[00:00.00]FEMALE PROFESSOR: It's interesting how much we can learn about culture in the United States by looking at how Christopher Columbus has been portrayed throughout United States history. [00:10.03]So let's start at the beginning.
[00:12.23]Columbus' ships first landed in, uh, landed in the Caribbean—[00:17.09]there's some debate about which island—[00:19.36]he landed in 1492 but it wasn't until 300 years later, in 1792, that his landing was first commemorated. [00:29.70]And this was the brainchild of John Pintard.
[00:33.69]Pintard was a wealthy New Yorker, the founder of the New York Historical Society. [00:39.88]And he decided to use his influence and wealth to, um, to find a great hero, a patron for the young country. [00:47.54]And he chose Columbus.
[00:49.68]And in New York in 1792, the anniversary of Columbus' landing was commemorated for the first time.[00:57.84]Other cities, uh, Philadelphia and then Baltimore followed and …
[01:03.48]MALE STUDENT: But why Columbus? [01:05.10]And why then?
[01:06.22]FEMALE PROFESSOR: Well, to Pintard, it was a way to build patriotism in the young, politically fractured country. [01:13.07]Remember, the United States had only declared its independence from Britain 16 years earlier and had yet to form a national identity.
[01:22.85]Pintard also had a hand in helping to create Independence Day—July fourth—as a national holiday. [01:30.16]So you see that he was very involved in creating sort of a “national story” for Americans. [01:37.83]And Columbus … he felt Columbus could become a story that Americans could tell each other about their national origins that was outside of the British colonial context. [01:51.15]The United States was in search of a national identity, [01:55.49]and its people wanted heroes.
[01:58.65]MALE STUDENT: But why not some of the leaders of the revolution? [02:01.52]You know, like George Washington?
[02:03.14]FEMALE PROFESSOR: The leaders of the Revolution were the natural candidates to be heroes. But, many were still alive and didn't want the job. [02:11.02]To them, being raised to hero status was undemocratic. [02:15.74]So Columbus became the hero, [02:17.61]and the link between Columbus and the United States took hold.
[02:22.42]FEMALE STUDENT: And so what was that link?
[02:25.66]FEMALE PROFESSOR: Well, Columbus was portrayed as entrepreneurial, someone who took chances, who took risks … And he was cast as somebody who was opposed to the rule of kings and queens. [02:39.22]Perhaps most of all, Columbus was portrayed as someone who was destined to accomplish things. Just as America in those early years was coming to see itself as having a great destiny.
[02:52.59]FEMALE STUDENT: But Columbus was supported by the king and queen of Spain, [02:56.46]he wasn't against them.
[02:57.79] FEMALE PROFESSOR: True. To be historically accurate, the way Pintard thought about Columbus doesn't match up with the facts of his life at all. [03:05.86]And I really have to stress this: the fact that Columbus became the hero of the young country had little to do with Columbus—anything he did—and a lot to do with what was happening in the United States 300 years later.
[03:21.96]Columbus was extraordinarily adaptable to the purposes of America's nation builders—people like John Pintard—in the early part of the nineteenth century. [03:33.11]And since not a lot of facts were known about Columbus … his writings weren't available in North America until, until 1816 … [03:42.77]that might have actually helped the process of adapting him to American purposes.
[03:48.99]MALE STUDENT: Since no one knew much about the “real” Columbus, it was easy to invent a mythical one?
[03:54.03]FEMALE PROFESSOR: Exactly. And this “mythical Columbus,” it … it became a reflection of the society which chose him.
[04:02.99]So, in the early history of the United States, Columbus represented an escape from the political institutions of Europe; [04:11.36]he was the solitary individual who challenged the unknown. [04:16.44]And now there was this new democracy, this new country in a world without kings. [04:23.69]Columbus became sort of the mythical founder of the country.
[04:28.57]So, as historians, we wouldn’t want to study these myths about Columbus and mistake them for facts about Columbus. [04:36.40]But if we’re trying to understand American culture, then we can learn much by studying how America adapts Columbus for its own purposes.
[04:46.54]Evaluations of Columbus, then, will reflect what Americans think of themselves. [04:52.59]Oh . . . there's a quote … something like … “societies reconstruct their past rather than faithfully record it.” [05:01.17]And how that reconstruction takes place, and what it tells us … that's something we're going to be paying a lot of attention to …
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