Roots And Routes

ROOTS & ROUTES

More About Commemorations on ROOTS & ROUTES:

The Millennial Bicentennial – Ten years ago we commemorated the contentious election of 1801 and many important national and local anniversary celebrations that had been overshadowed by the Millennium.

Beyond the Bicentennial – Forward-looking towns and organizations build lasting memorials for future generations.

Union Square – This historic New York City park - soon to be the gathering point for the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire commemorative procession - has served as a stage for public demonstrations since Revolutionary days. Our 2001 feature story began with images of the spontaneous memorial that sprang up there after 9/11.

Teaching Through the Tragedy – Details how bravely teachers and creative students in NYC and Arlington dealt with the aftermath of 9/11.

More 2001 Anniversary information online:

Remember the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory – A coalition of organizations in New York City have planned hundreds of commemorative exhibitions, performances, processions and projects.

Civil War 150th Anniversary – The main guide to all Civil War Sesquicentennial events.

Remembering 9/11 at the Tribute Center – This small museum near the site of the World Trade Center memorial is a good starting point for your private commemorative journey.

The 9/11 Digital Archive – A project of the Center for History and New Media and American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning.

BULLETINS

NEWS FROM ROOTS & ROUTES

Welcome to ROOTS & ROUTES! To celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the website, we're updating and streamlining our pages - but our mission remains the same: finding your place in America... through family history, heritage travel, and lifelong learning.

It's time for Spring Training and vintage teams are no exception. Both players and fans will want to brush up on the rules - easily done from our home page, where you'll also find a new teenage travel adventure and more. (Older feature stories, while not actively maintained, are easily found in the Archive.)

You can explore our updated resource pages quickly by clicking Migrations, Family History, Travel Now, or Travel Then in the top navigation bar. Soon there will also be a new interactive interface for our education pages and many more ideas for family fun at home and on the road. Meanwhile, you can still find our evergreen learning resources by clicking Learn. Other sections you may miss: our letters to the editor, action alerts, and heritage events calendar - will soon reappear in our new social media pages. Meanwhile, we'll continue to preview the Big Events of 2011 here on the Bulletin Board.

2011: A YEAR OF COMMEMORATION

There will be many festive anniversaries this year – including the fiftieth anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival on August 5, 6 and 7. But the biggest events moving into the spotlight in 2011 do seem to be both somber and potentially contentious.

Beginning with the secession of South Carolina, which was celebrated by some and criticized by others on New Year's Eve, it appears we will be commemorating some dark historical times that will inevitably evoke comparison to the ongoing economic, political and natural disasters we see unfolding on television every night. (Astonishingly, there's even an earthquake bicentennial – in New Madrid, Missouri.)

OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR - 150th Anniversary of Firing on Fort Sumter - April 12-13, 1861

View of Fort Sumter, ca. 1861

TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE - 100th Anniversary - March 16, 1910

Remembrance logo designed by Bradley Kemp for the puppet opera, Triangle.

So be it. As the ongoing commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire has brought attention to the plight of immigrant communities here and sweatshops abroad, we can only hope that some social good will come of these considerations. And it is always in crisis that American "exceptionalism" stops being debated in "ivory towers" and is actually demonstrated in action in communities large and small all across the country.

9/11 - 10th Anniversary of World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks

Firemen Helping - Steven, age 10, courtesy Nancy Beal, Village Community School, New York

The themes of order and disorder, unity and disunity mark American history as they do all national histories, but the fact that vibrant cultural enclaves and ethnic communities exist (and let us also emphasize "co-exist") in America with roots in and connections to every other society on earth does make our particular survival story especially meaningful.

In the coming months, we'll be highlighting public programs that examine these issues and inviting historians, geographers, museum curators, writers and other expert commentators to discuss the art and act of commemoration in our own pages.