The Best Ever!: Parades in New England, 1788–1940

Parades tell us something important about American culture and almost every place has a parade tradition.\nThe Best Ever! explores this tradition as enacted in the small cities and towns of New England, events that at once celebrated the skeleton of the American Story and amplified both the distinctive regional and the broader national cultures. Meticulously documented and lavishly illustrated with nearly 300 photographs, The Best Ever! offers never-before-seen pictures of actual parades, including floats and banners that have mostly disappeared and ranging from the Federal Ship carried in the 1788 Ratification parade at New Haven, Connecticut, to 1940 when the parade tradition largely halted at the onset of WWII. Copublished with Old Sturbridge Village.\nFrom the Back Cover\nEveryone loves a parade!
Filled with drawings, daguerreotypes, historical photographs, and detailed description, The Best Ever! brings to life the creativity and impact of New England parades, while expanding popular understanding of many similar events today.
Parade days give communities an opportunity to reveal themselves, showing both local residents and out-of-town visitors what is valued and who is respected while giving participants and attendees an opportunity to see and be seen. Parade planners draw upon personal experience, fond memories, cherished symbols, and favorite stories to create floats illustrating memorable scenes from history, honoring civic leaders and military heroes, mourning fallen soldiers or dignitaries, advocating change, inspiring reform, influencing consumer behavior, or celebrating innovation and progress. Specific holidays such as Independence Day, Patriot's Day, Bunker Hill Day, Armistice Day, and Old Home Day provide additional inspiration for red, white, and blue celebration. Of particular interest is the section on the uniquely New England tradition of "Antiques and Horribles."
The Best Ever! explores common themes in parades, including honor, civic and ethnic identity, fraternity, progress in public works, advocacy of political candidates or favorite causes, memorialization of wartime bravery or cherished virtues, and just plain fun! Each is seen in an exciting public moment, leaving memories of reassuring symbols, influencing action, and raising questions. At the same time they show how ideas have been shaped over time and changed by circumstance, even as perceptions of the past are still evolving and questioned in the present.