“Moments that Made US,” a new exhibit hosted by History Colorado, displays artifacts representing important slices of our nation’s history, with an emphasis on Colorado. The exhibit, which gives you the opportunity to take your own walk through history, celebrates the upcoming 250th anniversary of the nation and the 150th anniversary of our Centennial State.
Personal moments
A strange fact confronts those of us over 50: We personally have lived through over a third of Colorado’s state history. When I was born, people still lived in Colorado who witnessed the birth of the state. I personally knew people who knew people who celebrated statehood.
Some of the artifacts in “Moments that Made US” reflect major wars. As I walked through the hall, I remembered my great-grandfather Ralph Garver, who used to play cards with me and who served as a cook in WWI.
I remembered the war stories of my grandfather Theo Eversol, who served in the Pacific Rim of WWII. I remembered too the silence regarding the war of my other grandfather, Otto Armstrong, who served in the same theater. War is hell, Theo told me.
My father, Linn Armstrong, and my step-father, Marshall Davis, fought in Vietnam, the ill-conceived and badly executed war on the part of the higher-ups that shook American confidence.
One of my favorite artifacts from the hall is Jackie Robinson’s bat, something that reflects the advance of civil rights in the context of America’s sporting heritage. This reminded me of something I learned at the elephant exhibit over at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science: Denver used to have a black baseball team called the White Elephants. The Robinson exhibit inspired my family to rewatch “42,” the film about Robinson starring Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford, two of America’s great actors.
Paradoxes of history
Jason Hanson’s introductory talk about the exhibit during a November 20 event at History Colorado prompted me to reflect on the great paradoxes of American history.
The Declaration of Independence, one of the most profound documents in human history, declares that all people are created equal and have rights. Yet these words were written by a man who held and raped slaves. The government inspired by the Declaration dispossessed and in some cases slaughtered Native peoples and badly mistreated black people. Still, the principles of the Declaration continually cried out to the better angels of the people of America.
Several artifacts from “Moments that Made US” reflect the advance of civil rights. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 continued to treat some people as property. In the Dred Scott case of 1857, the Supreme Court denied black people their rights.
And yet America also nurtured a vibrant Abolitionist movement, one that inspired Silas Soule, who refused to participate in the slaughter at Sand Creek and who was murdered in the streets of Denver for his efforts. Today we celebrate the outlaw Harriet Tubman, who risked her life and defied the government to help others escape slavery. And our nation fought the bloody Civil War to, finally, put an end here to the abomination of slavery.
The advance of civil rights was uneven. Nationally, Reconstruction gave way to the terror of Jim Crow laws and the KKK. History Colorado shows pages from Denver’s KKK ledgers from a century ago. Ben Stapleton, mayor of Denver, reportedly said in 1924, “I will work with the Klan and for the Klan in the coming election heart and soul. And if I am re-elected, I shall give the Klan the kind of administration it wants.” Thankfully, the Klan’s reign in Colorado was short-lived.
Colorado’s place in national history
Here is a factoid that should firmly convince you that America is fundamentally about ideals, not “blood and soil” or ancestral lines: Only a minority of people currently living in the U.S. have ancestors who lived here in 1776 (Chat guesses between a fifth and a third). People living here have ancestors from all over the world, including people who lived here thousands of years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
As Hanson mentioned, in 1776, a major event in the region we now call Colorado was the expedition of the Franciscan friars Domínguez and Escalante. History Colorado features another exhibit about that journey and its ramifications. Not only Native tribes but Spain and then Mexico once claimed portions of Colorado. Yet we who now live in Colorado can celebrate the birth of the U.S., not only because of Colorado’s subsequent history in the union, but, again, because the United States fundamentally is an idea about liberty.
Anyone who embraces the principle that all people are created equal and have rights is an American at least in spirit. For that reason we all can celebrate the upcoming anniversaries of the United States and of Colorado. This is a great time to watch films about our nation’s history, view Ken Burns’s new documentary about the American Revolution, and take a walk through History Colorado’s moments that made us.
Ari Armstrong writes regularly for Complete Colorado and is the author of books about Ayn Rand, Harry Potter, and classical liberalism. He can be reached at ari at ariarmstrong dot com.
