HARD CHOICES ABOUT LIFESTYLE INTERPRETATIONS

By Virginia E. McCormick, Docent, Worthington Historical Society

Local History Notebook, July / August 1993

As the collections of small local historical organizations grow in quantity, more and more of us face decisions about how we can move from displays of "neat stuff" all over tables, cabinets, and walls to period room exhibits which reflect how people of the past lived and worked. Of course, an interpretative focus on people and their lifestyles is neither new nor controversial for large, professionally-staffed historical societies. However, the smaller groups which mean well often begin with, and are constrained by, showing artifacts they have acquired. What would happen if they saw themselves first as educators and asked the question: What do we want people to know about our community's history? If they begin with research on the persons and lifestyles they want to interpret, they might dramatically improve the perspective and understanding which students and the general public receive from touring their exhibits.

Representing Time and Place

In dealing with the comparatively recent past, most local historical societies have members who can provide personal knowledge of artifacts. They can save the historical society from the embarrassment of setting up a "twentieth-century home" exhibit where inhabitants wring out their clothes at the washer in the back workroom, carry out water from the icebox in the kitchen, and go into the living room and slip a cassette into the VCR and sit down to relax in front of the television. We all know that wringer washers, iceboxes, VCRs, and televisions are legitimate artifacts of twentieth-century lifestyles, but we should also know that they should not all be in the same historic period home at the same time.

Most historical organizations, however, focus primarily on interpreting nineteenth-century life and work, and the same challenge exists in this task. We must all ensure an accurate representation of time and place. In representing time and place, some general considerations include:

Geographic Location: It can be difficult to imagine booming residential suburbs of the 1990s as the struggling rural villages they may have been in the 1850s. Look at your town as a stranger. Remember, you are a stranger to its place and time--main street of 1830,1860, or 1890.

Technological Innovation: When did kerosene lamps become available, coverlets made on Jacquard looms, or sewing machines? Remember that there is a time lapse between invention and widespread adoption into the homes of average citizens. It is necessary to do more than check the encyclopedia regarding dates of inventions.

Economic Level: The wealthiest family in town might have had modern conveniences such as indoor plumbing or gas lights long before many of their neighbors. Then as now, newspapers reported the exceptional rather than the commonplace. If your historical society aspires to show the lifestyles of ordinary people, it may take more diligent research than the life or work of your most famous citizen.

Sources for Lifestyle Research

Fortunately, there are sources available to discover what life was like in any particular area throughout the nineteenth century. This research will prove fascinating for the members of your group.

Estates: Begin your research with estate inventories, appraisals, and bills of sale. Prior to 1852, Ohio estates were settled in Common Pleas Court and after that in Probate Court. Surprisingly, very early estate inventories are often more complete than later ones.

With a little luck, it is also possible to find business inventories-sometimes in estate files, deed of property sales, or private manuscript collections. In Worthington, we found a complete 1819 inventory of the Griswold Tavern. The inventory proved valuable not only for its listing of furnishings and equipment, but also provided clues indicating how commodities were stored--"one keg of F. brandy, one barrel of cherry bounce"--and materials used to make utensils of the past--"ten iron candlesticks & two brass ones, one iron spider, eighteen tin bread pans." (2) A less detailed inventory was included when the Worthington Hotel was sold in 1842, but the deed included among other items "sixteen beds, bedsteads, and bedding; five settees; six light and wash stands." (3)

Our real treasure was finding the complete 1842 inventory of Worthington's largest general store which had been written two months before the death of owner Rensselear Cowles. Over three hundred bolts of fabric were itemized by color and price, schoolbooks listed by title, and a wide variety of household articles and farm tools enumerated. The inventory included prices for leghorn bonnets and straw and fur hats. It described handkerchiefs as being available in red worsted, gingham, cotton, or linen. Iron teaspoons were priced by the gross and "German silver" ones individually. (4) Such a listing is invaluable, of course, in allowing us to know what was available to local consumers at a specific time and place. It also provides data needed to recreate an interpretive exhibit of business life and work.

For some places and time periods, it may be easier to find bills of sale than estate inventories and appraisals. Bills of sale are important research sources, but one must be aware that they are rarely complete household or farm inventories. In the case of a surviving widow who would be entitled to reserve items for her own personal use, the bill of sale might not itemize the entire estate. An accurate image of the past household can only be achieved using both records.

Newspapers: Local newspaper advertisements are another source of information about locally available materials. Especially helpful is the Ohio Historical Society's Newspaper Project, which has microfilmed practically every newspaper published in Ohio. Careful reading of advertisements provides answers to such questions as: When did iron stoves became available in our area? What items of furniture were cabinet makers making locally? What foods, spices, and herbs were being purchased rather than homegrown?

When researching to find information on early nineteenth-century lifestyles, be particularly alert to advertisements about items of barter which would be accepted in lieu of money at the general store, services rendered by the local doctor, or payment for a newspaper subscription. Trade goods provide an image of what was commonly produced locally. In 1821, Worthington physician Daniel Upsom advertised that he would accept "wheat, rye, corn, oats, flax, linen cloth, Beeswax, Tallow, Lard & Sugar" on debts. The publishers of the Franklin Chronicle noted that local residents could trade butter, cheese, tallow, beeswax, sugar, honey, lard, chickens, eggs, bacon, beef, rye, wheat, oats, corn, flour, firewood, dried or green fruit, linen, flax, wool, cloth, venison, dressed deer skins, or potatoes for a subscription to the newspapers. (5)

Ledgers: Your historical society may have access to ledgers from local merchants or tradesmen such as tailors or blacksmiths. These ledgers can provide valuable information about what local people purchased or often what they used for the purpose of bartering. The ledger of Sidney Brown, a Worthington cooper, described twenty-six purchases or repairs which he did for Orange Johnson from September 1818 to March 1821. These included a "cheese hoop ... repairing two tubs ... barrel ... repair chum." (6)

Always be alert for clues. An inventory that includes candle wicking is clear evidence that local people made and used candles. Notation of stove blacking is an assurance that stoves were in use locally even though they might have been purchased in a larger city. The ledger for Peck & Snow from October 1856 to March 1857 included such interesting items as an umbrella, phosgene lamp, croshey [sic] needle, a box of matches, paint brush, sixty feet of eave trouf [sic], (7) a thermometer, and segars [sic]. Deciphering the handwriting and the spelling is sometimes half the fun.

Letters: Family and business letters are another good source of information to better understand people's lifestyles. If your organization or local genealogical society has letters in their possession and you read them for another reason, such as establishing family relations, you may have overlooked some clues for lifestyle interpretation. For example, a young woman south of Worthington wrote her sister in Crawford County in 1826 safe, "I have wove fifty yards of cloth on Fathers loom...(8)

Several letters, which were written between February and November 1895 from a Worthington mother to her daughter in Chicago, contain interesting glimpses both of nearby family and community life. She wrote, "...a party at Davises Hall, had cards & dancing .... he buys the milk from Nate Pinneys herd of Jersey cows & sterilizes it so it will keep 2 or 3 days .... the cars [interurban] are run to Flint by horsepower at present...... When reporting on a neighbor's new house, she further added, "Their furnace was No 24 a size larger than ours & they were to have 7 or 8 registers. There are ten rooms in the house...."(9)

Decisions about Exhibits

After your research has produced some good information, the hard choices begin. The following are some considerations that might help you in making those choices.

Where will you get the artifacts you need? Examine your current collection carefully to see what you already have and then notify your members and the public of specific items you need in order to portray the lifestyle you have selected. Also, alert local antique dealers and auctioneers about your specific needs, and perhaps a member of your organization will make a gift purchase. Early on, you will have to decide about reproductions of items which typically were worn out and discarded. Early nineteenth-century homes were not complete without their flour and vinegar barrels, tin baking pans, and pewter spoons. Is it more authentic to omit them because you cannot locate the originals or to reproduce them by authentic methods?

Also, it is better to begin interpretive lifestyle exhibits in a small way, doing a single room accurately, than to attempt to do an entire building with the collection of artifacts at your disposal. And, it is not necessary to have your entire historic building set up in period rooms. Why not offer several rooms of topical exhibits and only one room, such as the kitchen, interpreting lifestyle. Rotating exhibits with a specific theme, such as guns, musical instruments, kitchen utensils, or farm tools, can effectively demonstrate technological progress and will supplement a lifestyle exhibit if appropriately labeled.

Should you include some kind of human representation in your exhibit? People, whether real or lifelike, have the possibility of creating added interest to an exhibit. However, in either case, care must be taken to ensure authenticity. Of course, we do not all have the resources of sites such as Plymouth Plantation where interpreters play the roles of individuals who arrived to America on the Mayflower. If your choice is between a guide dressed in modern clothing or a mannequin appropriately clothed for the period, the latter may be more educational. Some sites successfully utilize recorded messages which can be activated by visitors when no interpreter is present. If your historical organization decides to use interpreters dressed in period clothing and does not have adequate funding, perhaps you can attract new resources by cooperating with a local drama group with experience in acting and costuming.

Summary

Lifestyle interpretations can be as fascinating to set up as they are exciting to visit. Without careful planning, however, your organization can be embarrassed by knowledgeable visitors who question your authenticity. Or, if you have made mistakes in your interpretation you will be guilty of confusing eager learners such as school children. If you already have a lifestyles exhibit, check and recheck your research and make sure it is as accurate. If you are thinking about getting started, make the hard choices step by step and enjoy the results. The research can be more fun than a picture puzzle, and the compliments on your exhibit will be rewarding.

Additional Readings

Kenneth Ames, Barbara Franco, and L. Thomas Frye, eds. Ideas and Images: Developing Interpretive History Exhibits. Nashville: AASLH, 1992. This anthology provides a variety of examples about people, places, and time periods for interpretation.

Alison L. Grinder and Sue E. McCoy. The Good Guide: A Sourcebook for Interpreters, Docents, and Tour Guides. Scottsdale, AZ: Ironwood Press, 1985. This book gives a good perspective on the role of the interpreter.

Val D. Greenwood. The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1990. This is one of several good genealogical guides regarding locations of estate materials and how to get access to them.

Robert McCormick and Jennie McCormick. Probing Worthington's Heritage. Worthington, OH: Cottonwood Publications, 1990. If anyone would like more data on the Griswold Tavern and Cowles Store inventories mentioned in this Notebook, see this book.

The Local History Notebook is edited and published by the Ohio Historical Society's Local History Office in order to bring useful information to people working in the local history field. The selection of subjects and authors is based on the OAHSM Editorial Board's and the Local History Office's determination of issues which are timely in nature and lasting in scope. The reference inserts are copyrighted 1993 by the Ohio Historical Society. Reprints are available; please specify volume and number. For further information, contact: