Come for the Quilts, Stay for the History

When you think of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, what do you think of? Quilts, Shoofly pie, horse and buggies, farmland, etc...? No worries, I would be more so surprised if you didn't! The stereotypical, tourist view of Lancaster really overshadows smaller offerings of the county though still sometimes draws them in the door.

This summer, I've been interning at LancasterHistory.org. While, yes, it is a website, it is also the name of the Lancaster County Historical Society and President Buchanan's Wheatland. Recently gifted with a beautiful addition to their original building by a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant, the historical society has really leaped forward in today's age with a green building and many technological improvements such as better cases for displaying quilts and touchscreens so visitors can learn more about individual objects on display.

The exterior of the new building.

Working in such a new and extremely organized building has been an utter joy. Brand spanking new facilities draws in crowds not only for the history, but to see what the new building is. People are inherently curious, you know.

The interior of the new building.

So what have I been up to here? As I described to Pauline Eversmann, our Museum Studies internship director, ... pretty much everything and the kitchen sink! My biggest task was to develop an interpretive plan for the site. My supervisor, Barry Rauhauser, expressed interest in developing one so as to keep the organization on a mission statement driven path and find new areas to better explore and develop, while not getting distracted by events and objects that, despite that they'll bring people in the door, have no relevance to the story the museum is trying to tell. For a couple weeks, myself and another intern worked on this interpretive plan and we recently produced a successful draft for the society to work with.

Another activity I've been involved in has been object research. You need to know about an object so that you can develop a label, a story? I'm your gal! I've done many labels for the society including ones for portraits, coverlets, and furniture. A portion of my research is available for you to read in narrative form on my blog, Learning, Living, Lancaster.

My first blog post featured this beauty -- a flute from the 1800s!

Each week I post once or twice about objects in the collection that intrigue me. I give you not only the information about the object specifically but try to develop a context around it so that you can truly appreciate its significance in the scheme of things. If you'd like to read my blog, please check it out! I'd always love more readers!

Speaking of pictures, I've some photography for the exhibit. While the original gallery was photographed by a photographer using professional grade equipment, I still tried my hand at capturing interesting aspects of two pieces, a Fordney flintlock rifle and a spinning wheel.

Up close and personal with a flintlock.

The "guts" of a spinning wheel.

Not too shabby, I'd like to think! If you visit LancasterHistory.org and check out the touchscreens in the gallery, you can see my photos!

I've helped with other aspects of the institution such as working as a gallery guide, aiding with storage and conservation of items, transcriptions, and inventory. I've truly received a well rounded, curatorial experience, and I am extremely grateful.

One crazy, awesome aspect of the new space is the introduction of an open storage space in the bottom/ground floor of the society. With a grant from the Richard Von Hess Foundation, the Decorative Arts Center is an open storage facility. We all know that museums only display a small, small percentage of their actual collection, right? Well, the open storage area allows visitors to peer through windows to the collection as it rests in storage. You can view items set out for display or gaze at the neatly stacked archival boxes and the rows of wrapped up portraits resting in the back. It is truly revolutionary and something I wish all museums would have! It is like an I Spy and so magical to those who like to hunt for objects and ponder curiously about them. (I would post a photograph, but I don't have one! You'll just have to visit to see it for yourself....)

I have really learned a lot from this experience, and I'm really sad to leave in a week or two. The staff and volunteers at the site have been extremely patient, friendly, and accommodating as I trail at their heels, looking for tasks to do. The experience has definitely helped me determine that the museum field is where I want to be, and I don't mind the hard work that comes with it. It's worth it when you help people and they catch your enthusiasm for the things you so desperately want to save and display (and often times, you catch their enthusiasm too!).

I definitely recommend you all come up to see the site! You can tour the gallery, use the research library, or tour Wheatland, President Buchanan's home (where, seriously, the furniture inside is 70 - 80% original to the home... awesome!).

Thank you so much for reading! If you have any questions or such, please email me at emmiller@udel.edu. (No spam, please!) Have a lovely evening!

Emily

All Good Things Must Come to an End...Or At Least be Put on Pause

I cannot believe that my internship is technically over! While I have accomplished more that I expected to with regard to completing my project of writing an audio tour for the New Castle Historical Society, there is still a lot to do before the tour is ready for the public.

In my last post I talked about the process of recording the test version of my tour. While I was rather hoarse by the end of the week, I managed to get all of the tracks recorded, edited, and exported in an MP3 format. My last few days at work consisted of getting the tour ready for testing over the next couple weeks and tying up loose ends.

Our test group of individuals is going to include a number of people familiar with both the history of the town and its layout, in addition to a group of people who are not familiar with any of these things. Having a varied audience is important because while those familiar with the layout and history will be able to both fact check the tour, they will have a harder time evaluating the directions because they are already familiar with the different stops and their names. Have a group of people who do not know their way around will give a better sense of how the average visitor will be able to maneuver their way through town. Directions have to be specific enough for them to find their way, but not too complicated that they are confusing.

Each visitor will be given an MP3 player with the tour pre-loaded onto the device. They will also be given a handout that consists of a map of the town on one side with the stops numbered, with directions for how to use the MP3 player and a list of the stops on the other side.

Right now the tour is 2.5 hours long, and consists of 49 Tracks or Stops, which encompass 60+ buildings. It is a lot of information and a long tour. So part of what we want the test group to pay attention to is where the tour is the most interesting and if anything is repetitive. While the tour is long, it is designed so that individuals can skip through tracks if they desire. In addition, the idea is that someone can check out the tour and have it for the day. So a person can take breaks, go on museum tours, grab a bite to eat, etc. As such, we will have to wait and see what the test group say.

While I am technically done with my internship, I will probably help with getting the final version ready once fall begins. The next steps include:

1. Testing the tour with the test group.
2. Processing their comments and critiques.
3. Editing the script for the final recording.
4. Final Recording.

This has been a great project, particularly with my interests in digital media and how to use technology to reach new audiences, and I look forward to seeing the final product.

Can You Hear Me Now..........?

I cannot believe how fast this summer is going by and that I am into the recording stage of my audio tour. Last week Mike, my supervisor and Executive Director at the New Castle Historical Society, and I made some final edits to the test script for the audio tour.

While the final version of the tour will be more complex and with a variety of narrators, Mike and I decided that recording a test version would be best for a number of reasons.

1. I really want to see as much of the process of creating an audio tour as possible, which encompasses: research, writing the script, recording, trying the tour with a test group, editing/ reformatting the tour as necessary, and then re-recording.

2. It's summertime, and it will be difficult to schedule the different people in the time that remains for my internship, so me recording just myself is much faster.

3. Having a test version is invaluable so that the test group can really get the feel of an audio tour, which is much different than fact-checking the script. Using this version we can check the directions, determine if there is a lull in the tour, and where to cut out information.

So for this week, the kitchen table of my apartment has been turned into a makeshift recording studio. I chose my apartment because it is a quiet environment and essentially an isolated location in which to work. We could have set up in one of the rooms at the historical society, but I knew it could be more difficult to get work done, since there is always an interesting distraction going on or people moving in and out of the museum.

Podcasting Station

In terms of equipment I am using the software Audacity, which is an open source editing and recording software. While there are many different kinds of software, I am familiar with Audacity and its usability and Free nature makes it and ideal tool. In terms of other equipment, I am using a Behringer Podcast Studio which is essentially an a full recording studio in a box, with a microphone, headphones, and mixer (which lets you control the recording levels). These sets are relatively inexpensive, but I was able to borrow the equipment from University of Delaware's History Media Center. Don't let the equipment intimidate you though, the possibilities are endless for this type of project, and recording can really be done with any sort of microphone or tape recorder.

Screen Shots of Audacity Software

So what is the recording experience like? A LOT of work!! Even though the finished product will probably be under 2 hours (we know we need to cut out some information, but cannot decide what!), recording and editing takes much longer. Once you get used to talking to yourself in an empty room to a computer screen, you have to keep in mind varying your voice, talking at a relatively slow speed and not tripping over your own words. You find that some of your elaborate and fact filled sentences look great on paper, but result in complete tongue-tied-ness when speaking out loud. I have also discovered that the human voice, or at least mine can only handle about a half day of continuous speaking before it gets tired, so I try to balance out recording and editing. Editing is a fun process, but can also be time consuming, depending on how long the section or how many mistakes I have to edit out.

With fingers crossed, my goal is to have all of the tracks recorded, edited, and exported in an MP3 format by the end of the week so that next week we can have people start testing it. I am finding that this is an ambitious deadline, but I want it to be available to test as soon as possible, so I have a few long days in store this week.

If you would like to be involved in testing, get in touch with us at the Historical Society, we would love to have as many people as possible!!

Photo Credits: Jesse Gagnon