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"A museum director in Texas has crushed the dreams of Highland High School students in Gilbert who worked thousands of hours to document Civil War history.
A 10-foot by 5-foot diorama, three-and-a-half years in the making, was supposed to be in the care of the Texas Military Forces Museum at Camp Mabry in Austin, Texas."
I don't care if it was completely inaccurate, it does not call for dismantling. If the curator felt it was inaccurate, the correct thing to do would be to point out the inaccuracies....I concur samgrant, ludicrous....
I read those articles and was almost incensed by it all. All that time and effort, only to have it destroyed because it was "historically inaccurate." Nothing is ever going to be 100%, but these kids tried. They wanted to portray something that has gotten very little attention in the history books, and they put time, money and effort into it. I have seen dioramas like that, and talked to the men and women who build them, and there is alot of painstaking detail that goes into them.
What was the inaccuracy I wonder? Not enough soldiers? Was the dirt the wrong color? Pitiful. The museum director should be ashamed.
__________________ "War is, at its best, barbarism." General W.T. Sherman
"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it." General R.E. Lee
This is now an old story. But you will all be pleased to note that some Texans on another board have been working to have this man gone.
I don't care if the kids dressed the Feds in RCMP uniforms and had Geronimo fighting for the Union. They did something. And the reigning historian or director or curator trashed it as inaccurate. And trashed it.
The kids who started it didn't finish it -- it took that long. Look at Sam's links. And the really hard part is that at least one teacher we'd all wish on our kids, worked long and hard to get his students enthused. For what?
The guy probably has some political backing for keeping his job. He might actually get to keep it. But we've got some Reb compadres who are as upset as we seem to be about the whole thing. Work your entire life to get your kids interested in what you are interested in, and some putz decides the water is the wrong color.
Sorry for the rant. (Not really.) There are some irate Texans working to get this man gone. They could use your support.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
I don't care if the diorama was made out of paper dolls and play dough. This Hunt character had no right whatsoever destroying it. Maybe those kids ought to hunt him down and tar & feather him, then ride him out of town on a rail. Seriously, this man needs to be fired and never, ever, be placed in charge of a museum.
I have to say, I am ashamed this guy works in Texas.
He shows a remarable lack of sensitivity and good sense.
The latest I could find on it from the Austin American Statesman:
Saturday, April 19, 2008
AUSTIN
Museum director's firing sought
Texas Military Forces Museum Association members said Friday that museum director Jeff Hunt should be fired for dismantling a 10-foot-by-5-foot Civil War diorama built by high school students in Arizona.
At the association's quarterly meeting, members decided to hold an association-wide e-mail vote on whether Hunt should be removed.
The vote will be advisory only. Although the 600-member association runs the Camp Mabry museum on a shoestring budget, it is the property of the Texas national and state guards. Adjutant Gen. Charles Rodriguez, the Texas National Guard commander, wants it expanded into a multimillion-dollar facility. Hunt was hired to help carry out that vision.
The diorama depicted the Battle at Palmetto Ranch. The museum association commissioned it at a cost $23,000 in materials, and its dismantling has made national news.
__________________ "There must be more historians of the Civil War than there were generals figthing in it... Of the two groups, the historians are the more belligerent." David Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered (1961)
Last edited by timewalker : 04-21-2008 at 09:22 PM.
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