Development of a new interpretive plan and educational materials for Old Sturbridge Village to mark the site’s seventy-fifth anniversary in 2021.

Old Sturbridge Village respectfully requests a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support the development of a new Interpretation and Education Plan. Old Sturbridge Village, located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, is one of the nation’s oldest living history museums and has depicted 19th century rural New England life through costumed interpreters, historic homes, curatorial exhibitions, and educational offerings to an audience of more than 21 million visitors since opening in 1946. The Village’s training and resource materials have not been comprehensively reviewed or significantly revised since the 1970s. Throughout this project the Village will work with scholars, consultants, and partnering institutions to develop a new Interpretation and Education Plan that creates impactful visitor experiences, connects with a modern audience, and better reflects the diversity of our community both past and present.

Implementation of three permanent exhibitions that explore the market-driven transformation of rural life and landscape in New England farming, 1790-1840.

OOld Sturbridge Village, a history center and outdoor museum of rural New England life, seeks support from the National Endowment for the Humanities for an implementation project, Back to Our Roots: A New Vision of Farming and Rural Life, aimed at creating a new integrated approach to the visitor’s experience and understanding of New England agriculture, rural life and rural landscape in the years of the Early Republic, 1790-1840. Three major exhibit venues will be created in buildings that are part of OSV's historical environment: Introduction to Farming at the Fenno Barn; Farmers and Markets at the Towne Barn, both on the Village Common; and a new Learning Center, housed in a museum-built service structure in the Village's Countryside area. The project will also upgrade and revise some existing exhibit signage in coordination with the new exhibit approach and create a family brochure/guide to farming and farm life.

To support endowment for three current humanities staff positions as well as construction/renovation of new and expanded exhibition and orientation facilities.

; To develop instructional material on "The World of Early New England" by using a historical and humanistic rather than narrow vocational approach to work as a subject of study. Includes preliminary preparation of resource materials; a developmental teacher workshop to refine materials and curriculum model for piloting; field and classroom piloting; formative evaluation and revision; preparation of a prototype materials kit for dissemination and diffusion; and summative evaluation and final report. Program reports will be distributed through state education agencies, OSV Teacher Center contacts, and professional publications and conferences. There will be training seminars for educators, classroom teachers, museum educators, and Old Sturbridge will be resource for study.

To support a three-year project on American history in the early national period, 1790-1840.

To develop a program interpreting changes in a New England rural community during the 1830's.

To provide orientation for over 650,000 general adult visitors to Old Sturbridge Village, the museum is seeking support for the preparation and installation of a major interpretive exhibit in a new reception and theater-gallery building to be opened in 1974.

To provide individual internship opportunities for history museum and historical society personnel training, through involvement in actual projects and programs at the museum. Funds will provide for 5 interns on a 12 month term.

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To support planning of interpretive programs that will explore how the Constitution was understood in the New England of the first two generations after the Founders.

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To support the planning of an exhibition, publication, and related programs on the emergence of mass portraiture in early 19th-century New England.

Planning for a major reinterpretation of early New England agriculture based on recent scholarship and current modes of museum presentation.

A consultation with a textile conservator and her intern to assess the condition of 450 items of historic clothing housed in hanging storage, as well as the purchase of some rehousing supplies.  The textiles, in addition to the sizeable material culture collection held by the living history museum, document the daily lives of rural, inland New Englanders from 1790 to 1840.  While current exhibits focus on the 1830s, the museum collection and library holdings encompass artifacts that further the understanding and interpretation of early 19th-century life more broadly, reaching an estimated 250,000 students, families, tourists, and scholars every year.

Old Sturbridge Village's nationally known Museum Collection encompasses approximately 60,000 objects made or used in New England between 1790 and 1840. The 6,500 object collection of textiles and clothing is the second largest subset. Objects housed in hanging storage include men's and women's outerwear and dressing gowns; women's gowns, dresses, and petticoats; and men's shirts, vests, tailcoats and jackets, and militia coats. This project will enlist the expertise of an outside consultant to perform a conservation assessment of approximately 450 historic garments and the museum's current storage inadequacies and develop a plan for targeting immediate and long-term storage rectification within the collection of hanging textiles. Recommendations for future targeted conservation efforts will be outlined and focus on garments to be displayed as part of a comprehensive exhibition on fashion and textiles scheduled to open in 2018.

Engaging preventive care specialists from the Northeast Document Conservation Center to assess climate control capabilities and provide recommendations on emergency preparedness. The collection, which documents everyday life in rural New England before the Civil War, holds approximately 50,000 items related to daily life, from clothing to furniture, household items, and agricultural tools. The research library has more than 35,000 volumes and 1,000 linear feet of manuscript material such as periodicals and the records of families, businesses, towns, and counties.

The Old Sturbridge Village Museum Collection and Research Library represent one of the single largest holding of materials documenting everyday life in rural New England prior to the Civil War. The Village’s significant collections illuminate the rich history of the fashion, ideas, technologies, and everyday lives of rural New Englanders. The scope of this project is to address collections stewardship practices within the Collections Building, Research Library, and Archives, with respect to the proper environmental standards, emergency preparedness, and mold mitigation. The primary goal of this grant is to utilize the expert knowledge preventative care specialists at the Northeast Document Conservation Center to assess our climate control capabilities, and provide recommendations to better manage the particular risks associated with our collection environments and review our emergency preparedness policies and practices, including providing mold identification and remediation training.

To support a study of the economic life of country towns in Worcester County, Massachusetts, between 1790 and 1850, that will focus on the rural economy, economic exchange, and social change during this period of rapid development.