I've long been a fan of historic house museums willing to think outside the box. A few of my favorite ideas for engaging people:
 
-- Incorporate senses -- just focus on senses other than touch. Have visitors sing a period song around the piano -- (something simple like Bicycle Built for Two is easy). They could even try to guess the tune from some sheet music before you play a snippet on an unobtrusive CD player. Play a parlor game (pick a verbal game). Act out period good manners and bad manners.
 
-- Use the bag idea or touching basket idea that others have suggested but add a puzzle or game dimension to encourage social interaction. Have visitors guess the use of a mystery object (e.g. an ice cream fork in the dining room, a wireless curling iron in the bedroom). Play "I Spy" with an object, trying to find its historic counterpart in the room.
 
-- Set up a room but don't make it a sterile "antiques showroom." Give signs that people live here, and have just stepped out of the room. But it can't just be a single dress draped over the bed or a favorite book propped on the nightstand -- I'm talking about setting up a story that visitors can then "read" to learn for themselves. Maybe grandkids are staying at the house -- could you set up the story of grandkids trying to play while the grandparents try to maintain the fine furniture? What if a grand dinner party is underway and music and the sounds of conversation are coming from an adjacent room, as if the residents just left this room a minute before the visitors entered?
 
One of my favorite historic house museums is the Bradley House in Midland, Mich. They took all the authentic historical pieces out and made it a fully hands-on house using reproductions and generic antiques. Visitors can sit on the furniture, crank the victrola, ring for the "operator" on the telephone, practice using kitchen equipment. In a bedroom, students try to dress a mannequin with period clothing in the proper order. At holiday time, they hang up fragrant real evergreens and hide presents visitors find by following ribbons strung in and around the furniture. Many of these aren't reproducible in a hands-off house, but the concept is so appealing and engaging.
 
These types of activities are often presented as "kids" activities, which always strikes me as so unfortunate. Adults frequently enjoy them even more than the kids and prefer them over the hands-off, didactic lecture approach. When incorporating hands-on, sense-activating activities, you give visitors more than just information, you give them the feeling of the period. And that contextual and sensory information helps anyone enter into the history more emotionally.
 Leslie Goddard
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From: Dale Jones <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Fri, February 26, 2010 9:34:52 AM
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Engaging Historic House Interpretation







 
Good morning (excuse the cross-posting),
 
I am participating in a workshop next week on creating engaging tour/experiences for visitors in a space (e.g., historic house) where visitors cannot touch the objects being discussed and am compiling a list of strategies that incorporate hands-on and/or minds-on engagement.  
 
I have material already (years of experience, some research) but I would love to hear other great ideas and include them. I would be sure to credit you (unless you don’t want that.) I would also post the list of strategies I assemble after the workshop. 
 
 You can reply either off or on list.
 
Thanks
 
Dale Jones
 
Making History Connections
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www.makinghistoryconnections.com
affiliated with QM2 at qm2.org
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