The Dutch American Identity: Staging Memory and Ethnicity in Comm ...

The remainder of chapter 2 discusses how the patterns established by the first immigrants—settlement in enclaves, an inward focus centered on religious debate, and a concern with education from the primary to college level—have continued to define and influence many, if not most, Dutch-Americans to the present day. A distinct Dutch-American community remains very much alive and well today; although many Dutch-Americans at first glance seem to blend in to a larger WASP culture, they, in fact, maintain distinct networks, thanks to ties of family, faith, and education and continue to be characterized in part by historical internal religious disagreements.

In chapter 3, I begin by discussing the various rituals, festivals, public displays, and public events involving articulations of ethnicity celebrated in Dutch-American communities before 1929, as many of the elements discernible in these antecedents to the festivals I am considering are present in the early Tulip festivals in Holland, Pella, and Orange City. I then proceed to investigate the emergence of the first three Dutch-American heritage celebrations: Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan, which began in 1929; Tulip Time in Pella, Iowa, which began in 1935; and the Tulip Festival in Orange City, Iowa (originally called the May Festival), which began in 1936. In looking at these three celebrations, I discuss the various factors that may explain why these three events—once again, among the first to use the ethnic heritage of a particular community as a way to annually attract crowds to town—emerged when they did and why each met with immediate and sustained success. I argue that part of the answer to this question lies in the phenomenon of Holland Mania, a trend in American art and culture as described by art historian Annette Stott, during which Americans were ravenous consumers of anything “Dutch.” All the while, I place these three festivals in the context of American immigration, nativism, and prejudice, which, arguably, benefitted the Dutch communities. Chapter 3 concludes with an overview of the proliferation of Dutch-American heritage celebrations following the Second World War, paying particular focus to the emergence of Edgerton’s Dutch Festival and Fulton’s Dutch Days Festival. Throughout the chapter, I note important changes that have taken place over time in each of the five celebrations on which I am focusing.