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Date: | Wed, 16 Nov 2005 11:53:19 -0500 |
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"List Denizens," I kind of like that...sort of like potsherd fondlers.
Back in my public history program, I attended a lecture at the Oakland
Museum where they talked about the powerful effect of using every day things in
eliciting memories during oral histories. One of the exhibits in that museum was
the entire front of a wooden store building dating from the late 19th
century. The public historians set comfortable chairs out on the porch and then
invited old farmers to come in for oral interviews, which they taped. The
historian would stretch or slump in one of the old wooden chairs, invite the farmer
to sit in the other, and hand him a familiar farm object like sheep shears
or a trimming tool and then just let the conversation flow. The entire
setting, relaxed nature of the interviewer, and holding the common every day farm
artifact greatly enhanced the interview experience and the oral histories would
flow until the farmer had to head home to feed the cows or the historians
ran out of tape.
I always thought this was a great idea, if I ever had a museum (which I
dont). When I asked about the cut-off store, the curator said they had an even
better exhibit that works for urban oral interviews. About ten years before
that, they advertised for small town commercial businesses to help by donating
familiar things of their past. The owner of a small creamery came in and said
he was retiring and they could have anything they want from his store. When
the curator arrived, he found a 1920s-1930s soda fountain and said they could
use the entire room. So, one of the exhibits at the Oakland Museum (at that
time) is a room that is exactly like the original creamery with all the
furnishings in exactly the same location as when donated.
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
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