History (The progressive Era 1890-1920)

"The pageant is the thing": The Contradictions of Women's Clubs and Civic Education during the Americanization Era

Author(s): Kate White

Source: College English , July 2015, Vol. 77, No. 6 (July 2015), pp. 512-529

Published by: National Council of Teachers of English

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/44077484

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Emerging Voices:

"The pageant is the thing": The Contradic- tions of Women's Clubs and Civic Education

during the Americanization Era

Kate White

Ameńcan pageantry will be so ordered as to possess a constructive influence on the people.

There will be entertainment with splendid effects in color , form, and music to both please and

improve the popular taste; the spectacle will stimulate pńde in town , state, and nation; a broad

sympathy for all lands and peoples will underlie and dominate the scenes; and finally there will

be a definite educational aim to make real the deeds of the fathers.

- Esther Bates, Pageants and Pageantry , 1912

Source: Nina B. Lamkin. America , Yesterday and Today. Chicago: S. T. Denison, 1917.

Kate White is currently assistant professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University in Fort Wayne, where she teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in professional writing and rhetoric and composition theory and history. She also coordinates writing internships for English majors and minors. Her research interests include feminist historiography, business writing, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She is currently working on an article that examines depictions of nineteenth-century female readers and popular culture representations of young adult female readers.

College English , Volume 77, Number 6, July 2015

512

chimerica, Yesterday and Today3

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Emerging Voices: "The pageant is the thing" 513

nn and production at 1921, the Today. fairgrounds the A of city newspaper Nina of was New Lamkin's filled article Orleans at popular, 4 describes o'clock filled the patriotic on the fairground Thursday spectacle: pageant afternoon, amphitheater "The America, amphitheater when Yesterday with the a

production of Nina Lamkin's popular, patriotic pageant America, Yesterday

and Today. A newspaper article describes the spectacle: "The amphitheater at the fairgrounds was filled at 4 o'clock on Thursday afternoon, when the

horse races followed, without extra charge, by the pageant that told the story of the

making of America." The newspaper article goes on to describe the genuine com- mitment of community members to participate in the pageant, indicating that "some

farmers and their families drove 10 miles for rehearsals of their episodes" for over a

month ("Orleans Bureau" 85). As evidenced by the article in Farm Bureau News, small

and large towns alike heartily believed in the pageant's ability to generate a spirit

of neighborliness and participation in civic duty within local communities. During the first half of the twentieth century, pageantry was wildly popular in America for

people of all ages. In 1913, William Chauncey Langdon, president of the American Pageant Association, proudly announced, "North and South, East and West, from the cities and from the hay fields, from the mountains and from the seashore - every-

where - the word 'Pageant' is heard more and more every year - even every month.

The ordinary bystander might well say, 'It is a craze!' And so it is" (Langdon). The

pageantry movement spanned 1905-1925 and reached its peak with the founding of the American Pageant Association in 1913.

The American pageant, which typically lasted two and half hours, often cel- ebrated a town's local history and involved hundreds, even thousands, of community

members gathered to perform it in public. Much as David Gold asserts in Rhetoric

at the Margins, these local histories matter, and by looking at how communities re- sponded to nationwide ideas of civic education, scholars can glimpse a more dynamic

view of the history of civic education and its contradictions. Making use of acting, music, dance, costume, and props, typical pageants consisted of different episodes

in chronological order that depicted a historic event. Locals, often amateurs, per- formed in the pageants; the pageant often celebrated their city, state, or town. A

classic pageant began with a scene of the town's origin, often featuring the founders

as Europeans who decided to immigrate to the United States. Characteristic pageant

plots also consisted of signing a peace treaty with Native Americans, a call to arms for the American Revolution, and the advent of statehood in the West. As evidenced

by the epigraph at the beginning of this article, the majority of patriotic pageants centered on the pageant hero, who depicted "the deeds of the fathers," which repro- duced traditional gender roles and assumed "whiteness" as the position of authority.

Clearly, pageants served a pedagogical function; they instructed the audience in how to perform their duties as citizens. Pride in the town and nation were the goal

of the pageant's structure and genre. No matter how the community chose to tell its

story, the pageant typically ended in a patriotic celebration to bolster pride in civic duty. The big finale often included a group singing the national anthem and waving

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514 College English

American flags. Thus, patriotic pageants served two primary purposes: to educate the

audience about American history and to teach its members about civic engagement.

Though the goal of Progressive era pageantry was touted as democratic, the real- ity reflected the complexity of the changing times - a postwar flood of immigrants, suffrage for women, and new roles for African Americans.

Based on archival documents1 from the General Federation of Women's Clubs

(GFWC), this article seeks to address the following research questions: What do the patriotic pageants sponsored by the GFWC illustrate about civic education in the Americanization era? What can we learn about civic education and the use

of particular rhetorical forms from twentieth-century pageants and organizations such as the GFWC? By exploring the organization's contribution to civic education

alongside other pageants in the same era, it is possible to better contextualize the competing histories of civic education for ourselves and our students. Greater atten-

tion to archival research can, as Amy Wan argues, "outline a way of thinking about citizenship that acknowledges the multiplicity of its definition" (30). In a recent CCC

article, "Remapping Revisionist Historiography," Gold locates the present state of feminist historical scholarship in the third wave of recovery, as do Jacqueline Jones Royster and Gesa Kirsch in the recently published Feminist Rhetorical Practices . Both

works argue that feminist historiography has moved beyond celebrating the actuality

of women's existence in history; it has moved further than "the three Rs" that involve

"rescue, recovery, or (re)inscription" (Royster and Kirsch 14).

I consider my work part of this evolving third wave of feminist historiography.

Rather than focus on simply recovering patriotic pageants sponsored by the GFWC

that have long been overlooked, this article examines the space created by pageantry that enabled hegemonic forces to collide with the desire for social reform to create

momentum for change. Beyond recovering women's rhetorical practices, this article

attempts to embrace the contradictions of clubwomen's pageants and their role in

defining civic education. Most important, it seeks to move beyond "simple narratives of heroes and villains" in order to create a more informative picture of how women

worked together to create changes in history (Gold, "Remapping" 24). In Refiguring Rhetońcal Education , Jessica Enoch shows the ways in which the

Carlisle Indian School inculcated Native Americans with the values of white society, while also demonstrating how certain female teachers resisted the dominant notions of literacy education. In Vote and Voice , Wendy Sharer illustrates the same contradic-

tory impulse within the League of Women Voters, which helped improve women's

status as citizens while at the same time rallying around the threat of illiteracy in its

attempt to target immigrant women. Both Enoch's and Sharer's studies are examples

of how scholars can engage in third-wave recovery scholarship to honor conflicting points of view and embrace unsettling observations. They use what I will call the both/and approach to feminist historiography, joining together the first and second

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Emerging Voices: "The pageant is the thing" 515

wave of recovery scholarship, to argue that sites of rhetorical education both maintain

and challenge existing power structures, which complicates our understanding of the

human agents involved. Being able to hold historical contradictions together gives us

the opportunity to see new relationships between groups of people, to imagine the difficulties involved in working for change, and to hear the complexities in conversa-

tions reflected in newspaper articles, meeting minutes, and other archival documents.

Both Nan Johnson's Gender and Rhetorical Space in American Life , 1866-1910

and Anne Gere's Intimate Practices have richly illustrated the historical amnesia that

continues to surround our legacy of female rhetors and reformers from the nineteenth

and twentieth century. If we continue to use canonical maps that exclude women based on narrow definitions of rhetorical education, we lose a rich and complicated

history of women's participation in specific, and often local, cultural moments. My

study extends the current conversation about embedded contradictions in rhetorical education into the twentieth century to focus on patriotic pageantry as a form of

civic education. However, rather than argue that clubwomen or immigrant women invented new forms of rhetorical education, I argue that the pageantry as a form of

civic education did not simply empower one group or oppress another, but rather did

both at the same time. Thus, it is up to historians to untangle the complexities and

competing themes to look for enriching contradictions present at sites of rhetorical education. It is within this uncomfortable space of both/and that the third wave of

feminist historiography can help us embrace the inherent contradictions of civic education in order to develop a clearer vision of how clubwomen in the GFWC interacted to create social and cultural changes during the Americanization era.

The Contradictions of the GFWC

and the Americanization Movement

Thousands of [immigrants] are being bootlegged into America, the vast majority be- ing malcontents from other countries, war-ridden countries where they have learned to disrespect all law. The language of these people is not our language; the heroes of these people are not our heroes; their traditions are not our traditions; their banners are not our banners. (Oswald Ryan, qtd in General Federation Nemr, July- Aug., 1925)

After being denied entrance to a dinner honoring Charles Dickens at an all-male press club, journalist Jane Croly, founder of the New York club Sorosis, extended an invitation to women's clubs throughout the United States to attend a ratification

convention in New York City. Sixty-three clubs attended and formed the GFWC in 1890. For several decades before, women in the United States had formed voluntary

organizations such as literary clubs, municipal improvement clubs, suffrage groups, and women's professional, religious, and ethnic organizations. The GFWC operated

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516 College English

as an organizational umbrella under which different types of women's clubs could

gather to discuss and identify common concerns and work together to implement social and political changes on the local, state, and national levels. The GFWC was chartered by Congress in 1901 and remains headquartered in Washington, DC.2

Although women's clubs were founded primarily as a means of self-education

and development for women, the emphasis of most local clubs gradually changed to one of community service and improvement. The GFWC hosted state, regional,

and national conventions. In general, it brought together women's clubs from across

the nation to share expertise and undertake coordinated campaigns. To conduct its

business, the GFWC held biennial national conventions throughout the United States. It established national committees to gather information on matters of most

concern to women's clubs, such as civil service reform, public education, food and

drug regulations, child labor, juvenile justice, and public health. Through these na-

tional committees and publications such as the Federation Bulletin , the organization disseminated information to its member clubs and helped coordinate their activities.

The GFWC represents one of the largest and oldest nonpartisan women's volunteer service organizations. It remains active today as one of the largest interna-

tional voluntary organizations for women.3 Eventually, each of the fifty states elected

representatives for the GFWC, which provided regional and ethnic diversity. The GFWC strived "for unity, but unity in diversity" and believed that varied experi-

ences from the representatives would benefit the collective organization. At its peak, the GFWC influenced state and national policy and received support from several presidents, including William McKinley and William Taft. By 1910, it had more than 1 million members in affiliated clubs on the local level and in state federations of women's clubs.

This article focuses specifically on the GFWC's activities surrounding citizenship

and civic duty during the era of Americanization. The Americanization movement

reflects both a complicated and a contradictory time in history where much of the nation engaged in creating a public understanding of what it meant to be a "true" American. It took place during the time defined as the Progressive era (1900-1918) and remains an understudied area of history. The GFWC was no exception, and did not escape the era's cultural imprinting. The organization's rhetorical campaign for citizenship reveals a desire to involve "outsiders" in the process of constructing a model of improved citizenry. In the emotionally charged atmosphere of World War I, the US government endorsed dozens of Americanization campaigns that focused on civic education in schools, at settlement houses, and at workplaces that

were designed to teach English, the essentials of American citizenship, employment skills, and faith in American values and institutions. Even conservative estimates

calculate that thousands of Americanization programs existed. For instance, the US

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Emerging Voices: "The pageant is the thing" 517

Bureau of Education's list of public and private agencies that engaged in some kind

of Americanization work contained at least 108 entries (McClymer 3). The GFWC's visual campaign for citizenship via patriotic pageants demonstrates

both the inventiveness and the constraint involved in creating an American identity

during the Americanization era. Pageantry provided historical continuity in the post-

World War I and post-suffrage era because it offered a way to bring past symbols

and civic rituals into the modern context of increasing immigration and fear of the

loss of democracy. While pageantry offered a simple way to perform citizenship by

acting out American civic rituals, participation in these pageants and rituals created

an illusion of consensus and community building through mass participation. The increased focus on citizenship during the Americanization era, caused in large part

by the new flood of postwar immigrants, led to a national obsession with qualifying

Americanness, and, as a result, reinforced the binary of otherness.

By the middle of the twentieth century, Americans were becoming increasingly

intolerant of nonnatives. Instead, the official emphasis in dealing with immigrant

groups changed to restriction and enforcement of exclusion. The larger public and

the GFWC differed in their approaches on how to assimilate immigrants and edu-

cate them about American citizenship. In fact, many people had difficulty defining the term Americanization even within the United States, and there was no universal

consensus on how to best integrate newly arriving immigrants. Some groups, such as

the GFWC, believed in an approach that strived for cultural pluralism and honored

immigrant customs as a part of the assimilation process, while others were more nativistic and coercive due to a perceived need for cultural conformity. For example,

in 1925 at the GFWC Los Angeles Biennial Convention, Oswald Ryan gave a xeno- phobic speech, quoted at the beginning of this section, which argued that the United

States should fear increasing immigration. Ryan's speech at the GFWC's convention

reflects a prevalent negative and fear-driven attitude toward the growing population

of foreign-born citizens. The difference between his attitude and the organization's

approach to foreign-born citizens is evidenced by the contrast in the GFWC's pro-

motional materials. Clubwomen publicly argued, "The right of the immigrant is opportunity for the same normal human and civic relationships we enjoy" ( General Federation Magazine , Mar. 1919, 21). To a certain extent, clubwomen promoted a more inclusive ideology of citizenship by advocating that native and foreign-born citizens should share the same rights and civic relationships.

Another reaction to increasing immigration in the United States during the Americanization era was the establishment of numerous programs explicitly aimed at changing immigrants' social and cultural values. Many programs attempted to transform the newly arriving immigrants, women in particular, by offering free "edu-

cational" services including instruction on food preparation, personal hygiene, infant

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518 College English

care, and domestic labor. The primary goal of most Americanization programs was to

ensure the cultural allegiance of immigrants to the United States after their arrival.

The GFWC used pageantry as one such attempt to educate and engage immigrants.

These pageants both promoted and resisted racist ideas of citizenship by supporting

cultural pluralism and reproducing notions of whiteness and obedience. And yet, as

opposed to other Americanization efforts, the GFWC's selection of pageants reveals

an attitude of inclusion and expansion in terms of constructing a new definition of

citizenship. An overall examination of the civic pageants endorsed by the GFWC identifies several recurrent themes: desire for unity, struggle between the old and

new worlds, national prejudices against immigrants, and American imperialism.

The GFWC's relationship to civic education was strong enough that the orga- nization established a nationwide holiday and a public way to celebrate citizenship on

the fourth of July. Archival records indicate the GFWC promoted Citizenship Day

from at least 1 9 1 5-1 92 3 . One article written in General Federation Magazine , August

1916, encourages "every federated club [. . .] to initiate or promote the celebration of

July Fourth in each community as a public citizenship day" (38). Another article, "A

Public Citizenship Day," advised clubwomen, "Many civic organizations throughout the country are earnestly desiring the women to take up this piece of patriotic en-

deavor" {General Federation Magazine, June 1918, 38). The primary purpose of the

holiday was to celebrate American citizenship and build national solidarity. In 1922,

the GFWC established national "Citizenship Day," which was to take place every fourth of July. Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker, GFWC past president and chairman of

the Department of American Citizenship, believed that the fourth of July should

be celebrated in a more dignified manner: "She was unhappy with the more vulgar

Fourth of July celebrations and proposed that the day be observed as Citizens Day - a

time to reflect on what it really means to be American" (Cooper). As a result, the

GFWC proposed an annual celebration of the holiday, including the performance of a pageant by fellow clubwoman and reformer Mrs. Albion Fellows Bacon, who was commissioned for the project. President Warren G. Harding supported the or-

ganization's efforts to increase pageant performances from 300 to several thousand communities in future years. In a signed letter to the GFWC, President Harding wrote, "I cannot but feel that the cause of civic betterment and of larger and truer

appreciation of citizenship obligations, would be splendidly served by the general adoption of your proposal" (GFWC, "Citizenship Day Program" 1922).

The pageant and Citizenship Day were designed to consecrate "the old ideals of honor, patriotism, and courage that have always lived in the pages of [American] history - [to be] a great Citizenship Day, for all classes of Americans, those born on American soil as well as those who have come from foreign lands" ("Supplement to

Citizenship Day Program 2). The GFWC promoted a celebration that emphasized a great need for a unified America. Bacon's ceremonial pageant uses songs to represent

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Emerging Voices: "The pageant is the thing" 519

each abstract idea. For example, the pageant contains "The Song of Justice," "The Song of History," and "The Song of Liberty." Each song and accompanying im- age was meant to reinforce the abstract concept of an American ideal. For instance,

"The Song of History" encourages the audience to learn the history of American heroes: "Attend, ye people, unto what I show you. / Gaze upon the visions of the past. / Behold these great ones whom our country honored, / And learn the glorious

lessons of their lives" (GFWC, "Citizenship Day Program" 6). The patriotic pageant's purpose was to illustrate American history in order to

bring it to life for large groups of people across the United States. Music, allegorical

characters, and visual images helped the GFWC achieve its goal. While Liberty sang,

"It was for this your fathers gladly died, / More than all else the world could give

beside, / Dearer than any treasure that may be / Is Liberty, is Liberty," the crowd

simultaneously witnessed "living pictures," "historical tableaux," and "copies of great

paintings," which depicted events such as the pilgrims' landing, historical scenes from early colonial times, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Betsy Ross sewing the American flag, and local heroes or patriots (GFWC, "Citizenship Day Program"5-6). The pageant relied heavily on symbolism and personification, as did the majority of pageants. The cast of characters included Columbia, Justice,

Liberty, Opportunity, and History. However, in a departure from standard pageantry,

Citizenship Day created a collaborative scene with "responsive reading that engaged the entire audience in a ritual affirmation of patriotism" (Barrows 165). At the end of

the pageant, the newly naturalized foreign-born citizens take an oath to support the

Constitution, laws of the United States, and to give their true allegiance to country.

They are asked by the Magistrate, "Do you solemnly swear to support the Consti- tution of the United States, and pledge allegiance to your flag and your country?"

In unison, the new citizens answer, "We do. One country. One language. One flag. One God, to whom be praise forever more" (GFWC, "Citizenship Day Program" 12). The Citizenship Day pageant closes with Columbia proclaiming, "We welcome you, our new foreign-born citizens, who bring us gifts of song, of literature, art and

invention, gifts of industry and thrift, of high purpose and noble achievement" (13).

It is significant that the GFWC sponsored a patriotic pageant about citizen- ship that attempted to include and honor new foreign-born citizens, which was well

received and widely seen. A 1918 article published in The American City , titled "A Public Citizenship Day on July Fourth," supports the GFWC's proposed program:

It is hoped that such an occasion will promote patriotism, increase the understanding of American ideals and impress each new citizen with a sense of his civic responsibili- ties. Such a day participated in by the whole community will also be productive of greater social solidarity and a more conscious community spirit. The club movement is so extensive and the women are so interested in civic enterprise that their adaption of a resolution to urge every federated club to promote a public Citizenship Day in

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520 College English

each Community, should make it quite certain that July Fourth of this year will see a nationwide celebration in honor of American citizenship. (Grant and Buttenheim, 553)

Despite intended goodwill, the contradiction, of course, remains that the pageant reinforced the idea of total unity as illustrated in the quotation from the

pageant mentioned earlier: "One country. One language. One flag. One God." This left little room for tolerating otherness or difference, essentially implying the

quintessential erasure of immigrant identities. Although pageantry offered a means

to express abstract ideals and real tensions by personifying subjects like fear, culture,

and prejudice as characters dressed in varying colors and costumes, and allowed for

a dialogue about citizenship in which more people could participate, it also invoked

conformity as the imaginary ideal and whiteness as the assumed position of authority.

In other words, the pageant offered a space to publicly rehearse complicated feelings

about immigration, but it also instilled the values, moral codes, and worldviews of the white elite.

Pageantry as a Visual or Graphic Representation

of Citizenship within the GFWC

In this pageantry of shawls from the orient and the occident, the past and the pres- ent, we see that with different customs and costumes, nevertheless the women of all

countries are united (Irene Crandall, My Lady's Shawl , emphasis added).

In 1925, the GFWC circulated its pamphlet^ Bibliography of Pageants, Masques , Plays , which advocated patriotic pageants and guides to educate the public on the organization's ideology of citizenship and civic duties through visual rhetoric. Pag-

eantry allowed for a visual representation of citizenship that provided a new rhetoric,

often without words. Elena Creef argues, "In times of national crisis we take refuge

in the visual construction of citizenship in order to imagine ourselves as part of a

larger, cohesive, national American community" (9). Although pageantry offered a simple way to perform citizenship, participation in these pageants and rituals cre-

ated an appearance of consensus and community building through mass participa- tion. Visual representations of citizenship, or what noted pageant designer Hazel MacKaye called "graphic," made it easier for some native and nonnative speakers to identify with American history and traditions.4 The majority of immigrants could

not yet read in English, so the pageant offered a symbolic and visual interpretation of American civic life.

One illustration of the visual representation of civic education is evident in the pageant My Lady's Shawl . In 1921 the GFWC sponsored Irene CrandalPs My Lady's Shawl , which was performed for many organizations across the United States including women's clubs, Daughters of the American Revolution chapters, and the

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Emerging Voices: "The pageant is the thing" 521

Illinois Women's Press Association. CrandalPs popular pageant emphasized diversity

and unity, which aligned with the GFWC's mission statement. In the quotation at the beginning of this section, the narrator of the pageant emphasizes the primary

purpose of the pageant: a visual attempt to unify women from different countries

through colorful and unique clothing. My Lady's Shawl includes seventeen episodes

and was designed to be easily adaptable, allowing for a range of participants from a

dozen to 100, depending on the number of shawls used and countries represented.

The characters were women wearing the costumes and shawls of their native lands,

while each scene included music, songs, and dances of the different countries. Ac-

cording to one newspaper article from the era, representatives from chosen countries

performed monologues, piano solos, and songs such as "That's an Irish Lullaby" and

"When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" ( Daily Courier 4).

In Connellsville, Pennsylvania, members of the Woman's Culture Club held an annual tea and performed My Lady's Shawl , which was "open to guests and the

large auditorium was filled to capacity" ( Daily Courier 4). The news article goes on

to say, "Draped over several screens on the stage were rare and beautiful shawls in

many colorful designs, providing a striking and appropriate setting for the pageant

(4). Scholar Kate Adams notes, "In the pageant, seeing was more important than hearing: scenes integrated movement, color, and sound: dialogue as short and simple;

gestures large and meaningful" (Adams, Keene, and Koella 15). In Crandall's pageant

performed by clubwomen, " [s]hawls, similar to those exhibited, were worn by women

appearing in the cast" (Daily Courier 4). Interestingly, the news article indicates that

no immigrants participated, and the shawls were provided on loan from clubwomen,

so it is likely they were not authentic. The atmosphere is also carefully described:

"Tasty refreshments were served, the tea table appointments being unusually attrac- tive. An exquisite cover was used and decorations included three rounds of colorful

spring flowers intermingled with candles in pastel shades, in crystal holders" (4). Interestingly, a heavy emphasis is placed on the visual setting and overall decorative

effect because it conveys a comfortable, yet plush background for the clubwomen's

annual tea. Members of the GFWC used pageants like Crandall's to create a vision of ideal American citizenship that could reach the most people. One clubwoman proclaimed, "I know of no way to bring people together and build into them a sense

of lofty emotions shared, of political idealism, of noble patriotism, more effectively

than through the enactment of a pageant (GFWC, General Federation Magazine, Nov. 1918, 26).

Another example of visual representation as an element of civic education is found in Lamkin's pageant, America , Yesterday and Today , discussed briefly in the introduction. Lamkin's pageant begins with "Spirit of Indian Days," which attempts to capture gratitude toward the earth and abundant resources. The first scene fea-

tures a "Corn Dance." Participants dance and chant: "Kitchemanedo, / Master of

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522 College English

Life, / Kitchemanedo / Sent us the corn" (8). The next episode of the pageant is tided "Spirit of the Wilderness," which is represented by natural elements including characters dressed as butterflies, daisies, poppies, and bluebirds. The final episode,

"Spirit of Patriotism," ends in the emergence of pioneer men, women, and children

from the wilderness. The City of New Orleans reports, "The entire assemblage sung

'Stars and Stripes Forever' at the close of the pageant's final scene, where various groups pledged loyalty to America" (Lamkin America 8).

ni I - r ->.W' i V rMu. HJl.* CIRI* IF* Hi AJLLLGIÀNCC TD Vf ICA. -li , r <, >.>*■. s> » •!«#, Í"í -<-¡ "M Uji-iJi i "Vint "vilk urlivi: H«łd";rf fA f ī )>„- „ä!<j «flui- ssi ti«? ^afeaitL Tress *œâ sbratóery placed ta&kte ti» u' k beltseá m áuĚna fb.« ssi^fe -smd tfee exsf* Md K n * ¡-H lìf.cx. I !•; ilwis !.u;. !S J íí l ti«: l&fi eša h i.: »íííís ilíiiá pu:»« ¿it? r » rsîn

Source: "Orleans Bureau Puts on Pageant: The Story oí America, Yesterday and Today , Told in Dramatic Form at County Fair," Extension Service News and Farm Bureau News , Vols. 1-4 (192 1): 85.

Lamkin's pageant also features detailed costume instructions for "An Indian Brave" and "An Indian Woman." It is worth quoting Lamkin's instructions at length

because they speak to the heightened significance of visual elements in pageants. Consider the description of a Native American woman:

She may have the blanket draped with perhaps a bright skirt showing beneath beads as described above headband with not more than one feather in it. In many tribes the single feather was not allowed until the maiden had been married. The head bands of the Cherokee women and those of several other tribes have small feathers extending from the band down over the ears also short loops of beads used in same way. A wig may be made from the top of a stocking tied into a cap for the foundation. The rest of the stocking should be cut into six strands braided in two braids and fastened to the cap. Braid a bright ribbon in at end and tie. The headband over this gives the effect of a braided hair wig. It can also be made as was the brave's with hair hemp rope braided in two strands. Dark haired Indians need no wigs. We often select dark haired women for Indians but this is not always possible ("Inexpensive Costumes for Plays" 79).

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Emerging Voices: "The pageant is the thing" 523

Postcolonial scholars have noted that popular culture has come to recognize "Indians"

by the visual representations that the colonial entertainment industry has attached

to them, including symbols such as the feather headdress, tomahawks, totem poles,

buckskin dresses, and braids - many of which tend to appear in the same Indian story,

regardless of tribe or region (Lyytinen 91).

Other scholars have argued that many pageant directors "portrayed white dis-

placement of Indians as a friendly, legitimate business deal" (Glassberg 142). How- ever, Lamkin also argues that "[l]iteral accuracy for large groups is almost impossible."

She points out that the overarching purpose is to "[g]ive the foreign-born a stake

in the community" and reflect "[h]umanity is sound at the core" ( America 80). The

GFWC believed that these sorts of pageants offered a visual interpretation of the domestic and social history of diverse people throughout the ages. Such a pageant,

they assumed, would teach both immigrants and the native born the value of creating

a new fusion of national values that could be shared by all citizens. However, some

critics have argued for the widespread failure of cultural pluralism through patron-

izing gestures like these, which functioned to simply reinforce dominant cultural

hierarchies. Historian Gayle Gullet describes the process in this way:

The pageant at the Homeland Exhibit, however, like similar events presented by setdement workers and teachers in neighborhood schools, failed to offer a message of pluralism. Instead, these pageants functioned as Americanization rituals in which immigrants presented themselves in native costume to native-born officials who symbolically decided whether to accept them and their arts into American society [. . .] They decided which immigrant gifts to accept and the meaning of those gifts for the larger society. (229)

Although the GFWC sought to reshape the complicated Progressive era under- standing of who was a "good" citizen through pageants like Lamkin's, they perhaps

unintentionally reinscribed a hierarchy of citizenship that signified white, masculine

values as the ideal and rendered first-class citizenship unobtainable to groups such as immigrants.

Competing Ideas of Citizenship in the Progressive Era

[T]he Pageant is the thing. This is what the people want and long for. This is the gown and paraphernalia in which the message of education and reasonable race pride can deck itself. (Du Bois, The Star of Ethiopia)

As the GFWC promoted a method of civic education whereby history could be taught through pictures and drama, other organizers adopted the rhetorical form

for different purposes. For example, W. E. B. Du Bois's pageant originally titled The

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524 College English

People of Peoples and Their Gifts to Men in New York (1913) and later performed as

The Star of Ethiopia, which was attended by thousands in Washington, DC (1915), Philadelphia (1916), and Los Angeles (1925), sought to visually create a narrative of

African Americans as a part of history rather than a race without history (Colbert 48).

Du Bois's pageant differed from the GFWC's patriotic pageants in several important

ways. First, the pageant was larger in historical scope; it created an international landscape instead of retelling a local history. It was also designed to counter racist

images of African Americans. Scholars have pointed out that during this time period,

prevailing images of blackness were either "dangerous" or "buffoonish" (Colbert 57). Du Bois's pageant was also "meant to change the historical narrative assigned to African Americans in the United States during the Progressive Era and, by exten-

sion, to create a new cultural memory of African American history" (Hewett 188).

So although both the GFWC and Du Bois used the pageant as a rhetorical form in a belief that civic education was a key feature of social reform, the goals and chal-

lenges were vastly different because they presented competing ideas of citizenship by creating alternate representations of history.

However, it is also important to note that although The Star of Ethiopia sought

to counter racist stereotypes and challenge traditional images of whiteness, it also fits

within the both/and contradiction of the GFWC's patriotic pageants. As one scholar argues, "Du Bois simultaneously created and promoted an image of black women that attempted to mirror the public image of the virtuous and chaste middle-class

white women during the Progressive Era" (Hewett 188). Although Progressive era pageants were meant to educate and inspire change, they often functioned as disci-

plinary tools that instructed and reinforced values of the status quo.

Another example of an alternative use of pageantry during the Progressive era,

yet one that is also an example of the both/and contradiction, is the suffrage pageant.

On March 3,1913, the National American Woman Suffrage Association sponsored the first national woman's suffrage pageant in New York. The pageant procession depicted several sections that included "the herald carrying the suffrage banner demanding a constitutional amendment enfranchising all women," along with nine women who dressed in white to represent the states where women could vote and

thirty-nine women dressed in black to show the states in which "women had no politi-

cal voice" (Moore 93). Sarah Moore has argued that organizers of and participants in

the suffrage pageant "stood completely outside of conventional standards of feminine

behavior and propriety while negotiating new definitions and boundaries of women's

roles in society" (89). However, other scholars have pointed out the contradictions involved in using the traditional, feminine ideal of beauty in order to win the right to vote. Jennifer Borda writes that "the images reinforced and challenged definitions

of women's femininity and place in the public sphere" (27). Black women were also

denied participation in certain suffrage pageants (Simonson 67).

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Emerging Voices: "The pageant is the thing" 525

Limitations of the Rhetorical Form

The club movement exemplifies the both/and contradictions inherent in civic educa-

tion. According to Mary Simonson, "In practice, of course, pageants are hardly as inclusive or progressive as the rhetoric surrounding them suggests. Despite claims

that pageants facilitated 'mixing with one's fellows,' casts tended to be homogenous.

Immigrants were often excluded from pageant narratives, despite being the target audience." She notes that the "few black and Native American characters that were

included tended to be performed by white actors in feathers or blackface" and that "cautions were even raised about the sorts of women featured in pageant narratives,

despite women's centrality to the movement." Simonson points out that one hand-

book goes so far as to suggest that women "like Betsy Ross, Martha Washington, and Dolly Madison, all of whom had turned their backs 'upon the domestic virtues in the feverish reach for sensational publicity,' should be omitted from pageants in

favor of female characters who 'uphold the sweetness, charm, and sanctity of the

home' for their husbands and fathers" (52; emphasis added).

To a certain extent, members of the GFWC rejected women's traditional citizenship status as constructed in the United States. They no longer relied on the male of the household to speak for the family; instead, clubwomen fought for the

ability of women to speak for themselves by shaping state policy and contributing to

the dialogue surrounding American nationalism. At the same time, clubwomen often continued to link women's citizenship to the home and privileged the idea of white

citizenship, which meant immigrants could never be truly equal nor could women be

equal to men. Although the GFWC sought to reshape the complicated Progressive era understanding of who was a legitimate citizen, the organization reinscribed a hierarchy of citizenship that signified white, masculine values as the ideal and ren-

dered first-class citizenship forever unobtainable to groups such as women, African

Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants. The premise was that better Ameri-

can citizenship depended on an educated or informed democracy, which required an effort to bring people together. While pageantry reified some paternalistic and

hegemonic visions of America, it also represented a process of social reform whereby

the GFWC hoped to break down the ideological differences and barriers of race and class (Prevots 2).5 Pageants represent a space where the paternalistic or hegemonic

and the desire for social reform collide, and where energy for change was created. In the foreword to Beyond the Archives, Lucille Schultz reminds us that research,

especially archival research, is a lived process full of uncompromising, unexpected twists and turns. Archival research as a methodology is in direct opposition to a seamless process whereby materials are catalogued, organized, and can be systemati- cally requested and reviewed. It is a messy endeavor; as Gold notes, "It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, except that you don't have a picture on the box for reference,

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526 College English

there's more than one puzzle in the box, [and] the picture keeps changing depending

on how you fit the pieces together." ("Accidental Archivist" 1 5). I began this research

expecting to find the ways in which the GFWC promoted civic education during the

Americanization era, with the assumption that although all forms of civic education

would not necessarily be unified, a particular outcome was guaranteed. For example,

I thought I would either argue that the GFWC used patriotic pageants to challenge existing power structures, or that clubwomen, via pageantry, reinforced traditional

images of whiteness that bolstered their own interests and perpetuated white political

privilege. Instead what I found, and what I have attempted to explore in this essay, is

that I was both right and wrong, that historiography is inherently both/and.

The era of patriotic pageantry dwindled by the start of World War II. However,

the pageants' visual depictions of history have created a lasting impression. Examined

alongside Du Bois's The Star of Ethiopia and The National Woman Suffrage Pageant , the GFWC's use of patriotic pageants reveals the same contradictory impulses that

can be viewed as a reflection of the paradox of twentieth-century politics. Historian

David Glassberg notes, "Since every way seeing the world - past and present - ex- cludes hundreds of alternatives from view, the power to define what particular ver-

sion of history becomes the public history is an awesome power indeed" (2). And as

Eric Leake points out, "Citizenship is a longstanding concern within the Western rhetorical tradition [. . .] The goal of teaching students to be better citizens for the

good of the democracy is often included not only in the objectives of course syllabi

but also in the mission statements of writing programs and universities." Pageants

offer a means to illustrate the affordances and limitations of choosing one rhetorical

form over another. Instead of privileging one group's idea of citizenship over another,

our challenge as educators is to teach students to contextualize and historicize their

definitions in light of contradictory ways of seeing the world.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge Nan Johnson for her significant contribution to various phases of this project. I would also like to thank the reviewers, editor, and staff of College English for their invaluable feedback and editorial assistance.

Notes

1 . 1 spent a week at the GFWC's Women's History and Research Center, located inside the orga- nization's headquarters in Washington, DC, collecting the archival documents discussed in this article: pamphlets, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, meeting minutes, convention programs, and more.

2. The earliest history of the GFWC is chronicled by Croly in The History of the Woman's Club Movement in America , which provides chapters on representative clubs such as the Chicago Women's Club and also talks about the efforts involved in establishing the GFWC. Mary Wood's The History of the General Federation of Women's Clubs for the First Twenty-Two Years of Its Organization provides the next

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Emerging Voices: "The pageant is the thing"

major study of the organization. Finally, Mary Jean Houde's Reaching Out provides the most recent his- tory of the organization and charts the organization's changes and continuities between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

3. In 2015, much of the GFWC's agenda remains the same. The organization has continually sup- ported education, civic involvement, and women's rights. The GFWC advocates community improve- ment at the district, state, regional, and national levels. With over 100,000 members, clubwomen "work locally to create global change" (GFWC, "Who We Are"). More work is needed on the GFWC's current activities; it remains a rich repository for examining women's rhetorical activities.

4. MacKaye was a famous pageant designer who created all of the pageants used in the National American Woman Suffrage Association movement during the early 1900s. She was also the sister of Percy MacKaye, an acclaimed writer of pageants and masques (See Prevots 96).

5. It is impossible to judge the success or failure of the GFWC's attempt to eliminate ideologi- cal differences or break down racial barriers. In American Pageantry , Naima Prevots argues that social reformers who used pageantry as a vehicle for social and artistic change had a mixed record of success.

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