the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums
by: Jake Krumwiede The last eighteen months have been a challenge for all of us. Yeah, yeah, I know. Everyone knows that. As I typed it, even my own eyes rolled a little bit. We know that everyone has faced professional challenges in the last two years. We have adapted to remarkable circumstances. We have… Continue reading The Old Timers within Us All
With the approach of Thanksgiving and Christmas, thoughts often turn to the traditional centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal: turkey. To add a sense of history, as well as enjoy delightful flavors, you may wish to go to the extra effort to serve a heritage turkey. But what is a heritage turkey?
People from the past really weren’t that different at heart. Yes, they lived in another environment and therefore made choices that we find strange today. But when it comes to the things that really matter in life – love, loss, and how to deal with really obnoxious people – we can look across the gulf of time and think, “Yes, I completely understand.”
In September of 1755, England, a political world power began one of history’s largest mass movements of people united by their Catholic faith. Acadians of Nova Scotia were dispersed throughout English lands without benefit of property, family ties or compassion. Their holdings were torched, as they were loaded on to barely seaworthy ships, on which… Continue reading Le Grand Derangement: 250 Years of Acadian History in Louisiana
National polling data shows broad-spectrum support for museums. In the contentious political climate in the United States, one of the few things we agree on is the need for increased support for museums. This is worth mentioning to every elected official at every level.
African culture was a particularly major component in the development of southern U.S. culture as well as American culture as a whole. In interpreting American and largely southern history, it is so easy to slip into saying how certain great and wealthy men built this and grew that, when in reality much of what is spoken of was not only done by the labor of enslaved African Americans, but were also accomplished through the skill and knowledge of these people. These skills were passed from generation to generation and have often carried forward to today.
Finding Fuel for the Fire in 18th-Century Pennsylvania Today, we assume that wood was plentiful in the 18th century, and there were few concerns about firewood. If you lived in a city, however, fuel was expensive and could be hard to get.
For most non-Jews, Hanukkah along with Passover, is probably the most familiar of the Jewish holidays. Other than that Hanukkah is celebrated around the same time of year, it has absolutely no relationship to Christmas: it commemorates a great military victory and a great miracle.
ALHFAM defines itself as "An Organization of People Who Bring History to Life." But whose history are we bringing to life? Our organization is overwhelming white. Can we truly bring history to life, all of it not just the pretty parts, when our membership and the living history field is a mass of shinny white faces?
On October 2, 1911, readers of the Annapolis Evening Capital opened their papers to find the following announcement: “Jew Stores Closed. Today all the Jew stores in town were closed, this being the Day of Atonement, one of the most solemn days in the Jewish calendar.[1]” It is doubtful that most non-Jewish residents of Annapolis… Continue reading It’s Not the Jewish Christmas: An Introduction to Jewish Holidays and Their Observance in North America, Part I
ALHFAM 