The 2024 ALHFAM Annual Meeting and Conference
Howell Living History Farm
June 7-10 and September 9-10, 2024
Learning by actually doing. Sharing practical knowledge. That is what ALHFAM is all about, and this conference is focused on the important skills that ALHFAM preserves, both for future staff at our sites as well as for generations to come. But how do you preserve something intangible, like the way you hold your body when swinging a scythe, or knowing by look and feel that bread dough has been kneaded just enough, before it gets tough and overworked? Of course, the best way is learning from an expert: but what if you were hired after that expert left? The staff at Howell Farm have a few ideas to share, and based on many of your proposals, you do, too. But there are still many questions remaining, and these, too, are at the heart of this year’s conference, Curating Living History: Preserving Skills and Intangible Culture.
After 21 years, the ALHFAM Annual Conference returns to New Jersey and will be hosted by Howell Living History Farm and the Mercer County Park Commission. The conference will occur in two parts: an in-person portion June 7-10th in New Jersey focusing on meetings and workshops, followed by virtual sessions and roundtable discussions September 9-10th.
During our time together in New Jersey, Howell Living History Farm, a facility of the Mercer County Park Commission and the heart of the Pleasant Valley Historic District, will be the host site.
Many of the workshops will take place on Howell Farm’s grounds or at one of the surrounding properties that make up the historic district. Other workshops will take place at nearby state and local historic sites, as well as on the campus of Rider University, where we will have our meetings, and where the majority of conference housing will be located. If a college dorm isn’t your style, room blocks at nearby hotels will also be available. However, should you choose to stay off-campus at a hotel, you will need to have your own transportation to and from the hotel and Rider University.
The conference will kick off on Friday with several Professional Interest Group (PIG) meetings, followed by our keynote address and discussions on forms of documentation that can be used to preserve skills and intangible culture. While SkillClips often take center stage, there are many different ways that skills can be documented and preserved, and we will explore these throughout the day. Then we will dive into some workshops with a community service theme, before having our opening dinner of “Salted, Smoked, and Pickled” at a Mercer County park with a tie to “Rough on Rats” – one of ALHFAM’s many quirky traditions. Please bring your local delicacies to share!
Saturday morning we’ll have a few more PIG meetings and convene for our annual business meeting and a town hall discussion. In the afternoon, the last of the PIG meetings will be held, after which attendees are invited to wander the grounds and buildings of the Pleasant Valley Historic District, compete in the plowing match, or take part in an old-time baseball game. We’ll end the evening with a cookout dinner at Howell Farm.
Sunday and Monday, come ready to “learn by doing” at our many workshops. There will be something for everyone and plenty of time to learn and perfect skills – both new and old – and to try one or more of the potential ways of documenting skills to see which ones will work best for you and your site. Because this portion of the conference is solely focused on hands-on learning, there will be no additional fees for individual workshops, and conference registration will cover all meals and workshop expenses. And of course, don’t forget to bring your auction items and get your bidding arm ready for Sunday night’s live auction, one of ALHFAM’s biggest fundraisers. We will close our time together at Monday night’s Presidential Banquet, where Past President Kathy Dickson will address the membership before the evening entertainment: our annual historic fashion show.
But the fun isn’t over yet! After a few short months to digest what you have learned and put into practice the documentation skills you gained, we will meet again virtually in September to discuss important aspects of the preservation of intangible culture, such as best practices, different means of skills transfer, and succession planning. I hope to see many familiar faces from our June workshops, as well as a few new ones who could not make the trip to New Jersey.
Preserving skills and intangible culture is something we all agree is necessary, but at the moment, there seem to be more questions than answers. My hope is that together, we can come up with some strategies in addition to the ones we at Howell Farm have piloted. I look forward to your thoughts in June and September!
About the Author: Sonrisa Crespin acquired her love of history at her grandfather’s knee and followed in his footsteps, earning her B.A. in history at Alfred University. She spent a summer working as an intern at Howell Farm, where she discovered her love of living history, and went on to earn a M.A. in history, concentrating in public history, at Western Carolina University. Following graduation, she worked as a shoemaker and domestic interpreter for two years at Old Salem Museum and Gardens, before returning to Howell Farm. She served as the Education Program Coordinator before assuming her current position as Farm Administrator and is the Conference Chair for the 2024 ALHFAM Annual Meeting and Conference.
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