Unusual Manner Museum Services

09/08/2025

Gen Z never learned to read cursive.

In 2010, cursive was omitted from the new national Common Core standards for K–12 education, Drew Gilpin Faust writes. The students in Faust’s history class, most of whom had been in elementary school in the 2010s, admitted they could not read manuscripts. If they were assigned a research paper, they sought subjects that relied only on published sources. One student reshaped his senior honors thesis for this purpose; another reported that she did not pursue her interest in Virginia Woolf for an assignment that would have involved reading Woolf’s handwritten letters. Many of Faust’s students said they found their professors’ handwritten comments on their work illegible. Sometimes they would ask a teacher to decipher the notes; more often they just ignored them. During his years as Harvard president, Faust writes, she regarded the handwritten note as “a kind of superpower … They provided a way to reach out and say: I am noticing you … Now I wonder how many recipients of these messages could not read them.”

“There is a great deal of the past we are better off without, just as there is much to celebrate in the devices that have served as the vehicles of cursive’s demise. But there are dangers in cursive’s loss,” Faust writes. “Students will miss the excitement and inspiration that I have seen them experience as they interact with the physical embodiment of thoughts and ideas voiced by a person long since silenced by death. Handwriting can make the past seem almost alive in the present.”

Read the full article from 2022: https://theatln.tc/CMji2QlM

08/25/2025

A Statement from NAI

The White House’s recent efforts to pressure and influence the Smithsonian Institution and other museums of history, culture, and art pose a direct threat to the independence of cultural institutions and the integrity of the profession of interpretation.

America’s museums and interpretive sites are trusted sources of knowledge, discovery, and inspiration. The Smithsonian’s museums and research centers are globally recognized for their commitment to scholarly rigor, professional standards, and public service. These qualities allow interpreters to share the diverse perspectives that are essential to understanding the complexity of our shared story. Political interference erodes trust and undermines the very purpose of interpretation: to provoke thought, inspire care, and encourage informed engagement.

Interpretation thrives on accuracy, authenticity, and a willingness to represent all perspectives. The attempt to suppress and/or manipulate interpretive content for political purposes not only distorts historical understanding but also deprives the public of opportunities to learn from the past and apply those lessons to the present. Silencing institutions like the Smithsonian deprives the American public of its right to a complete and accurate history, replacing it with a predetermined narrative that excludes voices and sanitizes difficult stories that must be told.

The National Association for Interpretation strongly rejects any effort to compromise the autonomy of interpreters and cultural professionals. We stand with our colleagues at the Smithsonian and at interpretive sites everywhere who uphold the highest standards of professionalism in service to the public. We encourage interpreters and all who value authentic storytelling to join us in upholding independent interpretation as a cornerstone of democracy and an essential public good, and denouncing any effort to suppress it.

Parker McMullen Bushman
NAI President

Paul Caputo
NAI Executive Director

06/03/2025

So, in case anyone is interested, I’ve started a series of videos over on TikTok called “Small Acts of Revolution,” highlighting lesser known stories of individuals who contributed in what are often considered small or overlooked ways.

41 likes, 2 comments. “Working from home in 2025 today, and enjoying the beautiful weather! This is the story of Mrs. Mary Pratt, the own who armed South Carolina. If you want to learn more about Charleston and the revolution, check out sc250charleston.org.”

04/23/2025

I haven’t been able to find the specific date beyond “a few days after the events of April 19, 1775,” but the story of Prudence Cu***ng Wright is too good not to share today.

She and her husband David (and eventually 11 children!) lived in Pepperell, Massachusetts, about 30 miles northwest of Lexington. When David responded to the call for militia to move to intercept advancing troops.

Not to be left out, the women of Pepperell and earby Groton organized their own milita. Prudence was elected to lead the 30-40 women. They vowed to not let a single enemy pass through their town, and stationed themselves at Jewett’s Bridge on the Nashua River.

Wearing the breeches and coats of their husbands and sons, and carrying muskets and pitchforks. They captured a man, known as “Captain Whiting,” who was found to be carrying papers supposedly marking him as a British spy. According to a speech given by Mary L. P. Shattuck at the Pepperell DAR Reunuon in 1899, Whiting had been accompanied by one of Prudenxe’s brothers, both known Loyalists. Upon hearing his sister’s commands to halt, and knowing her politics, turned back when Whitinf advanced.

Today, a marker stands at ton the Nashua River, honoring Prudence and her “Minutewomen.”

Image: Prudence Wright, from the National Battlrfield Trust

04/22/2025

It seems that, at least for now, I’ll be commemorating by highlighting some of the women who are often overlooked for having fought with something other than bayonets and muskets.

Two days after the battles at Concord and Lexington, but well before news would reach the southern colonies, preemptive actions were taken in both Virginia and in South Carolina.

In the week preceding April 21, there had been six incidents of “unrest” by the enslaved men and women of Virginia, including an unnamed woman in Northumberland County who set fire to her enslaver’s home. When Virginia’s Governor John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, ordered the 15 half barrels in the Williamsburg magazine to be removed to the HMS Magdalen. For the white Virginians who feared a Black-led revolt, removing their ability too protect themselves was the final straw.

In Charleston, Mrs. Mary Pratt was the housekeeper of the State House, living in its ground floor. On the night of the 21st, Americans seeking supplies for their militias organized a burglary of the State House armory and two magazines located at Shipyard Creek and Hobcaw Point. The colonists made off with gunpowder, cartridges, cutlasses, flints and matches, and arms.

When Mary was questioned by the lieutenant governor about whether she had seen the theft, she responded Although she saw the arms taken away, and the persons who took them…she would not give any information tending to a discovery.”

Although her job was threatened during her questioning, she would retain her position until the British capture of Charleston in 1780; at the conclusion of the war, she was able to return to work.

These two women, whether knowingly or not, helped light the (in one case literal) flames that would spark the Revolution.

Image: My dad, circa 2008, trying his best to avoid being bayoneted during a drilling exercise at Colonial Williamsburg.

04/21/2025

What does it mean to be revolutionary?

While much of today’s anniversary is focused on the Minutemen and militias at Concord, Lexington, and Menotomy, one of the people I’ve enjoyed reading more about is Rebecca Hubbard Barrett.

Prior to April 19, 1775, she and her husband, Colonel James Barrett, hid stores and supplies for the militia in their home in Concord. They had been warned of the Regulars’ approach, and so had relocated the majority and hidden what remained.

Early on the morning of April 19, her husband assembled the growing militia and organized the defense of the North Bridge. At around 8:00 am, a unit of Regulars arrived at the Barrett home to search for the reported supplies. They likely found some combination of Rebecca, their children Stephen (26),Peter (21), and Lucy (15), and the child the family enslaved, Phillip (14), all listed as members of the household in 1775; we know at least Stephen was present, as the soldiers initially seized him thinking he was his father.

Altough the soldiers searched the property, they didn’t find the remaining supplies hidden in barrels filled with feathers or out on the grounds covered by pine boughs. After their search, the Regulars demanded that Rebecca prepare them breakfast. According to the likely exaggerated Harper’s Magazine in 1875, when the soldiers attempted to pay her, she refused saying, "we are commanded to feed our enemy" and that their coins were "the price of blood."

I can’t imagine, thankfully, the terror of having my home searched, my child nearly taken, all while knowing that my husband was out preparing to if not already fighting. Having the composure to protect your home and family then prepare a meal under such duress is, to me, a remarkable demonstration of what it means to be revolutionary.

Image: Me cooking at Missouri Town Living History Museum under much less stressful circumstances

11/25/2024

History is heartbreaking sometimes. This morning, I came across an article detailing the actions of the Kansas 12th under Col. Adams in late November 1862. They were in pursuit of Quantrill and his men following the attack on Shawneetown in Johnson County, Kansas. As they marched through Jackson County, Missouri, they were joined by approximately sixty "contraband" or Freedom Seekers.

They encountered the Missouri Militia under General Vaughn. Vaughn demanded that Adams hand over the Freedom Seekers, and when he refused, he was arrested. Lt. Col. Hayes took over command, and the same demand was made the following day. Hayes again refused. The Freedom Seekers aligned themselves with the Kansan soldiers, ready to defend themselves and their families.

Sadly, they were severely outnumbered, and they were overtaken; "the thousand men marched through our lines and took the slaves." I have not yet seen a follow-up account of what happened to those captured. Having researched enslaved families in Jackson County in the past, I wonder if any of them were among that number. I cannot imagine how terrifying it must have been to have escaped enslavement, to find soldiers who would help you, to only be recaptured.

"Arrest of Col. Adams and Lt. Col. Hayes," The Weekly Gazette (Kansas City, Kansas). December 6, 1862. Page 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/95980242.

09/12/2024

I have a love/hate relationship with this book.

07/11/2024

I’m incredibly lucky that I get to share my vocation with my kids. I got to bring my oldest along with me to interpret 1865 today, and she’s already asked if she can join me again next week.

06/26/2024

It’s time for another episode of, “What Weird 19th Century Thing is Jenna Doing Today?”

06/14/2024

One of my all-time favorite parts of museum education is when kiddos give me a picture they’ve drawn. Here is one of today’s visiting summer campers and I working at a picnic table. She even captured my new LadyDetalle earrings!

06/13/2024

I’m spending the day Tom Sawyering children into designing and pasting up circus posters as we discuss the logistics of traveling circuses in the 1860s and beyond!