Hi Jennifer,

I work at a decomissioned Royal Canadian Navy Destroyer which served  
for 20 years from 1943-1963 and is now open to the public as a  
National Historic Site. As you can imagine a ship that served for 20  
years underwent a great deal of changes as technology evolved. Because  
the ship underwent a major refit in the 1950s that drastically changed  
the superstucture of the ship and replaced most of the weaponry found  
on the ship, we have restored the rest of the ship to its post-refit  
look. However, this does not prevent us from discussing the ship's  
entire 20-year service history in our interpretation and we make a  
point of including interpretation that addresses the ship's entire  
service career.

As for naming, we had a similar situation. Our ship was commissioned  
under two pennant numbers. First, as G-63 under the British numbering  
system from its commisioning in 1943 to the 1949-1952 Refit. Second,  
after the refit she was re-commissioned under the North American  
numbering system under pennant number 215. Since we have restored the  
ship to its post-refit look we gained permission from the RCN to use  
the 215 pennant number ont he ship's hull. What I'm trying to get at  
is that the Museum's or House's name needs to reflect what is being  
interpreted inside otherwise your messages are conflicting.If the  
house is restored to reflect the life of specific inhabitant during a  
specific period, the name should reflect that. If the house is being  
interpreted as generic house from a specific period it should not be  
named after a specific person.

But as Ms. Fuller mentioned in her response it all comes back to what  
is in your mission and interpretive plan.

Hope this helps!


Cheers,

Mila Dechef-Tweddle

Heritage Presenter, Project Officer / Animatrice du Patrimoine, Agente  
de Projets
HMCS Haida, National Historic Site of Canada / NCSM Haida, Lieu  
Historique National du Canada
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Quoting Jennifer Fair <[log in to unmask]>:

> Good Morning,
>
> I have a few questions regarding the interpretation of historic houses. I am
> working on a project that involves creating a temporary exhibit about the
> history of a 1908 house. The house was donated to the museum 1990 by a local
> arts organization. The arts organization re-furnished the house to 1908 and
> provided extensive restoration to the interior and exterior.  I am in the
> process of researching the people who lived in the house over many years and
> I am finding that the current furnishing to 1908 does not accurately reflect
> the history of who occupied the house from 1908-1982. For example, two rooms
> in the house are interpreted to 1908, one as a women’s bedroom and the other
> a child’s bedroom. However, only a single man allegedly occupied the house
> until 1913. Another issue is that the house is currently named for the last
> woman who lived there from 1946 to1982. As you can see there are several
> issues to address here.  My questions are: Have any of your museums/historic
> houses dealt with this kind of dilemma before and if so, what steps did you
> take to address the issue?
>
>
> Thank you for any suggestions!
>
> Jennifer Fair
>
>
>
> --
> Jennifer J. Fair
> Collections Intern
> Danish Immigrant Museum
> [log in to unmask]
>
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