Museum
and Historic Site Interpretation Seminar
(History 662)
ÒThe history that lies inert in unread books does
no work in the world.Ó
--
Carl Becker
Professor Marla Miller Fall
2005
Herter 609, 545-4256 Herter
640
mmiller@history.umass.edu T
2:30-5:00
Office Hours: MW 2-4 and by
appt.
Course objectives: Students in this course will use their research and
writing skills to develop exhibits, tours and public programming for area
museums and historic sites.
During the first half of the semester, seminar discussion will explore
issues involved with the interpretation of objects and landscapes. During the remainder of the semester,
students will devote most of their energies to field projects undertaken in
teams for a nearby institution.
Books are available at the
Jeffrey Amherst College Bookstore and on Reserve.:
Batinski,
Pastkeepers in a Small Place
Donnelly,
Interpreting Historic House Museums
Foote,
Shadowed Ground
Levy,
Great Tours
Lewis,
The Changing Face of Public History: The Chicago Historical Society and the Transformation
of an American Museum
Serrell,
Exhibit Labels
Serrell, Paying Attention
Scheduled Writings: A series of short reviews of museum and historic site
experiences, and a final paper, 10-15 pp, reflecting on lessons learned in team
project in the context of museum and historic site literature.
Self-Scheduled Writings: At your convenience but before no later than the class
meeting prior to the Thanksgiving
break, you must select 2 titles from the list below—all on RESERVE in the
library, to review (ca. 800 words).
Salmen,
ed., EveryoneÕs Welcome: The Americans with Disabilities Act and Museums (AAM, 1998)
Ingram,
ed., Ten Basic Responsibilities of Non-Profit Boards (Boardsource, 2003)
Genoways
and Ireland, Museum Administration: An Introduction (Altamira, 2003)
Malaro,
Museum Governance: Mission, Ethics,
Policy
(Smithsonian, 1994)
Sullivan
and Edwards, eds., Stewards of the Sacred (AAM, 2004)
Archibald, The New Town Square : museums and
communities in transition (Altamira, 2004),
Falk and Dierking, Learning from museums: Visitor
Experiences and the Making of
Meaning (Walnut
Creek, CA : AltaMira Press, c2000.)
Other Assignments: Your other major obligation will be the completion, as
a member of a team of the Field Service Projects below. The purpose of these projects is to
build skills in the collective execution of a successful project, to the
satisfaction of a real client.
Early in the semester you will rank your preferences concerning the
three possibilities described below; I will use these to guide final
assignments.
Also, please note that
throughout the semester you are asked to take yourself on several self-guided
field trips to local museums; in most cases, you are also asked to write about
the experience. Please plan these
visits well in advance; museumsÕ hours vary, you may need to reserve places on
tours, etc. DonÕt assume a
museumÕs schedule will conform to yours.
Team Projects
1) Amherst College: The Bunker: During the Cold
War, one of the Soviet UnionÕs primary targets would have been Amherst, Mass.
The Russians had nuclear missiles aimed at the town not because they were
Williams grads, but because a bunker built into the side of Bare Mountain in
1957 on the side of the Holyoke Range housed a backup command center for the
Strategic Air Command in Omaha. If the central base at Omaha had been
destroyed, control of nuclear war would have switched to the Amherst facility. That
dark history remains visible in the rusted warning signs at the bunkerÕs gates,
the massive concrete and lead walls and ceilings built into the mountainside,
and the now-vacant control room with signs that say ÒSenior Battle Staff Only.Ó
The Bunker served as a secure communications center for the SAC until 1971 when
the Federal Reserve purchased it for records storage. Amherst College purchased
the facility in 1989 and converted it to an archival facility (being 5-20 feet underground,
the Bunker's temperature does not change with the seasons making it an ideal
location for storing temperature-sensitive material).
Today, the bunker is a functioning storage facility
for Amherst College. However, there is regular interest in the history of site,
in tours given annually to alumni of the college during reunion weekend, for
example, and other interested groups.
Students assigned to this project will draft and design an exhibit on
panels that could be easily mounted and dismantled in the lobby of the current
building, the college library, etc. While many
relevant documents are readily available in the AC Special Collections and
Archives (Frost Library), some travel to the Corps of Engineers in Boston may
be necessary. Some oral history
may prove useful as well.
Required Readings:
DOING
COLD WAR HISTORY: A PRACTICAL GUIDE
http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/faculty/trachtenberg/guide/guidehome.html
Hopkins, J. C,
The development of Strategic Air
Command, 1946-1986
: (the fortieth
anniversary
history), [Omaha, Neb.] : Office of the Historian, Headquarters
Strategic
Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base, [1986]
William Hyland, The Cold War: Fifty Years of
Conflict (New York: Times Books,
1991)
Walter LaFeber, America, Russia and the Cold War,
1945-1992 (New York: McGraw-Hill,
1993)
Thomas G. Paterson, On Every Front: The Making and
Unmaking of the Cold War (New York:
Norton,
1992).
2) Historic Northampton. The Parsons House: The Parsons house was built in 1719
by Nathaniel Parsons, grandson of Joseph and Mary Parsons, who laid out the
original home lot in 1654. The
house is one of three historic houses located on the grounds of Historic
Northampton. Stylistically, it
belongs to MassachusettsÕ First Period of domestic architecture, which lasted
considerably longer in the Connecticut Valley than it did at Massachusetts Bay.
Extensively surveyed and documented by the Society for the Preservation of New
England Antiquities in 1992, it has, at Historic New EnglandÕs recommendation,
been interpreted as an Òarcheological exhibitÓ around the theme of the
evolution of New England domestic architecture rather than a furnished exhibit
interpreted around a specific date.
The challenge of this approach is that it relies heavily upon the
visitorÕs imagination and on the interpretive skills of the docent.
In
order to facilitate interpretation, the museum seeks to reintroduce some
objects into the space. The
student project would add another layer to the theme of the evolution of
domestic life, illustrating change over generations. The challenge would be to
do so without obscuring the architectural theme by full-scale dated
furnishing. One approach would be
to use an existing exhibit case to tell the stories of successive families who
lived there. Another could use a few selected furnishings along with graphics
to suggest changing domestic styles and uses. Students working on this project will develop a creative
solution to the need to introduce tangible objects into the Parsons house in a
way that enhances interpretation in ways that do not conflict with the
architectural story already in place.
Readings:
Abbott Lowell Cummings, The Framed Houses of
Massachusetts Bay, 1625-1725
(Harvard
University Press, 1979)
Richard Bushman, The Refinement of America (Random House, 1993)
Patricia West, Domesticating History: The Political
Origins of AmericaÕs House Museums
(Smithsonian,
1999)
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, The Age of Homespun:
Objects and Stories in the Creation of an
American
Myth (Knopf, 2001)
Gregory Clancy and John Leeke, Report on Building
Archeology at the Nathaniel
Parsons
House, Northampton, Massachusetts (SPNEA, 1992) available at Historic
Northampton
3)
Du Bois Homesite: W.E.B. Du
Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in
1868 and died in Accra, Ghana in 1963. His life is a remarkable story of
arguably the most important U.S. scholar/activist of the 20th
century. The Du Bois homesite--a
5-acre plot about 2 miles outside of downtown Great Barrington--is set aside to
commemorate his life as a National Historic Landmark whose custodian is the
University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Today the Homesite is a woodlot with an abundance of poison ivy, the
house having been torn down in 1954.
People have been working since the 1960s to develop an appropriate
commemoration for Du Bois in this town of his birthplace, and all have been
surrounded by controversy. Recent
efforts include conducting archaeology at the Homesite, placing signage around
town at Du Bois landmarks, developing a written geography of Du Bois locations
in the town, and dedicating a mural and a garden to Du Bois.
The class project involves learning more about Du
BoisÕs life and times, and then developing programming appropriate for the
Homesite, and possibly other locations in Great Barrington. One possible outcome would be a script
about the Homesite that an interpreter might deliver to visitors during
appropriate times. (Note all the ambiguity
surrounding that word—appropriate--that you will need to plumb in this
project.) Other locales might also lend themselves to interpretive programming,
as well, something for you to discover. Working on the project requires tact
and diplomacy, as you will be entering into a fluid and complex set of social
relations with some people seeking to bring about a commemoration of Du Bois,
others opposed, and others ambivalent.
This situation will make your job easier, because there are allies in
the know, and harder, because this preexisting social situation is complex and
multifaceted. This complexity
makes this project real, as this is what you encounter in doing any historic
site interpretation.
Readings:
Du Bois has a phenomenal bibliography; the UMass W.E.B. Du Bois
Library has the Du Bois papers.
You will need to engage some of these resources to do this
projectÉ.though it is hard to anticipate in advance all that you will need to
look at. So, for a start:
On Du Bois & the homesite:
Drew,
Bernard A.
2002 Fifty
Sites in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Associated with the Civil Rights
Activist W.E.B. Du Bois. Great Barrington, Massachusetts: Great Barrington Land
Conservancy and Great Barrington Historical Society.
Du
Bois, W. E. B.
1928 The House of the Black
Burghardts. The Crisis 35 (4):133-134.
1968 The
Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the last
Decade of It First Century. N.Y., N.Y.: International Publishers.
Lester,
Julius, ed.
1971 The
Seventh Son: The Thought and Writings of W. E. B. Du Bois. Vol. 1. Edited with
an Introduction by Julius Lester. New York, New York: Vintage Books.
Lewis,
David Levering
1993 W. E. B. Du Bois:
Biography of a Race, 1868-1919. New York, New York:
Holt.
2000 W. E. B. Du Bois: The
Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963. New York, New York:
Henry Holt.
.
On
the interpretation of archaeological sites:
archaeology
and history (Walnut
Creek, CA : AltaMira Press, c2003.)
Schedule of Topics and
Readings:
Sept 13: Introduction: What does ÒInterpretationÓ Mean?
Reading:
John Kuo Wei Tchen, "Back to the Basics: Who Is Researching and Interpreting
for Whom?" Journal of American History 81 (December 1994):
1004-1010. (ONLINE J-STOR)
Spencer
Crew, ÒWho Owns History? History
in the Museum,Ó The History Teacher Vol 30 No. 1 (1996): 83-88 (ONLINE J-STOR))
Silverman, Lois, ÒPersonalizing the Past: A Review of
Literature with Implications for Historical
Interpretation,Ó
Journal of Interpretation Research (Winter
1997): 1-11 (COURSEPACK).
Sept 20: Interpreting Objects and Landscapes, I:
Historic House Museums
FIELD
TRIP: HISTORIC NORTHAMPTON. Meet
at 2:30 in Northampton.
Reading:
Donnelly, Interpreting Historic House Museums
Fleming, ÒArtifact
Study: A Proposed Model,Ó Winterthur Portfolio (1974)
(COURSEPACK)
Susan Shoelwer, exhibition review, ÒThe Rankins of
Cherry Hill,Ó Journal of American History
2003 90(1): 163-173 (ONLINE J-STOR)
Self-guided
field trip: The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House in Hadley REVIEW DUE
Sept 27: Interpreting
Objects and Landscapes, II: Interpreting Archaeological Resources
FIELD
TRIP: W.E.B. DUBOIS HOMESITE. We
will carpool. Details TBA.
Readings:
Robert
Paynter , Susan Hautaniemi, and Nancy Muller, ÒThe Landscapes of the W. E. B.
Du Bois
Boyhood
Homesite: An Agenda for an
Archaeology of the Color Line,Ó in S. Gregory and R. Sanjek, eds, Race.. (New Brunswick, Rutgers, 1994), 285-318.
(COURSEPACK)
ALSO:
If you havenÕt already read it, please try to at least skim Dubois, Souls of
Black Folk. A full-
text
on-line version can be found on Bartleby.com, and likely elsewhere. Used editions are easily had
as
well, and there are some good critical and centennial editions just out.
Oct 4: Interpreting Objects and Landscapes, III:
Interpreting Loss
FIELD
TRIP: THE BUNKER. Meet at 2:30 at
the site.
Readings:
Cold
War History Project
http://wwics.si.edu/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=topics.home
Cold
War Museum (www.coldwar.com)
Oct 11: The
Institutional Setting, I: Overcoming Undertow
FIELD
TRIP: HISTORIC DEERFIELD. Meet at
2:30 at the Historic Deerfield.
Reading:
Batinski, Pastkeepers in a Small Place
Lanning and Miller, ÒCommon Parlors,Ó Gender and
History (COURSEPACK)
Historic Deerfield Long Range Plans, 1984, 1991 and
ÒFor the 21st CenturyÓ RESERVE
(these
documents will form the basis of our discussion; please read carefully, and
formulate questions/comments/observations in advance)
Reading:
Handler and Gable, The New History in an Old Museum
Carson,
ÒColonial Williamsburg and the Practice of Interpretive Planning in
American
History MuseumsÓ Public Historian
1998 20 (3):11-51
(COURSEPACK)
Carson,
ÒLost in the Fun House: A Commentary on Anthropologists First Contact
with
History Museums, Journal of American History 81:1 (1994), 137-50 (COURSEPACK)
John
D. Krugler, ÒBehind the Public Presentations: Research and Scholarship at
Living History
Museums
of Early AmericaÓ WMQ (COURSEPACK)
Oct 25: Sites with Hard Issues to Face
Reading:
Foote,
Shadowed Ground
Robert Weyeneth, ÒHistory, He Wrote: Murder, Politics,
and the Challenges
of Public
History in a Community with a Secret,Ó Public Historian (1994): 51-73. (COURSEPACK)
Self-guided
field Trip: Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association REVIEW DUE
Nov 1: The Institutional Setting, III: Community Hopes,
Hamstrings
Reading:
Lewis, The Changing Face of Public History: The
Chicago Historical Society and the
Transformation
of
an American Museum (2005)
Reading:
Serrell, Exhibit Labels
Vukelich,
ÒTime Language for Interpreting History Collections to Children,Ó Museum
Studies Journal (Fall 1984): 43-50.
Self-Guided
field trip before this date: Historic DeerfieldÕs Flynt Center REVIEW
DUE
Nov 8: NO CLASS, IN VIEW OF
NOV 2 FIELD TRIP
Reading:
Barbara
Levy, et al, Great Tours!
Marianne Curling, ÒHow to Write a Furnishing Plan,Ó
AASLH
Roberts,
From Knowledge to Narrative (Washington,
D.C: Smithsonian, 1977) Introduction
(COURSEPACK).
Falk,
J.H., Moussouri, T., & Coulson., D., ÒThe effect of visitors' agendas on
museum learning,Ó
Curator, (1998) 41, 2, 107-120. (COURSEPACK).
NOTE:
PRIOR TO THIS DATE, AND PREFERABLY IN OCTOBER (since their schedule goes down
to just Wednesdays and Saturdays
in November) YOU MUST TAKE A TOUR OF THE EDM ON YOUR OWN.
Nov 22: Nuts and Bolts III: The Importance of
Evaluation
Reading: Serrell, Paying Attention
McManus, P.M., ÒMemories as indicators of the impact
of museum visits,Ó Museum
managemment
and curatorship, 12 (1993) 367-380
(HANDOUT)
Sandifer, C. ,ÒTime-based behaviors at an interactive
science museum: exploring the differences
between
weekend/weekend and family/nonfamily visitors,Ó Science Education, 81(6)
(1997):
689-701 (HANDOUT)
Thanksgiving Break
Nov 29: Virtual
Interpretation
Reading:
Allen,
Barbara,Ó Digitizing WomenÕs History: New Approaches to Evidence and
Interpretation
in Museum Exhibits,Ó Radical History Review 1997 (68): 102-120 (ONLINE)
Dan Cohen, draft
chapters for Making Online History (these are best read online because
of the hyperlinks):
"Planning a History Website" http://chnm.gmu.edu/moh/planning/
"Designing the Past" http://chnm.gmu.edu/moh/design/
Jacob Nielsen,
Alertboxes:
"Are Users Stupid?" http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010204.html
"End of Web Design" http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000723.html
"Why Web Users Scan Instead of Read"http://www.useit.com/alertbox/whyscanning.html
Larry Gales,
"Web Page Design Inspired by Edward Tufte" http://staff.washington.edu/larryg/Classes/Rinflux/zz-influx.html
Self-Guided
Field Trip to one of these virtual museums COMPARATIVE REVIEW DUE:
The Lost Museum: http://lostmuseum.cuny.edu/
The
Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory: http://www.chicagohs.org/fire/index.html
Do History: http://www.dohistory.org
National Postal Museum: http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/
Black
Loyalists: Our History, Our People: http://collections.ic.gc.ca/blackloyalists/
Many
Stories of 1704: http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/
Dec 6: No
Class – prepare presentation
of Group Projects
Dec 9: CLASS
CONFERENCE: Presentation of Group Projects
Dec 13: LAST CLASS. Lessons from the field of museum and historic site
interpretation.
Assignment:
Everyone in the class should come with a list of Ò10 best practicesÓ on interpretation,
with enough copies to distribute.
FINAL
PAPERS DUE