Issues+and+Influences+Affecting+Interpretation_Dan

1. Staffing and Funding

Like many similar organizations, the Atlanta History has had to deal with shortages in funding and staff. Usually, interpretation at the Smith Farm is done by one (1) docent during the week. In order to increase visitor usage and connection to the site, there should be at least two (2) docents during the busiest days of the week. These two can then rotate their responsibilities, with one carrying out the tours of the Smith house while the other conducts programs outside the house, especially those pertaining to the outbuildings (see next item).

2. Use of outbuildings

In addition to the main house, the Smith Farm encompasses a number of outbuildings, including a blacksmith shop, a kitchen, a barn, and a dairy (see section Existing Interpretive Conditions and the accompanying map for more information). Currently, interpretive plans for the Smith Farm center on the main house and the kitchen. For the other buildings, interpretation is relegated to brief descriptive panels, except for certain special occasions when programs focus on these buildings’ particular functions. Ideally, the standard weekly tours of the Smith Farm should seek to include as many of these outbuildings as possible, inasmuch as they are crucial to an understanding of nineteenth-century agricultural practices.

3. Slavery

Research on the Smith family has confirmed their status as small slaveholders. Given the lack of substantive materials related to this aspect of the site, the decision was made to interpret a small cabin behind the main house as a “slave quarters.” Currently, the interpretation at the “slave quarters” centers around a series of panels. The Atlanta History Center has expressed concern that current docents have not attempted to incorporate slavery into the site’s tours and special programs, instead relying on the panels to tell the story. Future interpretation should, as far as possible, seek to incorporate the “slave quarters” into weekly tours and special programs, either as part of the main house tour or as a separate tour.

4. African-American audiences

The Atlanta History Center’s statement of vision and strategies includes the goal, “Increase audience diversity and size.” Based on statistics, African-Americans and other minorities are underrepresented in visitor demographics. Perhaps the best way to capture these visitors is to offer special programs focusing on the “slave quarters” (see item above). A variety of offerings---including first-person narratives, skits, and recreations of slave folkways---would foster a connection to the site that might not ordinarily be made through the main house.

5. Urban Atlanta versus agricultural Georgia

Over the past fifty to sixty years, the demographics of Georgia resident have changed dramatically. As of 2011, the vast majority of Georgia citizens live in urban areas. One result of this massive urbanization is a lack of understanding about agricultural practices. Because few visitors to the Atlanta History Center have ever lived on, or even visited, a working farm, the site’s docents will have to deal with the challenge of interpreting an entire way of life which may seem foreign to most. Further complicating this issue is the necessity of balancing content with thematic structures (i.e., if visitors are educated about the technical aspects of blacksmithing, yet cannot place these practices into larger contexts of folkways or manufacturing, then they are less likely to retain them).

6. Civil War Sesquicentennial

The 150th anniversary of the American Civil War will begin in April, 2011. It is expected that the Atlanta History Center will attract large crowds for its signature permanent Civil War exhibit, Turning Points, as well as its temporary Civil War exhibit, War in Our Backyards. A holistic interpretive approach to this time period should seek to connect these exhibits with the Smith Farm, as the latter represents a somewhat typical, middle-class southern home of the time period. Special programs on the Civil War home front, including the wartime issues of conscription, impressment, inflation and shortages; the changing nature of the war, particularly the rise of emancipation as a northern war goal (and the resulting challenges this posed for both slaveholders and enslaved peoples); the difficulties and dangers of living on or near a war front; and the hardships of postwar rebuilding, economic reconstruction, and social and legal adjustments, would help to make this connection. If possible, these programs should be scheduled to coincide with their historical occurrences (i.e., the 1862 Confederate Conscription Act in a 2012 program, etc).

7. Interactives and Living History

Studies of museum and historic sites have suggested that many visitors prefer to engage history through “doing”, that is, personally engaging in activities that help forge connections to the past. The Smith Farm should offer the opportunity to allow this level of participation. Wherever possible, there should be some interactive component, particularly at the site’s outbuildings. Visitors should be able to visually and physically approximate certain aspects of blacksmithing, cooking, and managing a smokehouse or chicken coop. Naturally, care should be taken that these interactive components are safe for all visitors.

At present, the Smith Farm offers several living history programs (see Existing Interpretive Conditions for more information). These should be continued, and perhaps augmented with different programs depending on audience response.

Existing Interpretive Conditions

The Smith Farm is composed of several structures (see map below). These include:

1. The Smith house (main building) 2. Barn 3. Blacksmith shop 4. Corncrib 5. Awning 6. Kitchen 7. Dairy 8. Smokehouse 9. Chicken coop 10. Cabin (“slave quarters”) 11. Privy 12. Smaller field (slave garden/herb garden) 13. Larger field

Currently, interpretation of the site centers on the Smith house, except for special programs. Interpretive programs offered on the site include the following:

Docent-led tours. These tours, offered six days a week, interpret the Smith Farm within the Smith house and the detached kitchen. The focus is generally on household objects. Though these tours are quite informative, they sometimes lack of broader context or thematic construction. It is expected that most visitors would like to know more about the Smiths themselves. Despite the lack of manuscript materials from the Smiths, it may be possible to interpret each member of the family as a “type” of person, in order to illuminate their respective roles within the household.

Interpretive panels. In lieu of more substantive interpretations, each of the outbuildings has a panel explaining its importance and functions (see figure _). With the exception of those at the “slave quarters” cabin (see figure _), the information offered on these panels is minimal. Future programs should attempt to include these outbuildings. If lack of staff prevents more comprehensive tours, then the Atlanta History Center might consider financing and/or constructing a separate, digital tour for the outbuildings, which visitors could download to their own handheld electronic devices.

Sheep-to-Shawl Program. Offered every spring, this program focuses on sheep shearing. The program also offers “blacksmithing, sweet grass basket weaving, candle dipping, wood working…open hearth cooking,” activities for children such as egg races, and musical performances that emphasize southern antebellum musical traditions. Visitors seem to enjoy the program, especially because it offers hands-on activities and a “total” immersive feel due to the location and its sensory attractions (seeing, smelling, touching and hearing).

Special programs. These thematic programs, offered at various times, include summer camps, candle-light tours, harvest programs in the fall, Christmas programs, and Civil War soldier life/living history programs.