Neglecting the Weekly Quotes

I realize that I haven't posted a quote in three weeks; things have just been very busy in a lot of different ways (most of which I won't even go into here). So, without further adieu, and hopefully putting me back on track, here's our weekly quote from the Mariner's Book of Days:

It's out there at sea that you are really yourself. ~Vito Dumas

Visit to Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site

On my trip, I also visited this national historic site where a couple of my NPS friends work. Here's some pics.
The Visitors CenterThe Lemon HouseThe tavern in the Lemon HouseThe station houseInside the station house

Mountain Craft Days Favorites

I have to admit, I had two favorite craftsmen at Craft Days, the gunsmith and the hornsmith. Here are some photos of their displays.

Mountain Craft Days Photos

Mountain Craft Days entered its 39th year this year and is still a very successful program (there's a lot to be said for longevity). It isn't strictly a craft fair, nor is it strictly a living history program, but a weird combination of the two that just works. Some folks don't dress in period attire at all, some "sort of" dress in period attire, and some go all out and do it right. You've already seen the photos I've posted of me and cousin Ryan, so here's a few more.Me and cousin NicoleCousin Ryan and my aunt Wendy (my mom's sister)
My grandfather and my mom (Pa, as we call him, doesn't dress out; Mom sort of does)
The blacksmiths were very good, and they made me a musket tool!

Still Catching Up

Even though I've been back from Rochester for almost a week, I am still catching up on stuff, and that is also true of the old blog here. So a few housekeeping details are in order. I know I've skipped the Weekly Quote for the past two weeks, but I hope to get back to that on Sunday. The wife is having a birthday today, so Happy Birthday Honey! And don't worry, I won't tell anyone how old (or young) you are. And finally, before anyone busts my chops about it, I do realize that today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so please don't feel the need to remind me of it. Someone already took that shot on Facebook earlier today. And yes, for you blog readers who don't already know, I am on Facebook; look me up if you care to! The next couple of posts are going to be mainly photos I took on my trip (the Pennsylvania portion of it).

Finishing Up AASLH

I am home from 10 days on the road and trying to figure out where to start catching up is daunting. But, its Sunday, I'm watching football, doing laundry, catching up on personal email, and blogging. Not a bad start I suppose.

So, the final two days of the AASLH conference were as good, if not better than the first. Thursday morning we had our Military History Breakfast, which was a great chance to get together with like-minded individuals. For our program, committee member and staffer at the New York State Military Museum, Michael Aikey gave a brief presentation about the museum's veterans oral history project. From there I proceeded to a session led by Laura Ketcham of the NC Office of Archives and History about interpreting slavery at historic sites. Featured speakers were Dr. Julia Rose of the West Baton Rouge Museum, Frachele Scott of our own Historic Stagville, and Madeline Flagler of the Bellamy Mansion Museum in Wilmington. This session was one of the best I attended while at the conference. The rest of the day was taken up with our Military History Committee meeting and two receptions.Members of AASLH Military History Committee present at the conference.

Friday, I finished the conference with two really good sessions, the first featuring renowned historians Rick Beard and James Oliver Horton discussing how to incorporate discussions of slavery into our Civil War Sesquicentennial commemorations, even in the face of resistance from heritage groups and neo-Confederates. My final session of the conference was quite possibly the best I attended. It was about the evolution of historical interpretation over the past twenty years and was led by Mark Howell, Director of Education at the American Civil War Center at Tredegar and John Caramia (formerly of Colonial Williamsburg and Old Salem) now at the Coastal Heritage Society in Savannah, GA. This session will definitely prove to be the most useful that I attended, both in the short and long term.

All in all, I think this conference was better than last year's, although I preferred Atlanta to Rochester.A view of downtown Rochester
Rochester is OK, but certainly not a place I'd really want to go back to again (unless it was to eat at Dinosaur Barbecue - that place rocked!).

Leaving Today

Sorry I didn't get to blog much of yesterday's conference. I'll catch up later. I'm leaving Rochester this afternoon about lunchtime, but not before sitting in on a session on the Civil War Sesquicentennial and another on changes in the field of interpretation over the past 20 years. I think that will be a good strong finish to what has been a very good conference. More later!

AASLH - Day Two (officially, but Day One for me)

Got an early start this morning with the Educators and Interpreters Breakfast. I was really looking forward to this because the speaker was to be Carol Kammen, whose column "On Doing Local History" I read in every edition of History News. Alas, Dr. Kammen was not able to make it due to an illness in the family. AASLH's own Bob Beatty read Dr. Kammen's remarks, gave everyone a handout of the same, and discussion followed. It was a very worthwhile session, but still a bit disappointing due to Dr. Kammen's absence. By the way, the session was about moving museums into the 21st century (what we've already accomplished as a field, and what we have ahead of us).

My first panel session of the day dealt with changing demographics and was very informative. Chris Graham will be delighted to hear that the leadoff speaker in this panel leaned very heavily on recent research done by Reach Advisors, particularly the post referenced (and linked) here. The rest of the presenters were giving case studies of how their institutions have used or are using demographic research the think about their programming and exhibits.

My second panel session of the day was about how academic programs in Museum Studies and Public History are preparing students to enter the workforce. There were two academic program administrators, a recent MA graduate, and an HR Director at a very large museum on the panel. They all gave their perspectives and it was then opened to roundtable discussion. This session was very good, and simply confirmed a lot of the things I've been thinking about in regards to this topic. I could probably go on and write a whole post about this one session, but I'll spare you here (maybe I'll follow up later).

Finally, it was time for the session I chaired, called the Basics of Planning Living History Programs. I did this session at the behest of the AASLH Military History Committee and my co-panelist was Myers Brown of the Tennessee State Museum and a long-time living historian himself (he admittedly despises the term "reenactor").Me and Myers Brown
I gave a brief overview of the various academic arguments for or against living history and reenactment, then Myers took over with the nuts and bolts of planning a program (i.e. how to find good living historians, what pitfalls to avoid, etc.). It all led to some really interesting discussion and good questions from the participants. I think everyone pretty much enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to seeing the feedback we got on the evaluation forms. The bain of my existence raised its ugly head however....PIRATES! A museum professional from a small maritime museum in Maryland has pirate reenactors wanting to come to her museum and she doesn't want them (I don't blame her one bit). Damn wankers! But, all in all, it was a great discussion and afterwards I gave my business card to the woman from Maryland and said if she needed any advice on fending off pirates to give me a call (Gentlemen, prepare to repel boarders!).

Anyway, that was my day. I've eaten at some pretty good restaurants here too, which I'll have to highlight in a later post. More tomorrow!

In Rochester

I arrived in Rochester about 2:30 this afternoon. After checking in at the hotel, I went to conference headquarters and picked up my registration packet, then proceeded to explore some of downtown, at least a two block radius from the hotel. Rochester is an interesting city, but I'm not terribly impressed with it so far. I have a couple of issues with the hotel. The room is nice enough, but its on the end of the building so when the wind kicks up it sounds like a train blowing past my room. It is also right across from the service elevator for the housekeeping staff, so even now, at almost 8:00 p.m. I keep hearing a lot of noise out in the hall. And, the kicker is that the Wi-Fi connection is terribly slow. Maybe its just because my room is out on the end of the building, but it just seems very slow. Maybe I'll have better luck in the lobby tomorrow. I was going to leave you with the view from my room, but this connection is so slow I can't even upload photos, or attach them to emails. LodgeNet sucks! And for some reason I can't connect to the city's free citywide Wi-Fi either. More later (I hope).

Quick Trip Update

Apologies for not posting in the past few days, but I've been without Internet access since Friday night. The second and third days of Mountain Craft Days went well, and I'll have more on that later. Yesterday I visited Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site and got to spend a little time with my friends Greg and Rachel. I proceeded on to Pittsburgh and spent the night with my cousin Nicole, who is a grad student in the literature department at Duquesne. Figured I'd post this little update this morning before hitting the road to Rochester. The AASLH Annual Meeting starts today with workshops and tours, then the panel sessions and regular programming start tomorrow morning. I've got about a four hour ride ahead of me today, but it's uncharted territory so I'm looking forward to seeing some new places! I'll post more info on my travels and photos later tonight or tomorrow.

Mountain Craft Days - Day One

I spent the day today roasting and grinding coffee beans, and keeping watch on a couple of dutch ovens. I was participating in the 39th Annual Mountain Craft Days at the Somerset County Historical Center in Pennsylvania. My family has always participated in this event and at volunteered at the museum. I was a Junior Historian back in the early 1980s and today I was training current Junior Historians to do some of the jobs I was doing. Tomorrow and Sunday I will be in the maple sugar camp, boiling sugar water to make maple syrup (YUM!). I talked to a lot of awesome craftsmen today, and I'll blog more of that later. Here's a few photos of me and my cousin Ryan (the one who's going to Scotland in two days).

New Addition to the Blog Roll

You will notice on my blog roll that I have added one titled Ryan's Scotland Blog. My cousin Ryan, a sophomore at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, is embarking on a semester abroad (a requirement of all Carlow students, I believe) in Scotland. Ryan's oldest sister, a Carlow alum, did her semester in Italy a few years back. Ryan will be attending the University of Stirling and will keep a travel blog of his experiences. Luckily, I will get to spend some time with Ryan this week, prior to his departure.