Heritage tourism is defined as “travel concerned with experiencing the visual and performing arts, heritage buildings, areas, landscapes, and special lifestyles, values, traditions and events” and includes “handicrafts, language, gastronomy, art and music, architecture, sense of place, historic sites, festivals and events, heritage resources, the nature of the work environment and technology, religion, education, and dress.”1 Individuals tour for many reasons and each seeks their own variety of fulfillment. To accommodate these needs, museums, parks, historic sites, and cities present their heritage in ways that are both educating and entertaining for people of all ages, classes, genders, and ethnicities. This thesis project, based at Oak Grove Cemetery, represents a convergence of heritage tourism and cemeteries as a destination point, a historic site, and location of material culture. The combination of heritage tourism sites in Nacogdoches with archival and artifactual primary sources, and the graves of individuals buried in Oak Grove Cemetery creates a more robust heritage tourism program. Tourists will have access to a an expanded narrative of the history of Nacogdoches and the lives of its citizens.2 By bringing tourism to Oak Grove,
visitors will find that there is much to learn from a cemetery and hopefully be inspired to visit others and support cemetery preservation The History of Heritage Tourism Some historians consider Herodotus to be the first tourist. He travelled around the Mediterranean in the fifth century B.C. to learn about other cultures and gratify his curiosity about the world beyond Greece. 3 Starting in the second century A.D., Romans began an early form of heritage tourism by travelling to Greece, where they observed art, theatre, philosophers, and high culture.4 The Romans continued this tradition of travel sporadically, depending on wars, for over a thousand years, visiting locations around the Mediterranean.5 In 1200 A.D.,
the Roman Catholic Church encouraged everyone to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and other holy sites such as Canterbury, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela. 6 Between 1200 and 1300 A.D., all social classes made pilgrimages to the Holy Land to witness its beauty, experience an exotic culture, eat unfamiliar foods, and purchase souvenirs. Pilgrims often preferred to travel in groups such as the one in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and by the fifteenth century,
a new business was created, the all-inclusive tour from Venice to the Holy Land. 7 These tours included travel with a guide, the safety of a group, board, excursions, and meals. According to Maxine Feifer, in the sixteenth century the Protestant Reformation quelled the popularity of tourism to holy shrines and tourism soon transformed from a holy pilgrimage to a learning and sightseeing tour.8 Tourists of the Elizabethan period were primarily young, unmarried, wealthy, Englishmen fresh out of university, who travelled not only for entertainment and debauchery, which there was plenty of, but also to seek knowledge.9 The first stop on many travellers’ tour was either France or Italy. 10 In France the young men examined art collections in private homes and museums, they visited Notre Dame and other cathedrals, and socialized in the French court.11 At this time, it was difficult for tourists to enter Rome because they had to undergo a physical examination to make certain that they did not bring the plague into town. In addition, guards searched their items to check whether they were Catholic, because the Inquisition was still taking place. 12 While in Italy, tourists examined art, visited cathedrals, and experienced superior civility as many of them were introduced to the first forks, fans, and umbrellas that they had ever seen. Though Rome’s ruins are now world famous displays of Roman heritage, they were often passed by in the Elizabethan era because they were in such disrepair.13 Other locations that the tourists may have visited include Prague,
Vienna, Moscow, or Amsterdam. 14 The Grand Tour developed in the 1700s and cointed the term “tourist.” 15 Most tourists were young men, freshly out of university, but rather than travelling to study, they read journals to learn about foreign governments and toured to absorb and participate in foreign cultures.16 The most popular destination was France where young men learned how to fence, dance, ride horses, dress fashionably, speak French, and improved their manners. In Italy, young men visited Rome and Florence and took in the opera and theatre, visited the ruins, and learned about local history, Renaissance art and architecture. 17 Other Grand Tours included a trip to see and travel through the Alps.18 The Victorian era of travel began shortly after the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815. 19 The grand tours of the past were so glamorous and appealing that families began touring together. Journalist Larry Krotz defined this era’s tourists as “transient groups of visitors…[that] moved through Europe in the early 1800s visiting museums.”20 The advent of the railroad enabled tourists to travel easily, quickly, and relatively inexpensively.21 The most popular type of site for the English to visit in Great Britain over the weekend was the rural estate.
These large homes were opened to the public, who were both curious about the home’s furnishings and felt that these homes offered a glimpse into England’s hertiage. 22 Victorian travellers continued to visit the usual popular travel locations such as Germany, France, and Italy but they also kept up the Romantic tradition of seeking out beautiful natural scenery in both Europe and America. 23 Europeans, who began travelling to America for leisure in the early 1800s, favored visiting American natural landscapes such as the Catskill Mountains, Niagara Falls, and Lake Champlain.24 Europeans were also fascinated with social institutions such as prisons, asylums, manufacturing sites such as mills and mines, and government buildings. Krotz also states that sites of “monumental and catastrophic historical occurrences have always been popular with travelers,” and late-nineteenth century Europeans and Americans alike visited Civil War battlefields.25 Another tourist attraction was rural cemeteries such as Mount Auburn in Cambridge, established in 1831, and Laurel Hill in Philadelphia, established in 1836. 26 Visitors to these rural cemeteries took leisurely carriage rides or strolls while observing art, architecture, and landscapes.
The 1900s introduced a new variety of tourist, individuals who travelled for pleasure or heath and desired to be pampered and waited on.27 These European tourists visited the beach in places like Cannes, throughout the first half of the century, excepting the war years. After World War II, tourism really boomed and 1967 was designated the International Tourist Year by the United Nations General Assembly.28 Though the wealthy had been travelling by plane before World War II, this means of travel only became available and widely used those who could afford it in the 1950s. The speed of travel brought about the birth of the all inclusive tour package, which by the 1960s had maximized the number of sites and experiences travellers were able to partake. However, tourists often felt that they were rushed and did not have an opportunity to participate in local culture.29 Tourists stated that travel gave meaning to their lives, was an opportunity to experience foreign cultures, pursue their own interests, and have an adventure. 30 While it was possible to read about other cultures, actually seeing the sites and artifacts and experiencing the culture enabled the tourist to feel a personal connection
