Several thoughts..



We have had good luck making the rules part of the interpretive message.  In 
our case we are a Victorian house in a historic farm. We explain that "the 
house is the farm house where the family who owned the farm lived, but it 
isn't a house anymore, it's a museum, and we need to treat it and the 
objects inside like museum things, not like house things."

Similarly we ask that "cell phones be turned off because they haven't been 
invented yet."



With interested students we include information on collections care.  This 
came up when a student asked how we cared for or moved the furniture if we 
can't touch it. out came the white gloves. there is now a pair stashed for 
demonstration purposes.  (we don't have a tour script, instead we have a 
resource book for docents)



We have had some issues with touching collections. We believe that for some 
visitors, once you allow them to touch one object, you have given permission 
to touch all.  We have moved most of the touchable objects to the end of the 
tour.



Randy Hees

Patterson House at Ardenwood Farm

City of Fremont, California

=========================================================
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).