Branding
Family Business
History
A Study into Representation of Business History in
Exhibitions, and the Limitations and Benefits Thereof
Branding
Family Business
History
A Study into Representation of Business History in
Exhibitions, and the Limitations and Benefits Thereof
Master thesis Public History
Carlijn T.E. van Spaendonck
Supervisor: Dr. Manon Parry
Second reader: Ludger Smit
Date: December 19 2014
Picture on front page: Tourist photo opportunity in the Heineken Experience, with 3 public history students, and me.
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Acknowledgement
In the last one-and-a-half year I have received a lot of help from many different people in finishing this thesis. To start with I would like to pay my gratitude to everyone who the interviewees, who have spent time patiently answering my questions in a face-to-face interview and via email. Without them I would not have been able to make this thesis into the detailed report it is. Equally important has been my supervisor dr. Manon Parry, who has been especially patient with me, guiding me throughout this process with wonderful ideas and helpful comments. I am also very grateful for my second reader, Ludger Smit, who is willing to spend his Christmas holiday reading and grading my thesis. And a special thanks goes to Pieter Lettinga, for being the ‘thesis whisperer’ when I needed one.
Than on a more personal note I want to thank my former colleagues of Projob for offering me a place to work and encouraging me to the end. Also my current Rijksmuseum colleagues have been very helpful in taking over my shifts and studying together with me. My Public History friends have been there for inspiration and helpful tips. The unlimited patience of my partner, family and friends has not gone unnoticed by me, and I will spend my time repaying that debt to them all. It has been an interesting, sometime fun, often difficult journey, and so many people have helped me along the way, for which I am very grateful.
Table of Content
1. Introduction 4
1.1 : Research Question 4
1.2 : Methods and Sources 8
1.3 : Chapter Outline 9
2. Branding of Heritage 11
2.1 : Exploring Heritage 13
2.2 : Heritage and the Heineken Experience 19 2.3 : Heritage and the Stadsarchief Amsterdam’s Heineken Exhibition 24 2.4 : Limitations and Benefits of Heritage 27
3. Branding of Nostalgia 30
3.1 : Exploring Nostalgia 32
3.2 : Nostalgia in the Verkade Pavilion 36 3.3 : Nostalgia and the Philips Museum 43 3.4 : Limitations and Benefits of Nostalgia 47
4. Branding of Science 50
4.1 : Exploring the Presentation of Science 53 4.2 : Science History in the Philips Museum 55 4.2: Science History in the Museum Boerhaave’s Philips Exhibition 58 4.4: Limitations and Benefit of Science Museums 61
5. Conclusion 63
Bibliography 66
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1. Introduction
1.1 : Research Question
Business history is a relatively young field of research, especially in the Netherlands. In general, the starting point for business history as an academic field came with the work of professor Norman S.B. Gras of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, appointed to the first endowed chair in business history at the school in 1927. His chair was meant to chart social-economic historical processes according to the individual case-studies of companies. In the Netherlands business history did not get academic recognition until the 1970s, and therefore it has shown a late development. The late ascendance is reflecting the nation’s economic development: at the end of the 19th century business in the Netherlands had found solid ground, and between 1914 and 1945 there was a rise in business historical publications, just when these companies had their first jubilees. These jubilees inspired the entrepreneurs to ask historians to make jubilee books, celebrating the history of their company. This is different from the situation in the United States for example, where business history as a discipline came up because of industrialization itself. It was something new and exciting to look at, and on the other hand there was also disgust with the economic system of cartels and mergers, which created monster companies that literally seemed to swallow people: their mistreated employees. This spurred believers in industry to write positive accounts of what the industrialization had also brought the people and the country, by way of image building.1
In the Netherlands however, for some time there was no urge to create an independent field of business history, except for the creation of the Nederlands Economisch-Historisch Archief (the Dutch economic-historical archives) by professor N.W. Posthumus in 1914. NEHA put together different company archives, with the idea to open these up for researchers to study and to make sure they would not get lost.2 Possibly because it is such a young field of research, there hardly is consensus on
what business history is or should be. In the 1970s a general business history theory seemed on its way, but nothing was further from the truth. Especially in Great Britain and the United States there has been a big rise in the number of academic works on the field, but also in different angles. Influenced by the ideas of business historian Alfred Chandler there was more and more consensus on the
1 J.F.E. Bläsing, Hoofdlijnen van de Moderne Bedrijfsgeschiedenis, Nijhoff: Leiden, 1990, 44-45. 2 Ibid., 44-48.
definition of business history in the 1970s, but from the 1990s this consensus shifted, due to shift in focus from big business to smaller ones.3
From an academic point of view the field of business history has not been satisfyingly developed in the Netherlands until recently, which has resulted in a wide range of definitions used by different business historians. From the 1960s and 1970s there is more interest in framing business history and its use within the history of larger economic history. The 1980s marked a return to the internal history of companies, but this trend has been shifting back in the 1990s toward the social and economic context of company histories.4 In his acceptance speech for the endowed chair in business
history in 2012 dr. Joost Jonker gives an overview of the leading definitions in the field. According to him business history is “the study of administration and operation of business in the past.” For Jonker business history is the study of the history of people and their (business) activities. This differs from the ideas of business historian dr. Keetie E. Sluyterman, who claims that business history is the aspect of economic history that discusses the past through the eyes of the company. However, in one leading journal on the subject, called Enterprise and Society, business history is defined as the “historical relations between businesses and their larger political, cultural, institutional, social, and economic contexts”, in which the emphasis is no longer on the business itself, but on its environment. These definitions differ slightly from each other, and are all used to define the field of research in business history. 5
Business History Presented
Business history had a bad reputation, as the field consisted largely of jubilee books and history-for- hire projects, but as in recent decades there has been more and more academic interest in the field, it is important to discuss its relevance for the study and practice of history. According to Jonker the most important groups that business history may be relevant for are: managers of the specific companies, generally interested and history-oriented audience, colleague historians, and practitioners of other disciplines. Especially the latter two are of interest for him, as he finds that many business historians
3 Keetie E. Sluyterman, ‘Nederlandse bedrijfsgeschiedenis, de oogst van vijftien jaar’, NEHA jaarboek, Vol. 62
(1999), 384.
4 Sluyterman, 352.
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find themselves isolated, not working together with historians from other fields, while this can be of great advantage for both parties. Even more so, there hardly seem to be references to works of business historians by historians from other disciplines. The embedding of the field has already come a long way, but there is still much ground to be gained. Relevance for fields outside of history could for instance be journalists using business histories as background stories for their articles.6 As business
history sheds itself of its bad reputation, the benefits of business history practice for companies becomes more and more clear. There is the value of business history for advertising and marketing, as the company can use its history in nostalgic looking advertising campaigns for instance. On a deeper level there are the uses of business history for the organization itself, for instance for management to learn from past decisions and decision makers. But it can also create better self-awareness, find the company’s role in society, and define or strengthen the company’s identity for both its personnel and its customers.7
The company’s history can also be presented in museums and exhibitions, and as more and more museums face financial difficult times corporate sponsorship has become a serious movement. Under pressure of the economic crisis, museums are forced to become more and more self-sufficient, facing budget cuts in government funding. These museums look for alternative sources of funding, such as government or corporate sponsorship, or attracting larger visitor numbers. This may have several consequences for the exhibits of these centers. It is not just the recent crisis, as already in the 1970s and 1980s art museums experienced the pressure to become self-supportive, and different studies from 1997 and 2002 show that this is happening in the broader field of museums too. A 2007 report from the Association of Science-Technology Centers also shows that science and technology centers are relying mainly on “ticket sales and programme fees, private donors and public funds” 8 for
income. In order to make sure these funds keep coming in, museums have assumed the role of tourist attractions, as opposed to being a center focused on collecting, researching and exhibiting objects.
6 Jonker, 10-12.
7 Enid Hart Douglass, ‘Corporate History: Why?,’ The Public Historian, Vol. 3, No. 3, Business and History (Summer
1981), 76-77.
8 Eva Davidsson and Helene Sørensen, ‘Sponsorship and Exhibitions at Nordic Centres and Museums,’ Museum
Family Businesses
In her article on the status of the field of business history in 1999, and to discuss what in the last 15 years had been contributed to the field, Sluyterman discusses family businesses as a separate aspect of study. She states that the focus on big companies lead by managers has placed the tradition of family companies in a bad light, for the undemocratic character of family succession and their smaller economic growth. Due to the crisis in the 1980s however the stability of family companies became higher valued for being able to endure these crises without having to lose personnel. Family business usually focus on keeping the business alive for future generations, keeping in mind the family legacy that they are now responsible for, instead of managerial lead companies that pursue more monetary gain. In recent times, enduring the economic crisis which is brought upon us by big banks and other evil corporations, as is the popular belief. Family business juxtapose these organizations and are therefore glorified, instead of vilified as they used to be for being undemocratic and slow. So far not many studies have been conducted in the field of family business history, even though it is an interesting subcategory of business history. Also family business histories offer a second layer to the storyline, being that of the family itself, which makes family businesses interesting to present, and to study these presentations. Finally, families owning (or having owned) family businesses may be more interested in setting up a museum or exhibition, as their personal attachment to the company is much different than that of managerial lead companies.9
As museums are looking for alternative financial sources, and companies are willing to provide these in order for their history to be presented, the field of business history is worth looking at from the angle of the public. The question then becomes not ‘what is business history,’ but ‘what are people doing with it.’ Business museums such as the World of Coca-Cola in the United States, the BMW Museum in Germany, or the Shiseido Corporate Museum in China, are marketing outlets for their brands, but they are also museums in which the history of the brand is told. The way this is done is what is of interest for this thesis, as it will look into what is presented in business historical exhibitions and how to interpret their exhibits. What is fascinating is not so much the question why companies spend their money on these exhibitions, but more so what it is that makes it interesting for their visitors, what the main issues are with presenting business history this way, and what are the
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limitations and benefits. In the previous paragraphs the position of family business history is discussed, arguing that since little research is done on family business histories from this angle, it is justifiable to focus on family businesses from here on. From this derives the following question, which is the research question of this thesis:
What are the limitations and benefits of the representation of
business history in family business exhibitions?
1.2 : Methods and Sources
The research for this thesis is done threefold. First extensive research has been done into the secondary literature on business history in the Netherlands and abroad. Also non-academic sources on the ventures included in this thesis is covered, such as newspaper articles, online reviews, and ventures’ websites. Secondly several visits were made to the five different projects, to perform empirical research on how the presentations are set up and what storyline has been covered. Also on the five projects research into secondary literature was conducted, dealing with the five projects and their analysis in this thesis. The last part of the research consists out of interviews with those responsible for the presentations, conducted between February 10th and July 1st of 2014. These
interviews were of use to find what the exhibitions were intended to show, and compare with actual results. Moreover, the interviews were aimed at finding out how much influence companies exert on the presentations, when being the main sponsor of the venue.
The case studies, the five before mentioned projects, are used to exemplify some of the issues concerning the presentation of family business history, and are chosen for covering three well-known Dutch family businesses, namely Heineken, Verkade and Philips. The companies have been managed for a long time by their families, and the Heineken company actually still is. All three were founded in the second half of the nineteenth century, and have grown into international companies and iconic Dutch brands. Furthermore these companies have their own exhibitions that are open for the public to
visit, whether this be in a museum or in an experience center. Another element binding the exhibitions together is their corporate historical collections and stories they showcase, which is the main focus of this thesis.
1.3 : Chapter Outline
This thesis is constructed into three core chapters on the case studies, and a conclusion to follow. The main ideas of the three chapters are explained here.
The first chapter will be dealing with the Heineken Experience and a Heineken exhibition in the Stadsarchief Amsterdam. These case studies will be used to exemplify the heritage versus history debate, which is at the core of this chapter. As companies use their company history exhibitions as marketing tools, the objects in the exhibitions are often devoid of context, making them into heritage displays rather than history. As this chapter will show, heritage tells us little of the past, but a lot about the present. As the case studies are analyzed they will demonstrate that both heritage and history have their own advantages and disadvantages. The two studied exhibitions appear to be on the opposite sides of the discourse on history or heritage.
The next chapter will look into the issue of nostalgic representations of the past. The Verkade Pavilion and part of the Philips Museum will demonstrate different types of uses of nostalgia in exhibitions, and the limitations and benefits of this type of presentation. Nostalgia is used in historic presentations to spark attention of the visitor, whose nostalgic reaction is crucial for this effect. The nostalgia boom of the last decades will be discussed, and the pros and cons of the use of nostalgia, as nostalgia can also present a distorted, idealized and cleaned-up version of the past. This chapter will again demonstrate that the use of nostalgia has its own limitations and benefits, and instead of passing judgment on these presentations these limitations and benefits are more valuable to explore.
The last case studies concern science museums and science centers, and focuses on the Philips company with two exhibitions. Science is a complex subject to cover, as many different elements play a role in how scientific research comes about. To present this is a balanced and nuanced manner is a challenge for science museums already without the demands of a sponsoring company. Unfortunately as many science museums also struggle to remain in existence they cannot avoid considering
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collaboration with the corporate world. These collaborations have advantages and disadvantages for both parties, and these will be discussed in the chapter. Also this chapter will show how these science exhibitions contribute to public awareness and knowledge of science. The case studies of Philips will help demonstrate all this. The concluding chapter will combine the outcomes of this study into family business history exhibitions, link this to contemporary issues and trends, and discuss what the role of historians in this can be.
2. Branding of Heritage
Heritage tourism is booming, due to a growing obsession with the past. In the preface to his book on heritage, Possessed by the Past: The Heritage Crusades and the Spoils of History, David Lowenthal explains that it is not just the number of tourists that is growing, but also the number of heritage attractions increases, up until the point where “heritage is everywhere.”10 Nine years before, Robert
Hewison wrote in The Heritage Industry: Britain in a Climate of Decline that from 1960 until that day (1987) the number of museums in Britain had doubled, and that this was a global trend to be seen.11
Industrial heritage, heritage of former industrial areas and sites, and the interest therein is part of this recent trend. In 1996 J. Arwel Edwards and Joan Carles Llurdés I Coit, both lecturing in Geography studies, wrote an article on industrial heritage tourism in mines and quarries, in which they argued that up until that point in time industrial heritage had not received much attention, at least not as much as other heritage sites had. Deindustrialization has left former factories unused and abandoned, rather than used to explain industrial developments that have shaped the geography and economy of an area.12 Since then this situation has changed and former industrial enterprises are now considered
part of many regional heritage sites. In a pan-European initiative, for instance, industrial heritage sites are united as so-called anchor points in industrial heritage routes since 2002.13
The growing interest in industrial heritage shows a shift in interest in what history is portrayed, meaning that before the past of the nobility, monarchy, military and government was the focus, the recent interest is in the everyday lives of people and their professions, for instance industrial heritage sites. Hewison identified this shifting trend in industrial museums, as many of the new museums that have contributed to the large growth “are devoted to the recent past and the everyday […] now, nostalgia is for the industrial past.”14 Lowenthal agrees with this vision, and argues that with this shift
there is also more attention for local and regional histories, smaller social groups and ethnicities,
10 David Lowenthal, Possessed by the Past: The Heritage Crusades and the Spoils of History, Free Press, New York
NY: 1996, IX-XIII.
11 Robert Hewison, The Heritage Industry: Britain in a Climate of Decline, Methuen, London: 1987, 84.
12 J. Arwel Edwards and Joan Carles Llurdés I Coit, ‘Mines and Quarries. Industrial Heritage Tourism,’ Annals of
Tourism Research, Vol. 23, No. 2 (1996), 342-343.
13 ‘About ERIH,’ on: European Route of Industrial Heritage, http://www.erih.net/topmenu/about-erih.html,
accessed on November 2 2014.
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histories that before were not deemed to be of interest for historians at all.15 One reason for this shift
in interest is because of the decline of the industrial society in the 1970s and 1980s, especially in Great Britain, which used to be one of the industrial nations at the forefront of Europe’s industrial revolution. Former industrial sites are left abandoned, regions formerly known for their industry are left bereft of income. Not only are industries closing down, they are also moving away or opening new plants outside of cities and villages. The sites they leave behind become memorials of industry, industrial heritage for generations that have not experienced the industrial heydays themselves. “While the real world of industrial manufacturing decays, redundant and obsolete machinery flourishes – in museums.”16 This is the world of the everyday man and woman, not of the noblemen and –women
residing on their estates.
However, industrial heritage is not the same as industrial history. In an earlier publication, The Past is a Foreign Country, Lowenthal opens by stating that the past is always around us, in everything and everywhere.17 As this chapter will demonstrate, even though this statement seems similar to the
prior ones on heritage, there is a clear distinction between history and heritage, even though the terms are used interchangeably. This distinction will be the main focus in this chapter, as two different presentations on the history of Heineken will be discussed here, one being the Heineken Experience, and the other being a temporary exhibition on Heinekens founder Gerard Heineken in the Stadsarchief Amsterdam. Both presentations deal with the founding history of the internationally operating Heineken company, but they do this in a very different way. Also this chapter will show how corporations presenting their history are using heritage as marketing tools, making commercial use of history, just as the above mentioned historians oppose. Why they do so is a question which does not need further research, as it can be assumed that they do this to strengthen their hold on the market and thereby make money, but the way they do so is what is of interest in this chapter, as this chapter aims to show the limitations and benefits of heritage and history for companies.
15 James M. Lindgren, ‘A Cuckoo in Our Nest: Can Historians Handle the Heritage Boom?,’ The Public Historian, Vol.
19, No. 2 (Spring 1997), 78-80.
16 Hewison, 91.
2.1 : Exploring Heritage
The definition of and values attached to the word heritage differ, but for most historians heritage has become a nasty word. One avid opponent of heritage and the use thereof is David Lowenthal. In his view heritage and history are not one and the same thing, but he neither sees heritage as ‘bad’ history. Instead he sees heritage and history as two different concepts, although both have a little bit of each other included in them. Where history is “an effort to know what actually happened, […] heritage is not an inquiry into the past but a celebration of it, […] a past tailored to present-day purposes,” 18 as he explains in the preface to his book. Instead of striving to show what has actually
happened, heritage offers a polished, cleaned up version of the past. This is both figuratively and literally spoken, as some acts, decisions and thoughts of historical figures are left out of the story, but also dirt, smells and displays of poverty. For industrial heritage this means that within the factories, mines and construction sites the workers are neither not present, or looking cleaner, happier and better fed than their historic counterparts. Heritage becomes a nostalgic pursuit of an idealized past, dressed up for commercial gain, amounting to ‘bogus’ history.19
Heritage, to continue the same argument, is an element of history taken out of its context and frozen in time. So not just the elements making up the heritage venue, but the venue itself is what has become detached of its original context. “Heritage customarily bends to market forces,” it gets adjusted or intensified for visitors. Heritage, in the words of Lowenthal, is “a history lesson without the boring stuff.” So not just the negative, controversial and hurtful elements are taken out as discussed above, but also the boring bits that heritage visitors are not interested in. This way the venues become exciting and thrilling heritage experiences which offer fascinating trips. Also, when industrial sites are made into industrial heritage, regular practices and products are made into heritage as well, hereby locking a certain period in time, showcasing it as a nostalgic ideal world. “To value everything obsolete as heritage stymies change; yesterday’s progress becomes today’s tradition and tomorrow’s
18 Lowenthal, Possessed by the Past, X.
19 Bethan Coupland and Nikolas Coupland, ‘The Authenticating Discourses of Mining Heritage Tourism in Cornwall
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sacrosanct legacy.”20 So both objects and practices become locked in one specific moment in time,
chosen by those creating the industrial heritage venue.
As the fluidity of objects and practices is taken away by the process of freezing in time, the objects and practices also lose some, if not all, of its meaning. In a discussion over the UNESCO world heritage list author Lidija Nikočević, who is on her country’s committee defining their immaterial heritage, states that “heritage begins where culture ends.”21 This quote can be taken quite literally:
many practices and objects are used as heritage when their use is no longer relevant for contemporary society, for instance with the former industrial areas mentioned before. However, the quote has deeper meaning in that it also refers to the end of culture as an evolving process, in which traditions are changed over time. When something is referred to as heritage it becomes static and frozen in time, instead of being fluid and adaptable to current standards. An example are industrial sites, such as former breweries. In those venues visitors can see how beer was brewed back when the facility was in use. However, it does not show how this brewing process has developed overtime, what different techniques and machinery were used between the founding of the company and the closing down of it. The art of brewing beer has been locked in a certain time period to be looked upon as reminiscent of our past. With new machinery in factory-like breweries the process done by hand of skilled brewers has become something of the past, and the brewing process itself does not evolve any further, but stays in this moment in time. A historical account would show it’s context: who were the brewers, what was their role in the process, what was the brewery’s impact on society and vice versa, and so forth, whereas a heritage account takes out one element, the brewing process, and showcases that as history.
Regardless of the ambitions of heritage producers, which may be more virtuous than their outcomes suggest, the image heritage portrays is an idealized past that is a reflection of the past with contemporary values and morals attached to it, not an actual historical account. According to Lowenthal, heritage finds its significance not in showing how things were, but by being relevant for what society thinks today.22 For instance with the before mentioned breweries: brewery tours are not
20 Lowenthal, Possessed by the Past, 97-98.
21 Lidija Nikočević, et.al., ‘Culture or Heritage? The Problem of Intangibility,’ Ethnological Forum (Etnološka Tribina),
Issue 35, 2012, 57.
about innovation and modern techniques, but about old processes of making beer: the artisanal, traditional process. In a society interested more and more in where their food comes from this can easily fit in with this trend. Small breweries pop-up rapidly and in Amsterdam alone there were 13 smaller breweries in 2014. This is not just a new interest in specialty beers, but according to the brewers consumers want food and beverages that are authentic, local, and that tells a story.23 The
artisanal ways of yesteryear are glorified, while everything that is mass-produced is looked upon for being unhealthy and bad for the environment.
Whereas some decades ago the machines pumping out mass-produced products were the subject of glorification, for being the technological wonders of their days, nowadays the image of artisans brewing beer out of love for the product prevails. Or to put it as Hewison has stated: “the paradox of the industrial museum movement is that it is ultimately anti-industrial.” 24 Within this
idealize image, the idea that these brewers were in fact people earning a wage to support their families, possibly more so than proud brewers, is being ignored. Values of contemporary society are changing the way the past looks, as they are glorified for being simpler days with pure products, again sidestepping from the fact that these brewery workers probably made long working days and six-day working weeks, only having access to possibly pure, but not so varied foods themselves. Also Nikočević acknowledges this in her opening paragraphs: heritage is not something old, but brand new; “it is a new manner of cultural creation in the present which has its roots in the past. […] Cultural heritage becomes a value, relating to the past and the future.”25 The use of heritage learns us nothing
about the past, but more so about recent times. However, as it often claims to be the past, and it consists of historic objects and practices, it may be looked at for being a reflection of the past, hereby shaping an untrue image of history in the beholders mind.
23 Kees van Unen, ‘Hip Hop: Bierend Amsterdam Wil Kleine Brouwerijen’, Het Parool, April 12 2014,
http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/4/AMSTERDAM/article/detail/3634381/2014/04/12/Hip-hop-bierend-Amsterdam-
wil-kleine-brouwerijen.dhtml, accessed on November 15th 2014.
24 Hewison, 104. 25 Nikočević, 58.
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Heritage and company tours
Regardless of the negative characteristics of heritage for historians, companies do use heritage in their marketing strategies, from advertising and commercials, to factory tours and experience visitor centers. The idea to use the history of the company as marketing means is a way to show the company has been around for some time, enhancing the trustworthiness of the product or service the company provides, usually shown in nostalgic representations of the past.26 Many companies use this
in their advertising, but there are also some that have created visitor centers, ranging from museums to brand experiences and factory tours. In fact, offering factory tours is an older phenomenon, for instance in breweries in the United States: ever since the 1880s tours through the brewing facilities have been offered as a means to show how it is made, and what type of modern, state-of-the-art equipment has been used.27 However, nowadays there are more and more experience centers than
mere factory tours, also because not all are based in still operating facilities. In their analysis of what they call ‘Consumer Experience Tourism’, Mark Mitchell (Associate Professor of Marketing) and Sheila Mitchell (Instructor of Accounting) argue that “the common goal [of consumer experience tourism centers] is to provide the user (i.e., the consumer) with an experience regarding a product, its operation, production process, history, and historical significance.” 28 Also Neil Harris, professor of
history and art history, argues in his review of the World of Coca-Cola, the experience center of the well-known soda brand, that these venues must make choices in what they show, but that this is the case for all museums. He calls corporate museums “selective and argumentative,” but not limited in their ambitions to do justice to history; “amply funded and handsomely designed, the best of them build upon popular awareness of their product advertising to represent entire periods, cultures, and industries through their commodities.” 29 So via the products or services sold the company is able to
tell a larger story than just that of the company, which is one of the main elements of business history as it has been defined in the introduction to this thesis.
26 Kevin Naughton and Bill Vlasic, ‘The Nostalgia Boom: Why the Old is New,’ in Business Week, March 23 1998, 58-
62.
27 Kathy Shinnick and Nicole Breault, ‘Schlitz Park and Pabst Complex Bus Tour,’ The Public Historian, Vol. 34, No. 4
(Fall 2012), 103.
28 Mark Mitchell and Sheila Mitchell, ‘Showing Off What You Do (and How You Do It),’ Journal of Hospitality &
Leisure Marketing, Vol. 7, No. 4, 62.
Interestingly enough, Mitchell and Mitchell and Harris speak of the possibility to show the ‘historical significance’ of the company in its consumer experience center, but the question is how often this is truly achieved, as the main focus for these companies is to promote their brands. In her article called ‘Using History to Build a Brand’ journalist Janet Moore discusses how in the United States corporate museums are not included in surveys conducted by the museum associations, as these museums tend to serve as promotion, rather than serve any other role. "Very few of them run by the same code of ethics of museums in terms of truth in presentation. You aren't going to see an exhibit about tooth decay at the Coke museum." 30 Perhaps tooth decay would be farfetched, but the
statement is clear: what Coca-Cola offers in its World of Coca-Cola is a polished image of their history without controversies and other negatives. Harris also comes to a similar conclusion in his review:
“The Coke story is told absolutely without tension or conflict -except insofar as rivals and pretenders are concerned. Although some bottlers and distributors are described, there is little on those who work for the company. The larger system, its finances, organization, and profits, are underplayed. Coca-Cola's impact on the world itself is projected as problem-free. The idea that someone might find a Coca- Cola sign or stand distracting from a neighboring attraction (a pyramid or cathedral) seems heretical.”31
This unproblematic, polished version of the past, leaving out certain elements that complete the story, and thereby taking it out of its context, seems similar to the concept of heritage. “The luster of lucre dominates heritage tourism,”32 as Lowenthal sums it up. In order to glorify its past it needs to
be removed of its imperfections. This is the case for these corporate museums and industrial heritage sites, remodeling their pasts into a story that sells their product, instead of something that tells their history with context and historical significance. One reviewer of Lowenthals Possessed by the Past, professor of history Matt K. Matsuda, explains how the word ‘possession’ in Lowenthals volume can be
30 Janet Moore, ‘Using History to Build a Brand,’ Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), September 12 2010, metro
edition, business section, 1D.
31 Harris, 154.
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explained: it is in being lured into the wonders of the past and its rituals, and also in controlling and selling the past for commercial purposes, “with all of its attendant pitfalls: commodification as vulgarization, representation as sanitization, educational value as measured by the box office.”33 In
taking control over the past these companies who are presenting their histories let their judgment of what they tell be controlled by commercial purposes. This makes them selective and risks that these venues show no context of the influence of the company on the regionals economy, geography, social make-up, and so forth. Their self-celebrations are heritage displays in the purest form.
The trouble with all this is what the visitor takes home after visiting these venues. From the corporate’s perspective it is important that they take home a positive image of the company, hoping this results in more sales. So these companies prefer an unproblematic, positive image of their history, instead of including controversies for instance. Usually this takes the story out of its context, leaving the preferred elements to tell a story on their own. This is different from a business historical approach, in which several other angles to the company’s history are included. Business history is history discussed from the angle of a company or sector, so when for instance the history of Coca-Cola is presented, it will also include the impact on society, on the soda business, on dentist and medicine practices, on employees or social welfare, and so forth. As Harris mentioned in his review, those working the machines are not present in the World of Coca-Cola venue, and neither are the business decisions and notes from meetings, nor the financial records and other organizational issues discussed. In short, in this presentation it is the product and the direct founding history of the product and its advertising that is displayed, without context of a bigger story. The focus on heritage instead of history contributing to a de-cluttered, incomplete image of history and it is not telling visitors anything about the relevance of the product for themselves, other than brand attachment.
Historical interest has changed from nobility to the everyday men and women, making that history is everywhere and in everything, sparking an obsession with the past. As heritage is an element of history, singled out and frozen in time hereby losing its context, these elements lose their original historical meaning. These elements combined offer a polished version of the past, a glorification of a past ridden of negatives, and this image of history is what companies use for their marketing purposes to promote their brands. For historians, the trouble with heritage is the incomplete
33 Matt K. Matsuda, ‘Possessed by the Past: The Heritage Crusades and the Spoils of History (Review),’ American
historical narrative that visitors of heritage venues are exposed to. Historical elements taken out of their context have lost their meaning, and send a distorted message to the beholder. The issues explained in this chapter will now be used to review and analyze to different presentations of business history of one company, the Heineken beer brewing company. One presentation is the Heineken Experience, which is not a museum, but does include the history of its company in the presentation. The other is a temporary exhibition by the Stadsarchief Amsterdam called Heineken’s Amsterdam. Gerard Heineken brouwer en bouwer. The Stadsarchief Amsterdam is also not a museum, but the archives for the city of Amsterdam, opening exhibitions based on their collection and usually with a historical angle three to four times a year. Also the history of the Heineken company will be discussed briefly after which a closer look at both presentations will be given in order to discuss what the limitations and benefits of the use of heritage marketing is.
2.2 : Heritage and the Heineken Experience
In 1863 a young entrepreneur called Gerard Heineken buys an old brewery in Amsterdam, called ‘De Hooiberg,’ and before long his brewery starts to grow and expand into the multinational Heineken is today. Quickly after buying the brewery Heineken is running a successful beer brewing operation that caters beer to several cafés in the city, including some of his own. In 1868 a new brewery is built on the outskirts of the city, a larger and more modern complex than the one in the city, and the beer starts to get more recognition under the name of the founder, Heineken’s Pilsener. Shortly after the opening of the brewery Gerard Heineken and his brew master Wilhelm Feltmann Jr. decide to start producing a fermented beer that is fashionable at the time called Bavarian beer, instead of the Dutch brew that is more standard in the Netherlands at the time. This beer becomes quite popular and remains the standard brew of the company for the next 150 years to come. In 1886 a special type of yeast, called A-yeast, is developed, and strands of this yeast are being used in the brewery up until now. Gerard’s location for the new brewery also sparks the building of a new neighborhood for workmen and their families. He is also part of several different committees promoting and
35 Interview Celine Vleer, Junior Project Manager Heineken Experience, on July 1 2014.
Entrance of Heineken Experience, celebrating 150 years of Heineken with historic crates.
Picture by myself
safeguarding cultural heritage and arts for the city of Amsterdam, and it is in this capacity that he becomes part of the board of the newly built Rijksmuseum. 34
Gerard dies suddenly during a board meeting and his son Henri Pierre, and later on his son Alfred, takes over a successful company whose beer won several international prices and that is selling abroad and oversees. Under his lead the company remains successful, even though the economic crisis and the Second World War happened during his leadership. After the war Alfred, who is better known as Freddy, enters the company and after a couple of years takes over the leadership, by this time not from his father, but with a clever maneuver he manages to get the majority of shares back into the family’s hands. Under his ownership Heineken expands even further, and especially the importance of marketing and solid advertising characterizes Freddy’s leadership. During his time as sales agent in the United States Freddy Heineken has learned the importance of strengthening the name of the brand, more even than focusing on quality alone. In 2002 Freddy died, but his legacy to the company is huge:
the Heineken company has 165 breweries in 71 different countries, selling several larger beer and soda brands worldwide. The brewery in Amsterdam outlived its use as operational center and a new brewery was built in Zoeterwoude. In 1991 the former brewery becomes a Heineken visitor center, and in 2001 it gets renamed to Heineken Experience. After a large renovation the current tour of the Heineken Experience is open since 2008 and it hosts yearly over 600 thousand visitors.35
The Heineken company is owner of over 200 beverage brands, however the Heineken Experience is aimed only at the Heineken brand itself, and it attracts large visitor numbers and a very international crowd. The Heineken company advertises for the Experience in an indirect way, by advertising for their own Heineken brand. The popularity of the brand rubs off on the Experience, and
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vice versa. The idea behind the Experience is to build brand ambassadors, who will order Heineken back home, after visiting. Last year ended with a total of 600.000 visitors, and for this year they are expecting to get 700.000 visitors in. Visitors of the Heineken Experience are only for 7% Dutch, the rest are foreign visitors, with visitors from the United States, Brazil and United Kingdom forming the top three, after which the Netherlands and Spain follow. It is important for the company to attract so many international fans, in order to remain a worldwide market. Via surveys the Experience researches their visitors, and about 80% come because they have heard about it from friends or relatives. Their word-of-mouth advertising is very important, and this can only work if visitors are happy with their experiences. Therefore the staff is trained to attain high quality levels of hostmanship, and the tour must be fascinating and fun from beginning to end. 36 A visit to the Heineken Experience is all about
experiencing Heineken, as the name suggests, and contains three different sequences. It starts with the history of the company and the brand, going into the Brew-You-Ride and experience part of the tour, and ending in the bars where a free Heineken is served to the visitors. For this research the first part of the tour, the history part, is most important and will be the main focus of this chapter. However the whole of the tour will also get some attention here, as one cannot be separated from the other.
History of Heineken presented
The history of the Heineken company and brand are tightly associated with the history of the Heineken family, as the company is still in family-ownership, according to Celine Vleer, Junior Project Manager for the Heineken Experience. The history of Heineken is mostly that of a family business, and the historic part of the tour is there to show this. Every generation is addressed, in the way they did business and how this was specifically that generation. Visitors can see what every generation has meant for the course of the company. Gerard was the founder, Henri Pierre the man that implemented social policies for his employees, and Freddy was the man who developed the strong marketing policy of Heineken. The recent family member, Freddy’s daughter Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, is a strong woman in leading the company. Her son is about to enter the board as well and with that the story of
37 Interview Celine Vleer, Junior Project Manager Heineken Experience, on July 1 2014.
Brewing room in Heineken Experience
Picture by myself
Heineken continues. Also the brewery is the place where it all began. Yes, the Hooiberg was first, but this location is the first Heineken brewery built by the company themselves. 37
However, when visiting the Experience the story told is much more one on brewing the best beer in town and selling that via clever marketing tricks. The historical part of the tour focuses more on the history of the beer itself. All of the family members who have led, or are leading, the company get their own section in the presentation, but their presence is there mostly to show how during the decades the focus on the high quality of their beer has been an important aspect for the founding family. Of Henri Pierre, Gerard’s son, it is told that he was good for his people and made sure they had some social welfare, but this is more or less the exception. The impact of the Heineken family business on the city of Amsterdam is completely left out, even though this is quite a success story as well. There are the prices the beer has won and are still visible on the label, a laboratory in which the story of Dr. Elion is told, an apprentice of Louis Pasteur who discovered the A-yeast, the environmentally friendly (but flopped) WOBO bottle that doubles as a brick, and more of such stories telling about the
beer itself and the ideas behind it. However no stories are included on how Gerard Heineken co-sparked the building of the neighborhood behind the brewery, called the ‘Pijp’, how he was on the board of many soup kitchens and other social welfare committees, just as he was on art and cultural committees on the history of Amsterdam and the Netherlands. Both Henri Pierre and his son Freddy were avid art and historical object collectors, with interesting collections on the city of Amsterdam. There is no background on the societies these men lead their companies in. Instead, it is all about the beer itself.
In the Heineken Experience the brewing process is mostly presented as it was, with big copper kettles in the former brewing rooms, but the more modern way of brewing is also presented. After the historic introduction
38 Display of Gerard Heineken, focusing on quality beer
Picture by myself
to the Heineken company visitors enter the former brewing hall, with large copper kettles which all together explain the process of brewing beer. There are videos shown inside the kettles, and there are text signs explaining this. Also there are some parts of this process visitors can try to do for themselves, such as mixing the ingredients together and stirring the ‘wort’ (liquid coming from mashed barley), which can also be tasted. In the ‘Brew You Ride’ the visitors experience what it must be like to get brewed and bottled. This goes down in simulators, hosting 20 people, with moving stands, a big screen and sounds, showing this process as it is done in more recent times, probably in the modern Zoeterwoude brewery. Visitors enter this area after having seen the copper kettles of yesteryear, and before they have their first tasting of the actual beer. Further along there is also a game to play, in which visitors can test how well they can machine fill, close, label and pack Heinekens beers coming along on a conveyor belt. These are the most important features in which the modern beer brewing process is shown. In a chemical sense the process of brewing beer has not changed much. The same ingredients get the same treatment to turn into the same product for centuries. However, the process nowadays is automated and machine-
driven, instead of being done manually by brewery employees.
The presentation is made to take in the brand fully, accomplished in part by leaving out distracting details and elements of the complete Heineken history. Except for the Heineken family itself the people behind the brand, the employees working the breweries for
instance, are not present in the presentation at all. How it is made may be just as important as by whom it is made for telling the history of a company. The socio-economic situation of the city and its employees do not feature in the presentation, just as the Heineken family’s background either. Even more so, the former employees working in the brewery are not at all present in the displays of the Experience except for when Henri Pierre Heinekens legacy in social welfare for his employees is discussed. This is similar to the situation in the World of Coca-Cola Harris reviewed, when he stated
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that “those who work for the company” were hardly visible in the presentation. For Harris this is part of the problem-free image that Coca-Cola wants to display, in which all room is given to the celebrated product, instead of the story behind it, who are creating it and making it big.38 There is no distraction
of the star of the show: Heineken beer. A quite peculiar detail that has been altered in the presentation is the founders name: instead of his first name Gerard he is introduced as Adriaan (or Adrian in English) in the introductory clips. Why this is is not clear, as the name Gerard is later on used when the founder is presented further along the tour, but the fact that Adriaan is easier to pronounce in English, the common language used in the Experience, may have something to do with it.
If heritage is the commodification and commercial exploitation of history, than the Heineken Experience certainly can be called a heritage site, rather than historical. The issue-free presentation of the Heineken Experience is all about the brand itself, and even though the founding family gets some attention, it is really meant to serve as background on why the beer is that good. Even though this is the case, the Heineken Experience attracts a vast number of visitors and as far as attractions in Amsterdam go is a huge success. In the winter of 2014 the Stadsarchief Amsterdam hoped to join this success with their exhibition on Heineken. A ticket to the Heineken Experience also bought visitors entrance to the exhibition in the Stadsarchief Amsterdam, which was quite a different exhibition, even though the exhibition zoomed in on the company’s founder, Gerard Heineken, and his legacy.
2.3 : Heritage and the Stadsarchief Amsterdam’s Heineken Exhibition
The exhibition ‘Heineken’s Amsterdam. Gerard Heineken brouwer en bouwer’ was in the Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Amsterdam city archives) from February 7th until May 11th of 2014, and came about
because of several reasons. The Stadsarchief Amsterdam holds the archives of the city of Amsterdam, ranging from the municipal archives to family archives, company archives to private institutions. All these archives have one common denominator: they have a specific importance for the history of the city of Amsterdam. The Heineken archives is one of them, and this has been formally handed over in 2005. As Heineken is an Amsterdam founded company, still operating from the founder’s villa in the city, across the street from the original brewery (in which the Heineken Experience houses nowadays),
38 Neil Harris, ‘The World of Coca-Cola,’ The Journal of American History, Vol. 82, No. 1 (June 1995), pp. 154-158,
Opening display of Heineken exhibition in Stadsarchief Amsterdam
Picture by Jeffrey Steenbergen, Rapenburg Plaza
these archives are an asset for the Stadsarchief, which is a reason to create an exhibition using materials from it. 39 Also, due to the handover of the archives, there already has been a solid
connection with the Heineken company and the Stichting Heineken Collection, the independent in- house archives association of the Heineken company, mainly collecting artefacts, not documents, one of the former Stadsarchief managers, now in the board of the Stichting Heineken Collection, discovered there were good chances for the Stadsarchief to get (financial) backing from the association and the company for an exhibition in 2014, the 150th anniversary year of Heineken. As it is with acquiring a
company archives, as it is with setting up an exhibition for them, the Stadsarchief hopes to gain some monetary support from it as well, to cover expenses made on these archives and exhibitions, and possibly more. Also the Stadsarchief team figured that a cooperation between the Heineken (and the Heineken Experience) and the Stadsarchief could draw more interested visitors to the archives.40
However for the Stadsarchief Amsterdam it is also important that an exhibition they create is relevant for the history of the city of Amsterdam, and the exhibition is created with that in mind. With the Heineken archives they decided to pick the story of Gerard Heineken, the founder of the company, as this took place 150 years ago, hereby joining the celebration of the anniversary. Also alongside the story of Gerard they could tell the story of 19th century Amsterdam and its well-to-do citizens,
launching the industrial revolution in the city and sparking the second Golden Age. These citizens, just like Gerard, were not part of the nobility, but affluent citizens who gained their fortunes with trading over the last centuries, just like their counterparts during the 17th century Golden Age. They also set
up and sponsored many social institutions, such as orphanages, soup kitchens, and the likes. The team
39 ‘Collectieprofiel’, on: Stadsarchief Amsterdam,
http://stadsarchief.amsterdam.nl/stadsarchief/over_ons/collectieprofiel/index.nl.html, accessed on June 3 2014.
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Corridor in the Heineken exhibition, showing different original objects from the Stadsarchief collection
Picture by Jeffrey Steenbergen, Rapenburg Plaza
from the Stadsarchief decided that just the story of one man and his company would not have enough relevance, but by placing him in his time, as a typical person of his era, the exhibition would not only be relevant, but interesting for many different visitors. Even though he is presented as a man of his age, what is left out of the presentation is the fact that, according to Erik Schmitz, there are other examples of young men in his age who set up successful companies and business ventures, as the city of Amsterdam was slowly turning the tide for the capitol that had fallen behind with its international counterparts. Gerard Heineken seized the moment and made it into a success, something that is noteworthy, but just as much as that he was not alone in this.41
The exhibition in the Stadsarchief Amsterdam is made mostly out of their own material and some items on loan, and tells the story of Gerard Heineken in Amsterdam, in contrast to the story the Heineken Experience tells of the company’s and brand’s history. For the Stadsarchief it is important to use objects from their own collection for the most part, as by this they can show their relevance of their collection for the city of Amsterdam
and its history. 42 The main topics on
display are the city of Amsterdam, the growth of the brewery, and what Gerard has meant for the city of Amsterdam, it’s citizens, and cultural life. The story starts with Gerard Heineken’s background and focuses mainly on what Amsterdam was in those days. Following the story the visitor learns of building the new brewery on the outskirts of the city, how the
surrounding neighborhood was constructed and the brewery expanded, how Gerard Heineken helped improve the living conditions of the poor of the city, and assisted in creating and supporting cultural and historical objects that associate with the city of Amsterdam. The exhibition gives an insight into the Amsterdam of the second half of the 19th century, via the founding history of the Heineken company.
41 Interview Erik Schmitz, Curator, March 12 2014. 42 Ibid.
Heineken exhibition in Stadsarchief with two pillars decorated with historic Heineken labels
Picture by Jeffrey Steenbergen, Rapenburg Plaza
The brewing of high quality beer and his quest for it, as is the focus of the historic tour of the Heineken Experience, is included, but only as a small aspect of the life of the founder of one of the largest beer brewing companies worldwide. Included are the prices the beer has won, and some decorative draught faucets used in the bars of which some were directly or indirectly owned by Gerard Heineken, but these are used to illustrate the company’s past and not so much the strife for creating high quality beers. The process of brewing beer is hardly explained and objects used in that process are not present in the exhibition. For the Stadsarchief Amsterdam this is not the relevance of Gerard Heineken. He could have been in any type of industry (and in fact he could have been as he was more eager to entrepreneur than to brew beer specifically)and his influence on the city of Amsterdam would have been an interesting aspect to exhibit for the Stadsarchief.
2.4 : Limitations and Benefits of Heritage
Overall, it can be said that the exhibition at the Stadsarchief presents a more complete story of that part of Heineken’s history than the Heineken Experience does; then again the aims of both institutions are very different. The Heineken Experience is meant to strengthen the brand’s name worldwide, and thereby presents the heritage that is
relevant for this goal. The Stadsarchief Amsterdam aims at presenting topics which on one hand are relevant for the (history of the) city of Amsterdam and on the other hand include objects from their own collection. The subject’s aspects they have picked to portray serve both these objectives. Even though both institutions single out one or several aspects in their presentation, the Heineken Experience does so more narrow-mindedly, as their
complete story is aimed at showing how for Heineken the brewing of high quality beer was, and still is, the company’s top priority. The Stadsarchief offers a more complete story on the person of Gerard
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Heineken and his role for the city. The choice to focus on one person is fully justifiable for the Stadsarchief, but just as much justifiable as the choices of the Experience team are for their selection of stories. The Stadsarchief has chosen to create an exhibition on one person from the Heineken dynasty, excluding the next four generations that have been covered in the Heineken Experience presentation. As one of the reasons for creating the exhibition was that 2014 was the 150th
anniversary year, and considering the size of the exhibition area, this is understandable.
In this sense it is interesting to see that these presentations differ in their focus on high quality beer, or the lack of this focus in the Stadsarchief Amsterdam. As it plays such an important role in the Heineken Experience, one could expect that sponsoring an exhibition like this would be to carry out that message as well. By focusing on the person instead of the beer the Stadsarchief presentation of Gerard Heineken is completely different than the Experience one is. Another big difference is that in the Stadsarchief exhibition the labor class is represented, in the form of the people who were at the receiving end of Gerard Heineken’s well-doing and those who were his employees. The staff wanted to include more on that story, as it is very relevant for the city of Amsterdam, but they lacked materials, as for instance in those days people did not often use the new and expensive medium of photography to immortalize the poor and needy.43 But in the Experience, in the place these people had actually
worked and lived nearby, they are not visible. Not even in the kettle room with the copper kettles these workers would have actually worked with.
If looking at benefits and limitations, for Heineken itself the use of heritage is highly beneficial, but for the Stadsarchief Amsterdam it would not be, as it could damage their image as historical archive institute. The greatest difference between the two of them is that the one exhibition can be called historical, while the other can be considered heritage. Where the Stadsarchief has tried to include a complete context for Gerard Heinekens accomplishment (and have succeeded reasonably well in doing so), the Heineken Experience glorifies the Heineken beer and its legacy. It singles out one element as what the company stands for, and what does not fit into this story gets left out. But the question arises whether this is such a bad thing in the Heineken Experience. It does manage to attract
a large crowd44 of 25 to 35 year olds who come for short vacations to Amsterdam. This is a target
group many museums are not able to attract in such large numbers. So if a visit to the Heineken Experience is the only attraction they actively visit that has some history to it, what is it that they take home with them? If a well-balanced story on the history of Heineken would have been told, including the brewery’s employees, the backdrop of 19th century Amsterdam and later ages, the organizational
body of the company, and so forth, this would have been a great opportunity to show this audience something of this larger history. However, in the end history in the Heineken Experience serves mostly to uplift and sell their brand: the branding of heritage.
44 On Tuesday the 16 of December 2014 the Heineken Experience welcomed its 700.000th visitors:
http://www.rtvnh.nl/nieuws/156420/heineken-experience-ontvangt-700000-ste-bezoeker.
Sign in Heineken Experience showing its main focus Picture by myself
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3. Branding of Nostalgia
At the turn of the 21st century, Business Week published a cover story called ‘The Nostalgia Boom:
Why the Old is New,’ in which the writers Kevin Naughton and Bill Vlasic state that “these days nostalgia marketing is everywhere,” meaning that many different brands use nostalgia in advertising, packaging and even the products itself to market their products. According to the writers, this trend came about because of the anxiety modern consumers felt about the Information Age, and the coming of the internet, mobile phones, and the like. Apparently, these consumers longed to go back to less complicated times, which they view the past to be. Interest in nostalgia has risen over de last few decades, becoming more and more prominently visible in scholarly debate, as well as in society in general. The word ‘nostalgia’ dates back to a medical term depicting the homesickness of soldiers, but during the twentieth century it has come to be used more for a state of mind, rather than a wish to return to a specific place, like home.45 As companies discovered “that a history of warm memories is
an exploitable asset nowadays,” more and more products became advertised as having been around a long time, to enhance consumers’ trust in them. 46 Think for instance of the Werther’s Original
commercials, in which people remember the first time they tasted the sweets when they were still a child, recollecting how special they felt. Or take the cheese brand Old Amsterdam, with commercials showing black and white images of Amsterdam and market carts with the Old Amsterdam logo on it, depicting the history of this cheese in Amsterdam (when in fact this cheese was never produced there, and is not even that old). Having been around for some time, having survived different difficult times, makes for a strong brand.
Naughton and Vlasic are not alone in their opinion on what sparked a nostalgia boom. Davis suggests in his work that “the wave of nostalgia of the mid-1970s […] was an attempt to cope with the transformations of American society during the late 1960s.” 47 According to Davis, nostalgia can
reassure the identity of the beholder, by confirming the continuity of the person’s identity, reaffirming
45 Malcolm Chase and Christopher Shaw, ‘The Dimensions of Nostalgia,’ The Imagined Past: History and Nostalgia
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989), 1.
46 Kevin Naughton and Bill Vlasic, ‘The Nostalgia Boom: Why the Old is New,’ in Business Week, March 23 1998, 58-
60.
47 Gary Alan Fine, ‘Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia. by Fred Davis (Review),’ Contemporary
