Jay Anderson stated in his first volume
of A Living History Reader that the
use of living history, or the use of costumed interpreters employing first-person
performance for educational purposes, not only breathed life into a museum
setting but also served as, “an antidote to museum fatigue.”[1] In this instance the practice of living
history is alive and well within the historic halls of Boston’s own Old State
House Museum. Built in 1713 at the
intersection of modern-day Congress and State Street, then known as King
Street, the Old State House served not only as the center of British colonial
power in the city of Boston from 1713 to 1776, but also as the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts’s statehouse following the outbreak of the American Revolution.[2] As a result, following nearly two
centuries as a center for political and commercial functions for the city of
Boston, the Boston Antiquarian Club, reorganized into the Bostonian Society in
1881 was established in an effort to preserve the architectural and historical
integrity of the building. Following
its inception, the Bostonian Society would oversee the renovation and
conversion of the Old state House into a museum where various historical exhibits
and programs are employed by the museum to educate museum guests in the
political, colonial and early American history of Boston and the role the Old
State House had in the forming of this history.[3]
The Old State House Museum today has at
its disposal a plethora of historical artifacts, which have been used to create
both stimulating and intriguing exhibits and programs, including an exhibit
containing the inaugural suit worn by John Hancock to the Old State House where
he was sworn in as the first governor of Massachusetts in 1780.[4]
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Photo Courtesy of Lorenzo Deagle
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Yet,
in an effort to complement these exhibits the current museum staff and
interpreters also employ a series of museum tours and talks which consist of a
variety of themes including the political environment of Boston proceeding and
following the outbreak of the American Revolution. However, the use of living history and first-person
immersive techniques, where guests have encounters with a costumed docents portraying
historical figures, are utilized by the Old State House Museum through an
interactive museum program known as Revolutionary Characters Live, a seasonal program
that is currently in its fifth year of use.[5]
It was early afternoon on the day of
September 21, 2015 when guests to the Old State House Museum, were greeted in
the Council Chamber by a gentleman in full eighteenth century attire named John
Rowe, a prominent merchant and British émigré to Boston. During this encounter Mr. Rowe,
portrayed by museum docent Tim Corbett, maintained a first-person persona and
gave no indication to his audience that he was aware that it was the
twentieth-first century.[6] For Mr. Rowe the day was September 21,
1765, and he began to confide with the museum guests that his mind was great
consumed by current political, economic, and social conflicts that seemed to be
consuming the city of Boston.
While still in recovery from a long and
arduous winter which according to Mr. Rowe had frozen the Boston Harbor solid
for two weeks, he explained to the guests that the recent bankruptcies of a
prominent merchant named Nathaniel Wheelright and his promissory notes business
was having a ripple affect on the merchants and working-class members of the
community who have invested in his notes.
In addition, Mr. Rowe expressed a genuine level of apprehension
regarding the current political environment of the city, and the rising anger
of citizens against the governorship of Francis Bernard and his lieutenant
governor Thomas Hutchinson. These
political protests against the government, according to Mr. Rowe, can be traced
back to a series of taxes implemented in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which
were having an adverse affect on the printing and rum industries of Boston as
the result of a tax established on paper and molasses, two major commodities in
the city.[7]
Furthermore, according to Revolutionary
Characters Manager Daud Alzayer, the Revolutionary
Characters Live program has not only been successful as a source of
entertainment, but also as a tool for historic education. As a museum program built around the
use of living history and first-person theatrical performance Mr. Alzayer
explained that from a historical perspective living history allows, “people to
connect on a topic usually drained of emotion.”[8] Thus it is clear that in the field of
museum education the Old State House Museum is not only employing living-history
and first-person portrayals of historical figures to compliment their museums
exhibits, but also to show museums guests that the historical study and
interpretation of persons and historical events are multi-dimensional. A level of complexity, which can
often make historic information appear dry and uninteresting, a problem Mr. Alzayer explains that can be countered through the use of living
history, which allows guests to see history, “less in black and white and
really how people dealt with these situations.”[9]
[1] Jay Anderson, A Living History Reader. (Nashville: American Association for State
and Local History, 1991), 6.
[2] The
Bostonian Society and Old State House Museum, “History
of the Old State House Building,” http://www.bostonhistory.org/
(accessed September 25, 2015).
[3] Ibid., The
Bostonian Society and Old State House Museum.
[4] Ibid., “Old
State House Chronology.”
[5] Daud Alzayer, interview by Lorenzo
Deagle, Boston, MA, September 21, 2015.
[6] Tim Corbett, “Revolutionary Characters
Live: John Rowe, September 21, 1765,” (museum program, Old State House Museum.
Boston, MA, September 21, 2015).
[7] Ibid., “Revolutionary
Characters Live.”
[8] Daud Alzayer, interview by Lorenzo
Deagle, Boston, MA, September 21, 2015.
[9] Ibid.
