Jacqueline:

I agree with all past posts that obtaining a copy of The Participatory Museum by Nina is a great start to integrate participatory experiences in a cost effective way. At the Lincoln-Tallman House, in Janesville, WI, I am striving to create a more participatory environment that includes a "touch-all" room, in which visitors can interact with virtually every object there, including furniture, clothing, and other objects. 

I am also instituting a calendar of "life events", similar to the funeral that Alison referred to. Weddings, courting events, and daily life events are all be recreated by docents or volunteers that portray historic figures that have been connected to the house and the community. 

The success of these all depend on funds, staff, and timeline. 

Best of luck!

Mike Reuter
Rock County Historical Society

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 9, 2012, at 2:57 PM, "Alison L. Wright" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Jacqueline,
> 
> As a former curator at an historic house in Indiana (lived in by the family from 1845-1939), I drew inspiration for exhibits by events that occured in the house by the family and referenced etiquette books of the time.  For example, the original owner of the house, a former U.S. Senator from Indiana, died in his bed.  Newspaper accounts provided much contextual information about his passing, and of course funeral customs of the time period (19th century and all the way up to the early 20th century), meant mourning and a service inside the home.  I transformed the house to that of mourning: draped all of the mirrors in black, hung a wreath on the door, tied a black ribbon around the bell knob and silenced the door bell clappper, borrowed a casket and set it in the formal parlor where the deceased would lie in state and family members would keep vigil until the time of the service and removal for burial.  The customs/etiquette for family members and servants were also discussed in different parts of the  house--not just attire, but subsequent roles of widows or widowers (many times widows were considered spinsters and were sent to live with male relatives who would also be in charge of the finances and estate of widow's husband; widowers, on the other hand, mourned for a shorter period of time as they often had children to care for and were in need of a new wife!).
> 
> I could go on for much longer about the mourning exhibit, but I want to provide you with another example.  Most recently the display I had in the dining room was about "oddities"--items that were commonplace for formal dining then, and essentially non-existent now--cup plates, a knife rest, salt dishes, pickle jar.  How this was set up was that the items were on display in the center of the dining room table and around the edges were what I called the flip-overs: a label in front of each object with its picture and "What Am I?... Flip this over to discover!"  (These were simply labels mounted on foamcore).  The objective was to start a conversation/guessing game of what the visitor thought the item was.  The back side of the label identified the object and explained its function.  (The inspiration for this display came from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London).
> 
> Our tours were all docent-led as we had no barriers and we needed to provide protection not only for the collections, but visitors as well (uneven floors and tight spaces!).  We, too, had a limited budget and limited staff, and we would have amended how these exhibits could have worked without a docent (I don't think loose foamcore labels resting on a table would have survived un-supervised visitors!).
> 
> Feel free to contact me off list if you'd like some more examples, images, etc.
> 
> Alison Wright
> former curator
> Montgomery County Historical Society, home of
> Senator Henry S. Lane
> Crawfordsville, IN
> 
> 
> ---- Casandra Karl <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
>> The book, "The Participatory Museum" by Nina Simon has some great examples of low cost interactives that can be adapted to this situation.
>> Off the top of my head, I would suggest really well written interpretive labels that include discussion questions- to get guests to interact with each other, supplemented with video or content on a touch screen or tablet (if this is something you can afford).  
>> Also, it will help if visitors are engaged through a number of their senses- touch and smell are two easy, generally affordable ones.
>> - Casandra
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>> On Nov 7, 2012, at 1:26 PM, Jacqueline Bershad <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hello-
>>> 
>>> I would appreciate suggestions for examples of successful exhibits within historic house museums. 
>>> 
>>> I am working with Elfreth's Alley Museum which is a very small house set on a 18c street in Philadelphia. It is currently furnished to reflect the life of the two women dressmakers who lived there in the 1770's. Typically guests are taken through the house by a docent.
>>> 
>>> We are working on developing an exhibit that would co-exist in the furnished rooms and provide sufficient interaction for visitors to go through without a docent.
>>> 
>>> We are focusing on the concept of "home" including issues of home ownership (the two ladies owned the house), work from home (they received clients in the front room), family and privacy (for the bedroom), and food (for the kitchen).
>>> 
>>> We are particularly interested in participatory devices to relate these issues to visitors.
>>> 
>>> As always we are very limited on cash and staff...
>>> 
>>> Thanks in advance for sharing your ideas and experiences.
>>> 
>>> Jacqueline
>>> 
>>> =========================================================
>>> Important Subscriber Information:
>>> 
>>> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
>>> 
>>> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>> 
>> =========================================================
>> Important Subscriber Information:
>> 
>> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
>> 
>> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
> 
> =========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
> 
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
> 
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).