On Sat, 5 Nov 1994 08:02:56 EDT, Alicia Browne
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
>Hello everybody:
>I'm doing some research on the use of first and third person interpretation in
>living history museums.  I'm particularly interested in how visitors react to
>costumed interpreters.  Do they like the human presence?  Are they made uncom-
>fortable?  Do they feel they can't ask certain important questions because the
>interpreters will not acknowledge times later than those they are portraying?
>I would be interested in personal experiences of people on the list, as well
as
>sources I should turn to.  I feel so far that there do not seem to be many
>studies of how people react to living history interpretation and how people
>learn in that environment.  Anyway, I would be interested in any insights
peop-
>le have.  Please respond to me personally. Thanks in advance.
>Alicia Browne
>[log in to unmask]
>
I'm responding both to you and the list, since others may be interested.
There actually is some literature on this, some of it pretty recent.
Stacey Roth, who is on this list and may contact you directly, did a
very good thesis on a related subject.  If you send me your address I'll
send you my unpublished article, "Real Time. . . "; if you are at GWU, ask
Carol Stapp for it -- she may have a copy.  An earlier version appeared in
the AHLFAM Annual Proceedings for 1989 (V. XII) along with articles
taking, shall we say, different points of view, by David Peterson and
Stephen Osman.  An interesting cluster of articles, including one by me,
pertaining to the role of worldview in living history interpretation, among
other issues, can be found in the next volume (XIII) containing the
proceedings of the 1990 ALHFAM meeting in Providence.  Peterson's earlier
article, "There is No Living History," which appeared in History News,
Sept.-Oct., 1988, is, er, problematic.  Nancy Grey Osterud's thoughtful
review of the Pilgrim Village and Wampanoag Indian Program at Plimoth
Plantation appeared in Journal of Museum Education, Vol. 17, n. 1, Winter
1992.  Happy reading.
 
Ken Yellis
Assistant Director for Public Programs
Peabody Museum of Natural History
170 Whitney Avenue
Box 208118
New Haven, CT 06520-8118
[log in to unmask]
(203) 432-9891/9816(fax)