After working at Colonial Williamsburg for 13 years, in 2000 I founded American Lives: History Brought to Life. I specialize in first-person portrayals of ordinary Americans who lived during extraordinary times. I portray more than 15 women from American history in schools, libraries and museums across the country. In addition, I train teachers and museum professionals to teach through storytelling and character interpretation. My bread and butter is a one-woman, three-character play I wrote about the American Revolution, called Revolutionary Women. I wrote it for 5th grade students, and I perform it for audiences of all ages.
So what? That, in my mind, is the greatest challenge we face in public history. Relevance. Helping our audiences and potential audiences see the relevance of what we’re teaching. History repeats itself, so what are the patterns? As we focus on modern issues, has something similar happened before? How was it handled, and what were the results? How long did change take, and how complete was the change?
Using Revolutionary Women as an example: For student audiences, I give a 30-minute introduction that traces the issues and events that led to the Revolution. I start by describing the “Rights of Englishmen.” And then I actually say to the students “So what? Why does this even matter? It has nothing to do with life today in California! …or does it?”
Then I explain that US citizens have freedom of speech, of the press, the right to a trial by jury, etc., because we came from British colonies. Our government is based on the British system that already offered those rights. If we had come from Spanish, French, Dutch or Portuguese colonies, we would have different rights than we do.
The students need to know why it’s relevant, or they won’t care, and they won’t learn it.
Another challenge we face is emotional attachment. In order to remember our stories or exhibits, audiences must connect with them on an emotional level. Educational studies have proven that to be the case. Data, dates and facts, without emotional attachment, are quickly forgotten. When information is attached to a particular individual, however, the information is more easily retained.
Again, using Revolutionary Women: In addition to information about the Revolution, I want my audiences to catch a glimpse of how everyday life in the 1700s differed from life today. I throw in details about 18th century transportation, medical care, etc. One of my characters has a throw-away line, “Bellingham weren’t but 35 miles off, so that very night I set off walking.”
This is one line in a 75-minute program full of action and intrigue, and yet, without fail, if I later ask the students how far Deborah Samson walked to get to Bellingham, they all shout “35 miles!” I am astounded every time. But the distance sticks for two reasons: they care (emotion) about Deborah Samson because they’re seeing “her” face-to-face, and they’re shocked (emotion) that a person could walk so far.
I am obviously a fan of first-person interpretation. When it is done well I think it’s one of the most powerful ways to teach. I know that not everyone is comfortable with character interpreters, though. The key, in my mind, is to teach through biographies; to use specific individuals to illustrate larger issues.
Teaching through biographies, whether in first- or third-person, engages the emotions of our audiences and helps them understand our common humanity. It helps our audiences see people in history as fully formed individuals like themselves, whose decisions and actions were shaped by the laws, customs and beliefs of their own time and place. We need to help our audiences understand that if they had been born and raised in the same situation, they might have made similar decisions. We need to help them understand that we are probably doing things today for which history will judge us, too.
And as we address modern issues, we can illustrate through our discussions and exhibits the old maxim, that progress is often two steps forward and one step back, which can be a reassuring message during times of social or political upheaval.
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