DEVELOPING CONTEXT FOR THE HISTORIC HOUSE MUSEUM

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DEVELOPING CONTEXT FOR THE HISTORIC HOUSE MUSEUM

• Mission, Documentation and Beyond

March 5, 2007
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Interpretation dependent on understanding the
entire site

• 1. What are you?
• 2. What do you know and how do you know it?
• 3. What are your collections?
• 4. What structures are included on your site?
• 5. How is the landscape presented?
• 6. Who is your audience?

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1. What are you?

• What type of institution?
• Historic House Museum
• Historical Society with historic house museum
• Another combination

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Why was your historic house/site saved?

• Association historic figure, e.g. President of
  the United States
• Association with an important movement, e.g.
  Underground Railroad
• Association with historic event, e.g.
  Revolutionary war battlefield
• Significant architecture, landscape, literary or
  aesthetic associations

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When was your site saved?

• 19th century and first half of the 20th century
• Great White Males
• Military associations, battlefields, forts
• Colonial, Revolutionary, Civil War associations
• 2nd half 20th century
• Social history
• Escape the bulldozer
• Post Civil War or early 20th century site

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Do you have landmark status?

• National, state or local?
• What does the landmark status designate as the
  significance of your site/house?

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What is your mission?

• What do you do?
• How do you do it?
• Who do you do it for?
• Do they care?

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2. What do you know and how do you know it?

• Documentation
• Site specific
• Generic
• Local or regional
• National

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What primary documentation do you have? Site
specific

• Manuscript
• Pictorial
• Oral histories
• Published

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Manuscript

• Deeds and Maps
• Wills and Inventories
• Letters, Journals, Diaries
• Account Books

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Have you gone back and looked at the primary
documentation recently?

• Dont rely on what people tell you is in those
  documents.
• What questions were asked of the documents?

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What you ask determines what documents reveal

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Pictorial

• Drawings and sketches
• Photographs
• Paintings

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Drawings and Sketches
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Paintings
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Photographs
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Oral Histories

• Fantastic resource for 20th century history
• Difficult to access unless transcribed

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Published accounts?

• Autobiographies biographies of occupants
• Descriptions of property in travel accounts, etc.
• References in local, regional or state histories
• Histories of the site/property

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What studies have been done for the house/site?

• Historic Structure Report
• Historic Landscape Report
• Historic Finishes Report
• Archaeological Report
• Historic Furnishings Report or Plan
• Interpretive Plan

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3. What are your collections?

• What are the strengths of your collections?
• Site specific, original
• Well-documented reproductions

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Site Specific, original to site
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Well-documented reproduction
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Documentation
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What are the weaknesses of your collection?

• Generic
• Non-local provenance
• Wrong time-period
• Too high class/ too low class
• Large gaps in collection undermine story

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Is the entire collection well utilized?

• How much is in storage?
• Are there items that really dont fit in with the
  current presentation?
• What do you plan to do with them?

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Do your documentation and collections support a
variety stories?

• Do you have just one story to tell?
• If more than one, which ones are worth telling?
• How do you decide?

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When is a bedroom not a bedroom?
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Meanwhile, back in storage
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Related documentation
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Helens Business Charitable activities the
important story
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Do your collections create an accurate
representation of the era(s) you wish to depict
at your historic house museum?

• Yes, you are in good shape
• No, may need to rethink the era you are
  interpreting

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4. What structures are included on your site?

• Original to the site
• Moved to the site
• Restoration or reconstruction
• Modern

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Original to the Site
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Moved to site
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Restoration Reconstruction
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Modern
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How do structures fit into stories?

• Period of interpretation
• Post- period of interpretation
• Support the central story
• Contradict or confuse central story
• Whats missing?
• Whats there that shouldnt be there?

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5. How is the landscape presented?

• Landscape integrated into the story of the house
• Landscape simply the setting for the house

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How much of original property is included?

• Have entire historic property Montgomery Place,
  Red Hook, NY
• House alone, totally lost surrounding
  environment Dyckman Farm House

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House alone
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Does house have historic landscape or modern
landscape?

• Documented or generic
• Representative or pretty

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Is the landscape included in the interpretation?

• Farm house needs farm to make sense
• A country estate needs vistas, plantings, a sense
  of space
• What alternative means do you use to place your
  historic house in its historic landscape?

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6. Who is your audience?

• Who comes to your site?
• What type of experience do you provide?
• Who are your neighbors, your community?

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Who comes to your site?

• National, state, regional, local
• Walk-ins or reservations
• Bus
• School groups
• Families
• Seniors

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What type of experience?

• Guided Tour
• Self-guided tour
• Special events
• Seminars or classes
• Exhibits
• Internet

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What is your relationship with your
neighbors/your community?

• Are you valued by your community?
• Are you viewed as exclusive or inclusive?
• Are you reaching what should be your best market?

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