Esther Griffin White

I often wonder about statements that romanticize the past. Politicians across the spectrum equally talk about the good old days, that we need to return to the days where everyone lived in harmony, crime was negligible, parents and children never found themselves at odds, and so on. I hear such talk at the local level and certainly the national level. Or sometimes you who that the past does not matter and is better left ignored and forgotten.  Would returning to the past make life better? What about looking to the past for inspiration? Should we ignore the past so we can move on to the future?

This semester at Earlham College, a small group of students are tackling this issue head on. The students are researching Richmondite Esther Griffin White. Earlham has a significant amount of original manuscript material on Esther, and the students will also create an online exhibit that places Esther’s life into the context of the early twentieth century. Esther Griffin White was an outspoken writer, community activist, arts champion, and as George Blakey wrote in an excellent article about her, “an awakener of Hoosier Potential.”

The students find her “sassy”, “ahead of her times,” and “ a character.” They have wondered if Esther was born into the wrong era, or what she would have done with her life had she born into a time when women had more opportunities to pursue their interests. While admiring her, the students are also mindful of their own biases of wanting to like Esther: Esther was not perfect and could cause problems as much as she tried to solve them. The students are excited about finding ways to share what they have learned with the Richmond community outside of Earlham; the project is not simply a course they are taking for credit, but a way to engage and be a part of the city they have chosen to live in for four years.

We need to take that inspiration we find in the past as a model for building a better future. And we cannot ignore the challenges of the past. By studying history we also learn what did not work, and how many people were excluded from sharing in past successes–African-Americans and women, for example. We must allow ourselves to be both challenged and inspired by the past to create the community we want. The students are learning about  Richmond’s history from Esther’s collection. They are amazed at the journalistic heritage, are surprised about performers, artists, and speakers that came to town, and have discovered a thriving community that sometimes accepted Esther and sometimes frowned upon her. The students plan on making most of our collection of Esther’s papers available for viewing online, along with explanatory notes about Richmond’s history and Esther’s life.

Trying to change a community for the better can often result in feelings of wishing you had been born in the future where things might be better, or living in the past when we see a strong community existing. The truth is we do not not know what the future will bring, nor do we truly understand what it is what like to live in a certain time period. We can however take inspiration in the past from leaders and individuals like Esther that pushed for a progressive Richmond. Esther desired and promoted a Richmond with a vibrant arts community, a Richmond in which all people could be part of the political process, a Richmond where ideas could be shared to lead to a better future. I am proud of these hard working students who are seeking to bring part of Richmond’s history to light, and share it with the community.