the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums
Research shows that exploration and learning are top motivators for heritage travelers, who actively seek authentic and meaningful experiences year-round. To keep visitors coming back throughout the year, consider refreshing how you tell your story every few months—or more frequently, if possible. Regular updates not only encourage repeat visits from your local community but also ensure your site feels vibrant, dynamic, and engaging for all.
As we look towards the 250th anniversary of America in 2026, it's important to ensure we are representing the breadth of experiences and diverse narratives that make up the nation's history. The easy route for Semiquincentennial planning is to celebrate the white history of our country. I encourage you to take it a step farther… Continue reading 250th Spark: Telling Every American’s Story
I recently picked up a copy of Museums in Crisis from a pile of curbside books destined for the trash. Outdated or still relevant?
When I wrote the first draft of this blog entry back in February, it was supposed to be a look back at my first six months as the new director of the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center. It was supposed to be me reflecting on how my role in the industry had changed. It was… Continue reading Moving Forward
I led a guest researcher into my collections storage building and found myself doing something that I hate seeing others do: I apologized to him for the condition of the building. It was a retrofitted ranch house, a mediocre place to store collections. He responded exactly as I do whenever I’m in the position I… Continue reading Stop Apologizing
Excerpt of an article written in 2006 by Martha B. Katz-Hyman, Independent Scholar ALHFAM members can access the full text of this article and thousands more though the A.S.K. database. Not a member? Join today! For many historic sites and living history museums, making collections more relevant to cultures and peoples not usually associated with… Continue reading Who Knew? Finding Multicultural Stories in Your Own Attic
by Mike Smola Moses Goods portraying Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻiaPhoto Credit: Gina Maeda Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives has spent the last eight years developing a very successful History Theater program through our Oʻahu Cemetery Pupu Theatre program. These are first-person, scripted portrayals of actual historical figures from Hawaiian history. The last several years of… Continue reading Have Actors, Will Travel!: Reconnecting Hawaiʻi and New England through the Humanities
There was no question that the 2017 annual meeting committee wanted to provide an energetic and provocative keynote address. We were delighted when Dustin Growick of Museum Hack accepted our invitation. Dustin mentioned that he had never attended a museum conference where he felt so welcome as he did with ALHFAM. That doesn’t surprise me.… Continue reading The words you can’t say in a museum
ALHFAM member Martha Katz-Hyman brought an article about marketing gift memberships during the holidays to my attention. The article from The History List gives helpful tips on how to make museum memberships attractive as gifts. It also suggests that Monday of Christmas week be branded as #MembershipMonday I like the ideas the article promotes and… Continue reading #MembershipMonday
Recent discussion on ALHFAM-L (ALHFAM's email discussion list) about living history bibliographies led to one of our members from the Netherlands sharing this: Interpretation: The International Bibliographic Database of Living History. Even though the database is supported by ALHFAM and NAI (National Association for Interpretation) and affiliated with IMTAL (International Museum Theatre Alliance), it was… Continue reading Interpretation: The International Bibliographic Database of Living History
ALHFAM 