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Abstract
This research has focused on understanding how effectively Hull 2017 UK City of Culture incorporated public history into its programme. This has been determined in context to the characteristics of ‘good’ public history highlighted in the historiography, as well as in context to the aims behind the event. Hull 2017 failed not only in effectively incorporating civic pride-inducing, and social memory-changing, public history, but, also, consistently ‘good’ public history that was in line with the ideals of the historiography. However, this research has pragmatically illustrated that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ public history are not mutually exclusive concepts and, in turn, that it is overly simplistic to dismiss the case study as merely ‘bad’ public history. More broadly, this research has shown how historians should adopt critical flexibility, rather than rigid adherence, when engaging with theoretical ideals, incorporating distorting factors into their analyses, and being measured in their conclusions.
Disclosure Statement
The authors declare there is no complete of interest at this study.
Notes
1 Department for Culture, Media and Sport, UK City Of Culture 2017 Guidance for Bidding Cities, May 8, 2015.
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29 Department for Culture, Media and Sport, UK City Of Culture 2017 Guidance for Bidding Cities, May 8, 2015.
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34 Ben Blosse, “Should Celebrate City's Future and History,” Hull Daily Mail, December 28, 2015, Nexis UK.
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36 Hurley, “Narrating the Urban Waterfront,” 20–2.
37 Dresser, “Politics, Populism and professionalism,” 63.
38 Ian Midgely, “‘This Is the Moment for Hull to Shine and for Everyone to Take Pride in Their City’; As Hull’s Bid to Become the City of Culture 2017 Enters Its Final Weeks, Ian Midgley Assess the City’s Chances,” Hull Daily Mail, May 22, 2013, Nexis UK.
39 Nerone, “Professional History and Social Memory,” 92.
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43 Gerrard, Hull: Events, 14–15; Bilton, Hull in the Great War 1914-19, 8–15.
44 Daniel Travers and Stephen Heathorn, “Collective remembrance, Second World War Mythology and National Heritage on the Isle of Man,” National Identities 10, no. 4 (2008): 434.
45 Annie Haight, Susannah Wright, David Aldridge, Patrick Alexander, “Remembrance Day Practices in Schools: Meaning-Making in Social Memory During the First World War Centenary,” Journal of Beliefs and Values 42, no. 1 (2021): 34.
46 Hull Daily Mail, January 5, 2017, Nexis UK.
47 “Helga Gift,” 1940s Now, Artists, U COC/1/1/11/13/2/5, Hull 2017 City of Culture, Hull History Centre.
48 Jordanova, History in Practice, 168.
49 David Moltke-Hansen, “Identity Politics and the Civil War: The Transformation of South Carolina’s Public History, 1862–2012,” Historically speaking 14, no. 1 (2013), 10.
50 Sobananapenguin, “Made In Hull,” 1:40–13:55.
51 “A PHENOMENAL START TO CITY'S YEAR IN SPOTLIGHT,” Hull Daily Mail, January 9, 2017, Nexis UK.
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53 Nerone, “Professional History and Social memory,” 90.
54 Jordanova, History in Practice, 7.
55 Nerone, “Professional History and Social Memory,” 101.
56 Imitating the Dog, “Arrivals and Departures – Made in Hull 2017,” University of Hull, 0:30–6:45, https://www.hull.ac.uk/special/culture/culture-migration.
57 Nicholas J. Evans, “The Making of a Mosaic: Migration and the Port-City of Kingston Upon Hull,” in Hull: Culture, History, Place, ed. David J. Starkey, David Atkinson, Briony McDonagh, Sarah McKeon and Elisabeth Salter (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press), 149–53.
58 Nicholas Evans, “The Role of Foreign-Born Agents in the Development of Mass Migration Through Britain, 1820–192,” Maritime Transport and Migration: The Connections Between Maritime and Migration Networks, eds. Torsten Feys, Lewis Fischer, Stephane Hoste, and Stephan Vanfraechem (Research in Maritime History. Liverpool University Press, 2007), 53.
59 Panikos Panayi, Immigration, Ethnicity, and Racism in Britain, 1815–1945 (Manchester: Manchester University, 1994), 134.
60 Evans, “The Making of a Mosaic,” 145.
61 “Alfred Jacobs 1851 Census Data,” 1851 Anglo-Jewry Database; “Moses Crawcour, Jacob Silverstone, Henry Levi 1851 Census Data,” 1851 Anglo-Jewry Database.
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63 “Society For the Promotion of Christianity Amongst the Jews,” Hull Packet, December 5, 1862, Gale Primary Sources.
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65 “Imitating the Dog,” Made in Hull, Artists, U COC/1/1/11/13/2/7, Hull City of Culture, Hull History Centre.
66 E.H. Carr, What is history? (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001), 15.
67 “Artist Briefs,” Made In Hull, U COC/1/1/11/13/3/16, Hull City of Culture, Hull History Centre.
68 Evans, “The Making of a Mosaic,” 145.
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73 Hurley, “Narrating the Urban Waterfront,” 48–9.
74 Nerone, “Professional History and Social Memory,” 98.
75 Martin Nystrand, “A Social Interactive Model of Writing,” Written Communication 6, no. 1 (1989), 75; Baker, “Beyond the Island Story?,” 410.
76 Kean, The Public History Reader, xv–xvi.
77 “Big Lil’s Lament: a Brief (very) outline,” The Last Testament of Lilian Bilocca, creative documents, U COC/1/1/11/7/1, Hull 2017 City of Culture, Hull History Centre.
78 Hull Daily Mail, September 7, 2017, Nexis UK.
79 “A sceptical codger's review? It's brilliant!,” Hull Daily Mail, January 7, 2017, Nexis UK.
80 Hull Daily Mail, January 2, 2017, Nexis UK.
81 Lucy Taksa, “Labour History and Public History in Australia: Allies or Uneasy Bedfellows?,” International Labour and Working-Class History 76, no. 1 (2009), 84.
82 Hurley, “Narrating the Urban Waterfront,” 42.
83 "A belting week that put smiles on faces and made people proud of their city," Hull Daily Mail, January 6, 2017, Nexis UK.
84 “Great To See The City Come To Life At Night,” Hull Daily Mail, January 7, 2017, Nexis UK.
85 “We’ve sent a message … but times are still tough in Hull,” Hull Daily Mail, January 13, 2017, Nexis UK.
86 “Hull’s reign as UK City of Culture comes to a sad and silent end,” Hull Daily Mail, January 1, 2021, Nexis UK.
87 Hull Daily Mail, January 3, 2018, Nexis UK.
88 “Smoke Machines, Search Lights And Mock Explosions – Not Made In Hull, But The Fake Blitz On Our City,” Hull Daily Mail, January 7 2017, Nexis UK.
89 Tosh, “Public History, Civic Engagement,” 196.
90 “Marketing and Communications Plan: 1940s Now,” 1940s Now, Marketing, U COC/1/1/11/19/61/5, Hull 2017 City of Culture, Hull History Centre.
91 Glassberg, “Public History and the Study of Memory,” 14; John Kuo Wei Tchen, “Creating a Dialogic Museum: The Chinatown History Museum Experiment,” in Museums and Communities: The Politics of Public Culture, ed. Ivan Karp, Christine Mullen Kreamer and Steven D. Lavine (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), 293.
92 Tchen, “Creating a Dialogic Museum,” 293; Tosh, The Pursuit of History, 13–20.
93 “Monitoring and Evaluation,” 1940s Now, U COC/1/1/11/19/61/4, Hull 2017 City of Culture, Hull History Centre.
94 “Monitoring and Evaluation,” 1940s Now, U COC/1/1/11/19/61/4, Hull 2017 City of Culture, Hull History Centre.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Alexander Angus
Born in Hull and raised in the local area, Alexander Angus received a bachelor’s degree in history from Loughborough University in 2023, and is expecting to undertake a Master’s degree in 2024. Choosing to explore the history and reputation of his home in his undergraduate dissertation, this developed into a personal interest in migration, local and social histories which emphasises the importance of understanding how interpretations of the past inform about their contemporary context. Email: [email protected]