The audience joined in on

the chorus and we all had

a great time learning a bit

of ALHFAM history, or is

it culture?

The opening reception at

the Farmers Branch

Museum was a good time

to relax, renew old

acquaintances and meet

new folks. No one new

from the region this year

which is a shame since

the region had funding

for three fellowships and

no takers. Those in

attendance were: Mike

Smola from

Hawaii, Jessica

Maria Alicea-

Covarrubias, Barry

and Marie Herlihy,

Eileen Hook (all

from California),

Kay Demlow from

Oregon, Terri and

Kevin Towner

from Washington

State and yours

truly from Arizona.

“You Picked A Fine Time…”

Western Regional Newsletter S U M M E R 2 0 1 2

S P E C I A L

P O I N T S O F

I N T E R E S T :

Western Re-

gional Conven-

tion in Bend

Oregon

Holograms and

Bungee Jumping

in the Land of the

Long White

Cloud

Focus on Mem-

bership

Issues and Dead-

lines

Making Collec-

tions Available

Call for Papers

Western Regional

Representative:

Mick Woodcock

Newsletter Design:

Zaira Valdovinos

Newsletter Editor:

Eileen Hook

Mick Woodcock

For those at the

conference in Dallas, the

title of this article will be

immediately recognizable.

For the rest of you,

probably not. For those of

us there in Dallas, it is a

memory link to the

Presidential Banquet held

at the Frontiers of Flight

Museum. For you who

were at home, it might be

the start of the title of a

Kenny Rogers song, “You

Picked a Fine Time to

Leave Me Lucille.” All of

you would be correct.

Ron Kley, a POOP,

(Presidents of Our Past)

was asked to sing a

parody song he had

written years ago

regarding the fact that

ALHFAM seemed to

schedule its annual

meeting at a most

inappropriate time for an

agriculture based

organization. The title

was “You Picked a Fine

Time for a Meeting

ALHFAM” and sung to

the Kenny Rogers tune.

P A G E 2

The Confederacy

collection that

counts over sixty

flags at the Civil

War Museum.

One of the high lights of the

trip for me was a visit to the

Texas Civil War Museum.

For a curator who likes

“stuff”, it was a visual

cornucopia of mid

nineteenth century militaria

and civilian material

culture. The museum is an

amalgamation of three

collections Under the United

Daughters of the

Confederation: Texas

Confederate Collection, the

Ray Richey Civil War

Collection and the Judy

Richey Victorian Dress

Collection. All three are

pretty amazing

collection in their

own right with the

Ray Richey

collection being

over 3000

objects, the Judy

Richey collection

over 300

garments and the

Daughters of the

Confederacy collection

that counts over sixty flags

and other home front

material that was collected

starting about

1900.

The weather

was pretty good

except for

Monday, which

was the day we

spent outdoors.

It was in the

upper 90s and

who knows how

much humidity.

Of course we were

indoors part of that

time which included lunch

and a tour of the Texas

Cowboy Hall of Fame

Museum which has a large

case devoted to the War

with Mexico

and featured

one of Santa

Ana’s

uniforms

along with

the uniform

of one of the

United States officers

involved in Santa Ana’s

capture. The Museum

also has an impressive

collection of trades

related horse drawn

vehicles. I was most

impressed with the

butcher’s wagon and

petroleum delivery

wagon. The hearse was

pretty nice as well.

All in all a great

conference. Thanks to

Derrick Birdsall, also

known as “Cuz” because

we think we are distantly

related and to Jamie

Rigsby who put the

conference together and

got us from place to place

with seemingly little

effort.

W E S T E R N R E G I O N A L N E W S L E T T E R

Frontiers of Flight

Museum, Dallas,

TX

W E S T E R N R E G I O N A L N E W S L E T T E R P A G E 3

Getting Them Through the Gates: What

Your Site Can Offer That No One Else Can

September 27th-29th, 2012,

Bend, Oregon

In 2012 members of ALHFAM’s Western Region

are encouraged to travel to Bend Oregon and the

High Desert Museum for the region’s annual

conference. The High Desert Museum explores 8

states of cultural and natural history throughout

the Great Basin. The museum has been open to

the public for 30 years and presently has 150,000

visitors per year. Over 100 animals are either on

display or used in educational

programs at the museum. Our

Living History program is an

interactive 1904 ranch, as well as

the “Spirit of the West Hall of

Exploration” that offers

interpreters to share the stories of

the fur trade, Oregon trail, mining,

boom town and buckaroos.

Bend Oregon was incorporated in 1905, and

the town has a rich history in the logging

industry. Today the town is a tourist

destination, with skiing, kayaking, hiking, rock

climbing, fishing, and golfing.

The conference goal is to look into how our

sites offer engaging experiences and

connections with visitors. How do local

demographics affect your visitor

experiences? What are best practices for

training your interpreters?

Proposals for papers, presentations and

workshops are being solicited for this meeting

of the best and the brightest in the living

history, museum and interpretation

communities.

Proposals may address any facet of living

history or museum work, but those with a

special emphasis on reaching visitors with a

living history program will be given a

preference.

Western Regional Conference

P A G E 4

W E S T E R N R E G I O N A L N E W S L E T T E R

During the 2011 ALHFAM

Western Regional meeting in

Prescott, Deb Reid led an inter-

esting discussion about holo-

graphics and other advanced

technologies as an adjunct to

(or instead of) first person and

other interpretive techniques

in museums. Being an ALHFAM

meeting, the conversation fo-

cused on the use of such tech-

niques in living history muse-

ums and on replacing live in-

terpreters with new media.

Listening to the exchange of

ideas and opinions during the

session made me realize that

outside of Disneyland I had

never personally seen holo-

grams used as an interpretive

tool. Not, that is, unless you

count the “4-D” program at the

National Museum of World

War II in New Orleans, or simi-

lar walk-through experiential

exhibits at the National Mu-

seum of the Civil War Soldier,

in Petersburg, Virginia.

So to discover holographic ex-

hibitry in use at two of three

major museums I visited on a

recent trip to New Zealand,

was both a first for me and a

timely follow-on to Deb’s pres-

entation.

I spent the better part of a

month in New Zealand at the

end of 2011. My first museum

experience there was a windy,

rainy morning spent at the

Auckland War Memorial Mu-

seum, the “AM”. The AM has

extensive collections of mate-

rial culture, historic photo-

graphs, and information about

the island people of the South-

ern Ocean (we call it the South

Pacific). Part of the museum is

dedicated to these island cul-

tures; another to the history,

settlement and culture of New

Zealand; and yet another to

New Zealand’s military history.

Other than walk-in diaoramas

in the military history section,

interpretation is straightfor-

ward, with an animated film

about the legend of the Maori

migration from Hawaii to

Aotearoa (the Land of the Long

White Cloud), some excellent

videos in the military history

section, and interactive com-

puter stations in various parts

of the museum. Pretty standard

stuff, this.

A week later I was in Welling-

ton, fighting a strong urge to go

outside and play in the sun, im-

mersing myself instead in the

vastness of Te Papa Tonga-

rewa, the National Museum

of New Zealand. This and my

visit the following day to the

Wellington Museum of City

and Sea gave me my first look

at the use of holographic ex-

hibits to tell stories one

might expect to hear “live”

from a living history inter-

preter—condensing such sto-

ries to suit time and space

constraints of a conventional

museum.

All three exhibits dealt in one

way or another with Maori

legends—folk tales, really—

explaining the arrival of

Maori in New Zealand and

the origins (from a Maori

perspective) of various New

Zealand geographical fea-

tures. Both museums are

well-funded and exhibits are

engaging and very much cur-

rent state of the art. I’m not

certain how recently the

holographic exhibits were

installed or how current the

technology is that is used in

those exhibits.

Two of the three programs

provided an interesting mix

of tangible objects and elec-

tronic imagery. Image qual-

ity (as I had expected from

By Barry Herlihy Holograms and Bungee Jumping in the

Land of The Long White Cloud

P A G E 5 W E S T E R N R E G I O N A L N E W S L E T T E R

at Disneyland) left much to be desired. Audience spaces were small, perhaps in deference to technological limitations on the field of view. The third program presented a series of talking heads and figures in a display case, telling stories of Maori and European discoveries of and migrations to New Zealand.

All three presentations seemed to engage audiences. To me they seemed intriguing, though less comprehensive perhaps, than the video presentations I had seen at the AM. In the week between these visits I had an opportunity to indulge my interest in living history. While I understand there are other traditional open air museums in New Zealand, some with living history programs, tourists—at least first time visitors—are likely to first be exposed to one of the commercial Maori “village” venues. One of these, the Tamaki Maori Village near Rotorua, was on my itinerary. The Tamaki Village was created by the Tamaki family more than 20 years ago to preserve Maori tradition, culture and crafts, and to explain Maori culture to the general public. These villages are different from most living history sites we are familiar with. They are commercial ventures. The interpretive programs are presented as a series of concurrent demonstrations in a re-created village for a relatively large group (5 busloads at a time). The audience moves through the village more or less as a group, then attends a performance of story-telling, song and dance (yes, including a hakka,) followed by Hangi feast, a pit-roast served buffet style, with more contemporary storytelling and song (a sing-along actually). This is informative, entertaining, folksy and corny all at the same time, but appears authentic from a content point of view and is well presented by professional, paid, Maori interpreters thoroughly versed in their craft and in the history and culture of their people. They “look” the part—no mean feat as the Maori are well-integrated into the larger New Zealand society, both culturally, economically and racially. Male roles are performed by male interpreters and female roles by female interpreters. Maori parts are all performed by Maori-descendant enactors. The period and culture interpreted is essentially pre contact, so there are no non-Maori roles. My nose, my ears, and my tummy all experienced and remember the Tamaki Village and the spirit of clan or family which is the basis of Maori culture and life that pervaded the evening. None of those were “take-aways” from either the museums in Auckland or Wellington. Living history won the day. Museums aside, it was a fantastic visit to a far away land which we in North America know relatively little about. Almost a month was spent on the trip, 25,000 km by air, 200 km of ocean travel, 4,500 km in an SUV, and another 200 or so km by coach. Hiking on Franz Josef Glacier; white water rafting on two rivers (including shooting a 21 foot waterfall); ocean kayaking and hiking in Abel Tasman National Park; jet boating on the Shotover River; trekking the Kepler Track; sailing on a 100 year old coal-fired steamship from Queenstown to Walters Peak; touring the Walters Peak sheep station; a first-person sheep shearing demonstration; steam train travel on the Kingston Flyer; a Zodiac tour of the Tasman Glacier moraine lake; exploring Milford Sound by boat; hiking and driving in Mt. Cook National Park; and a visit to Christchurch to see the devastating effects of the earthquakes (where I “enjoyed” the first-person experience of 22 earthquakes between 1 a.m. my first night in Christchurch and 7 p.m. that evening, at least two of which early in the morning were stronger than magnitude 5). were all part of the adventure. I’m ready to go back right now, quick before my I lose left-hand driving skills. It took a week to stop turning on the wipers every time I signaled for a turn when I began the trip. It took that long to reverse the process when I returned. Some months later, I catch myself occasionally turning left from parking lots and one-way streets onto the “wrong” side of the road! Summing up, a friend in the UK told me “for you Yanks, going to New Zealand is a bit like stepping back into the ‘60s—maybe the ‘50s.” He was right. The entire trip was living history time-travel; travel to a place where echoes of our own past remain, coexisting comfortably with 21st century adventure. Bungee jumping anyone?

The ALHFAM Board has asked the representatives for the regions to give greater attention to retaining and increasing membership. To that end they have suggested that the region’s if they have not already done so, appoint a membership chair for that region to help the region’s representative. This would, for the Western Region, consist of contacting members that have not renewed their memberships and see what the reason or rationale was for that. I did that last fall and was able to remind one of our members of a lapsed membership which they renewed.

If you would be interested in helping with membership, please drop me an email. mick@sharlot.org.

Mick Woodcock

Western Region Representative

The Western Region is looking for a Membership Chair!

2012 Fall – to come out in September, articles due by August 15th, topic – Historic Foodways Winter – to come out in December, articles due by November 15th, topic – regional meeting and Programs, Interpretation and Education. 2013 Spring – to come out in March, articles due by August 15th, topic – First Person Interpretation Summer – to come out in June, articles due by November 15th, topic – regional meeting and Curation Articles and photographs should be sent to our Western Region newsletter editor ZairaValdovinos: zaira.valdovinos@gmail.com

P A G E 6

W E S T E R N R E G I O N A L N E W S L E T T E R

Focus On Membership

Issues and Deadlines

P A G E 7

Making Collections Available

By Mick Woodcock

How much of your museum

or site’s collections are on ex-

hibit at any one time? The an-

swers probably vary from mu-

seum to museum and historic

site to historic site, but in

many cases what you see as a

visitor is the tip of the iceberg

as far as the collections hold-

ings are concerned. Such is

the case with the Sharlot Hall

Museum, site of the 2011 re-

gional meeting. While there is

much to see, particularly

when there is a living history

program, the artifacts on ex-

hibit are somewhere between

10% and 15% of the total col-

lection.

Two recent requests to access

collections caused the cura-

torial staff to give thought to

digital access to specific col-

lections within the collection.

Both requests asked to see

artifacts connected to local

figures and were beyond the

ability of the museum to grant

the request based on the num-

ber of items and the lack of

space to provide a secure

viewing are for them. Enter

the digital camera.

While the staff had been tak-

ing digital photographs of ar-

tifacts for a number of years,

it was limited to newly acces-

sioned items and objects in

the collection that had to be

looked at for some reason such

as exhibition, loan or shelf in-

ventory. While a somewhat hap-

hazard approach to the problem,

it never the less was better than

no digital photo at all. Hence a

few of the items in the re-

quested collections had digital

images, but most did not.

Agreements were reached with

both parties requesting access to

accept digital images in place of

looking at the entire collection

piece by piece with the caveat

that if a particular artifact

needed to be examined in per-

son this could take place with

advance notice. This worked

well with the first collection as

it was the desire of the request-

ing museum to borrow parts of

the collection for exhibit pur-

poses. The second collection

was clothing and the idea was

that one of the pieces might be

reproduced for exhibit at a his-

toric site in another city.

All of this led to a discussion of

giving a focus to digital photog-

raphy of the collection by iden-

tifying and targeting individual

collections within the main col-

lection. Several immediately

came to mind which would

launch the project, but it does

not provide public access to the

collection since none of this ma-

terial is available on line. It only

creates the images for an on line

collection.

The Museum uses a software

package that has, for an extra

cost, software to put object col-

lections on line. While this is

worthy and might be a possi-

bility, it does not take into ac-

count the archival holdings

which are in a different depart-

ment. Library and Archives

already has much of its mate-

rial on line. The ideal would be

to have photographic images,

finding aids and digital object

photographs all in one place.

Whether this is possible or not

remains to be seen, but it is a

goal worth working towards.

If a museum or a historic site

has, as one of its goals, making

collections available to the

public, then it is worth pursu-

ing getting these collections

onto the internet. It would be

even better to have the objects

linked with historic research

materials. If this seems to be a

bit of a daunting task, think

about breaking it up into small

parts. Goals need to be achiev-

able and can be made that way

by creating a plan of action to

get the job done. For all of us

this is a work in progress. The

only difference is where we are

on the path to reaching the de-

sired end.

P A G E 8

W E S T E R N R E G I O N A L N E W S L E T T E R

ALHFAM Annual Meeting & Conference 2013 - Call For Papers

Call for Presentations, Sessions and Papers,

On June 14-18, 2013, Hale Farm & Village, an outdoor living history site and a premier collection and museum of the Western Reserve Historical Society, will host the 2013 ALHFAM Annual Meeting and Conference. Nestled in the picturesque Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Hale Farm & Village depicts mid-19th century rural life in Northeastern Ohio through dozens of historic structures, farm animals, heritage gardens and artisan demonstrations. The University of Akron will provide meeting, dining and lodging facilities for the conference and is located within 50 minutes of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and 20 minutes of the Akron-Canton Regional Airport. Guided by the theme; Bringing It All to the Table: Feed Your Body, Feed Your Mind, museum professionals everywhere are encouraged to gather with colleagues around a common table. Here conference attendees will acquaint themselves with old friends and new associates, while enjoying good company, good food, and rousing conversation. And what better place to gather than the time-honored table that is familiar to everyone and is oftentimes described as a positive and productive setting for stimulating discourse, high spirits, instruction, respite and shared aims. Appropriately the table serves as a special place that is witness to life's most important things. The 2013 conference will address issues and concerns currently facing living history and agricultural museums. Proposals for presentations, sessions, papers and workshops are now being accepted and should focus on individual, institutional and communal achievements that serve up innovative programming initiatives or organizational efforts that are creative, essential and relevant in today’s marketplace. How do museums cultivate and nurture civic engagement for greater involvement and investment in their organizations? What can we glean from new demographic shifts, technological applications and curriculum schemes? What are the current and best practices of living history interpretation and museum methodology that effect organizational richness? What are the processes for dishing-up success? How do we deliver the goods to our audiences and reap the rewards of a good yield in the face of new challenges and opportunities?

Submission deadline is December 1, 2012 See website for details and application

www.ALHFAM.org