Around 1570 a young scholar by the name of Richard Hakluyt, while on a visit to his cousin, a lawyer in the Inns of Court, was inspired by conversation which included illustration from “certain books of cosmography, maps, and the Bible.”Upon examination of the cosmography book, he was so overwhelmed with the idea of the pursuit of the knowledge of the world and its people, he devoted his life to understanding history, exploration, and Gospel missions. Hakluyt eventually became the ideological driving force behind English colonization in the New World, which resulted in the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.

If you are interested in history, what triggered your interest? I can identify three factors in my own life that caused me to love and appreciate the study of our past. The first came when my family moved in with my dad’s parents while he was building our new house. Living with my grandfather, in retrospect, was one of the great privileges of my life. He had a large drawer in a dresser containing photographs of family members going back to the mid-19th century. Although I was only six, I had him show me those photos and tell me who everyone was. Over the years whenever we visited my grandparents I would ask him to tell stories of the various people who lived only in the memories of others, already old.

The second influence which sparked my interest in studying the past came in Mrs. Scott’s third grade class, my best friend came to school one day with postcards he had been given in a visit to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The year was 1960 and the centennial commemoration of the War Between the States was just beginning. I was so fired up by those images of men in blue and gray that I became a devotee of Civil War study. So much did I pursue books and conversation about The War that my bus driver and barber  were drawn in and even gave me books from their own libraries. Most people, by the way, thought I had at least one screw loose, later confirmed.

When I reached the 7th Grade I had a “social studies” (the state had already abandoned history teaching in the 1960s) teacher who had fought in World War II. He ignored the ridiculous curriculum of “social studies” and taught World History. Not only was Mr. Mansoor a gifted teacher and story-teller, he brought in artifacts for our examination. The greatest of all was a German helmut from the war, which had bloody fingerprints on the inside leather band! I decided then and there that my lifetime calling was to tell the stories of the past (not realizing someone would need to pay for that, an unforeseen obstacle when you’re twelve years old.)

You never know what will influence a person in such a way as to steer the course of their lives. Even someone who seems to drift into this or that calling, makes choices and decisions that have life altering consequences. If you want your children or grandchildren to learn from the past, love the stories of history as you do, or if you just want them to appreciate their legacy, you need to put good books in their hands, take them to historic sites and let them see and handle artifacts of the past.  Nothing works better than your telling the stories and showing your interest in the foundations of your own heritage.