Frontier Centennial - Jacob Olmstead W

Olmstead's retelling of the Frontier Centennial looks at two distinctive processes. The first addresses the interplay of memory, identity, and image in the evolution of the celebration's commemorative messages. Fort Worth's image as a progressive western metropolis also impacted other areas, less central, to Frontier Centennial planning. Debates over how outsiders would interpret features of the celebration, carried on by club women and others, reveal the interest the citizenry held in upholding or contesting the city's modern image. Overlapping with the issues of memory and identity, the second process addresses how the larger narratives of the mythic West influenced the content of the celebration. Though drawn from actual events and people, the myth reduces the past to its "ideological essence." Mythmakers, like historians, draw upon facts to explain and give meaning to a particular worldview.

EAN: 9781682832462