Nick, for a quick search of scholarly literature you might try http://scholar.google.com -- there's some interesting results in there when I searched under "museum interpretation."  You might need to try a couple of different search terms.

And building on what Annmarie wrote below, I too have done living history interpretation from a number of eras.  The toughest nut to crack for me has been trying to help modern Americans understand the material and social cultures of late 14th-century English people.  It's extremely hard to stay in a first-person narrative with something that is so far removed without drawing parallels to things that modern Americans are familiar with.  

We've sometimes done a mix of first- and third-person narration, welcoming them onto the site and talking in one area as our first-person selves (especially about basic stuff like food) and then having a "museum tent" in the third person to address the more complex things (the ubiquity of the church, the complex strata of society after the Black Death, etc.).  I find it easier to connect modern Americans with something that is *so far* removed from their experience when we can talk in the third person about the parallels that do exist.  First-person works best, in my experience, when the differences aren't so great.

In short, perhaps it can be easily said that there are instances where first-person narrative gets in the way of fulfilling Tilden's first principle: "Any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile."  If that can't be done using first-person techniques due to distance or complexity as I mentioned or some other reason, then third-person interpretation might be in order.  The point, I'd say, is to be effective rather than to lock oneself into a single form of presentation.

Either way, it's a fun challenge, but I'm always interested to hear "best practices" when it comes to interpretation--whether based on Tilden's seminal work or on "home grown" solutions.

Peace,

--Eric

Eric D. M. Johnson
Proprietor
The Village Factsmith Historical Research & Consulting
http://www.factsmith.com/
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Annmarie Zan 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2005 2:37 PM
  Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Interpretation or Not?


  I work for a historical museum and we do first person interpretation but there are still hard facts that are neccessary to get out. I feel we short change our audience by just let them see, smell, touch, etc the buck skin but not share the wonderful thought of how this buckskin became soft by brain tanning and the inginuity of the Natives that created this tool just because it would be telling people facts and not interpreting. Just my 2 cents  

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