Re: [MUSEUM-L] pineapple questionGrad student here working on a second masters (in public history) which has lead me to museum studies and a position recruiting and training volunteer interpreters for a historic home. The first MA was in journalism, so I'm very concerned about accuracy, as we all are anyway.  

First, I'm also a quilter and pineapples are a popular motif. They are considered to be a welcoming symbol, though I never had heard why. One quilting myth that needs busting is that quilts were used on the underground railroad and supposedly contained clues about the path to take, etc. While a "safe" home may well have been marked by a quilt hanging outside, curators at quilt museums have told me that there is no evidence (no reference in slave oral histories, for example) of such and that quilters in America didn't even begin naming quilt blocks until after the Civil War.

But, it was the firescreen's/women's makeup melting story that caught my attention. An online search finds numerous references to that story, but not as a myth. If that is indeed a myth, I would appreciate knowing more about how the myth evolved.

For that matter,  I wish I could be in your Ed.Coordinator's class and would be interested in any other myth that needs busting.

Cheers,
Janeen

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