Educational visits to historical sites related to the Holocaust face significant constraints: Groups have limited time to see the site; guides are meeting students for the first time; they do not know them or what preparation (if any) students have had. Teachers and students expect guides to share their expertise, show them the most important…

Bridging the gap between an author's works based on real life and historical accuracy can be a challenge for literary sites that symbolize both fiction and reality. Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House, the home of the Alcott family and the place in which she wrote her most famous novel, "Little Women," also served as the setting for the…

Historically museums have provided select introductory orienting materials in languages other than English to support a tourist base. Increasingly, museums are looking to increase their interpretive materials in other languages to provide linguistic diversity, and the institutional motivations for doing so are expanding beyond the needs of…

The 9/11 Memorial Museum's docent program offers visitors artifact-based entry-points into a difficult, emotional history. The program's launch raised a host of questions, many centered on how to balance and convey strongly held, often traumatic, and sometimes conflicting experiences with a newly constructed institutional narrative. This article…

In this article I make the case for including queer narratives in historic house museums, both because including queer history in public history settings is important in its own right and as a way to invigorate museum interpretations and appeal to wider audiences. I dispel concerns about "outing" historical actors and describe some…

Vizcaya was originally the private winter residence of industrialist James Deering and in the course of the last century has known many identities. In Vizcaya's recent process to refresh our mission and vision, we wondered: What should the role of James Deering be in our new vision? Why does he matter? Why does Vizcaya matter? In exploring…

The "Curator's Curiosities" program was launched at Fort Henry National Historic Site in the summer of 2017 as an object-based interpretive program. In addition to learning the history of an artifact from the collection, participants were taught how to properly handle and catalogue the artifact, under the supervision of trained museum…

The Centenary of World War I (WWI) between 2014 and 2018 attracted international attention. Many Australians travel to key battle sites in mainland Europe, especially Turkey, France, and Belgium to connect with the experiences of Australian soldiers and nurses who served in this war. As no conflict occurred within Australian borders, sites make…

Museums have a crucial role to play in building active citizens in their societies. In part, museums are well positioned to do this because developing new citizens is greatly strengthened by the study of the challenges and successes of the past. However, in looking for examples to learn from just as much can be gained by examining citizens working…

As stewards of historical documents, objects, and places, public history institutions are well-positioned to present history in ways that develop today's students into tomorrow's informed and active citizens. This article illustrates how public history institutions are equipped to engage students with the tools and techniques they need to become…

This article shares principles for offering effective professional development for classroom teachers at historic sites and museums, identified through ongoing research at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF). Supported by an IMLS National Leadership Grant, the initial findings challenged the education staff to more fully embrace their roles as…

Supported by an Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant, Mystic Seaport Museum educators present how findings from evaluations of their teacher professional development programs challenged them to reconsider what it means to understand and support teachers' unique professional needs. Included is a discussion of what it…

In western countries, engagement with neighboring communities is an expected part of a museum's mission. However, in other parts of the world, this is often not the case. In Egypt, the focus of museums has been primarily on foreign tourists. The re-opening of the Mallawi Museum provided the opportunity to undertake a case study to adapt western…

In an effort to humanize the issues surrounding mass incarceration, and to foster empathy in historic site visitors, Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site launched a pilot tour program that hired formerly incarcerated people to give tours of the building. These 15-minute tours allowed visitors to hear personal stories of incarceration alongside…

The introduction of online elements to museums and cultural sites has opened up new ways for visitors to engage with the past, with nature, with culture, and all other treasures of the museum. However, docent training has lagged behind visitor-facing educational initiatives. By blending online elements into docent education programs, staff…