One of the most fascinating house exhibits that I have seen is a
long-term installation at the Minnesota History Center called Open
House: If These Walls Could Talk.  Like your project, they researched
a real house over a long period of time.  What is so innovative is
that they chose to fragment the house into different time periods and
recreate rooms in their museum.  The exhibit starts when the house was
new, and then traces how the household and neighborhood changed.  Each
room is set up as from a different era, with a compelling story
attached. The house thus became a foil for telling the story of
average people negotiating life in Minneapolis / St Paul.  There is a
website for the exhibit, which includes a discussion of the research
process through which it was assembled.

http://www.mnhs.org/exhibits/openhouse/index.htm

All the best,

Travis

On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 11:28 AM, Jennifer Fair <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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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-- 
==================================
Travis Nygard
[log in to unmask]
http://www.haa.pitt.edu/graduate/nygard.html
http://arthistoriansatwork.blogspot.com/
==================================

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