The Attic

A bit of surfing for information on Amy M Tyson - the author of one of the texts for our Managing History discussion tomorrow on museums - led me to The Attic, the virtual home of the Department of Museum Studies' research students at the University of Leicester in the UK.  Definitely something to explore as time allows!  

Leisure and Hospitality Industry Job Opening – Historian

“What?” My exclamation startled the dog. “The United States' Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies museum and historic site staff as working in the leisure and hospitality industry?” Tobias, who is not up-to-date on current museum culture, decided I was truly talking to myself (again) and not him, and went back to sleep. I continued to harangue a (mostly) empty room.

“Interpreters work within the service industry?” My tone hovered between incredulous and scoffing. “But, that would mean pleasing the customer comes first. Before historical accuracy. Before preservation concerns. Before financial stability.” As I heard the phrases echo in the room, I thought of the Grinch, confused as to how Christmas came without the trappings. (“It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.”) Luckily for me, I didn't have to puzzle for three hours with grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow. Taken in context within this week's Managing History readings on the general topic of museums, while the industry label is still a bit jarring, how we as a culture arrived at such a classifications makes sense. Raises questions and concerns, but fits within an understandable progression.

In two-score speeches and essays written between 1990 and 2000 and collected in his book, Making Museums Matter, Stephen E. Weil emphatically documents that since World War II, the foci of museums have shifted from collection and preservation to education and public service. One driving force in this transformation was the shift in the third sector from being “charitable” to being “not-for-profit” - in simple, to being held accountable and measurable for some sort of a bottom line. The public pays for museums, public or private, in one form or another. Museums are therefore not only answerable to the community, they have an obligation to be of service to the community and the individuals within it.

In her article, Crafting emotional comfort: interpreting the painful past at living history museums in the new economy, Amy M Tyson goes a step further to suggest that two specific living history museums have gone beyond simple accountability of civic engagement to selling a product in a service sector. The focus then becomes keeping the customer happy, up to and including adapting historical interpretation in ways that cue off of and protect visitors', and interpreters', levels of comfort.

How does the 2008 Annual Report for the American Association of Museums (AAM) relate to Weil's theories? I argue the choice of the themes presented proves his point and indicates how the trends he identified have progressed in the decade following his comments. Weil indicated that part of the mission of the museum sector in the 90s must be to identify the kinds of public service it not only could, but should provide. The AAM's identification of museums as providers of lifelong learning, sources of civic pride, and invaluable community assets are in line with concepts Weil already envisioned. While his language was not as precise as the AAM's in seeing museums as an economic engine, he wasn't far from that definition. Serving as a therapeutic oasis and a social services provider go a bit further than Weil envisioned, I believe, when he discussed the emotional responses of the public.

For all of the excellent grounding, forward thinking, and deliberate inciting of thought generated by Weil's book, the unasked question echoing in the room is, “What about the history?” While somewhat understandable from a man whose vast experience was based in art museums, one wishes Weil had asked this question in his reviews of where museums are and where they should go. Tyson observed a deliberate choice to give customer comfort pride of place before opportunity to generate discussion about controversies in our historical time line. What questions do we ask next? Is the presentation of historical content a social mandate? What difference does history make in the difference made by museums? While we search for answers to these questions and continue to formulate others, those of us who work on the boundary between history and public satisfaction will very likely find ourselves reminding others in the larger sector to “not forget the history!”

Not Your Father's Museum Intership

While I would love to own a bright yellow Volkswagon Bug, my bright orange Element provides more storage space.  This posting on philaculture.org does make me additionally wistful at the lack of a Bug.  Yes, I would drive through Phila with a giant bug on top of my car - what a creative, fun method of civic engagement!  

Organization: American Philosophical Society

Job Categories: 

Volunteer & Intern, Philadelphia County (PA), Artist Development & Residencies, Museums

The APS Museum is seeking an intern who owns or leases a VW Beetle hard-top. The intern will drive the vehicle in conjunction with a 2-week (October 12-24, 2009) art performance titled The Voyage of the Beetle and will work with an experienced performance artist, who will stage guerilla performances throughout Philadelphia. Vehicle should be properly insured with valid tags. Availability of up to 8 hours per day during the performance run. Must be willing to have lightweight giant beetle affixed to roof of car during performances (will not damage car -attached via removable roof rack). Generous stipend and reimbursement for fuel/parking costs acquired during performances.

To Apply:

Send letter of interest and resume to jdrozdek@amphilsoc.org

Deadline: 10/05/2009

Posted: 09/04/2009   Expires: 10/05/2009

Stops Along My Path - NYS Historical Markers

One of my earliest glimpses into the past was through the window of my parents' car.  Whether in the green Buick station wagon or the red Rabbit hatchback, my seat in the car was the right rear one, and that view was my entrance to worlds present, past, and imaginary.  The car window provided one of the best forms of car-bound entertainment in those days before hand-held technology.  One of my favorite past times was to look for historical markers.  While on regular trips around our small community in New York's Finger Lakes region or annual summer treks to my grandparents' home in Maine, sitting in the car was a trip into the past, if I paid attention.  One didn't have to leave town to find the blue and gold metal signs.  Geneva had many, from the one right down the road from our house marking the Iroquois site of Kanadesaga to the one marking the site for the Geneva Medical College, alma mater of Elizabeth Blackwell.  The markers seemed to be everywhere when I was a child.  Perhaps that was due to New York State's dedication to the practice.  Perhaps I noticed because I was looking.  

It seems I'm not the only one who enjoys looking.  While doing research for this post, in addition to finding a search engine on the New York State Museum site listing markers,  I discovered a page on Waymarking for NYS Historical Markers.  According the website's FAQ,  "Waymarking is a way to mark unique locations on the planet and give them a voice."  Categories are as varied as "All Things Star Wars" to "Ginormous Everyday Objects."  The specific use of Waymarking to collect historic markers allows not only for a scavenger hunt method of visiting historical sites but also provides the ability to visit them from one's armchair.  

To go back to a question we raised alongside the Memorial Arch at Valley Forge - "Is this history?"  Waymarking is not history - but its a fun way to use technology to gather representations or reminders of historical events and places.  One could say its the next step in the evolution of preserving a memory.  The marker installed in the early 20th century by the State of New York tagged a location as being a specific coordinate in space and time where something we consider momentous happened, a location we believe marks a specific change over time.  The electronic waymarker is simply the 21st Century extension of such a marker.  Luckily for those of use who still appreciate and enjoy reminders that we can see and touch, a waymarker doesn't replace the blue and gold metal signpost.  It augments that object by extending its reach into cyperspace.  

Waymarking may also serve as a tool to connect the more technology-embedded youth of today to three dimensional objects.  When I bundle my family into my bright orange Element next summer for a trek to Wisconsin to visit my parents, perhaps we'll use Waymarker.com to track historic markers across five states, using the iPhone to encourage us to look out the window in search of history instead of playing video games.  After all, one can always play PacMan or watch videos when its too dark to see the landscape.  

Managing History Readings for September 21, 2009

I am intrigued by a question in this week's texts. “How does an individual use history to define one's self?”

According to the readings, individuals do not seek out history to understand someone else's life; they do so to understand their own. Moreover, they view the historical fact or object or story through their own cultural lenses and interpret it with personal senses of self. While there is an emotional response, the ultimate result is personal validation, or an “existential” authenticity.

Authenticity is a term historians use – are guilty of over using – when validating the representation of a time, person, or place. I will admit to having cavalierly bandied about the term, most often in reference to the (proper) representation of a time period through (appropriate) use of external props that are justified by documented knowledge. However, the survey and sociological survey studied suggest that authenticity is internal, not external; that the use of a 1930 teacup isn't emotionally satisfying because its use places us in another period of time, but because our internalizations of that period of time is one more layer in our definition of who we are, how we fit, where we come from, and what we want to be.

Perhaps the next logical question to be asked by public historians requires flipping the observation of an exhibit or object from,“What does this object say of the past” to “How can this object help define someone's future?”

Texts referenced include: Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000) and Hyounggon Kim and Tazin Jamal, "Touristic Quest for Existential Authenticity" in Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 181-201, 2007.

Interesting Find

My journey to Temple includes a significant commute.  While I can read for the hour I'm on the train in each direction, the hour in the car can feel like wasted time intellectually.  On my "to do list" was to find academically relevant material to listen to during the drive.  While visiting the web site for the Library Company of Philadelphia recently, I found that they have several programs saved in podcast format.   

Thoughts on Readings for 9/14/09 Class Discussion

Managing History readings for this week are: Ian Tyrrell's, “Historians in Public," Cathy Stanton's intro to “The Lowell Experiment,” and Carl Becker's presidential address to the AHA.

These readings are a foundation for understanding our chosen field – its history, key figures, affect on culture, morality, economics, etc. They also start us – very solidly – thinking about the obligations inherent in our choice to serve as historians within the public sphere.

Tyrrell's work provides an immense amount of critical information. If as historians we espouse studying our past in order to understand our future, Tyrrell's book provides data that can help us avoid the hypocrisy of not knowing our own past. (It's one thing to join the American Historical Association (AHA). Its another to realize that it has existed since the late 1800s and to examine its role in shaping the field of history.)

Becker's piece challenges us, as it did Tyrrell, to question how, in 1931, he was representative of historians' views of the public and of their obligation to the public and how he was revolutionary.

Stanton gives us another analysis of the rise of public history. While she and Tyrrell draw on similar sources, the tones are different, perhaps because they have different reasons for presenting the information. Tyrrell is looking backward, documenting where we've been in order to explore the role the teaching of history plays. Stanton is setting a current example of that role in context.