|
|
Spring Hath Sprung!
The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day When the sun is out and the wind is still, You're one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, A wind comes off a frozen peak, And you're two months back in the middle of March. Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time (1936)  | | Garden at the Moffatt-Ladd House NHL, Portsmouth, NH |
Has your Spring sprung yet? Here's hoping your days are more like the middle of May than the middle of March!
And while your National Historic Landmark site is bursting with springtime blooms, remember to capture its beauty for the 2011 NHL Photo Contest on Flickr. (We'll alert you when this year's contest opens for entries. In the meantime, you can review the 2010 winners or order your own 2011 calendar.)
Below is information about a workshop co-sponsored by the National Park Service and the National Collaborative on Women's History Sites (NCWHS) that will kick off the 2011 Berks Conference on Women's History. The workshop will explore some of the challenges of presenting women's stories at historic sites as well as share some remarkable examples of women restored to their rightful place in history and remembrance.
Are you currently interpreting women's history? If you have stories about the challenges or process, please let us know so we can share creative ideas and lessons learned in future issues of this newsletter. Email, or leave a message at 215/597-1578.
|
|
**Happy Women's History Month: March 2011**
|
 Women's History Conference
Workshop: Integrating Women's History into Historic Sites A Training Workshop Prior to the 2011 Berks Conference Pre-registration required; Applications due March 25 Have you ever visited a historic site and felt that you received only part of the story? Who were the women? What was their experience? Maybe you were at a battlefield or a prison, where men are often the focal point, though there are also women's tales to tell. The National Park Service and the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites (NCWHS) are partnering to host a two-and-a-half-day workshop beginning Tuesday, June 7th, prior to the 2011 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
 | | Embracing women's history |
Designed for people who work in or with parks, National Historic Landmarks, and other historic sites, this workshop will provide an overview of site-based women's history, why it's important, and why its use with existing interpretive, preservation, and research programming is beneficial for national parks and other historic sites. Participants will hear from nationally renowned experts and site interpreters who have successfully incorporated women's history into their regular programming. At breakout sessions, participants will brainstorm possibilities for one another's sites. Registration includes a workbook on historic sites/women's history and a toolkit of ideas. INTEGRATING WOMEN'S HISTORY INTO HISTORIC SITES
Tuesday, June 7 11:00 am - 6:00 pm, 601 Herter Hall Wednesday, June 8 9:00 am - 6:00 pm, 601 Herter Hall
Thursday, June 9 10:00 am - 3:00 pm, tour to be arranged
Thursday, June 9 3:30 - 5:15 pm, Berks session "Using the
Past To Shape the Future," place TBD For further details (including scholarship application) and to access the workshop application, please visit the NCWHS website . Applications must be submitted by March 25. Successful applicants will receive confirmation and lodging details.
NPS employees register for both the Berks and this training through the NCWHS website. Non-NPS employees register for the Berks through the Berkshire Conference website and for this training through the NCWHS website.
|
Free Advice from Conservation Experts
Each year the Northeast Document Conservation Center fields hundreds of phone calls asking for advice about collections management issues. Their website now features 60 free downloadable guides on general preservation issues ranging from insect infestation to basic conservation methods to sources of preservation suppliers. Topic categories include:
- Planning & Prioritizing
- The Environment
- Emergency Management
- Storage & Handling
- Photographs
- Reformatting (from microfilm to digital)
- Conservation Procedures
To view the entire library of free guides, click here.
The website also features a free online course in Preservation 101 for Paper & Media Collections, as well as a list of available webinar courses (registration and fee required). You can view their training calendar here.
|
Events, Conferences & Workshops
 March: Registration opens for the 15th annual International Preservation Trades Workshop (IPTW 2011) to be held at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster, PA, August 2-6, 2011. Each year the IPTW, sponsored by the Preservation Trades Network (PTN), draws together hundreds of the best preservation trades practitioners showcasing their work through exhibits, lectures, and trade skills demonstrations, including masonry restoration, slate, wood shingle and metal roofing, decorative painting, preservation carpentry, timber framing, and blacksmithing, to plaster restoration, stained glass repair and more. For more information, click here.
March 4, Haverhill, MA: Historic New England's Ask the Experts Old House Clinic: "Energy Retrofits for Your Older
or Historic Home." For more information on this workshop and to register, click here.
March 12, West Chester, PA: Historic Preservation Network's annual spring workshop: An Introduction the Section 106 Review Process, presented by staff of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation at the Chester County Historical Society Cultural Center.. For more information and to register, click here.
 March 15: Deadline for nominations to the 2012 World Monuments Fund Watch list. For more information, including details on eligibility requirements (you do not have to be a World Monument site), click here.
March 19, NYC: Restoration of Wrought & Cast Iron Symposium, held at Columbia University and sponsored by the Association for Preservation Technology and the Historic Preservation Education Foundation. For more information and registration, click here.
March 22, online conference: Museums & Mobile is centered around first-hand museum accounts of lessons learned in the delivery and operation of mobile experiences. Interactive case studies address project delivery, experience design, content production, technology solutions and operational requirements. Discount for AASLH members. See article below.
March 26, Philadelphia: Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia's Old House Fair is designed to bring together owners -- and aspiring owners -- of vintage and historic homes with historic preservation specialists from throughout the region. For more information, click here.
 March 31: Nominations due to The Cultural Landscape Foundation's list of threatened landscapes. 2011 Landslide: The Landscape I Love focuses on how the landscapes that surround us every day shape our communities and the people living in them.. For nomination forms (website registration required), click here.
March 31, Seattle: Paper proposals due for the Society for Industrial Archaeology Annual Conference in Seattle, WA, June 2-5, 2011. For more information, click here.
March 31-April 1, NYC: American Historic Cements Conference sponsored by the Society for the Preservation of Historic Cements and co-hosted by the National Park Service, the Historic Preservation Training Center, and Association for Preservation Technology Northeast Chapter. For more information and to register, click here.
April 1, Jamaica: Late registration closes for the 2011 Annual Conference of the Vernacular Architecture Forum May 31-June 5 in Falmouth, Jamaica. For more information and registration, click here.
April 2, Bridgewater, MA: Community Preservation Coalition's conference offers workshops, presentations and roundtable discussions on all aspects of the Community Preservation Act. For more information, click here.
April 16, Wilmington, DE: Workshop for Social Media, Online Collections Tools and Small Museums sponsored by the Museum Studies program at the University of Delaware will run from 9:30am - 3pm at the Newark Campus. The morning session will review Facebook, Twitter, LibraryThing, Ehive, and other free online tools for communication and collections management. In the afternoon, participants will pair with graduate students to set up a free Mail Chimp account to manage an electronic mailing list and distribute electronic newsletters Applications are due March 14. Participants will be notified March 16. For more information, contact Tracy Jentzsch by emailing jentzsch -at- udel -dot- edu
April 29, Poultney, VT: Vermont Statewide Historic Preservation & Downtown Conference at Green Mountain College. Join participants from all over the state for presentations, hands-on workshops and guided tours of local historic sites. For more information, click here.
April 30, Rhode Island: Destination Block Island: The 26th Annual Rhode Island Statewide Historic Preservation Conference. For more information, click here.
|
Going Mobile!
 Have you considered creating interpretive information that visitors could access on smart phones and other mobile devices? Perhaps you've already done so?
A recent survey of more than 700 museum professionals internationally -- more than half of which were history museums -- reveals interesting perspectives on the challenges, opportunities, and future of mobile interpretation. Art galleries and museums are more willing to embrace use of mobile media in their interpretation while nearly half of the history sites indicated they did not plan to use mobile technology. Sites with larger visitation figures more often used mobile technology. The survey indicates that sites with a technology staff person are more likely to use or plan to use mobile technology, indicating that part of the obstacle to planning or use may be due to perceptions of cost and difficulty of implementation. Respondents indicated a desire for more information on effective use and application.
Science museums using technology hoped to create a more interactive experience for their visitors; history sites hoped to attract more visitors or different types of visitors; art galleries wanted to keep up with current trends.
Respondents planning to use mobile technology show a desire for interactive media that links with social networking sites and can be used on a smart phone. The perception is that this will both inform and engage visitors and enhance the visitor experience.
What would you do with mobile media? To view survey results, click here.
Curious about how mobile might work for your site? Register for the 2011 Museums & Mobile Online Conference to be held on March 22. Speakers will include Daniel Davis (National Museum of the American Indian, NYC, USA); Hugh Wallace (National Museums Scotland, Scotland, UK); Steve Gemmel (Getty, LA, USA); Agnes Stauber (Fowler Museum, LA, USA); Peter Samis (SFMoMA, SF, USA). For more information about the conference and the EXPO on March 23, click here.
|
| *** |
Grants & Fellowships
 March 17: Applications due for the Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund's next grant round. This matching grant program is to support the preservation of properties, landscapes, and sites listed in the State Register of Historic Places. For more information and an application, click here.
April 1: Applications due for the National Parks Foundation Active Trails Grants Program. (NOTE: March 8, 3:00 pm informational call to discuss proposal process) National Historic Landmarks are eligible to apply. Grants of up to $25,000 must be used to engage communities and encourage use of land and water recreational and natural areas. For more information, click here.
April 5: Applications due for the 2011 Alston Bannerman Sabbatical Fellowship for candidates who qualify: you must be a person of color, have more than 10 years of community organizing experience, and be committed to social change work in communities of color. For more information, click here.
American Express offers grants for Historic Preservation & Conservation. Geographic priorities in the northeast include Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and D.C. For details on eligibility and how to apply, click here. To read about American Express and its work as a Partner in Preservation, click here.
|
|
Meet the Moffatt-Ladd House
 | | Moffatt-Ladd House, Portsmouth, NH |
The image in the introduction accompanying Robert Frost's ode to spring features the garden of the lovely Moffatt-Ladd House (1763) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (At right is the public facade.) The house is a National Historic Landmark and has been open to the public as a historic house museum since 1912.
One of America's finest Georgian mansions, the house was built for merchant John Moffatt between 1760 and 1763. During the Revolution, it was the home of General William Whipple, one of New Hampshire's three signers of the Declaration of Independence and his wife Katharine Moffatt Whipple. In 1817 the house passed to John Moffatt's great granddaughter, Maria Tufton Haven Ladd. Her son, Alexander Hamilton Ladd, lived in the house from 1862 until his death in 1900. The house is furnished to showcase its original features and to reflect its use as a private home from 1763 through 1900.
|
|
