As I walked into the “To Be Sold” exhibit at the Library of Virginia, a section of Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen’s now classic work “The Presence of the Past” describing public opinion on museum and family history moved to the forefront of my thoughts, and I spent much of the tour contemplating how the exhibit and this text related to each other. Interested in the popular uses of history in American life, Rosenzweig and Thelen asked 1,500 Americans to rank the perceived trustworthiness of various sources. The average response put “Personal accounts from grandparents or other relatives” second-highest on the list, just behind “Museums” and well ahead of “College history professors.” Considering the significance that many Americans attach to personal accounts and family histories, I often found myself weighing the exhibit’s significance to family history: How and in what ways does “To Be Sold” incorporate a sense of familial or personal history into the display? Continue reading →