Years ago, I visited Shirley Plantation, down on the James River in Virginia, outside of Richmond. It is still in family hands, but is open to the public and staffed with guides. I had one of the best historic house tours I have ever had there. The guide was a young woman who vividly brought the house to life for my husband and me. She talked about the occupants, the type life they led, and then used furniture and features of the house as a jumping-off place for anecdotes about some members of the family. (For instance, a short, jealous wife pulled a very high chest on frame down on top of her while climbing up to find love letters she was convinced her husband had hidden in the top drawer!) It was wonderful, and gave us a sense of the Carter family that we would not have had otherwise. I have not had a historic house tour since that could compare. I don't know how much of this was the young guide's innate ability and how much of this was scripted by the family. But it certainly made the place come alive for us. It would be worth a call to them Claudia Nicholson Curator of Collections South Dakota State Historical Society, Pierre [log in to unmask]