 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. RESOURCES TO THE EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." NATIONAL ARCHIVES TIES THAT BIND eGP COMMUNITIES IN AMERICAN HISTORY By Lisa B. Auel An exhibition at the NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION Washington, DC Spring 1992 through Spring 1993 3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-NDI:cation Data Mel, Lisa Benkert. Benkert Ties that bind : communities in American history / by Lisa Auel. cm. p. "An exhibition at the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC, Spring 1992-Spring 1993." ISBN 0-911333-93-2 Exhibitions. 1. Community development United States History Exhibitions. 1. United States. History 2. Community life National Archives and Records Administration. II. Title. 1992 HN90.C6A94 91-40704 dc20 307.1'4'074753 CIP by David Lanrbson. 1848. from Cover "Mountain Meeting:' 'Tvo Years Experience Among the Shakers Courtesy of Hancock Shaker Village. Pittsfield. Massachusetts Designed by Serene Feldman Werblood. National Archives 4 CONTENTS Preface v Introduction I Family Ties 3 Native Americans 4 Native Hawaiians 5 Ethnic Environments 7 Immigrants 8 African Americans in Harlem 14 The Dollars and Sense of Community 16 The Suburbs 17 Boom Towns 18 Company Towns 19 Plans for Perfection 20 Utopias 21 The Shakers 22 The Mormons 24 New Towns 26 From Crisis to Community 27 Slave Communities 28 Indian Reservations 30 Japanese Relocation Camps 32 The AIDS Community 33 5 if 'IP,. 4 \ el, # . 7^fikc -1Maltikr. t- vs, - ii-sakt.toes tsk;v - Yk 4VArtrms....- .e.v.44 44101%.01111illow V ts, ? '44 - *-;;C:" l '*; Y t0911,1 4Y teak itet4 it! ,04. iirltss.-+11;:f., r BEST COPY AVAILABLE Of Ns, Colss !" '471i r PREFACE "The ties that bind the our lives of peoplein one indissoluble union are perpetuated in the Archives of our government . . Inscription on the National Archives Building by its architect. lohn Russell Pope. ca IQ30s Jr. the Rotunda, of the National Archives, visitors wait in hushed lines to view the great documents of American democracy and history. Seeing the handwritten, original copies of the Declaration of Independence. the Constitution. and the Bill of Rights is often stirring: Americans of all ages and backgrounds describe the experience as awe-inspiring, reverential. moving. As expressions of the values and freedoms that all Americans cherish, the Charters of Freedom are powerful symbols of our collective beliefs and ideals. They are the tangible links that unite Americans in a vast, national community. The freedoms accorded United States citizens by the Charters have also encouraged the creation of an infinite variety of more intimate communities. As early as 1831, when Alexis de Tocqueville traveled through the United States. he noted with some curiosity and admiration the American inclination to associate. Americans of all ages, conditions, and dispositions. he wrote. constantly form associations of a "thousand kinds, religious, moral. serious, futile. eeneral or restricted. enormous or diminutive." Indeed. the history of this country is rife with the successes and failures of every imaginable kind of community. Their stories are an important part of our collective past: they tell us scmethingof the freedoms and constraints of American democracy and of the organization and experier,ze of American life. This book presents documents from the National Archives that are the tangible traces of that experienceof the ties that bind us to one another as Americans, and as human beings. It accompanies the 1992 National Archives exhibition "Ties That Bind: Communities in American History." The Office of Public Programs of the National Archives prepared the exhibition and this book: Lisa B. Auel of the Exhibits Branch was the author of both. Serene Feldman Werblood of the Development and Production Branch, Publications Division. designed the publication. For all of their generous contributions of time and support to the "Communities" project. special thanks are extended to Stacey Bredhoff. Bruce I. Bustard, Anne DeLong, Stephen Estrada. Henry I. Gwiazda, Martha Merselis. Kitty Nicholson, Marilyn Paul, Thomas D. Saunders. Emily Soapes, and lames D. Zeender. Don W. Wilson Archivist of the United States 7 r 4 or " IMLINL 1,7437e.FeAtktit <&t.,,_..., 44 0,4, 54. 5 sii ,. $ g, K ,,. V. ,: irs -....,, t' t\ 4 `.:' ttl.""Te4".7"\aaili ,,.. .,, she AVAILABLE COPY BEST INTRODUCTION The communities that Americans have created are endlessly diverse: they have followed ancient patterns and have boldly experimented with innova- tive ideas. This book and the exhibition it complements present only a few of the myriad ways that Americans have found to live together. It is divided according to some of the specific forces behind the creation of community in this country: "Family Ties" and "Ethnic Environments" show associations organized around those basic bonds; "The Dollars and Sense of Community" describes groups that form foreconomic reasons; "Plans for Perfection" looks at religious and secular utopias. and "From Crisis to Community" deals with people forced, by circumstance or discrimination, to congregate. The census pages, petitions, maps, photographs, and other federal records shown on the following pages were produced or collected by the U.S. government for many different reasons. In most cases, they were not kept in order to fully portray particular communities. Individually, therefore, these documents can tell only incomplete stories of the specific groups repre- sented. But taken together they reveal some of the subtleties and complex- and of the human bond itself. ities of the American style of congregation 9 A Biackfeet Indians on the shore of Two Medicine Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana, ca. 1890. RG 79. Records of the National Park Service 179-PGN-1161 BORN INTO THE MOST INTIMATE COMMUNITIES THAT WE ARE ALL THESE GROUPS. WHICH ARE TODAY WE'LL EVER KNOW: OUR FAMILIES. USUALLY THE MOST MEANINGFUL ASSOCIATIONS OF OUR LIVES, CON- SIST OF SMALL NUMBERS OF IMMEDIATE RELATIVES, AND OUR -COMMU- NITIES" INCLUDE THE UNRELATED PEOPLE IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS, BUT PRIOR TO THE 1600s, WHEN PROFESSIONS, OR GENERATION. EUROPEANS BEGAN TO COLONIZE THE "NEW WORLD" IN EARNEST, MOST AMERICAN COMMUNITIES WERE BASED ON EXTENDED FAMILY RELA- IN THE NATIVE POPULATIONS OF AMERICAN INDIANS, TIONSHIPS. INUITS !HISTORICALLY KNOWN AS ESKIMOS), AND HAWAIIANS, THE INTRICATE RELATIONSHIPS OF KIN AND CLAN DETERMINED THE CHAR- SUSTAINED BY THE SENSE ACTER AND STRUCTURE OF COMMUNITIES. OF LOYALTY AND OBLIGATION INHERENT IN SUCH FAMILY TIES, THESE AS EURO-AMERI- EARLIEST AMERICAN ASSOCIATIONS FLOURISHED. CULTURE INEXORABLY ADVANCED ACROSS NATIVE LANDS, HOW- CAN EVER, THEIR CHANCES FOR CONTINUED SURVIVAL DIMMED.