Finding History Where You Least Expect It

Site-Based Strategies for Teaching about the Past

Jill M. Gradwell, Kathryn H. Leacock

• Publisher: American Alliance Of Museums
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781538140895
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Museum Administration
• Index: Business

Museums and cultural institutions of all sizes and budgets are striving to remain relevant in an ever-changing landscape. This volume looks at organizations that have challenged the preconceived notions about their site and its mission by working to break into new markets and develop unexpected programs for diverse and previously untapped audiences. To address this challenge, several western New York sites developed new programs to impact their visitor engagement. History Where You Least Expect It! Site-based Strategies for Teaching about the Past features programs like learning from gingerbread, playing vintage games, developing a theatrical production from places like science museums, archives, historic houses, nature centers, and cemeteries to illustrate how history can be conveyed in the most unlikely ways.

While other works exist that have examined educational pedagogy and programming according to museum type, History Where You Least Expect It!Site-based Strategies for Teaching about the Past explores history through the lens of a specific program. This volume highlights how museum programming, object-based learning, and site-specific education can impact learning for people of all ages. In each chapter, the reader is walked through the development, implementation, and successes of the organization's programs, allowing practitioners the ability to learn from the work of others in order to build a successful program for themselves. While the featured institutions are regionally linked, the overarching goal of experiencing History Where You Least Expect It! can be replicated across the globe.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Freedom Conversations: Connecting Past to Present with Facilitated Dialogue Christine Bacon
• 2 “The Most Boring Thing in the World”: Scrapbooks and the Archives Daniel DiLandro
• 3 enLIGHTening the Past Corey Fabian-Barrett
• 4 Art as History: Illustrating Your Community’s Past Michele Graves
• 5 Vintage Game Nite @ the TR Site Lenora Henson
• 6 Learning History One Family at a Time Suzanne Jacobs
• 7 The Extinct Birds Project Jane Johnson, Twan Leenders, and Alberto Rey
• 8 History in a Science Museum? Kathryn H. Leacock
• 9 “I Cannot Vote, but I Can Be Voted For”: A Girl Scout Badge Program Ann Marie Linnabery
• 10 At Rest in the Weeds: The Restoration of Institutional Cemeteries David Mack-Hardiman
• 11 Windows to History: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House Light Screens Gina Miano
• 12 Cooking Up History: Learning from Gingerbread Jean Neff
• 13 Bound in History: Handcrafting Books on the Roycroft Campus Alan Nowicki and Amizetta Haj
• 14 History Around the Block: Neighborhood Archaeology Elizabeth S. Peña and Kristen Gasser
• 15 A Peek Beyond the Veil: Spiritualist Shorts at Lily Dale Amanda Shepp
• 16 Tracing the Past for the Present and Future: An Artist-in-Residence Program Nancy Spector
• 17 Getting You in the Holiday “Spirit”: It WAS a Wonderful Life! Sandy Starks
• 18 All Are Welcome: The Museum as a Stage for Community Dialogue Tara L. Walker
• Bibliography
• About the Editors and Contributors