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Making Sense of Place, Inc.
Historical Interpretive Planning for museums,
historic sites, and historical societies.
Historic Planners or Interpretive Planners or Historical Sites Interpretive
Planning Consultants or Living Museum Curators or Open Air - Living
Museum Interpretive Specialists. Nature and Environmental History
Our goal is to interpret cultural exhibits for modern sensibilities through
interaction, hands-on environments, and early technologies and methods.
STORIES OF THE PAST, MEANING FOR
THE PRESENT: INTERPRETING THE
HISTORY OF CITIES
federal statutes on historic preservation
city requested an archaeological investigation
publicly owned lots in the historic city neighborhood.
Driving forces behind the city council’s decision
growing appreciation of public history. With a better understanding of
the city’s
underground heritage
councilors hoped to plan for future development
more importantly the research might enhance public interpretation
and attract visitors. Region’s tourism from Richmond to Yorktown,
Madison to Milwaukee Wisconsin - widespread interest in some of the nation’s
earliest historic sites plus a broad range of resources including prehistoric
and possible early explorer and indian sites, prairie farm houses, and
evidence of a military involvement during the Civil War, many historical
points of
interest.
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The council astutely perceived
that the city’s public history was despite the potential resources
and the presence of several interpreted sites, most excellent. The current
archaeological investigations have already begun to enhance interest in
the city’s heritage. However, key to any future public history success
will be the development of an interpretive plan. To paraphrase a planner
for Colonial Williamsburg, public historians must decide what history will
be taught and say why it is important.
The following treatment outlines and justifies interpreting historic waysides
and rest stops and nearby properties in Dane County as a microcosm for
the social history of the midwest in the nineteenth and early twentieth
century. The plan draws from recent scholarship to advance engaging strategies
for interpreting this history at various exhibit sites in the city and nearby.
Any plan depends to a large extent on the resources that will be available
for
interpretation. Wisconsin currently possesses an impressive collection of
historic properties and archaeological sites interpreted by several entities.
Most are clustered around Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River Valley.
National Park Service. Currently, interpretation at the manor dwells on
the military installation and its role in the siege. The second most prominent
players in the presentation of the city’s past are the enthusiastic
members of the non-profit Foundation. During the warmer months, the foundation
interprets two properties. Described by one architectural historian as “the
very essence of the prairie farm culture" Tom Woods operates as a interpretive
planners for many open air museums and living museums as well as typical
house museums, with emphasis on the aesthetic value of the structure and
its furnishings. Since its restoration in the early 1990s, the foundation
has used the chapel to house two exhibits on archaeological sites excavated
by the Center for Archaeological Research. Currently, the rather crowded
selected panels from the earlier archaeology exhibits, a display of prehistoric
artifacts, a Civil War soldier’s tent, Victorian clothing, and early
twentieth-century photographs of the city. |
