----- Original Message -----
From: "Carol Ely" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2003 1:03 PM
Subject: "Cloth Jews" update
> I contacted David Grabitske, who was listed as the author of the
"Glossary".
> It turns out that he works for the Minnesota State Historical Society, and
> is, in fact, the State Historic Preservation Officer for Minnesota (but,
he
> says, this was done as a side project and not in his official capacity).
He
> responded quite cordially to my email right away, and he is re-thinking
the
> way the Glossary is written.
That's a very professional way to handle the situation and I applaud both
Carol, for the initiative, and Mr. Grabitske, for the decision to pull the
glossary and rethink it.
I still think it sounds more like a reenactors' handbook. Interpretation
professionals build their reputations and livelihood around their research,
knowledge and attention to detail. Most often, the public could care less
how your clothes are constructed. The only one who really cares is you.
It's a little bit different for museums that do interpretation. Would you,
as a museum administrator, let an employee or volunteer wear an article of
clothing from the collection? Of course not. But you can study that
article's construction. You can analyze the stitch count and the method of
stitching and the type of fabric and the way the fabric was woven. And you
can try to recreate that article right down to the last stitch tie-off. And
you can then have your employee or volunteer wear your authentic replica and
have the added program advantage of using the whole reproduction process as
a bonus program. The artifact is for studying. The reproduction is for
demonstrating.
From the professional side, I must say a lot of the terms in the glossary
sound less like they relate to interpretation than they do reenacting. And I
know there are a lot of derogatory, even offensive comments and terms flung
around by the reenacting community. A lot of it has to do with individual
levels of dedication and seriousness. Too serious and too great attention to
detail and you're branded worse than hardcore. Too little, and you're a
farb, or worse. There's often no happy medium. Reenacting can be very
rewarding. But it can also be insanely expensive. There's a difference
between making your own clothes and buying your clothes. Do you know the
right sewing techniques? Does your seamstress know the right sewing
techniques. Do you buy off the rack? Are your buttons correct? Is your shirt
correct? Etc., Etc.
For some people, money is no object and accuracy at all costs. For others,
close enough will have to suffice.
For some, the goal is to experience the life and times of someone from the
past as completely as humanly possible- think hardcore reenactors. Or think
PBS- Frontier House or the like.
For others, reenacting is simply a way to honor their family heritage.
How many times do you encounter borderline farbs whose knowledge of say, the
Civil War is greater than Joe Stitch-Nazi Button Counter? You may look great
and authentic, but if you don't know a thing about the war apart from how to
load and fire a rifled musket with a blank paper cartridge, so what.
The best thing the glossary can do in its present form is to give museum
professionals a glimpse into the world of reenacting through some of the
vocabulary so you know ahead of time what you can run into when you look for
a reenacting group to participate in your new program. Not all reenactors
are the same. And since not all historic sites are the same, you might want
to be familiar with the reenacting lingo in case some of them are talking
about you behind your back. One of those "stitch nazis" might badmouthing
your site after a program and you may not know it.
Scott D. Peters
Research Director/Archivist
Ocean County Historical Society
26 Hadley Ave., P.O. Box 2191
Toms River, NJ 08754-2191
(732) 341-1880
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
"Telling the Stories of Ocean County"
Historically Speaking
ALHFAM -FPIPN vice-chair for trivia, errata and miscellany
[log in to unmask]
"The ordinary distinctions in society are often vague, and imply no just
pre-eminence: rank and titles are
adventitious things and instead of designating merit or virtue, are
frequently the baubles of imbecility, or
the sparkling decorations of meretricious pageantry"
William Griffith, on behalf, and by order of the New-Jersey Society for
promoting the gradual Abolition
of Slavery, Twelfth Month (December) 20th, 1803
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