Exhibition Docent Handbook - Museum on Main Street

THINK ABOUT ITEncourage your visitors to compare John White’s1585-86 watercolor of the Indian village Secotonand the painting of Jamestown, Virginia, as it mayhave appeared in 1614. Ask them to consider theuses of the fences in each image and the impactof colonization on the landscape.LET’S TALK• John Winthrop wrote in 1629 that Native Americans“ruleth over many lands without title or property . . .they inclose no ground.” How do you think colonistsviewed this approach to the land? How do you thinkthis difference may have affected relationshipsbetween the two groups?• Take a look at the tall stakes or pales on theexhibition panel and imagine an entire fence builtfrom such stakes. How would you respond to this typeof fence? Can you find a similar fence type in theimages here? Why do you think the triangular palisade(fence of pales) at Jamestown was built?• The suburban picket fence may have had its originsin this type of defensive palisade. Do you thinkthat palisades and picket fences have the samefunction? Today, what kinds of fences serve the samefunction as palisades?• What do you think the 1734 and 1793 imagesof America’s colonial landscape tell you about theimpact of fences on the new country? (Hints: typesof fences, deforestation, definition of property,city planning, relationship between cultures.)• Rectangular land surveys, like the one in Wisconsin,have been called a “vicious mode” of dividing landand a way to achieve “neatness, order, and stability.”(Quotes are located behind the slider of Iowa farms.)Why do you think the surveys were considered“vicious”? Do you think order and neatness arebeneficial to communities? Why or why not? Do youthink that rectangular land surveys encouragedisolation or prevented conflict among neighbors?