"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.