Popularizing Pennsylvania: Henry W. Shoemaker and The Progressive Use of Folklore and History

Popularizing Pennsylvania: Henry W. Shoemaker and The Progressive Use of Folklore and History. By Simon J. Bronner. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 1996. xxii + 277 pp. Illus. US $45.00 hb; $17.50 pb (UK 40.40 [pounds sterling] and 13.95 [pounds sterling] respectively). ISBN 0 271 01486 5 (hb), 0 271 01487 3 (pb)

In this book, Simon Bronner, Distinguished Professor of Folklore and American Studies at the Harrisburg campus of Penn State University, regionalises and personalises his long-standing research interests in folklore, popular culture, oral history and the history of ideas by paying tribute both to his academic home state and to a man to whom Pennsylvania and Pennsylvanians owe so much, Henry W. Shoemaker (1880-1958). While painstakingly tracking down the legacy of Shoemaker in libraries, archives, in the memories of those who knew him, and in the places on which he had an impact, Bronner has written much more than a biography of a man to whose pursuits, ambitions and achievements he is clearly sympathetic; he has painted a portrait of an era, of a region, of a people, and, above all, of the depiction and promotion of traditional life as perceived and moulded through the eyes and hands of an indefatigable and influential enthusiast who not only had a durable vision but also the energy and the expertise to actualise and live out that vision, although it is only fair to add that he also ultimately outlived it.

One of the most memorable features of Shoemaker's life is the large number of terms with which he is described in this book both by the author and by others. Here are just a few of them: populariser, conservationist, campaigner, diplomat (minister to Bulgaria during the Hoover administration), soldier (lieutenant-colonel in the Pennsylvania Home Guard), newspaper publisher, supporter of Progressive Republican causes, romantic writer, dedicated historian, state patriot, urban sophisticate, industrialist, pioneer, Victorian gentleman, promoter of tradition, president of the Pennsylvania Folklore Society, and, most importantly Pennsylvania's State Folklorist (March 1948-February 1956), incumbent of the first such position in the USA.

That all these designations might well add up to the multifaceted reflection of a successful life is undeniable and probably true to a certain extent, but it is perhaps a trifle unfortunate that Shoemaker's appointment as State Folklorist, which should have given him an unrivalled opportunity to become officially involved in the drawing together of all the resources in the management of history and culture and the promulgation of the state's heritage, came at a time when the romantic and literary perception of folklore which he represented and his emphasis on the uniqueness of Pennsylvania as a source and transmitter of regional traditions was being severely challenged by a new breed of academic, scholarly folklorists (ironically, his namesake, Alfred L. Shoemaker, among them) who approached the materials and practitioners of tradition from an ethnological perspective. It is therefore not surprising that, about the middle of this century, the battle lines were soon drawn up and two major, uncompromising camps established. Bronner is at his most dramatic in the description and analysis of this conflict (he calls it a "war") between popularisers and professionals (pp. 135-50), and of the issues and personalities involved, at what can only be regarded as a general watershed in North American folkloristics. In an "Epilogue," the author also very poignantly draws attention to the fact that in 1995, favouring privatisation, the Republican administration of the state announced plans to abolish the Pennsylvania Heritage Affairs Commission and its Office of State Folklife Programs by 30 June 1996. Fortunately, however, folkloristics and folk life studies are still being taught at the University of Pennsylvania, on several campuses of the Penn State University system, and elsewhere in the state.

In an instructive "Appendix" (pp. 185-217), Bronner offers a sampler of four of Shoemaker's stories, among them "The Legend of Penn's Cave" (1908) and "Nita-nee: The Indian Maiden for Whom Nittany Mountain is Named" (1916). These give readers an opportunity to assess for themselves Henry W. Shoemaker as the purveyor and (re)teller of Pennsylvanian folk-narratives. This is a fitting ending to what is in itself the "story" of Henry W. Shoemaker told persuasively by one who knows all about stories and storytelling himself.

W. F. H. Nicolaisen, University of Aberdeen

COPYRIGHT 2000 Folklore Society
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning