[5] These figures are not final, as the Secretary’s report is not out for 1909.
The Study of Western History in Our Schools
BY PROFESSOR CLARENCE W. ALVORD, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.
The West has always been self-assertive. This may sound somewhat banal, but no adjective describes so exactly that principal characteristic of her vigorous youth. Commercially, politically, socially she has displayed her egoism and has continually demanded from her elder sister, the East, praise for her achievements. Youth is, however, passing away; over a century of political life has been left behind; age has brought with it a new pride in the consciousness of accomplishment. To-day the West realizes that she has had a history that is no mean part of the national story. The cry from the prairies is no longer: “See what we are doing;” but, “See what we have done.” Self-assertion again! Yes, perhaps bumptiousness, but such is the fact. On every side there are signs of this new phase of western self-consciousness. In no part of the Union is there such an interest in local history. State-supported departments of history, State historical societies, county and city historical societies, even women’s clubs and public schools, and larger unions such as the confederation of the societies of the Ohio Valley and the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, are all active in collecting material for and exploiting western history. Some of the efforts are misdirected, many of the papers presented before these learned societies are absurd; but even the aimless gropings of the historical amœbæ indicate the innermost yearnings for a knowledge of the past and the consciousness of deeds worth recording.
In developing this consciousness of her past, the West, naturally enough, has found a grievance against the historians of America who have somewhat neglected this important phase of the national development. Before the eyes of the historian educated under the shadow of the gilded dome of the Puritan Capitol, the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers looms larger on the historical horizon than the occupation of the Old Northwest during the Revolutionary War, so that he gives a more careful and extensive description to the former than to the latter event. The westerner gazes upon another horizon, where the relative importance of events are differently grouped. To him many events confined to New England, the description of which fills pages of our national histories, appear of local interest; and events belonging to other parts of the country assume national importance.