Curating Living History:  Preserving Skills and Intangible Culture

The 2024 ALHFAM Annual Meeting and Conference  Howell Living History FarmJune 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… Continue reading Curating Living History:  Preserving Skills and Intangible Culture

Death, Racism, and Intemperance:

A Social Historian's Perspective on Living History and the Interrelation of Controversial Issues Excerpt of an article written by David Vanderstel, Conner Prairie, Noblesville, Indiana. To read the entirety of this paper, join ALHFAM to explore the A.S.K. database, full of challenging insights and ideas, past and present, for our members. Join today! For decades,… Continue reading Death, Racism, and Intemperance:

Sauder Village to Host 2023 ALHFAM Conference

Nestled in the fields of rural Northwest Ohio is Sauder Village, Ohio’s largest living history museum. Since opening in 1976, Sauder Village has grown to a 235-acre complex with more than 350 employees and 200 adult and youth volunteers. The Historic Village preserves more than 75 historic structures and over 50,000 artifacts, which allow us… Continue reading Sauder Village to Host 2023 ALHFAM Conference

Advocacy in Museums: Selecting a Powerful Object

The Rosa Parks Bus                             From the Collections of The Henry Ford  Photo by Wayne Hsieh            [Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)] In 1993 Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village (now The Henry Ford) adopted a new mission statement: “The Henry Ford provides unique educational experiences based on authentic objects, stories and lives from America’s traditions… Continue reading Advocacy in Museums: Selecting a Powerful Object

An ALHFAM President’s Message from the Past

This message, from ALHFAM’s then-president Lynne Belluscio, is revived here to remind us of the continuing challenges faced by museum professionals and how the continuing support of the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums, ALHFAM, provides a variety of professional resources along with active involvement, creative problem-solving and humor to its members. To… Continue reading An ALHFAM President’s Message from the Past

Baked on the Tree: A Flavorful Look into the Past of Southern Apples

Excerpt of an article written by Creighton Lee Calhoun, Jr., 1992, Pittsboro, NC. To read the entirety of this paper, join ALHFAM to enjoy the bountiful knowledge contained in the A.S.K. database, carefully stored information harvested and preserved for our members. Join today! “Apple Index,” North Carolina Historic SitesThe Buckingham apple is the quintessential southern… Continue reading Baked on the Tree: A Flavorful Look into the Past of Southern Apples

The Pete Watson Skills Award

Since the preservation of historic skills is central to our mission, ALHFAM created a Skills Award to recognized members who have demonstrated notable service and leadership in the preservation of historic skills, especially those who serve as mentors and role models for others in the history field. Thus, the Skills Award was born. but it needed a name. There was little debate about who it should be the first recipient and the award would be named for so the Pete Watson Skills Award was created and presented to Pete Watson at the 2022 ALHFAM Annual Meeting & Conference in Tacoma, Washington.             So why Pete Watson? As ALHFAM member Barbara Corson said, “Pete is ‘all about’ historic skills.”

From Recreating the Past to Creating the Future

By Elizabeth Rudrud The Hudson’s Bay Company Fort Nisqually, originally established in what is now Dupont, Washington in 1833, has existed as a recreated and interpreted Fort in Tacoma’s Point Defiance Park since the 1930s. Since that time, Fort Nisqually Living History Museum has grown into a premier living history museum, has been accredited by… Continue reading From Recreating the Past to Creating the Future