Authors

Great Expectations!

Jeff Harris — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:05:00 -0400

I spent most of the first week in October in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the American Association for State and Local History conference. Salt Lake City is beautiful, clean and friendly. I heard an organ recital at the Mormon Tabernacle and one night I ate at Squatter’s Brewery, a fun local joint. I had a red quinoa tabouli with a lime and ginger vinaigrette. Really good but different!

But I also attended presentations and meetings about a lot of different history topics. I learned about new ways to run meetings, what field services offices like ours are doing in different states, how to use new media technology and many other things.

One main theme that kept emerging as a kind of undercurrent in many of the presentations, speeches and hallway discussions with colleagues was that people who visit history organizations are expecting more of us. When I was growing up, my parents were history geeks. We visited more Civil War battlefields and house museums than I could count. Most of what I learned left me shortly after the trip. What remained were a few impressions, perhaps a rare fact but otherwise nothing else. Not so today.

People who visit history organizations today want to be engaged, excited, leave wondering about a subject and have a discussion with their family on the way home. What changes can we make to our exhibits, programs, newsletters and other points of public contact to excite visitors, challenge them or just make them wonder and want to learn more?

What do you think? What do you do?

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Jeff Harris is director of Local History Services. He constantly travels the state for his job, giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream of finding the perfect mashed potatoes.

Cemetery Tour!!! REALLY?

Jeff Harris — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 14:45:00 -0400

For the past two years, IHS has offered a day trip to an area historic cemetery. This last week, Jennifer Hiatt, IHS director of membership and annual giving, and I made a trip to Bedford to begin the plans for the 2013 IHS member trip we call "Grave Matters."

In 2011, we went to Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. The cemetery is gorgeous – a trend-setting cemetery for its time. The day we visited it was quite hot – more than 90 degrees. Everyone had a great time commiserating about the heat but enjoying the beauty of the site all the same.

In 2012, we visited Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville. As the name implies, the cemetery has caves and plenty of hills. It was another fascinating and beautiful historic place.

People often wonder why some of us are so intrigued by cemeteries. They are filled with history, interesting stories of people with local and national importance, beautiful landscapes and buildings and great sculptures. What more could a history lover want?

In Bedford, Jennifer and I met with local historians, tourism and museum leaders to begin to lay out the plan for the Bedford portion of the trip. Bedford and Bloomington are in the limestone area of Indiana. As a part of next year’s trip, we have a limestone expert and stone carver as speakers and other interesting things planned.

Just after our meeting with the Bedford folks, Jennifer and I had lunch at the Stone Pig, a barbeque place on the courthouse square. Great food! Jennifer and I both had a pulled pork sandwich with a side. We didn’t talk much on the way back, but we had the contented smiles on our faces that follow a good and tasty meal!

Keep June 6, 2013, open for a wonderfully informative and interesting trip.

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Jeff Harris is director of Local History Services. He constantly travels the state for his job, giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream of finding the perfect mashed potatoes.

LHS Staff - Compulsive Tinkerers or Just Nuts?

Jeff Harris — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:45:00 -0400

We tried a new workshop format this week. We had a panel of presenters talk about managing people – Dan McCain from the Wabash and Erie Canal Interpretive Center and Museum spoke about managing volunteers; Tanis Monday from the Putnam County Museum talked about managing interns; and Diane Ballard from the Monroe County History Center spoke about managing paid staff.

Each talked about their philosophy for about 15 minutes and then took questions from the audience. It was time for a snack break including Tanis’s delicious homemade coffee cake. After that the participants shared tips, techniques and habits they use in managing people. Another round of questions from the audience followed. We solicited questions in advance so some of the topics were presented anonymously including how to deal with conflict and how to break up projects into manageable chunks. The questions moved towards integrating new people into the organization and leading by example. The best piece of advice was to find people better than you and they would make you look great.

The half-day workshop wrapped up with all of us heading to the restaurant Almost Home in Greencastle. The conversations during lunch were great. The food was fabulous. The restaurant is known for their desserts – I had grasshopper pie. My end of the table also had strawberry pizza, lemon meringue pie and other choices.

I liked the casual and conversational format and it seemed so did the participants. We also know that not all topics would work in this style of presentation. What do you think? Would you like this style of presentation? What topics would you like to see in this type of format?

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Jeff Harris is director of Local History Services. He constantly travels the state for his job, giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream of finding the perfect mashed potatoes.

Field Services and Soul Food

Jeff Harris — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:30:00 -0500

The Indiana Historical Society Local History Services staff met with members of the Field Services Alliance in Indianapolis at the end of February. FSA is a network of folks from different states who serve local history groups and cultural organizations to help them do what they do better.

Like the AIM Conference, AAM conference, AASLH conference, In Your Neighborhood meetings and other get-togethers of colleagues, it was a great way to borrow ideas, talk through potential projects and get reinvigorated.

During the FSA meeting, IHS Local History Services talked about a few of the things we are doing:

The Hoosier Heritage Alliance project and the various components – especially the Collections Advisor, the new Endangered Heritage traveling exhibit that aims to help organizations raise money for collections care, and the site-specific collections care site visits.
The cemetery preservation workshops we offer in coordination with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources-Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. It is a great example of an uncommon public/non-profit partnership to train people in preserving historic cemeteries.
We also talked about a pilot project that pairs two local history groups with LHS for in-depth conversations about setting priorities. Look for more information on this project as it rolls out in a finished form.

The last part of the meeting was lunch at Maxine’s Chicken and Waffles, a great soul food restaurant in downtown Indy. I had chicken tenders with BBQ sauce, a sweet potato waffle with peach butter and mashed potatoes. I wouldn’t call it health food, but it was fabulous!

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Jeff Harris is director of Local History Services. He constantly travels the state for his job, giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream of finding the perfect mashed potatoes.

Vive la difference

Jeff Harris — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:20:00 -0500

The Local History Services Department recently went out on an afternoon of team-building to Petite Chou, a French café in the Broad Ripple neighborhood of Indianapolis. They have lots of interesting food, but we all had dessert crepes. I had banana and brown sugar; Jeannette had chocolate and berries; Tamara had caramel and apple; and Stacy had Nutella™. The crepes were all different and we each enjoyed our own.

Spending that afternoon together reinforced to me how different we all are as people. Not only did we all eat different food, we all have very different personalities and bring very different outlooks and skills to the LHS team. We are each able to do many different things, but we each our have own strengths (and weaknesses).

I’m the strategist. I think long term; lots of “what if ... ” kind of thoughts. Stacy is the tactical mind. She breaks up the path to the long distance target into small doable pieces. Jeannette is the visual and logistical thinker. She manages the county historian program, schedules most of our trips and keeps many different projects on course. Tamara is the “integrator.” She helps people with different viewpoints to come together and agree.

The fact that we are all so different has pluses and minuses. We each look at a potential issue facing the department differently. That means we sometimes disagree but we seldom overlook something important. We often suggest different approaches to challenges we face, but that means we have lots of options to choose from and we usually choose the right path.

I appreciate the various skills and experiences of my colleagues on the LHS team. While it would be easier for my mental health to have everyone think EXACTLY like I do, it wouldn’t create a strong team. The LHS team would be much weaker if we all had the same skills and outlook.

Local history groups have the same challenges fulfilling their missions as our department. It’s often easiest to work with people that are similar but it is not as effective in achieving your goals. Celebrate the differences we all bring to our organizations. Work to bring in folks that disagree or have different skills. It will make the organization stronger.
As they might say at Petite Chou café, “vive la difference.”

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Jeff Harris is director of Local History Services. He constantly travels the state for his job, giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream of finding the perfect mashed potatoes.

A Compelling Story Part II

Jeff Harris — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:10:00 -0400

Back in March, I blogged about a visit to the Indiana Deaf Heritage Museum located at the Indiana School for the Deaf. They were in the process of moving their museum and setting up a new exhibit.

We met and chatted about how they might reach their audience by developing compelling stories that would help them connect to some of the broader themes they were interested in presenting. Many students at the

: Keith Selke, Indiana Deaf Heritage archivist, at the entry to the new museum.

Indiana School for the Deaf looked at the school as a second home – a place where they were able to communicate easily and where they had friends. Many students felt isolated and had difficulty communicating with non-deaf friends and even their own families who didn’t understand sign language although many families did learn sign language.

The new museum, although small, is filled with compelling stories of students learning, growing, and figuring out their place in the world – something we all struggle to do, whether deaf or not. One area tells the story of A Girl Named Annie.

Annie Cooper came to the Indiana School for the Deaf as a child (in 1911, if I remember correctly). She wore large black-rimmed round glasses. In highlighting Annie, Indiana Deaf Heritage brought the story of the new kid at school to a very personal level. I viewed the Indiana School for the Deaf and its students through Annie’s eyes. What could have become a rather impersonal story about a building and the people that used it became a touching story about one kid leaving home and going to a boarding school with all the worries and concerns that any one of us would have.

: Jerry Cooper, Indiana Deaf Heritage president, next to A Girl Named Annie.

History museums have the power to use objects and photos to connect us to a particular story and then use that story to bring the broader picture into focus.

There is a lesson to be learned by history groups – the story is not about the building; the story is about Annie.

The Indiana Deaf Heritage Museum is in the Indiana School for the Deaf, 1200 E. 42nd St., Indianapolis, IN 46205 and open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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Jeff Harris is director of Local History Services. He constantly travels the state for his job, giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream of finding the perfect mashed potatoes.

History Folk Meets World

Jeff Harris — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:05:00 -0400

One of my favorite TV shows is Boy Meets World. (I’m an old TV show rerun nerd.) It originally ran from 1993 through 2000 and is a coming of age show about what a kid learns from the world around him.

What got me thinking about this was a comment from a recent Local History Services workshop evaluation. The attendee wrote, “The format allowed for easy conversation and questions. Lunch together was a nice touch. Humor was appreciated. It was good to hear that the same problems seem universal and are solvable.” Same message in the TV show – we all deal with similar issues and can learn from each other.

There are lots of great opportunities for local history organizations to learn from the world around us. Here are a few that come to mind:

Visit another group – tour neighboring museums and find some ideas that you can adapt to your situation. Attend programs from other groups and steal a pre-tested idea. Invite someone from another local history group out to lunch and chat about common challenges.
Attend an In Your Neighborhood meeting – the IYN meetings are a great chance to meet other local history folks from your neighborhood. If you don’t yet know your history neighbors, these meetings are a great reason to get acquainted.
Talk with someone from a different local organization about how you might partner or work together. Could you do an exhibit with a church to celebrate their centennial? What about working with the Boys and Girls Club on a joint kids program?
Attend a workshop – Local History Services offers workshops throughout the year. Most of the workshops are outside the Indianapolis metro area so there will be a workshop near you soon.
Attend a conference – the Association of Indiana Museums and the American Association for State and Local History are both holding conferences in September 2011. AIM in Richmond, Ind. and AASLH in Richmond, Va. Check out their websites for more information.

I’ll be at both Richmonds in September to meet the world. I hope to see some of you there.

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Jeff Harris is director of Local History Services. He constantly travels the state for his job, giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream of finding the perfect mashed potatoes.

A Compelling Story

Jeff Harris — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:40:58 -0400

The LHS team – Jeannette, Stacy and I – and Jeanne Scheets, IHS vice president of marketing, met this week with board members from Indiana Deaf Heritage Inc. at the Indiana School for the Deaf. The campus is in Indy on 42nd Street near my favorite soft pretzel place – A Taste of Philly.

One of the photos tells a story that really tugged at my heart. It’s a poignant image of a girl being dropped off at the school for the first time. Most of the students lived in the dorms. The first day of school and being away from family is something we can all relate to – deaf or not. The board members shared stories about Indiana School for the Deaf students growing up and being unable to communicate well with their own families and how they longed to stay in the dorms where they could converse easily.

IDH is in the process of moving the museum and refocusing exhibits in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the opening of the current Indiana School for the Deaf Alumni Hall building. (The school actually began in 1843, but the celebration will be about the centennial of the Alumni Hall building.) We talked about how exhibits can tell stories that connect to people, touching something in each of us – like the photo of the girl being dropped off by her family.

Jeanne came along to interpret, but she also shared her expertise in marketing. She has a personal connection to the school. Her parents attended the school, and she remembers the reunions and playing on the grass.

Jerry Cooper, president, shared a quote that he uses to describe the school: “It is the cradle of the deaf community.” Jeanne and the board members of Indiana Deaf Heritage all nodded in acknowledgment of that fact. The words struck a chord with all of us, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that quote prominently displayed somewhere in the new exhibits.

I think history organizations can all benefit from thinking about who their audience is and how the organization can connect to their community – however those are defined. I look forward to the reopening of the Indiana Deaf Heritage Museum and the compelling stories of belonging, achievement and the sense of home that they will share.

Jeff Harris is director of Local History Services. He constantly travels the state for his job, giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream of finding the perfect mashed potatoes.

It Figures, and My Figure, Too

Jeff Harris — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:02:20 -0500

Like many people, I’ve spent much of the first few days of the New Year looking back at 2010.

Some of the looking back has been personal – I began going to the gym in 2010. I’ve actually lost some weight and am feeling great. I still ate a Dunkin' Donut at the staff meeting this morning, though.

Most of the looking back has been to review what the Local History Services department has accomplished in our role of serving local history organizations. We had a great year!

Here are a few fun numbers. In 2010, LHS:

sponsored 27 workshops around the state for local history practitioners
sent our e-newsletter, Communique Online, to approximately 470 subscribers each week with information about exhibits, programs, resources and opportunities
delivered traveling exhibits through out the state that were viewed by 213,784 people
traveled 23,652 miles in Indiana to serve local history organizations

Phew! I’m counting on 2011 being a great year, too.

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Jeff Harris is director of Local History Services. He constantly travels the state for his job, giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream of finding the perfect mashed potatoes.

Butternut Squash Ravioli with a Side of Networking

Jeff Harris — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:09:46 -0400

I attended the Association of Indiana Museums (AIM) conference this weekend in Bloomington with the other Local History Services staff, Jeannette and Stacy.

Sunday was a networking and behind-the-scenes touring day. For lots of folks, including me, the networking and informal conversations are the most important part of a conference. That’s when you get to pick each other's brains and ask the real difficult “how” and “why” questions. I attended a networking lunch for educators, interpreters and programmers. Everyone shared some of the fun things they were doing in their organizations, and we all lamented the difficulty in getting school field trips to visit.

And for those of you who read the LHS blog for our local food info – lunch was at Gratzie, an Italian restaurant on the courthouse square. I had butternut squash ravioli with a brown sugar and pecan sauce. It was very good and tasted like dessert.

We then got a chance to visit the many museums in Bloomington. I visited the Elizabeth Sage Historic Costume collection, Mathers Museum of World Cultures and the Monroe County History Center.

The Monroe County History Center is doing a pretty cool thing with a smaller gallery space. They are inviting groups in the county to come display their own history. These kinds of exhibits are sometimes called “community curated.” One of the recent displays was put up by the local Roller Derby girls. The display included material on loan from one of the roller derby girls in the 1950s as well as from current skaters. The exhibit brought in roller derby fans – not the typical history museum visitor. Working with a broad range of partners helps local museums expand the people who come in the doors.

On the way back, we talked about some of the things Stacy and Jeannette learned from the museums they visited. Jeannette visited the Kinsey Institute. She said it was a good thing I wasn’t on that tour – I would have blushed.

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Jeff Harris is director of Local History Services. He constantly travels the state for his job, giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream of finding the perfect mashed potatoes.