Know a Veteran? Record their Story!

LOC

The American Folklife Center, part of the Library of Congress, has been conducting an important ongoing project: The Veteran's History Project. The goal of the Veteran's History Project is to collect firsthand accounts from American war veterans, and civilians to aided war efforts from WWI to the present.





As more and more witnesses of these events pass away, their personal stories are lost with them. Many people experienced extraordinary things that they do not feel the need to share with anyone until someone asks. 

Many people discredit oral histories because they have long been associated with many problems.

Problems associated with oral history:

- Interviews conducted years after an event are subject to nostalgia, forgetfulness, embellishment, false memory, etc. 

- The interviewer's questions can make certain aspects seem more important to the interviewee than they really were. For instance, interviewers generally ask specific questions that they are interested in hearing about rather than letting the interviewee demonstrate what they believed was most important. 

-Interviewees may be reluctant to share things that they may be embarrassed of, especially if the interviewer is a family member. 

Even though there are many pitfalls in using and conducting oral histories, oral histories are still important.  Oral histories can bring up forgotten parts of history and give a human face and experience to historical events. Oral histories are good for recording emotions and feelings about events. Writers of history are quick to generalize the feelings of groups of people in the past but oral histories are one way to show the diversity of feelings and emotions that existed. In addition, they also show the diversity of experience. A farm girl might have different feelings about an event than a soldier she was standing next to.


If you would like to take part in the project, the American Folklife Center has put together resources for those interested and instructions on how to record and submit materials. 

-Here is a link to the project.
-Here is a link to their interview field kit.   
-Search to see some of the histories they have collected already.  
-Tips for Interviewers from the Bancroft Library's Regional Oral History Office to help interviewers minimize bias in their interviews.

Museums: Are We Putting Ourselves Out of Business?

We keep hearing the cries from museums and historical sites. We have no money! The economy is terrible! We are getting no donations! But is it us who are putting ourselves out of business?

It sounds ridiculous. Every historical site staff member or volunteer I have ever met worked very hard and was dedicated to their site. So what is the problem?

There are many historical sites trying to be saved today and more and more each year and in this economy, pleas for funding are coming from charities, schools and clubs.  Our historical sites and museums have long relied on the gracious donations. While this has worked in the past, in this economy, people are watching their money and trying to get the best value for their dollar. Your site needs to offer something to the public in exchange for their money.

Many sites tout their tours, their displays and their historical interpreters. I no longer think that this is enough. With so many sites in competition with each other and so much "historical exchange" between sites. Something must be done to set yourself apart.

Many sites agree and have tried to "update" their museums with multimedia displays and movies. These are great for the younger generations, but honestly can't compete with anything the kids are carrying around in their pockets. If anything, multimedia belongs on your website where your guest can get excited for a trip to your site and a little bit extra if they want some more after they visit.

Tours and historical interpreters are great but they are not the draw they used to be. Almost every historical sites offers these services. Just ask a reenactor or living historians how many more events there are compared to only a few years ago! Also, the fact that many site workers work at multiple sites and the historical community fosters an exchange of knowledge that can lead to all sites having similar offerings for guests.

So what can sites do to stay above water?

-Specialize: Is there anything special about your site? Is there something that could be done there that couldn't be done somewhere else? Don't avoid the "exchange" but think if there is a way you could offer something differently than other sites do. It's hard to think outside the box when we are all trying to teach similar things.

-Collaborate: Instead of fighting the competition, is there anyway to join forces? Can you have guests grind mill at a local site and have them bake it at yours? Can you give them a discount for visiting more than one site? Sites in my area have a special booklet and individualized stamps that visitors can "collect" by visiting all of the sites in the area.

-Invest in yourself: I know, there's no money, but if you run bare bones and never put any money back into your site, you will eventually burn out as well as give your site a bad reputation.

-Listen to your visitors: Try to collect as much feedback as possible and use it to get better. Also analyze trends and use them to offer more of what your visitors want and less of what they don't. Some of your offerings may not be worth the money you spend on them. 

-Use your staff and volunteers. I think this is the biggest mistake that many sites make. You may think you are using your staff but there is probably a multitude of things you don't know about each member. You probably have someone collecting tickets or serving food who actually has a hobby that people would pay to learn or see. You might have a worker who loves gardening and would love to create a new gardening program or someone who collects period beer recipes and likes to make them. Your staff can help you differentiate your offerings. Not every site can let visitors smell a variety of period beverages.  

We all want all sites to prosper. Do you have any experiences with this or any tips to help museums or historical sites?

It's Summer: Take some time to slow down and enjoy it.

After all of that very hot weather, it finally feels like fall. I've spent some time minding the garden as well as harvesting some raspberries and black walnuts. I'm still looking around every day to collect the newly fallen walnuts that appear in the night. 

Andy and I have been taking a break from being busy and doing a lot of the things we've been meaning to get around to and many more things that involve being lazy, slowing down and actually enjoying every day. Even if it's only for an hour. So far it's been some relaxing strolls and more time reading. I encourage you all to try it.

A few days ago we took a stroll through these cornfields before lunch. Corn is not something I have ever grown before but these corn fields have made me ambitious for next year's garden. This year my herbs died from that alternating frost and scorching at the beginning of the summer. I have 5 or 6 tomato plants, a few plants of basil, parsley that is just peaking out now and green onions that probably won't be big enough until next year. I still have some strawberries but they only produce a few strawberries a year and Chinese chives but haven't really thought of what I want to use them for.

I'm making progress on my list of things I want to do by the end of this year. I intend to tackle "The Battle Cry of Freedom" as well as get a move on finishing my cook book which has been moving forward very slowly. Unfortunately, a lot of this "me" time has come at the cost of spending time with others. I'm sorry if I have disappeared lately, and haven't been the best about keeping up with phone calls and emails. I haven't forgotten about everyone I just need a little quiet time for now. Hope to catch up with everyone soon.

Help a Historic House Museum!

Historic Cherry Hill  in Albany New York is in danger of foreclosing if they don't raise $152,000 by the end of July.

The historic house was built in 1789 and was home to 5 generations of hoarding Van Rensselaers. The collection if items collected by the family over time include over 3,000 photographs, 7,000 textiles, 20,000 objects, 30,000 manuscript among other things. It is a naturally accumulated time capsule of the family and the time periods in which they lived. In 1963, the last remaining member of the family died and the house became a museum.

The family members have interesting stories of their own. Besides the fact that they rarely threw anything out over 5 generations, two of the early family members living in the house were missionaries in China and brought back souvenirs that are still in the house and in 1827, there was also a murder in the house when the wife of John Whipple, conspired with Jesse Strang to murder her husband. After the deed, Strang was convicted but his wife was not charged. 

The house holds mundane objects like toothbrushes but also very expensive, rare items too. There is also cross documentation of articles such as photos of the certain pieces of furniture throughout the years and diaries that mention some of the pieces. It is interesting to note that in the Colonial Revival style in the early 1900s, the house re-purposed some of the early furniture kept in the house from the colonial period. 

Please donate to help save this historic house and collection. If you can not donate, please share the link with your friends to get the word out.

Wild Raspberry Picking: Imagination is a terrible thing to waste.

Raspberry Preserve

"It's a lot nicer than going round by the road; that is so dusty and hot," said Diana practically, peeping into her dinner basket and mentally calculating if the three juicy, toothsome, raspberry tarts reposing there were divided among ten girls how many bites each girl would have.

The little girls of Avonlea school always pooled their lunches, and to eat three raspberry tarts all alone or even to share them only with one's best chum would have forever and ever branded as "awful mean" the girl who did it. And yet, when the tarts were divided among ten girls you just got enough to tantalize you.

The way Anne and Diana went to school was a pretty one. Anne thought those walks to and from school with Diana couldn't be improved upon even by imagination. Going around by the main road would have been so unromantic; but to go by Lover's Lane and Willowmere and Violet Vale and the Birch Path was romantic, if ever anything was. - Anne of Green Gables 

Today the girls at summer camp spent their day in the woods picking wild berries. One for the basket, and a juicy one for their mouths. There was a group of young ladies who stuck by me in the kitchen, filling up buckets of water, sweeping, and helping cook the meals, even though there were numerous fun activities going on.

These girls already reminded me of me in my childhood. I was a constant dreamer. But unlike Anne Shirley my wild imaginings almost never involved queens or beautiful women with frozen cream skin and raven hair. I was more often a servant doing her daily chores, a colonial girl on the way to a one-room schoolhouse or a slave escaping to freedom than anything else. 

"Older sister," the girls said "We found a new patch of berries on Berry Hill!"

Knowing I would be confused, they introduced me to the "imaginative new names" of the places around the farm.  

Slapjacks to share.

It was extremely fun today to get to be the "older sister" of a bunch of dreaming Anne-girls. I would have loved to have spent a day collecting berries in the "Colonial times." It was fun to finally be a Josephine Barry, kindred spirits with the adventurous dreamers. I also realized how impossibly hard it would for me to be a Marilla Cuthbert. :)