The Value of Local History

The Washington DC Studies Conference this weekend drew several hundred people to wide ranging talks on stories of the nation’s capital.

The event took place in the city’s Charles Sumner School, one of the first public school buildings erected for the education of Washington’s black community.

 

Presenters ranged from professional historians and architects to long-time residents. Historian Kathryn Smith opened the conference with a discussion of the need to tell local and federal DC stories together. Histories about local people and activities empower residents and convince the citizens in other areas of the country and the world of the value of the place.

Social and community history capture the stories of people in their everyday lives and give us a rich and deep sense of place.

Conferees told of the Berry Farm community and the Underground Railroad little known places.

I learned about the prevalence of particular kinds of crimes in the 19th century and about plans of builders to establish communities with the style of houses they built near the city’s Soldiers Home in the 1910s.