Monthly Archives: July 2015

The “ins and outs”!!!

By Kathrine MIller

IMG_0907I wanted to do a blog about just the little things that have brought me joy to experience during my time at the Mahaffie Stage Coach and Farmstead. I have uploaded a few photos that I have snapped along the way when time has allotted me. It has been a very busy season for the operation  since they began the Thursday Family Fun Night that portrays a different theme each week. This past week on Thursday 7/9/15 it was a Civil War week theme with cannon firings and demonstrations shown to guests. I provided a picture of the 2 cannons that were used below. IMG_0893Other pictures slated in are of the property corm fields that I pass everyday and walking in one day- I saw the pioneer scarecrow; I thought it was a nice touch to add. July 4th celebration week was a wild ride since I had very limited experience of handling crowds such as this which I was told that the organization saw over 700 guests that day who had come to see the traditional firework displays they put together.(no photos included due to being extremely busy) We normally have around 100 guests give or take on Thursday nights and even less on Sat & Sunday. So it was a valuable experience to hold onto for the future. The other random photos expose the “ins and outs” of where I spend my time whether helping with traditional games, helping load guests onto the stagecoach, providing house tours, or sitting in front of a computer putting together a recipe for their weekly newsletter- it all becomes the “In’s and Outs” of the job at the Mahaffie StageCoach and Farmstead. To provide their guests an educational experience of 1860s frontier living. I am soaking up the very last days at Mahaffie to be able to walk away and know that my internship was a valuable experience that I can use later down the line in my career.
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How does Indiana Jones relate to sweeping?

By Savannah Lore

Intellectually, I have understood that Public History is not interpreting history everyday, all day. There are other task that have to be done to keep the museum open and visitor-friendly. I did not think this was such a major thing until I was actually working at the Alexander Majors House Museum. I think it is a frame of mind where when you starting out learning about public history, you are thinking about all the exciting ideas or skills and not so much about all the day-to-day that is a part of the the job. I have decided to call this the Indiana Jones effects. No one watches Indiana Jones to watch him teach or grade papers. In fact, Indy hates that part of the job as much as we would be bored watching an hour of him plan a lesson. The excitement and the adventure are what people talk about and think about when they think of Indiana Jones. However, the audience is aware of the fact that he is Dr. Jones, a professor of archeology, which has job requirements of its own but no one watches the films for the teaching scenes.

I use that long winded metaphor to say that I have realized that without the day-to-day task (sweeping sidewalks or picking up trash for example) that a museum will not have the visitors so I can interpret history. It would not be a functioning place and no one would visit a museum that is not properly maintained or want to tell others about us. When a tour slot is empty, I still have some work to do around the museum to make it a place that visitors can enjoy. So, while sweeping the sidewalk might not be as important as what I learn from interpretation, I think that it (and all the other little tasks I do) is a bigger part of the job then I use to think it was.

“The Long Road”

By Kathrine Miller

IMG_0891During my time at the Mahaffie StageCoach and Farmstead I wanted to step back to reflect on what I’ve really accomplished among a group of local professional historians, volunteers, and other seasoned professions. I feel that I have risen to the challenge that was bestowed upon me and have worked side by side with the staff (with some costume malfunctions here and there I have to say!!) without hesitation or question. Yes, there have been many projects that which I’ve started and had no idea what I was doing- such as my adventure with the chicken butchering experience or cleaning wool from a sheared sheep.

However, I am holding nothing back and just going for journey that the classroom can never provide to a person. Other times it has seemed a bit overwhelming since being so new at a public history forum but the guests do appreciate the effort.  The big “Fourth of July Firework and Celebration” on site really exposed me to how and why Mahaffie ties itself to the holiday for recognition but I was not prepared for how many guests would visit and all the staff seemed extremely, extremely busy with guests entering and exiting. I have never seen so many guests on site before. For this event, I just wish I had been warned by other seasoned staff members but overall, for the station I was working, I made it work till the end.

I only have a few more weeks left at my internship and I will be working still on “Thursday Family Fun Night”, Saturday -continuing working in the collections dept and Sundays-rotation on -site to soak up as much knowledge that these great historians and volunteers have provided me.

And it is bittersweet. Yes, I am ready to return  to the classroom to finish my degree but I will forever be grateful to Mahaffie for the “Long Road” to success is near.

A Priceless Opportunity- A Continued Posting

By Kathrine Miller

This is a continued posting of my blog discussing on working among the collections at the Mahaffie StageCoach and Farmstead. I thought it would be a great topic to breakup into a couple postings due the amount information and photos that I am relaying on this particular topic. Please be sure to see my first posting on this topic to follow my journey.

IMG_0879My last post left off where I was elated of finding an organization that would take the time to make sure my internship had a well-balanced learning experience. This included finding out that I would have an opportunity to work among their most cherished items besides the actual site itself. I know this is a rare educational experience that I am gaining and I will be grateful for every minute of it.

As stated before, the project I am handling is a small artifact collection that has been sitting on site but has not been cleaned, catalogued properly, nor stored in the appropriate preservation containers. For the last two weeks, this has been my duty on Saturdays and at I was elated then I started to look at all the work needed to be completed-Got to work very quickly!!

Each step became regimented, precise and I began to find my pace within the pile of collections.  Katie, my immediate supervisor would check on me from time to time as I worked through the assembly line of washing the artifacts in buckets of warm water to sift to dirt and grime as best IMG_0838as possible to the final stage of a drying table. The next step would be to catalogue the artifact on a  hard copy  of a “Catalog Form”. This form consisted of detailing information such as an object ID, object name, home location, where found, description / condition of item and taking and its height/width/length.

I had to tag the object ID of each artifact and also photograph each piece for a computer backup. Within the group of collections, I have completed the process for all the glass artifacts and I will now begin to start the cataloguing of the more difficult pieces next. I figure this will take me another couple Saturday sessions to complete this project but I have gained a solid block of knowledge within the collection room.

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“Those are the shackles we found in the seller…”

by Savannah Lore

This phrase tends to get people shocked or interested in a millisecond. I show them the door to the root seller that is in the kitchen pantry, and tell them they we don’t tour it but we have pictures for them to view. I usually get question about the pictures because they clearly show the shackles on the wall. When I explain, “No, those are shackles.” I get a varied amount of looks, ranging from “Really?” to a loud gasp. (I always follow up with what they were used for and stories about African Americans freeing themselves in Missouri in this period.) I bring up these stories because this week I have been focusing on the book Interpreting Slavery at Museums and Historic Sites edited by Kristen L. Gallas and James DeWolf Perry.

I was lucky enough to attend an Interpreting Slavery seminar at the Alexander Majors Barn in May put on in joint effort by Freedom’s Frontier, University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Center for Midwestern Studies, Wornall/Majors House Museums, and the Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery. This book was a resource material from that seminar. I learned so much just about how to talk about slavery with visitors and how to share slavery in a meaningful but proper way. One of the great things I took away from the seminar was that as an interpreter, I am a guide, and I am not there to force them to think or believe what I think they should know or feel. My job should be to introduce them to this narrative and guide them in the learning process (or crisis depending on their perspective and background knowledge.)

Interpreting Slavery is also helping me with my tours at the Majors house. I use some of the practices talked about in the book, such as using narrative storytelling to easy them into the topic they thought might be uncomfortable. I also learned to purposefully speak about enslaved African Americans in the active and not in the passive voice. It is such a simple thing but it creates a new perspective and gives African Americans agency in there own stories which is what I want to do as an interpreter. One thing that I found to be very important advice was that I should recognize and explore what baggage I have (and everyone has some) about race and racial identity. It is important for me to figure out what conscious and unconscious ideas I have about race that effect my interpretation and how I can help visitors work through their own ideas. I am recognizing and working with these ideas to create a better experience and interpretation of slavery at the Alexander Majors House Museum.