A generational shift is occurring at historic house museums as board members and volunteers retire while few young people step forward to take their place. These landmarks are also plagued by serious deferred maintenance, and many have no endowment funds. What will happen to these sites in the next ten years, and what can be done to assure their continued preservation for generations to come? In New Solutions for House Museums Harris examines possible options and provides a decision-making methodology as well as a dozen case studies of house museums that have made a successful transition to a new owner or user.
Historic house museums can be found in nearly every city in the United States and Canada. These are the homes of the earliest settlers, statesmen, frontiersmen, great writers, artists, architects, and industrial magnates. These are the places, carefully saved and preserved, that represent a cultural heritage. Despite their popularity, it is not uncommon to find museums that are in poor repair, their collections neglected and their staffs grossly overworked. Many are run by well-meaning and hard-working volunteers who have little or no professional training. Often they survive on shoestring budgets and are able to present only limited programs. Serving both as a hands-on guide and reference, this book examines these problems, offering practical advice and solutions which can be easily implemented. Its useful "lessons" include governance, where to find help, care of collections, conservation, security, and interpretation--all designed to increase the professionalism of the historic house museum.
Historic House Museums in the United States and the United Kingdom: A History addresses the phenomenon of historic houses as a distinct species of museum. Everyone understands the special nature of an art museum, a national museum, or a science museum, but “house museum” nearly always requires clarification. In the United States the term is almost synonymous with historic preservation; in the United Kingdom, it is simply unfamiliar, the very idea being conflated with stately homes and the National Trust. By analyzing the motivation of the founders, and subsequent keepers, of house museums, Linda Young identifies a typology that casts light on what house museums were intended to represent and their significance (or lack thereof) today. This book examines: • heroes’ houses: once inhabited by great persons (e.g., Shakespeare’s birthplace, Washington’s Mount Vernon); • artwork houses: national identity as specially visible in house design, style, and technique (e.g., Frank Lloyd Wright houses, Modernist houses); • collectors’ houses: a microcosm of collecting in situ domesticu, subsequently presented to the nation as the exemplars of taste (e.g., Sir John Soane’s Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum); • English country houses: the palaces of the aristocracy, maintained thanks to primogeniture but threatened with redundancy and rescued as museums to be touted as the peak of English national culture; English country houses: the palaces of the aristocracy, maintained for centuries thanks to primogeniture but threatened by redundancy and strangely rescued as museums, now touted as the peak of English national culture; • Everyman/woman’s social history houses: the modern, demotic response to elite houses, presented as social history but tinged with generic ancestor veneration (e.g., tenement house museums in Glasgow and New York).
This substantially enlarged and expanded second edition of New Solutions for House Museums: Ensuring the Long-Term Preservation of America’s Historic Houses provides advice for historic site stewards that have concerns about the financial sustainability of their historic house museum and its relevance to its local audience. Seven new case studies have been added for the second edition. The new case studies reinforce the book’s central argument that not every historic house museum, whether founded 100 years ago or last month, can be sustained long-term. Three of the new case studies are from diverse historic sites, showcasing how African American, women, and other minority-focused historic sites are pioneering new ways to commemorate their histories and interpret fascinating stories to visitors, with the end goal of creating financially sustainable historic sites that are relevant to their audience. New interviews have been conducted with the ten existing case studies from the first edition to bring them up to date. The new edition adds two new reuse options to the eight introduced in the first edition. This chapter describes how to identify and implement a reuse decision, costs and advisors needed, and tips on decision making. There is a new chapter-long interview with Tom Mayes, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, on recent legal and ethical issues facing historic sites. Another new chapter provides advice on the essential role of the historic site’s Board of Directors as the decision maker for any reuse exploration. The second edition of New Solutions for House Museums contains a new introduction to the second edition, an updated conclusion, bibliography, and index.
In these days of an aging traditional audience, shrinking attendance, tightened budgets, increased competition, and exponential growth in new types of communication methods, America’s house museums need to take bold steps and expand their overall purpose beyond those of the traditional museum. They need not only to engage the communities surrounding them, but also to collaborate with visitors on the type and quality of experience they provide. This book is a groundbreaking manifesto that calls for the establishment of a more inclusive, visitor-centered paradigm based on the shared experience of human habitation. It draws inspiration from film, theater, public art, and urban design to transform historic house museums while providing a how-to guide for making historic house museums sustainable, through five primary themes: communicating with the surrounding community, engaging the community, re-imagining the visitor experience, celebrating the detritus of human habitation, and acknowledging the illusion of the shelter’s authenticity. Anarchist's Guide to Historic House Museums offers a wry, but informed, rule-breaking perspective from authors with years of experience and gives numerous vivid examples of both good and not-so-good practices from house museums in the U.S.
The first of its kind to offer a discussion of financial management particular to historic house museums, this book is a vital resource to preservationists, staff, volunteers, and board members of historic houses. A reference tool that is accessible in approach yet comprehensive in scope, this book takes you step by step through securing and managing a historic house museum for years to come. In straightforward language, utilizing case studies from historic house museums, and providing sample documents to get you started, Financial Fundamentals for Historic House Museums guides you on how to: Incorporate as a tax-exempt organization Find historic property designation options and successfully apply Understand contributed income opportunities and raise money Create sustainable earned income opportunities Understand basic accounting and financial planning to ensure the future of your historic house museum.
Programming for People with Special Needs: A Guide for Museums and Historic Sites will help museums and historic sites become truly inclusive educational experiences. The book is unique because it covers education and inclusion for those with both intellectual and learning disabilities. The book features the seven key components of creating effective programming for people with special needs, especially elementary and secondary students with intellectual disabilities: Sensitivity and awareness training Planning and communication Timing Engagement and social/life skills Object-centered and inquiry-based programs Structure Flexibility In addition, this book features and discusses programs such as the Museum of Modern Art‘s Meet Me program and ones for children with autism at the Transit Museum in Brooklyn as models for other organizations to adapt for their use. Its focus on visitors of all ages who have cognitive or intellectual disabilities or special needs makes this title essential for all museum and historic site professionals, especially educators or administrators, but also for museum studies students and those interested in informal education.
Andrew Carnegie is remembered as one of the world's great philanthropists. As a boy, he witnessed the benevolence of a businessman who lent his personal book collection to laborer's apprentices. That early experience inspired Carnegie to create the "Free to the People" Carnegie Library in 1895 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1896, he founded the Carnegie Institute, which included a music hall, art museum, and science museum. Carnegie deeply believed that education and culture could lift up the common man and should not be the sole province of the wealthy. Today, his Pittsburgh cultural institution encompasses a library, music hall, natural history museum, art museum, science center, the Andy Warhol Museum, and the Carnegie International art exhibition. In Palace of Culture, Robert J. Gangewere presents the first history of a cultural conglomeration that has served millions of people since its inception and inspired the likes of August Wilson, Andy Warhol, and David McCullough. In this fascinating account, Gangewere details the political turmoil, budgetary constraints, and cultural tides that have influenced the caretakers and the collections along the way. He profiles the many benefactors, trustees, directors, and administrators who have stewarded the collections through the years. Gangewere provides individual histories of the library, music hall, museums, and science center, and describes the importance of each as an educational and research facility. Moreover, Palace of Culture documents the importance of cultural institutions to the citizens of large metropolitan areas. The Carnegie Library and Institute have inspired the creation of similar organizations in the United States and serve as models for museum systems throughout the world.
A Graveyard Preservation Primer has proven itself to be a time-tested resource for those who are seeking information regarding the protection and preservation of historic graveyards. It was first written to help stewards of early burial grounds responsibly and effectively preserve their graveyards. Much information found in the first edition of the book remains valid today. Still, much has changed in the twenty-five years since its first publication, and the new edition reflects these changes. Attitudes and the understanding of historic graveyards as an important cultural resource have grown and developed over the years. Likewise, changes in treatments have also taken place. Perhaps the most dramatic change in burial ground preservation is in the world of technology. Changes in computers and the way we use them have also changed preservation practices in historic graveyards. Discussion of technological changes in the new edition includes those in mapping, surveying, photography, archaeology, and other areas of evaluation and planning. Consideration is given, too, to maintenance and conservation treatments, including both traditional and newer treatments for stone, concrete, and metals. Metals were not discussed in the earlier editions, and protection and preservation of the landscape as it relates to graveyards is an expanded focus of this book. The historic preservation of cemeteries and burial grounds is an aspect within the discipline of historic preservation that is unknown to many. Those whose responsibility is the care of these historic sites may be unfamiliar with appropriate approaches to such areas as documentation, planning, maintenance, and conservation. Unwitting personnel can do irreparable harm to these important cultural resources. The Primer is an effort to protect historic cultural resources by breaching the gap between maintenance staff, cemetery boards, friends’ groups, and graveyard preservation professionals by offering readily available, responsible information regarding graveyard protection and preservation. It is also designed to assist those who would undertake a preservation project in the reclaiming of a neglected or abandoned historic cemetery. The book is generously illustrated with diagrams and photos illustrating procedures and gravemarker and graveyard forms, styles, and materials. The appendix section is completely updated and expanded, offering a worthwhile resource in itself.
Interpreting Slavery at Museums and Historic Sites aims to move the field forward in its collective conversation about the interpretation of slavery—acknowledging the criticism of the past and acting in the present to develop an inclusive interpretation of slavery. Presenting the history of slavery in a comprehensive and conscientious manner is difficult and requires diligence and compassion—for the history itself, for those telling the story, and for those hearing the stories—but it’s a necessary part of our collective narrative about our past, present, and future. This book features best practices for: Interpreting slavery across the country and for many people. The history of slavery, while traditionally interpreted primarily on southern plantations, is increasingly recognized as relevant at historic sites across the nation. It is also more than just an African-American/European-American story—it is relevant to the history of citizens of Latino, Caribbean, African and indigenous descent, as well. It is also pertinent to those descended from immigrants who arrived after slavery, whose stories are deeply intertwined with the legacy of slavery and its aftermath. Developing support within an institution for the interpretation of slavery. Many institutions are reticent to approach such a potentially volatile subject, so this book examines how proponents at several sites, including Monticello and Mount Vernon, were able to make a strong case to their constituents. Training interpreters in not only a depth of knowledge of the subject but also the confidence to speak on this controversial issue in public and the compassion to handle such a sensitive historical issue. The book will be accessible and of interest for professionals at all levels in the public history field, as well as students at the undergraduate and graduate levels in museum studies and public history programs.
