NEMA Conference 2022, Day 2
From November 2 through November 4, I attended the 2022 Annual NEMA (New England Museum Association) Conference as a General Scholarship Recipient, which I received thanks to “Connecticut Humanities and the Connecticut Office of the Arts; MassHumanities; Mass Cultural Council; Vermont Humanities; and NEMA Annual Appeal donors. After two years of attending virtually, the 104th edition of the conference was back in-person at the Sheraton Hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts
Session 1
Who Was Mary Duncan?
Accessing New Narratives at Historic House Museums
Danielle Bennett, a graduate student at CUNY Graduate Center, and Jan Williams, the Executive Director of Buttonwoods Museum, also called Haverhill Historical Society, discussed their efforts in turning tours in Haverhill from “Old Dead Rich White Guy History” to a more inclusive narrative. Several women are featured in the new Buttonwoods tours.
One story features Hannah Duston, a woman among a group of colonists taken as civilian prisoners of war by the Penacook or Abenaki in 1697. Many colonists died before and during captivity, including Duston’s baby. According to family legend, Duston escaped and retaliated for the death of her daughter by killing and scalping ten indigenous women and children as they slept. However, no contemporary written documentation has survived. Tours are complicated when members of the Duston family, who make up 25% to 30% of visitors per tour, expect to hear a story praising their ancestor. Volunteers must learn to read the audience and determine to gloss over the Hannah Duston story while leading the tours.
Williams and Bennett worked with consultant Margaret Middleton to create more inclusive tours, train volunteers, and reinterpret primary sources. One major focus was the life of Mary Duncan, who lived on the property for longer than any other resident. Born in 1792 as the eldest daughter in a wealthy family, Duncan married her first cousin, Samuel Duncan, at age 23. Samuel died less than ten years later, leaving Mary a wealthy, childless widow of “a perfectly respectable remarrying age”.
Despite her eligibility, Mary never remarried, instead living with her sister Lydia and taking in borders until she died at age 68 and was not buried with her husband. In fact, no record mention where she is buried, although there is room in her own family plot and that of her husband’s family. The Duncan family papers are held at the Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), a collection discussed at the Historic New England Summit. However, these primary sources only briefly mention Mary. She has no surviving portraits and few records of signed deeds and contracts. While Mary survived a long illness in her twenties, which was mentioned in family letters, her health was not well-recorded. While researchers speculate that Mary did not remarry because she believed she was infertile, or because she was in a relationship with another woman, the primary sources are too thin to confirm either of these theories.
In addition to reexamining stories, Buttonwood hired Barbara Silverman to aid in creating a new interpretive plan in 2018, and later created a new design plan in 2021. The building was renovated to make better use of the 25,000 artifact collection, the organization renewed its focus on collecting objects that tell specific stories in the Haverhill community. Special artifacts include a Civil War flag made of silk millinery ribbon, a Dominican costume mask showcased during National Hispanic Heritage Month, and artwork created by children with disabilities for an “Art & Inclusion” exhibit.
Bennett and Williams gave advice for other organizations looking to explore new narratives at their sites. Buttonwood secured funding through grants and donations, as the budget grew from $300,000 to $500,000 due to electrical issues. They created a timeline to account for renovations, fundraising, and exhibitions. Messaging during a change in interpretation was crucial, as organizations must anticipate pushback and be prepared to explain the new narratives as rediscovering history, not getting rid of “good” history. Fortunately, the volunteers at Buttonwood embraced the change, and the Duston descendants who wanted a different tour were referred to nearby Dustin-Duston Garrison House. Only one volunteer resigned after the new inclusive language workshops.
During the Q&A session, attendees discussed reinterpreting sites of immigration in rural New Hampshire to include the narratives of indentured servants from Scotland and the role of slavery in New England. Another debate centered on incorporating mental health awareness into the Mather Homestead, home of first Director of the National Park Service, Stephen Mather, who may have suffered from bipolar disorder or a similar health issue. Interpreters must strike a balance between explaining plausible conditions of historical figures to destigmatize mental illness within modern society while acknowledging that a lack of testable scientific evidence, along with relying on evaluations made before current psychological criteria, prevents experts from giving concrete diagnoses.
Session 2
Strengthening Democracy
Labor Unions in the Arts
This fascinating session hosted by Maro Elliott of Mass MoCA and graduate student Amanda Tobin Ripley of the Department of Arts Administration, Education, and Policy at Ohio State University described their role as union organizers in the museum industry and compared their work to historical strikes. Employees at Mass MoCA can choose to join the museum’s branch of UAW Local 2110, a branch of United Auto Workers that instead represents “white collar” works in technical, office, and professional positions. Other museums with employees in union include Bronx Museum of the Art, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, NY MoMA, New Museum, New York Historical Society, Portland Museum of Art, and the Tenement Museum.
Elliot described how museum workers are expected to make personal sacrifices, work in bad conditions, and receive low pay. She noted that over 70% of workers at Mass MoCA had been laid off during the pandemic. After unsuccessfully attempting to work with supervisors and bosses, she became part of a committee of six people to form the union, which about ninety staff members joined by signing a support card. While Mass MoCA was initially neutral, the organization became antagonistic during the bargaining process. The union held a one-day strike on August 19, 2022 and were supported by other museum workers, unions, and local businesses, along with receiving positive coverage from the local and national press.
Ripley took an academic approach to explaining the need for unionization, as her current research project involves short surveys and interview of union museum workers. She compares the idea of “Good Work” that first arose from the Arts & Crafts Movement, propagated by William Morris and John Ruskin. Followers of the movement believed art should be completed without pay, holding up the ideal of the “starving artist” and making the “means of cultural reproduction… only accessible to the elite”. As a result, museums primarily employ people, especially women, from family wealth or with rich husbands, while museum workers from lower income families must rely on multiple jobs and the gig economy.
Both speakers presented a history of labor unions as related to Mass MoCA and its building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (although the paperwork is not yet digitized). The building housed Sprague Electric Company, whose workers’ ten-week-long strike in 1970 was supported by the Berkshires Democratic Socialists of America. In the same year, NY MoMA organized with Local 2110 and went on strike the next year. The union’s strike in 2000 lasted for 134 days, with workers receiving better salaries after negotiations. SFMoMA also unionized around that time in 1972.
In recent history, the pandemic and subsequent closing of museums triggered huge layoffs in 2020, with the disappearance of 2.7 million jobs or half the museum workforce. Museum managers were often unprofessional in layoffs, as employees learned through group chats, brusque phone calls, impersonal emails, or through showing up to work that their job was gone. Many remaining museum employees joined unions through Cultural Workers United and Local 2110. Elliot and Ripley encouraged audience members to form wall-to-wall unions at their own institutions to protect all workers, increase pay, and improve DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility) in the museum space.
Session 3
Historic Properties Take on Climate Challenges
This case study focusing on Salem, Massachusetts bore a strong resemblance to the talk “Intersectional Emergency: Climate Action in New England” at the Historic New England Summit and the “Waters Has a Memory” exhibit at Strawbery Banke. I was excited to see so many cultural organizations coming together for an environmental cause.
Julia Krisel from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) spoke on newly released climate projections from the 2022 Massachusetts Climate Change Assessment, especially measurements related to changing shorelines and floodplains. Climate in New England will look drastically different by the year 2050, with nineteen additional days over 90 degrees Fahrenheit on the coast, and twenty-five additional days inland. Heavy rain events will double in frequency, causing more power outages. Sea level rise will increase coastal area flooding by 80%. In the Derby Street Historic District, called the Derby Waterfront District on the National Register of Historic Places (paperwork not yet digitized), sea level will increase by 2.4 feet, causing a third of the property to be underwater.
To combat the effects of climate change, CZM uses the Coastal Resilience Grant Program to work with local partners to dedicate resources to vulnerable areas, such as relocating buildings or restoring shorelines. Out of the seventy-eight cities and towns within the Massachusetts coastal zone, fifty-four are supported through grant projects, with a special focus on certified nonprofit properties open to the public.
Patricia Kelleher, a preservation planner in Salem, emphasizes the importance of protecting historic properties in her area. As documented by the Salem Historical Society, the city has examples of architecture from the mid-17th century to the current day, including Colonial, Georgian, Federal, Victorian, and modern styles. However, as mentioned by Krisel, the effects of climate change such as flooding, coastal erosion, excessive moisture, and heat fluctuation will speed up the process of decay for these structures. Kelleher works with organizations and private homeowners to add gutters, composite railing systems, solar panels, and heat pumps to historic buildings. These modern features save the house from damage and have a positive impact on the environment, but the changes must be both reversible and hidden to comply with design guidelines from the Salem Historical Commission.
Salem Preservation Partners, an informal quarterly meeting dedicated to sustainable restoration efforts in Salem, organize educational programs, bike tours, and breakfasts for city workers to bring awareness to climate change. Their latest conference, “Preservation in a Change Climate”, was held at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in September and built off their 2021 conference, which was of the international “Keeping History above Water” initiative and focused on flood adaptations. In addition to this project, Salem environmentalists and historians used GIS mapping technology to overlap a historic resource map with a flood map, giving a clear picture of what buildings will need to have raised foundations or be completely moved.
Susan Baker from the House of Seven Gables described the property with its seven buildings—including three First Period or Colonial houses— gardens, and lawns. While other structures were moved to the site, the House itself sits on its original foundation. The seawall protecting the property from the nearby ocean was first build in the 18th century and improved over time, but water now regular comes over the wall. Sinkholes develop near the seawall, causing one unfortunate visitor to fall up to her thigh in undermined ground. The House has seen a higher level of moisture damage in recent years, causing clapboard deterioration and mold inside the building. Increased rainfall and flooding prompted the House staff to pumps and dehumidifiers into the basement, along with the HVAC system and an integrated pest management system. Historic houses are more porous than modern houses, must follow strict preservation guidelines when update, and rely on grant funding, so nothing about these updates were simple or easy.
Fortunately, the House has received a two-year grant from CZM and the Salem Sound Coastwatch. The site will be assessed for underground water flow, issues basement utilities, and structure problems in the seawall. Baker hopes the House will serve as a prototype for other historic properties, along with private homeowners who live on the coast.
During the Q&A section, visitors learned about the reaction of the community to new climate change initiatives, climate related issues faced by other museums on the coast, the new standards created by the Department of the Interior for raising houses due to flood adaptations. Interesting facts include the comparison of the Netherlands coastline (451 km) compared to Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries (18,804 km) to illustrate how much more difficult flood prevention is for the United States than for the Netherlands, which is held up as the gold standard for flood control. A happier fact is that Massachusetts gives an average of $4 million per year to nonprofits to prepare for climate change, with this year peaking at $12.6 over 12 projects. Other New England states have smaller programs and work with management partners.
Session 4
Inspiring and Engaging Volunteers through a Collaborative Program
In the fun final session on Day 2, three speakers from the Docent Academy at Thames River Heritage Park (TRHP) described their new collaborative program for volunteers. (For non-New Englanders, this river is pronounced “THAYMZ” rather than the English “TEHMS”. It’s very American.) As a vibrant state park in Groton and New London, Connecticut, TRHP comprises of about a dozen sites on both sides of the river. Sometimes considered a “virtual park”, since it has no visitor center, one fun way to navigate the area is by water taxi, a Navy surplus boat turned tour boat. This trip great for boat lovers and history buffs alike! As you may already be able to tell, a visit to TRHP is in my (somewhat distant) future…
Leslie Evans recalled the creation of TRHP as a state park in 2016 after the area received funding from a donor to hire Yale Urban Design Workshop. Highlights of the area included Fort Trumbull near the mouth of the Thames River in New London and Fort Griswold across the river in Groton. The organization received an award from the Connecticut Chapter of American Planning Association for their work.
The TRHP Docent Academy was inspired by a similar program at the Maine Historical Society in Portland. During their nine-week training program, students would visit all participating historic sites, learn to work with the public, explore local history, and choose a least one site to volunteer for a year. The programmed charge a small introductory fee, about $25, to make people take the class seriously. The TRHP version was similar, a ten-week program meeting weekly on Thursday mornings for three hours at a time, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and visiting all participating sites. Twenty-five people were able to take the class, with several on a waiting list.
Catherine Foley described her role at TRHP related to the Docent Academy. She began working for TRHP in 2021 as the tour coordinator after a successful career as a conference manager. She lived in New London and loved the TRHP organization but new nothing about museums! Foley soon discovered that running a class was like managing a conference, and she received help in finding historical experts to teach sessions. The areas of expertise included public speaking, working with people with special needs, and adapting programs to different learning styles. TRHP worked with sites to set dates and create brochures with a schedule. With promotions on social media and press releases to local newspapers, many people in the region learned about the event and applied.
A weekly email to students included the locations for that session, a schedule, resources, what to wear, and contacts for further questions. Upon arriving at each session, students received a color-coded schedule and a token to indicate their group for the day. Students carpooled between different sites, which might include the 19th century Avery-Copp House Museum or Monte Cristo Cottage, childhood home of American playwright Eugene O’Neill. The class acted like a wine tasting, giving students the essence of the site and allowing them to come back on their own time to explore more. At the end of each session, students received an evaluation link to rate the presenter on enthusiasm, knowledge, and interaction, along with rating the session on length and complexity. The class graduated in a formal ceremony, which included speeches from of the mayors of Groton and New London. Students received a simple program and a certificate of completion. Then they could sign up for their favorite volunteering opportunity, with popular options including gardening, house tours, and boat tours.
Kim McLean was a student in the first Docent Academy graduating class who was later hired by TRHP. She had planned to take the class with a friend, but her friend was stuck on the waitlist! Because of her expertise in genealogy and former employment with nearby Mystic Seaport Museum, she volunteers with Shaw Mansion of New London County Historical Society. Her favorite tours include the military history boat tours, which are often led by veterans, and Mohican tours about local Native American culture. Her best advice to organizations looking to form their own docent program was to make sure their partners are prepared to accept volunteers and immediately begin further training or have spots available to them. The docents are so enthusiastic about their new diploma and want to use it right away.
Both Evans and Foley admitted that there are some aspects of the program they would like to change. They did not consider DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility) when first designing Docent Academy. While Foley worked with the local chapter of the NAACP for advertising, included the Black Heritage Trail in New London in the curriculum, and worked with the local Hispanic community, only White community members joined the class. They acknowledged that the class is only available for retirees due to the time of day. They view this as a growth opportunity and will try to have more diverse cohorts in the future.
During the Q&A, attendees were curious about ways of attracting a more diverse array of volunteers. The speakers suggested working with city councils, local colleges, and places of worship, which all tend to have civically engaged members with many connections to others in the community. Holding trainings on Saturdays is also an option when trying to reach volunteers who work conventional 9-to-5 jobs. Other fun facts in the Q&A include the budget of the class (covered by a $10,000 SHARP Grant from Connecticut Humanities), the number of boat tours in the summer (92!), other attractions (USS Nautilus Nuclear Submarine), and new museums coming to the area (National U.S. Coast Guard Museum). Finally, Connecticut Open House Day will be on the second Saturday in June, and everyone was invited.