Newswise — The Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place and Culture at Franklin Pierce College http://www.fpc.edu/monadnockinstitute/ has been gathering significant community history from local residents, senior citizens and writers for more than six years. The culmination of the efforts of faculty members, students and staff is the publication of Where the Mountain Stands Alone, a just-released anthology of regional stories published by University Press of New England.
The 350 page book, organized around historical and contemporary local-story themes, features previously unpublished work by some of New England's finest writers, together with oral history, historical photographs, maps and pen-and-ink illustrations.
The project is designed to serve as a model for other communities, seeking to preserve the unique essence that makes them special—at a time when strip malls and gated communities seem to replace local resources, gathering places and regional treasures every day. Author Scott Russell Sanders calls the project "a leading example in a nationwide reawakening to the importance of place."
Where the Mountain Stands Alone chronicles and celebrates the people and places in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. Focused on the towns in sight of Mount Monadnock (the college is located near the base of Monadnock, widely recognized as the nation's most-climbed mountain), the volume features essays, recollections, historical documents and photographs to tell the story of life as it was once lived, and as it is lived today. The name "Monadnock means "mountain that stands alone" in the Algonquin language.
The college is also launching an interactive Web site, where more stories and information can be gathered, archived, shared, studied on campus and in local high schools and presented to the online community: http://www.monadnockstories.org/According to author Howard Mansfield, Where the Mountain Stands Alone mixes history, memoir, geology and geography. "We do not present a straight history, a recitation of dates and facts," he says. But rather, Where the Mountain Stands Alone represents six years of research and the works of 36 local authors, photographers and illustrators. It also reflects extensive efforts by Franklin Pierce faculty and students to preserve a sense of place and historical continuity in a corner of the New England that has remained relatively free of commercial sprawl and cultural homogenization.
Available from the University Press of New England, the lavishly-illustrated 350-page collection includes new work by established regional authors including Jane Brox, Ernest Hebert, Janisse Ray, Tom Wessels, Sy Montgomery and Richard Ober. According to anthology editor Howard Mansfield, Where the Mountain Stands Alone "captures the elusive feel of one place as it exists in the intersection of political and family history, landscape, destinations, expectations, weather and time."
Professor John Harris, executive director of the Monadnock Institute at Franklin Pierce College, said the book will be a testament to the distinctiveness of the region and an important contribution to its history. "Across the country, there is renewed interest in place-based literature " particularly as society has become more mobile and communities realize that their distinctiveness and oral traditions risk being lost," Harris said. "We believe this project can serve as a model for other regions looking to preserve their identities and encourage stewardship of their historical resources."
Franklin Pierce students who participated in the work also gained an appreciation for their elders and a vanished lifestyle, says Harris. They interviewed and recorded stories from natives who worked in factories and industries that have long since closed their doors. These young people now own these stories too and are able to pass them along through personal conversation and the published anthology " saving these unique insights from perhaps being lost forever.
Funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities, together with support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the N.H. Charitable Foundation, the Putnam Foundation, and the New Hampshire Humanities Council, have been essential to the success of this project, which has helped Franklin Pierce College students gain a deeper sense of the region where their college is located.
The anthology project and the Monadnock Institute's entire body of work can serve as a model for local communities looking to preserve their identities and encourage stewardship of historical resources. Place studies and place-based literature are growing fields in society and academia, particularly in light of commercial sprawl, cultural homogenization and social mobility which has caused a disconnect between the generations. Without intentional effort, there is danger that certain stories and traditions will be lost and be unrecoverable. Another model project, along somewhat similar lines, is the Hub City project in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
The Monadnock Institute at Franklin Pierce College is one of the few academic institutes that focuses exclusively on place studies--including literature, culture, food, traditions, structures, topography--and everything else that connects people with their land.
This project and its philosophical underpinnings (valuing the experience of the "common person" ) has given an older generation of individuals a renewed sense of significance. Many of these stories focus on the blue-collar worker and those who lived quiet lives providing for their families. The anthology captures stories from quarry workers, people who worked on Civilian Conservations Corps projects, railroad workers from long abandoned train lines and others. "These are people who would otherwise have lived and died in obscurity," notes Harris, "and their insights and recollections would be been lost forever."
The project has also built bridges between the younger generation and its elders, according to Harris. "By engendering intergenerational conversations, this project has broken down barriers and created a sense of community and common history," he says. He and other Franklin Pierce faculty members expect that students involved in this project will become "place practitioners" wherever they eventually live and carry out their professions.
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