Lakeport >> The Courthouse Museum didn’t put up their newest exhibit, Political Citizens, in response to the current political and social climate, but there’s no denying some of the parallels. For instance, there’s a panel devoted to labor strikes, which discusses issues of racism in Lake County in the early 1900s. When white settlers first moved here, they had a good relationship with the Pomo Native Americans, working the land side by side without any qualms. But then the settlers began to feel threatened. More immigrants were coming to the area to work in the agriculture fields. The white settlers began to worry about losing their jobs and feeding their families. Suddenly, they were a lot less friendly.
This local history is similar to a common refrain that runs through politics today: the belief that immigrants are taking jobs from citizens. Immigration remains a hot button topic.
When putting together the Political Citizens exhibit, Whitney Petrey, interim curator of Lake County Museums, didn’t shy away from these weighty and oftentimes controversial topics. Case and point: a Confederate flag mounted on the wall is hard to miss.
Across the country Confederate monuments are being taken down and the flag is being condemned as a symbol of racism, even in the south. And the Lakeport museum has the Civil War era flag on full display — because it’s a part of the county’s history. Many people who first settled here were loyal secessionists. In 1860, when Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election, Lake County voted overwhelmingly democratic.
All this information, and more, is included in Political Citizens.
“We know that we get a lot of tourists from outside the county, and we know that some of the things that we talk about in here are going to be difficult for them,” explained Petrey. “We knew that this was going to bring up hard questions for people, it was going to make them feel some emotions, it was going to be difficult.”
The issues discussed in the exhibit swing both left and right. Opposite of the Confederate flag is a panel devoted to women’s suffrage, bearing a picture of a letter from a Lower Lake woman to her sister. The letter discusses an abortion the woman just had performed.
There’s also a section of Political Citizens called Modern Movements that creates a bridge between the past and today. The panel is devoted to recent landmark court cases, like a legal settlement in 2008 that had the Upper Lake Union Elementary School District take steps to protect students from anti-gay harassment. The Women’s March is also mentioned, with a picture of the handful of people who participated in the historic nation-wide event on January 21, 2017.
“That’s also a piece that we all felt was really important when we were looking at history,” Petrey said of Modern Movements. “If you don’t have that reflective piece —how does it relate to me today, why is this important, how does this inform who I am — then you’re kind of missing the point of history.”
Since they offer a number of school tours, the museum was sure to include something special for the kids. Two canvas voting booths are set up, with mock ballots inside. When schoolchildren come through, they learn about their voting rights. Staff hope that through this experience, students will exercise those rights as soon as they turn 18. Kids are encouraged to take selfies in the booths.
When Courthouse Museum staff started working on Political Citizens in April 2016 they had hoped to have the exhibit up in time for the November 2016 election. But the amount of information was overwhelming. They considered making a time frame, only covering those political events that took place beginning in 1865 and through the 1940s, but there was so much that happened before 1860. Up until 1869 it was legal to sell Native American children into slavery. That was something Petrey didn’t want to leave out.
Putting together Political Citizens required three separate trips to the state archives to collect election returns. Museum staff spent hours microfilming every Lake County election return they could get their hands on. Newspapers were also an invaluable source of information. Current politics have always been covered in papers, so staff waded through the California Digital Newspaper Collection, old papers at the Lakeport Library and their own extensive collection.
The more information they gathered, the more they realized just how much hasn’t been previously covered. Many people probably don’t know that the first Native American in the United States not living on a reservation who gained the right to vote was here in Lake County.
Native American history is a big part of the exhibit, and Petrey wanted to make sure she got it right, so she did something the museum hasn’t done in the past: she reached out to the local Native American community. In an informal consultation with tribes members she asked if they felt the museum was portraying history correctly.
As an academic and a museum curator, Petrey is well aware that records come with their own biases. She must always be asking herself who recorded history, why they recorded it that way and if there was anything influencing them. “The historical record as we all well know doesn’t always reflect the truth,” she said. “So there’s that second lens that’s necessary to make sure we are telling the truth.”
Political Citizens is on display at the Historic Courthouse Museum in Lakeport through the next year. Hours are 10 a.m. -4 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 12-4 p.m. Sunday. They are closed on Monday and Tuesday. The museum is located at 255 N. Main St. and can be reached at 263-4555.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
