Let the Tours Begin!

It's tour season at the historic house!  I gave my first 5th-grade tour yesterday.  After two years--I missed last spring season because of surgery--I was a little rusty on the pacing of the tour, even though I know all the material.  I almost completely forgot to do the seed packet activity and I spent extra long talking about showering or not!  But it doesn't matter in the end; the kids had a great time, particularly because it was a beautiful day and there was plenty of time for outside games of snap-the-whip, graces, and hoops.  We even saw a Northern Harrier Hawk fly over.

As much as I often get anxious about tour season and about the individual tours themselves, I really do like teaching the kids and discussing history; it's what I miss most about my museum jobs  (I also liked writing materials and handouts--I hated the meetings and reports and cold calls and scheduling and constant worrying about budgets and administrative tasks, all of which was the majority of the day.  But I do miss the teaching, which is why I like tour season.)

And there's always the dressing up!  I have a new top this year, called a shortgown, with tied enclosures.  It's a lovely green and pink floral pattern.  I also have another English bodice, in navy, with a reversible green and navy floral print.  I think I now officially have more nice 18th-century clothes than decent 21st-century ones!

Today's Tour

The last historic house tour of the season, the one with Sis and Bud's classes, went wonderfully well.  The rain had stopped before the tour, but they all ate inside--I had brought special deli sandwiches, chips, and cookies for them.  They ate with their friends while I got everything squared away.  When the tour started, Sis joined Bud's class, carrying my phone around to take pictures.

Here's a view of the tour from her vantage point:

We did all the usual third grade historic house tour things:  I dressed volunteers up in colonial garb; they strung dried apples, played with paper dolls, practiced chores like churning butter, and examined recent artifacts uncovered during the construction (namely a broken late 19th-century white ceramic vase/pot.)  We talked about the history of the family, the structure and evolution of the house, clothes, trades, food, seasonal activities, and children of long ago.

And, because the rain held off, we even got to go out to the herb garden that our Brownie troop created.

Sis and Bud didn't answer many of my questions; Sis had said she wanted to give other kids a chance (same with using other volunteers for dress-up).  But even though they were just two more faces in the group, they were my familiar little faces.  And I so really enjoyed today, having waited for it for a long time now.  It'll be two more years before they come back.  I hope I'm still volunteering then, because I'd really like to take them on another tour.

UPDATE:  The kids told me over dinner that both of their docents at the other house (they go to two) asked how they knew so much!!

My "Lousy" Days

Four classes, two days.  I just finished giving in-class programs to the third graders at Sis and Bud's school in preparation for their field trip next week to the historic house where I volunteer.  I entitled it, "Weird but True:  Colonial Life," but maybe should have called it "Ewww But True" because of all the gross stuff I shared--no baths, corn cobs for toilet paper, lice/fleas/nits, mice, trash middens right in the backyard, multiple-seat privies, hay mattresses, also boys dressing in skirts until they were about 7, corsets, long slow travel times, cold and dark houses, etc.  And then we made sachets, using lavender, winter savory, and rosemary, which were designed not only to smell sweet but to ward off bugs!

I forget perhaps how well-versed Sis and Bud are in historic houses, because several of these kids didn't realize that colonists had no electricity, no plumbing, no heat/AC, no well-stocked stores, no plastic, no trash pick up, no hospitals (yes, one girl asked me how women had babies!  She didn't mean physically, thank heavens, but where.)  I think they could barely fathom it.  And I forgot to start so simply because I figured they knew. I won't make that mistake again.  They had lots of great questions--and some challenging ones, like how would Santa get in the house if there was usually a fire--I had to tell them that colonists didn't really dwell on Santa Claus or even on Christmas.  They did not like the picture of the rat skeleton but loved the discussion of toilets the most.  They were shocked by the boys in skirts but pretty uninterested in how syllabub is made straight from milking a cow and not so surprised by the pillow I stuffed with hay to represent the mattresses they had.  They were all pretty surprised by the picture of George Washington's fake teeth and the fashion of wearing white-powdered hair (or wigs.)  They couldn't believe how long travel took (5-6 days between Boston and NY!  And sleeping in inns in bed head-to-toe with strangers!)  And they liked the etymology of "lousy," being full of lice, especially because lice had been going around school.

They all seemed to enjoy the sachet project, though one class ran so long that they'll have to save making theirs with their teacher next week (that was my only disappointment, especially because it was Sis's class.)   They followed directions for a pinch of this and a spoon of that well enough, even managing to bundle the cheese cloth into a little packet, but many of them couldn't tie.  I never dreamed that third graders would be unable to tie a knot or bow.  It's a great project, but prepping materials for 100 students would be my limit--I'm not sure I could do the sachet project with all schools if and when we could expand the in-class program (that would be 700 or so strings and cheesecloth squares!)  I'll cross that bridge if and when I come to it.

It was fun to be in Sis and Bud's class, though neither of them answered any of my questions, letting the other kids have a turn.  I had a few pictures of them--Bud at the archaeological dig in the backyard, Sis cooking in the fireplace.  And a picture showcasing the Brownie troop because they built the herb garden, which provided the winter savory and rosemary for our sachets (but not the lavender, as our plant didn't flower, so I bought buds in bulk.)  Everybody got a kick out of recognizing people in the photos--one class wanted me to take their picture at the house, too (but permissions being what they are, who knows!  Which is why this post is un-illustrated.)

So in a week, I welcome them to the historic house, on the last tour day of the season.  It's been a pretty good one, but I'll be glad for a bit of a break.

Apple Art

One of the big activities at the historic house where I volunteer involves apples, a major food staple of colonial life.  In fact, as we tell our student visitors, colonists and early Americans were often referred to as "pie eaters" for all of the apple pies they consumed.  And so, in our keeping room before the 7' hearth, we string up dried apples.

We just have to dry the apples beforehand.  After cutting them into small slices with a mandolin and soaking them in cider, we dry them slowly in a low oven.  Voila, dried apples.  Of course, colonists would have strung up the apples without drying them first, hanging them up in the rafters of their smoky kitchens to dry.  Then they would re-hyrdrate them as needed and bake them in pies.  Our apples are hung in our hearth, which would have been too close to the fire but makes a pretty and central decoration in the house, along with all of our fresh herbs.

1.  Slice whole apples thinly with mandolin.  Toss apples in apple juice and soak for 7+ minutes to prevent browning.  Arrange a single layer of apple slices on baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

2.  Bake apples at 225F for 3 hours, turning over and rotating sheets (if more than one) halfway through.  Cool apples and enlarge core or pierce hole for easier stringing.  Store in paper bag.

3.  String up and hang for decoration..  These are for educational and decorative purposes only; do not eat.

Living History Today

Sis practicing her yarn sewing at the historic house.

I was as giddy as a child on Christmas Eve yesterday as I prepared for our open house event at the historic house.  I gathered supplies, bringing along faux food for children to cook in the 18th-century fireplace as well as real cookies to share with the volunteers.  I checked and double-checked clothing, both our costumes (I wore my maroon long-sleeved bodice with my yellow floral skirt and a new navy overskirt, with all the proper accoutrements like pockets, mop cap, and shift) and our extra clothes for afterwards.  I printed copies of our mailing list and family workshop sign-up sheets, which I had totally forgotten to do until late last not--I definitely felt out of practice in presenting a museum program.  And I packed my basket.  Have you ever noticed that costumed historical interpreters carry around baskets with all of their things?  I had a little bit of knitting, some embroidery floss in case I needed to dress my paddle loom again, and a bit of yarn sewing I'd started years ago at Old Sturbridge Village but had never finished.  You know, just some fun stuff to do and demonstrate if the time arose.

See, it was my first non-tour-based experience at costumed interpreting, in other words, inhabiting an historical space and casually conversing with visitors about the time, place, lifestyle, activities (as opposed to lecturing on a prescribed tour route.)  I was so excited because I have always loved costumed interpreters.  The interpretation is third person, meaning I'm a 21st-century educator explaining another time period, not someone in the first-person pretending actually to inhabit another time period as a real individual.  I'd like to try that sometime.  Later.  It takes a lot more knowledge of a specific character and their unique historical point of view as well as considerable acting skills.

We had lots of volunteers at the house today, which was good because the trickle of visitors while not overwhelming was relatively constant, picking up as the day wore on.  We had volunteers out front welcoming visitors, docents giving shortened tours of the house, and Sis and Bud (though mostly Sis because Bud had kung fu for the first half) demonstrating games like graces and hoops outside and cat's cradle inside as well as playing with the faux food in the fireplace with the young visitors. They were both naturals as docents!  Sis tried her hand at yarn sewing and paddle loom weaving but preferred to play kitchen or graces (i.e. 2 people playing catch using little hoops and sticks.)  Bud liked showing everyone cat's cradle.  We had instructions and cat's cradle strings to give away, as well as self-guided house tour pamphlets, colonial activities pamphlet for kids, docent recruitment flyers, and summer family workshop flyers.  We had a fair number of visitors, several of them friends and neighbors of ours, which delighted us all.

Mama was, as usual, immensely helpful behind the scenes, lugging the cooler with ice and water plus all the above-mentioned items, as well as taking the kids for lunch, and keeping an eye on them when they were outside and I was inside.  And no, she didn't have a costume.  Not yet, anyway.

The only downside was my back, which chose the day to be testy, probably after last Sunday's spasm and Thursday's extraordinarily busy day.  I found I couldn't sit comfortably to demonstrate any of the fun things in my basket but was more comfortable walking around.  In fact, I think my favorite part was actually demonstrating the yarn sewing to Sis, who then tried her hand at it independently, as shown above.  It was great fun to play with her in the house--with the sewing, at the fireplace, out watering the herb garden, and playing graces out front.  I think she really enjoyed it, too.

Because I'm pretty sure she's caught the history bug.

Colonial on the Brain

I've spent most of the day preparing for next week's docent training on colonial life in our town for our 5th-grade tours.  We're adding music to the tour and so I've been listening to various 18th-century songs:  fife and drum, church music, ballads sung in taverns, early sea chanteys (though there is some debate about whether they're in the same category as 19th-century sailors' work songs), dance music (contradances, cotillon, jigs, reels, etc), and the music of West African captives (including spirituals).  Definitely an eye-opening morning.  Or should I say ear-opening.  (For info, see here and here.  For music samples, listen here.)

Then I went to make copies for training and stopped at a friend's house, which just happens to be a colonial and one of the oldest houses in town.  It's marvelous and I loved getting a tour through all of its nooks and crannies, architectural phases (including probably late 18th-century addition), and beautiful details--Delft tiles around the fireplace, square nails in the door hinges, ceramic chandelier never wired for electricity, and even kitchen table made out of an old door!  Yes, I had a little house envy.  But if I lived there, I'd want to wear colonial clothes all the time, cook in the fireplace, and forego electricity!  I'm not sure my family would put up with that for long.

Which is why I love being a costumed interpreter.

(And why I just bought new stays and a straw hat!)

Worst of Tours, Best of Tours

I had one of those tours today that make me love talking to kids in historic houses and museums.  Though it started out very poorly--they were early, but the teachers insisted that each child go to the (single-toilet-with-old-plumbing!) bathroom before we could begin and so we started 45 minutes late!  And they had to be on the bus with less than 45 minutes for the tour.  With two docents trying to steer 45 kids total through everything without bumping into each other.  

But it was wonderful, even though I rushed through topics and skipped certain activities like stringing apples and playing charades.  They were engaged and curious, asking questions and giving answers.

I knew a boy with visual impairments would be on my tour so I had practiced how to describe the house, the big fireplace, and my costume with vivid words and references to placement and size (thanks, AIC and Met for that training!).  To evoke the period for him through touch, we passed around ceramics, let everyone play in the big fireplace, and all felt the difference between the new floorboards and the 18th-century ones.n It took extra time to describe the wallpaper and clothing that everyone else could see, but I didn't want him to miss out (or to bore the other kids, so I tried to deftly weave it all in).  As he left, he said to his aide, "That was a great house!" 

Yay!

My First Tour

More than a year in the making and then waiting, I finally gave my first costumed historic house tour on Friday! It was like redemption or finally catching up to where I left off last spring (similarly, we're trying to reschedule the things that were canceled that we can re-do, like our trip to Plymouth).

And it was marvelous!

I was nervous beforehand.  I haven't given a tour since November 2004, a long time ago (though I did it weekly, and sometimes daily, from June 1998 until then).  And never in a house, or in a costume.  Sure, I helped write the tour and have been researching the colonial period since January 2011, but leading a tour is something different altogether.

Thank heavens for adrenaline.

Not only did I enjoy the tour, but I think it went well.  I remembered all of the facts, hit the transitions, managed interactive questions, and kept the discussion going.  They paid attention and there were no discipline issues (that can be so, so common with 5th-grade tours!).  And I think they enjoyed it, from the stories about slaves and Native Americans to the discussion of the archaeological excavations that tell us about life in the 18th century.

And I got to do it all in a costume!  Chemise, underskirt, gathered overskirt, English bodice, apron, gathered cap, even pockets tied around my waist.  Which contained my smartphone!  Other major anachronism:  I had my fancy tennis shoes on.

But they got me through the morning with no spasms or serious weakness, which was a major achievement.  Even a month ago giving the same tour to the docents, I almost didn't finish.

I hope I get to do another tour soon.

Especially because my favorite costumer has new bodices and flounced skirts in their catalog!

My New Project

About a year ago, I was deep into research on the history of slavery in Connecticut, as part of my work on the education committee of a local historic house.  I learned how this state was the "Georgia of the North," with more slaves than any other New England colony, and also how slaves continued their West African religious practices such as hiding minkisi under floorboards for protection.  I also spent some time looking into pirates and privateers who operated in the waters of Long Island Sound.

Now I'm beginning research on Native Americans in colonial Connecticut, in the 18th-century.  It's just the beginning of my research, but with both the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and the Institute for American Indian Studies here in the state, I know I'll turn up some interesting information to share with the fifth graders come April.  But one statistic strikes me:  there were approximately 30,000 Native Americans here in what is now Connecticut when colonists arrived.  By 1762, there were less than 1,000.

We're also going to be including some discussion of archaeology, essentially how we as historians and docents learn about the ordinary people who didn't make it into the written historical record.  There have been thousands of artifacts discovered at our site, which should make for wonderful discussion, even if we can't show the classes anything more than pictures of objects or replicas.  Of course, when I was in elementary school, Indiana Jones popularized archaeology.  I hope our tour will be able to do the same and get the students excited about our local history and how we learn it.

Touched

Tonight, at a holiday party for the historic house association on which education committee I sit, I was surprised to be thanked for my work on the 3rd and 5th grade curricula!  My friends, the director and education coordinator (the wonderful Mrs. S about whom I've written frequently) had encouraged me to stay to have fun when I said I could only stay a bit.  But I thought they were just being nice, you know, wanting me to enjoy myself since I don't get out much.

Yes, I can be dense.  Then, when the dedicated and hard-working director, Mrs. A, stood up and thanked the illustrious guests as well as the long-standing house docents, she also acknowledged me!  I couldn't have been more surprised.  Seriously.  I thought she was talking about my two other main colleagues on the committee who had been there much longer.  I had no clue until she looked at me and mentioned my work in Chicago.  And then I think I blushed deeply from my spot in the back of the room where I had been comfortably pacing on the rug. I shook hands, we took pictures, and I went back to my spot in the back, this time with people smiling and nodding at me.  And I could barely contain my sniffles.

I can't begin to say how touched I was.  See, the historic house and these wonderful women (it's mostly women) have been such a light in what has been not exactly a dark but definitely a gray year.  Because while they supported and accomodated me in my health struggles, they also allowed me to do what I love to do, which is engage children in learning about history through material objects, interactive tours, and hands-on experiences.  It was an intellectual challenge (learning colonial history) and professional challenge (stretching my museum ed legs again but in a new living history as opposed to art museum setting), in an inspiring, open-minded collaborative environment, so far from my "sick room" that it was a wonderful distraction, even when I couldn't participate as fully as I'd like.  It was--they were, and still are--a life line for me, for which I will always be truly grateful.  So the honor, the gratitude, the appreciation were all mine.

But it was really wonderful to be recognized.  (In fact, I'm not sure how much that ever happened in my professional life--people are always nicer to volunteers!).  And I will always treasure the paperweight with its hand-drawn depiction of the historic house.  (When we met up right afterward, Sis and Bud oohed and aahed over it.  Bud said, "Congratulations, Mommy!  That's cool." And Sis offered me a tissue!)

And I'm rearing to go for the spring tour season!

Thank you so much.

An Historic SuperBetter Day

It probably should have been my SuperBetter Epic Win, it was that big a day on Thursday:  I gave a tour at the historic house!  In my costume!  To Sis's Girl Scout troop!  With Bud there, too!  Yep, a very special day.  And it went something like this . . .

After welcoming them to the house, I told them we would be traveling back through time and that I was dressed to take them through my 350-year-old house.  I let them point out what was anomalous about my outfit and they eventually spotted my therapeutic sneakers (a big docent no-no!  But this was unofficial).  Bud also said that my eyeglasses were wrong, since Ben Franklin invented them, which he'd read recently in a book (and it's partially true--Franklin did invent bifocals, but glasses had been around, but not common, for hundreds of years).

We went inside to help the kids make their own mop caps (appx 18" diameter muslin circle with slits about 1.5" from edge and a few inches apart gathered with yarn) so they'd feel dressed for the period.   While they worked, I talked about my costume--my layered skirt (and how I'd wear  more and heavier layers for winter), my separate pockets ("Lucy Locket lost her pocket"), my always-covered head, how they had few outfits and only washed the layer next to their bodies (and usually only took sponge baths!), how clothes were not purchased ready-made but sewn out of purchased fabric by tailors or the women in the family (except during the war) and that clothes were patched and passed down because they were valuable, how boys wore dresses until they were "breeched" sometime in young childhood, and how girls never wore pants.  This last fact shocked the all-pants-wearing troop the most.  But that's because we didn't talk about how they didn't wear underwear!

Appropriately covered, we headed into the kitchen to talk about other aspects of colonial life:

• lighting by candles, oil lamps, firelight, increased by reflections off pewter plates or mirrors, but especially sunlight--how they woke with and went to bed with the sun
• heat only by fireplace, compounded by lower ceilings, smaller windows, heavier clothes and blankets, and foot- and bed-warmers
• transportation by foot because only the rich had horses or carriages
• sleeping altogether, with parents and siblings, in rope beds or pallets
• children's chores:  sewing, helping with the cooking, cleaning (with a broom made of sticks), feeding the livestock, fetching water, carrying wood, gathering eggs (eggs were more seasonal then, with chickens not laying in cold months), making butter (another seasonal food because cows didn't give milk in winter)
• food harvesting (and the long tradition of harvest festivals, even before the official Thanksgiving holiday in 1863) and preservation, especially the popularity of drying apples and making pies to eat at every meal (and why you just couldn't leave whole apples in the cellar--rot, mice, thieving kids!).  Also how the big meal was in the middle of the day.
• how water was not the drink of choice because it was easily contaminated and could make you sick; they drank cider and hot tea, often made from leaves broken from bricks of tea from China

Then, in the waning afternoon light, without turning on any electricity, they kids worked on weaving projects.  I showed them all the tape, or ribbon, in my clothes--my cap, shift, and gathering my skirts--and demonstrated how it was woven on my replica colonial tape loom.  Then they did some decorative circle weaving on paper plates (notch a plate with an uneven number of slits, set "warp" by crossing through center and passing to next slit, weave over-under in a circle, changing colors whenever), similar to the woven rag rugs they were all seated upon.  

After everyone had left, while Mama and I were cleaning up, Sis and Bud played house in the enormous fireplace--sweeping, baking, stirring the kettle, churning butter, fetching wood and water.  Watching them bring history alive for themselves is why I love being a docent.  

Definitely a "Power Up" moment.

Back in the Saddle

I went on my third recreational outing in three months this week, the first sans Mama, which was both exhilarating and stress-producing. But I didn't want to miss the first curriculum-planning meeting for the historic house where I docent, both because I really enjoy helping and because I really need the distraction and activity. (And after three months of reading, I know a lot more about colonial New England!) Thanks to Mrs. S, it all went wonderfully. I managed almost two whole hours out, with a place to lie down when necessary, and got to discuss ways to instill a love of history in third graders through hands-on, interactive experiences. I'm sure you'll hear more about it as we hammer it all out. And I hope, this time, that I will be able to give the tours myself instead of being sidelined by my back again . . . I have until September, which should be more than enough time. And as you know, I already have the perfect dress to wear!

Of Puritans and Privateers

I'm in history heaven.

So, I never would've said that my favorite historical era was colonial or early American. As a child, I loved ancient Greece, Renaissance fairs, Gone with the Wind, and both Little House on the Prairie and Little Women. In graduate school, I focused on Victorian England.

But Puritans? Pilgrims? The Mayflower? Jamestown, Plimoth, Williamsburg? Philadelphia? Boston? The French and Indian War? The Revolutionary War? Nope.

Sure, I qualify, through my paternal grandmother, I believe, to be both a Colonial Dame and a Daughter of the American Revolution, but I'm not.

And I never really cared. Maybe it's because such colonial history seemed so far removed from Texas, which had conquistadors then and a much more vibrant story (for me) about the Alamo and San Jacinto. Maybe it was a Southern bias against Yankee history, ignoring that several of the original colonies, of course, were in the South.

But now I'm living in a town that is more than 100 years older than the Alamo (first permanent mission building in 1744), almost 200 years older than the birth of Texas as a nation (in 1836). I mean, there are houses here that people still live in that are older than Texas itself, and much older than the historic houses of Texas which often date to the mid-19th century. Which is all to say that history is all around us in a way that I never felt as a child, where everything in our suburban enclave was new. So old and contained is this community that you meet descendants of families that came here in the mid 1600s, who roads and schools are named after, who say "the town has only recently opened up to outsiders like you."

And I am absolutely fascinated. I love the old houses, the saltboxes and colonials. I love the folklore about Captain Kidd, witches (per capita, Connecticut prosecuted more than Salem, MA or anywhere else in the colonies), Revolutionary War privateers, Washington's 7 visits (no, I don't think he ever slept here), actual war skirmishes, old cemeteries, all of it.

So now I'm volunteering at an historic house, helping with curriculum and giving tours (both of which I've done professionally, just not in this context). I'm researching the 18th century, focusing on social not political history--women, pirates, slaves, cooking, and textile production--re-reading Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's numerous tomes (often about Maine, but Age of Homespun mentions CT) and Carol Berkin's First Generations about colonial women (and not just the white women), consulting The Open Hearth Cookbook and old receipts, and learning so much about northern slavery, which Yankees have so long downplayed and outright ignored. I've learned so much. For instance: Minkisi (singular: nkisi), sacred objects derived from ritual practices in West Africa where African slaves originated, have been found throughout the colonies. Comprised of everyday objects like nails, coins, or buttons, minkisi were often bundled in cloth and concealed in houses, especially in doorways or in the center of rooms, for protection.

Of course, my favorite part, I'll readily admit, is the costume. Yes. I get to dress up. Though my background is in art museums, which never have costumed interpreters, I have always, always, always, since my first days dressing up for Ren Faires, wanted to be a costumed interpreter or reenactor (these usually pretend to be from the period in question, like at Williamsburg). And now I will. Bodice, overskirt, stays, petticoat, apron, mob cap. Maybe later a full linen gown. I can't wait.

Only better than the costume would someday (and not at this house, unfortunately) be cooking in costume at an open hearth!