The Old Kenyon Fire, and Its Memory.

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The artifact I spent most of the group’s time diving into pertained to the Old Kenyon Fire on February 27th, 1949. The artifacts included police investigation notes as well as a scrapbook/yearbook detailing the fire with pictures and newspaper clippings. The pictures were of the fire in all stages, it included photos collected from students, of all sides of the building, showing the height of the fire. As well as pictures of the extinguished building, and demolition for safety reasons. Newspaper articles ranged from days after the fire to months after the fire. As time went on throughout the article the casualties grew. The first article stated one person died and just over two dozen were wounded, but as the articles went on, it highlighted two missing students and two additional dead. The police investigations of the students were each brief, many students reported rushing fellow students out of the building, as well as jumping from the building, unable to reach the fire ladders. Stories of students conflicted even within friends groups, two students each reported to the police that they woke the other up. Underlining the earlier concept, that people within a group can remember the same defining even differently. 


    The reading from this past week focused on traditions and expressions of collective memory. Robert Bellah argues that the history of a community must be passed down for a plethora of reasons. The great danger of allowing generations to unfold without having spread this history is the disintegration of the community into a gathering of similar people. This course cheapens the group, and never allows the instillation of group morals and ideas into them. In other words, community memory of the past is important because it upholds the community’s narrative, telling stories of damage received and conflicted. Forgetting doesn’t create a real community - memories that tie us to the past also tie us to the future seeing our efforts as being productive towards a collective good. 


 The artifacts, that we discussed don’t quite relate to the ideas of traditions and customs that we discussed this week, however, Robert Bellah made the point that narratives, and telling stories of damage received and inflicted, uphold community practices. The interview transcripts revealed that the stories of each student in this event differed. The Scrapbook illustrated that the fire was well remembered inside and out of the college. It was retold on many news outlets over some time, effectively retelling the event. Although from a personal perspective, the retelling of this moment in history doesn’t do much to push me towards a collective goal or community interest. The reselling of the school's history on orientation week helped to compile knowledge and create a more compelling story, with which to tie the community together.


Bellah, Robert. 2011. “From: ‘Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life’.” Pp. 229-230 in The Collective Memory Reader, edited by J.K. Olick, V. Vinitzky-Seroussi, and D. Levy. New York: Oxford University Press.


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