Finding History Where You Least Expect It

Site-Based Strategies for Teaching about the Past

Edited by Jill M. Gradwell and Kathryn H. Leacock

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.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / American Alliance Of Museums

Pages: 194 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-5381-4087-1 • Hardback • April 2020 • $88.00 • (£68.00)

978-1-5381-4088-8 • Paperback • April 2020 • $38.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-5381-4089-5 • eBook • April 2020 • $36.00 • (£30.00)

Series: American Alliance of Museums

Subjects: Business & Economics / Museum Administration & Museology, Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / Social Science, History / Study & Teaching

Finding History Where You Least Expect It

Site-Based Strategies for Teaching about the Past

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

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.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / American Alliance Of Museums

Pages: 194 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-5381-4087-1 • Hardback • April 2020 • $88.00 • (£68.00)

978-1-5381-4088-8 • Paperback • April 2020 • $38.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-5381-4089-5 • eBook • April 2020 • $36.00 • (£30.00)

Series: American Alliance of Museums

Subjects: Business & Economics / Museum Administration & Museology, Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / Social Science, History / Study & Teaching

Author

Jill M. Gradwell is Professor, SUNY Buffalo State.

Kathryn H. Leacock is Director of Collections at the Buffalo Museum of Science.

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements

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 Night @ 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
Index
About the Editors and Contributors

Reviews

This book offers creative, replicable ideas for museums—including small museums—looking to leave those age-old ways of doing things behind. Not only does it underscore the importance of community engagement, partnerships, and audience focus but it also reveals the rich tapestry of local history that one region can offer.

— Donna R. Braden, senior curator and curator of public life, The Henry Ford, Dearborn, MI