I very much agree with Eric and it seems clear that the visitors, whether they
go to a museum, historic site, theme park or whatever, are looking for an
interesting and pleasant experience which COMBINES elements of what we
sometimes (not necessarily wisely!) differentiate as entertainment and
education. The more skilful the blend, the better the experience and I agree
with Eric that what Conny Graft and her colleagues have done at Colonial
Williamsburg, is a good example of this.

One of the most interesting examples I've seen of this was at the Antietam
National Battlefield in August 1994, which one would not necessarily think of
as a place to go for "entertainment". After watching a very good orientation
video, one of the interpreters (who apparently is a local special ed. teacher
who does this in the summers) took us up into a sort of control tower, where we
spread out our little maps on our laps and he oriented us to the ground. He
then walked us through the stages of the battle. It was a very lucid, accurate
and interesting presentation, but it also took at least 20-25 minutes. I was
wondering how the children present were reacting to all this and glanced at two
boys seated near us, aged about 9 and 12. To my surprise, their mouths were
wide open and they were hanging on every word. Pretty good entertainment, I'd
say - and highly educational!

The piece de resistance came at the end, when he asked if there were any
questions. Someone asked if the battlefield were haunted. Al, the interpreter,
smiled and replied, "Ah! I can see you've been to Gettysburg! Well, at
Antietam, we don't talk much about our ghosts, but I'll tell you what. You see
that little white farmhouse over there? That's the Piper House, General
Longstreet's headquarters during the battle and now a B&B. They'll give you a
good meal and you can sleep in Old Pete's bed. But, after dinner, when it gets
dark, you go outside, walk around to the back of the house and you'll find a
gravelled path. Follow it for a few hundred yards and you'll be at the edge of
the Bloody Lane. Stay there for half an hour and YOU decide if Antietam's
haunted! Any more questions? No? Then have a good visit, folks!"

What a way to leave them! What great theatre! and you can bet that it made us
all think, a little more and a little differently.

Harry Needham