by Bonnie Hurd Smith
The lives of the women who came before us can be frustratingly difficult to understand. Only a privileged few were able to write letters, keep diaries, or be memorialized in biographies. Students of women's history have always had to look for documentation in other kinds of places, and historic house museums are one such resource. We can walk through the rooms where women ate, slept, prayed, gave birth, raised children, read, wrote, discussed issues of their day, and planned action. We see the tools they handled, the gardens they maintained, the proximity of their home to neighbors, the town center, or their outside work. As Jane C. Nylander wrote in a recent article for the Society for the Preservation of new England Antiquities, "in our buildings, landscapes, and furnishings, we see the particulars that define the actual texture of people's existence. Places and objects can also tell us about more intangible issues, like beliefs and aspirations or economic and societal change."1
The material culture that still exists in the form of historic house museums can make the lives of women compellingly real and accessible. But in today's museums, how often are women's stories told? In what way? Who decides?
As a movement, the idea of historic house museums really began in the middle of the 19th century with the establishment of Mount Vernon as a museum -- "an innovation" on the cultural landscape, according to Patricia West.2 While there were precedents set both in America and Europe such as the Sanitary Fairs that displayed romanticized versions of colonial kitchens, West explains, the patriotic fervor behind saving Mount Vernon defined the industry. The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association considered it essential to preserve the home of America's first president and they inspired similar efforts to save the homes of other great (white, male) political and literary figures. These houses were preserved as "shrines," writes West. What was told about their inhabitants was purposefully designed to include only certain information. 3 The lives of women were of peripheral importance at best, along with those of servants and slaves.
Oftentimes, the homes of prominent men were maintained by their descendants -- usually well-off, culturally engaged people whose desire to honor their ancestors led to the preservation of many of the historic homes we enjoy today. These "family boards" also determined what was said about their ancestors, how, and to whom. Needless to say, the information disseminated by caretakers of these houses could be highly subjective and incomplete.
A second motivation behind establishing historic house museums came to a head in the late 19th century as the number of immigrants to America increased dramatically. Patricia West wrote that "the use of history to Americanize immigrants was a frequent justification for historic preservation." 4 When the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) was founded in 1890, for example, they actively set about acquiring historic properties specifically "to carry the gospel of Americanism to every American home" and to "safeguard the land against the ravages of ignorance and sedition." 5 The DAR, and other like-minded groups and individuals, wanted to preserve upper class, white American heritage by using house museums as living testimonials.
When the Colonial Revival Movement came along in the early 1900s, historic house museums were a perfect vehicle to enshrine an idealized remembrance of the past -- including women's "domestic sphere," or the home- and family-centered activities in which women were expected to engage exclusively. Not surprisingly, what fueled this portrayal of women were the pivotal social and political changes affecting them at the time. The woman suffrage movement had grown in size and power, for example, seeing its ultimate victory in 1920 when women achieved the right to vote. Women's educational opportunities had been improving steadily, including at the college level. Women were working outside the home in growing numbers, and the kinds of work open to them was expanding. They were politically and economically active.
Yet, historic house museums that celebrated the colonial or Victorian past remained -- purposely -- isolated from the changing landscape. Many of their original founders were conservative women who saw their work as an extension of their domestic duties. As a group, they were not suffragists, social reformers, labor organizers, or even historians. The houses they maintained were seen by their surrounding communities as "private clubs that focus[ed] on the 'good old days'" as they defined them. 6 Their actions were, however, highly political. Patricia West points out that even in one of the rare instances when a woman's home was preserved specifically because of its principal occupant (Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott's home in Concord, Massachusetts), Alcott's politics were left out of the interpretive tour. Instead, domestic life at Orchard House was described in romanticized fictional terms to echo what Alcott had detailed in Little Women. Her ideas on suffrage, antislavery, and women's work were ignored. Orchard House became part of James Loewen's' "landscape of denial." 7
Of course, these early historic house museums were established well before the museum industry became as professionalized as it is today. From the mid-1900s, we have seen a steady growth of interest in museums and their management, the rise of salaried positions and professional degree programs, the development of procedures and standards, and high expectations of excellence in museums -- including their interpretation.
Scholarship in the area of "untold stories" has developed simultaneously. Information about those whose lives were not documented in traditional methods is much more available. Historians have uncovered and published voluminous records on the lives of women, African Americans, Native Americans, and early immigrants. The methods they use are widely known and taught. Today, we are much more knowledgeable about the dimensions of American history. We are interested in cultures other than our own because we understand our interrelationships. We expect the stories told about historic events and sites to be complete and honest -- and we expect them to include women.
We are also much more attuned to the concept of public trust. The statues and memorials in the nation's capital that honor our early leaders, for example, belong to everyone. The monuments we have erected to commemorate important battles, the historic markers that designate significant sites -- they belong to all of us. So, too, in the same sense, do the homes of the women and men who helped shape America. Public tax dollars pay to maintain historic sites either directly through the National Park Service, cultural or humanities councils, or indirectly through the tax exempt status conferred on nonprofit historic house museums. The public has a right to expect a fair treatment of American history in these places.
Where do historic house museums fit into the present-day museum industry and new historical scholarship? Inevitably, each one needs to be considered on an individual basis. In many cases, historic house museums are in the hands of highly-regarded professionals like the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) or the National Park Service. Some are still privately owned by historical societies that may or may not be adequately funded and staffed by professionals, and which may or may not embrace contemporary museum standards or be open to new ideas. Others remain in the hands of family boards that generally shun their responsibility to the public trust. These boards are usually resistant to change and stay purposely isolated from the professional museum industry.
In the end, whether or not women's lives are included in the interpretation of a house museum is determined by who is in charge -- by who decides. Museum industry professionals are far more likely to "do the right thing" by the sites under their care because decision-making is the province of those who can be more objective. Today, when museum and education professionals begin the process of reinterpreting traditional historic house museums to include the stories of all the inhabitants, they naturally weave women’s history into their tours, programs, and events. Furthermore, professionals are more likely to understand that "women's history" does not merely involve discussing cooking methods and recreating hearth scenes. Integrating women's lives into the social history of a historic site means including women as full participants.
Longfellow National Historic Site
Built in 1759, the handsome Georgian mansion located near Cambridge's Harvard Square has long been associated with poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. There, in the study that still contains his desk and books, Longfellow composed works that are beloved and oft-quoted mainstays of American literature. Years earlier, from 1775-76, the house served as headquarters for George Washington when he first took command of the Continental Army. Washington lived there for almost two years. We know where he slept and in which room he planned his early military strategy. Since members of the Longfellow family opened the house to the public in 1913, the stories of these two illustrious men have dominated the house tour.
By 1972, the Longfellow House Trust could no longer maintain the eighteenth-century mansion themselves and decided to donate the house and collection to the National Park Service. The Park Service, in turn, kept what became the Longfellow National Historic Site (NHS) open to the public and its operation continued much as it had been. It was not until the early 1990s, under the site's current leadership, that the interpretation of the house was scrutinized for accuracy, appropriateness, and inclusiveness. Supported by a professional staff with expertise in archives and collections management, research, new scholarship in American history, and current methods of interpretation and training, the site's interpretive tour was about to change significantly to incorporate the experiences of the women who lived there.
Where would they begin? Longfellow NHS staff was not interested in conveying information unless it was grounded in fact, and in 1991 they began an intensive effort to catalog their archives and collection. One of the unusual aspects of Longfellow NHS is the extensive primary source documentation that informs the collection and reveals details of the residents' lives. As a result, the house's interpretation has a stronger connection to the collection than what exists in most other house museums. Not only are there letters and diaries but the collection includes sales receipts for items of furniture, old photographs of interiors, mementos, building and garden plans. The cataloging will take many years to complete, but already the process has brought to light important details about its lesser-known female residents. The process helps "fill in the gaps about daily life," the site's curator recently explained. 8
Longfellow NHS staff did, already, know about several of the women who lived at Longfellow House. Discussing them more was an easy way to change the interpretive tour. Rather than give the "architecture tour" or the "object tour," as the site's education manager pointed out, the focus is now on the "people tour." 9 For example, Martha Washington joined her husband in 1775 and there are stories (from primary sources) about her arrival in Cambridge, the enthusiastic response of the community, and what her much-needed presence meant to her husband. Elizabeth Craigie, wife of the third owner of the house, created some of the first greenhouses in Cambridge and rented rooms to support herself after she was widowed. Fanny Appleton Longfellow (Henry's wife) inspired but also edited much of her husband's work. She made their home a welcoming destination for artists and writers from throughout the world -- many of whom documented their visits in letters housed in the collection.
The Longfellows' oldest daughter, Alice, now takes a prominent place in the Longfellow NHS tour. Alice Mary Longfellow (1850-1928) dedicated her life to historic preservation and was actively involved with the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, serving as Vice Regent from 1880 until her death. At Mount Vernon, Alice Longfellow helped restore George Washington's library and acquired numerous articles to help create appropriate period rooms. Back home in Cambridge she worked with other family members to maintain the historic integrity of her parents' home and gardens, viewing Longfellow House as a source of education and inspiration for the public. Education was Longfellow's second love, and she was a founder of Radcliffe College, a private women's college in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Alice Longfellow is singularly responsible for the fact that Longfellow House, its collection and archives, are so well-preserved.
Including the contributions of Alice Longfellow and the other women residents has already transformed the visitor experience at Longfellow NHS into one that is multidimensional and grounded in fact. The commitment of the site's leadership to reinvent the house tour has also created an internal culture that encourages research, new ideas, and welcomes outside scholarship. Staff members are regularly engaged in projects of their own interest that support the house's interpretation. One person, for example, is attempting to document African American poet Phillis Wheatley's visit to George Washington in 1776. In a letter of that year, Washington invited Wheatley to his headquarters after he received her poem, To His Excellency George Washington. Unreliable secondary sources report that Wheatley accepted his invitation, but primary source verification remains elusive.
Documentation efforts continue on other fronts as well. Along with the ongoing cataloging process, Longfellow NHS is working on a historic furnishings plan that will list the provenance of each piece, its location(s) in the house, and any supporting material that exists. From this plan, staff can suggest and justify appropriate interpretation of each object. The plan will also restore some of the "clutter," as the curator described it, that was "edited out" by later family members who thought some pieces were of lesser quality or a source of embarrassment. 10 It is these very objects that inform us of daily life in times past, and the furnishings plan will help tell a more complete story
Details revealed from all of this research are regularly disseminated to the staff. Tour guides teach visitors about the main themes of the house (its history, architecture, and key figures) but now they incorporate new information of their choosing. The result is effective: guides are engaged, enthusiastic, and bring to life the centuries-old building; visitors are treated to a slightly different way of interpreting the house each time they go through.
What is also conveyed -- onsite and through outreach efforts -- is that Longfellow NHS staff is committed to expanding their base of knowledge and sharing their findings with the public. They serve as a resource for researchers and as a disseminator of information to the outside through programs, collaborations, and their new web site. They understand their place within the context of the various communities to which they belong. However and wherever they connect, the story of Longfellow NHS includes women and in this way they provide important leadership within the museum industry.
The House of the Seven Gables
Over 150,000 people visit "The Gables" in Salem, Massachusetts, each year -- most of them lured by Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous story, The House of the Seven Gables (1851), and the public's enduring fascination with the Salem witch trials. They might also be drawn to Salem's maritime history, curious about the lives of sea captains and merchants who lived in The Gables during Salem's days as New England's most successful port. Visitors do not be expect to find women's history in this place, but it is there nonetheless.
Built in 1668, the House of the Seven Gables passed through generations of Turners and Ingersolls until by the turn of the 20th century the building was in severe disrepair. At the same time, a young woman philanthropist, Caroline Emmerton (1866-1942), had recently founded a settlement house directly across from The Gables and named it for the famous historic house. Needing a steady source of income for her project, Emmerton combined her innovative business sense with her love of historic preservation. In 1908, she purchased the House of the Seven Gables, restored it, and opened it to the public as a museum. Tourist admissions helped pay for programs at the settlement house.
During the following years, Emmerton bought two more early historic properties in Salem, also in need of restoration, and moved them to The Gables property. She opened a shop, and the public came in record numbers. Emmerton then turned her attention to founding the Salem Fraternity (which became the local Boys' and Girls' Club), but throughout her long life she maintained a hands-on presence at The Gables and watched carefully over its financial health. The museum's interpretation revolved around Salem's maritime history and the city's favorite son, Nathaniel Hawthorne, as we might expect. Still, as a woman with a keen interest in social history, a self-taught preservationist, and early member of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, "Miss Emmerton" was an unusual museum founder.
After Caroline Emmerton's death in 1942, the focus of The Gables as an organization remained as it had been: on the work of the settlement house. The museum did well on its own, benefiting from Salem's thriving cultural tourism industry. It was not until very recently, in the early 1990s, that The Gables board realized that the museum side of the organization was falling behind industry standards. They committed funds to hire professional museum staff, and the process of reinterpreting the House of the Seven Gables began.
The staff started with what they already knew -- who lived in the house. They were particularly interested in those who were not included in the decades-old tour: women, servants, and slaves. As museum professionals and researchers, they were well aware of the public's desire to know "other" stories and they began to dig for accurate information. The Gables did not have the kind of onsite archives housed at Longfellow National Historic Site, but staff did have ready access to the Essex Institute (now the Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum) just blocks away. The most documented county in the nation, Essex County records were at their disposal at this library, and Gables researchers (some staff, some volunteer) began to piece together new information about the house and its residents. "Verbal legend" was done away with; the tours would now rely on documented facts.
If you visit The Gables today, you will learn about Susannah Ingersoll (ca. 1783-1858) who is thought to be the inspiration for many of the stories her young cousin, Nathaniel Hawthorne, would go on to write. Hawthorne was a regular visitor to The Gables as a young boy and Susannah Ingersoll entertained him for hours with anecdotes about the house, their family, and Salem history. Ingersoll also ran a successful farm in Danvers, which was unusual for a woman, and derived a substantial income from the sales at market in which she actively participated. She never married, but in 1810 Susannah Ingersoll adopted an infant boy she named Horrace. Among its unique resources, the Phillips Library houses letters exchanged between mother and son that reveal important details about Ingersoll -- information that is now part of the interpretive tour.
Deeply concerned about social issues, Susannah Ingersoll supported anti-slavery and local efforts to abolish that institution. It is possible that she used The Gables as a stop on the Underground Railroad. When the house was remodeled in the late 1800s, a hidden staircase was discovered and a book inscribed "Cuffee, his book" (a common slave name) was found. The staircase leads from the first floor to a small bed chamber, and it is possible that "Cuffee" was an escaped slave whom Susannah Ingersoll helped on his way north. This is one of several theories about the hidden staircase; to date, no one knows for certain how it was used. In any event, Ingersoll died just before the Civil War and never lived to see slavery outlawed in America. Today, the House of the Seven Gables displays a copy of Susannah Ingersoll's lovely portrait as well as a needlework sampler, table, and bureau that belonged to her -- material artifacts that make her life more accessible.
Visitors to The Gables will also learn about Mary Turner Sargent (1743-1813) who was born at The Gables and presumably grew up there. She was the wife of a prominent merchant, Daniel Sargent, who helped build Long Wharf in Boston, and the mother of renowned artist Henry Sargent and author Lucius Manlius Sargent. She was an intimate correspondent with her niece, eighteenth-century author Judith Sargent Murray, and took a keen interest in Murray's public calls for women's rights. The museum owns a copy of Mary Turner Sargent's portrait by John Singleton Copley but little is known about the details of her life, thoughts, and activities. Perhaps some of the most valuable lessons visitors learn, then, is why women did not leave behind personal records, why (if they did) their property was not saved, how researchers need to use nontraditional methods to reveal women's lives, and that even well-known museums like The Gables are still learning.
Similarly, the museum is piecing together the lives of the various "servants" (one indentured) who lived at The Gables, some of whom may have been slaves. It is still unclear who they were, and even where in the house they lived. What is apparent, however, is The Gables' determination to uncover these untold stories and continue the process of reinterpretation. Staff members are encouraged to pursue their own interests as they relate to the house and conduct research as time and funding will allow. Research from outside scholars is welcomed. Tour guide training includes regular updates on new "finds." "We keep raising the standards," the museum director recently explained. "As an organization, we have to be as accurate as we can be." 11
The museum also conducts regular visitor surveys. One consistent finding is the public's interest in "all of the people in the house" -- including women and servants. This was not news to museum staff, but confirmation in their balanced approach was heartening for them to hear. "If a museum is sitting within a community, it needs to listen to that community. You need to listen to who's coming in," the museum director emphasized. 12 Museum tours is just one way to satisfy the public's interest in its residents, of course, and the museum runs programs, collaborates with other local organizations, and is open to new ways of reaching new audiences.
The current professional structure of The Gables museum lends itself well to efficiency and change. Six guide supervisors (specialists in collections, costumes, research, education, scheduling, and training) report to the Museum Director. The supervisors oversee staff and volunteers in these six areas. The supervisors meet regularly to share discoveries in their specialized areas, and pass this information along to their staff. For example, the research supervisor who found the letters from Susannah Ingersoll to her son could immediately communicate her findings to the training supervisor and, subsequently, to the tour guides. When information is revealed about Mary Turner Sargent, it will be shared with the collections supervisor who can then determine appropriate ways to interpret her portrait.
Today's House of the Seven Gables is a far different visitor experience thanks to its current leadership. Like Longfellow NHS, The Gables can look forward to many more years of discovery about the house, its collection, and residents. Meanwhile, the lives of the women who lived there are an integral part of The Gables story and the house can serve as a model to others.
IT CAN BE DONE
For some historic house museums, reinterpretation will involve a whole new way of thinking -- as interpreters, not as antiquarians. While our understanding of history has changed, its presentation has not always kept up. But the resources and methodology needed to assist with reinterpretation are readily available. Success stories are growing in number. Professional house museum industry organizations like Bay State Historical League in Massachusetts have expertise to share. Change will require resources -- staff research time, tour guide training, perhaps an updated publication. Each site will have its own solution depending on funding limitations, but reinterpretation can be accomplished. It will help refute the "lies of omission." 13
Once the commitment to reinterpret has been made, sites can start with what they already know. The important men who lived in historic house museums had wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, or servants. We know, for example, that Abigail Adams had an profound impact on her husband, John Adams, even during their lengthy separations. The Adams National Historic Site in Quincy has worked hard to interpret the house as Abigail's home too -- what her life was like as a fiercely patriotic wife, mother, correspondent, farmer, and business manager. Much of her life is documented in letters, but it was not until current leadership made the decision to include the Adams women more fully that the tour took on a new dimension.
Many historic homes still house artifacts belonging to its occupants -- portraits, furnishings, personal articles, books, and more. The most effective interpretive tour is one that weaves together ideas with the material culture available. The Sargent-Murray-Gilman-Hough House in Gloucester, Massachusetts, for example, owns books that belonged to Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820): a volume of moral lessons that was her favorite reading as a young girl, her well-used personal dictionary , and Murray's three-volume, self-published work, The Gleaner, which was a minor classic in its day and a landmark contribution to the progress of women. These material items promote important discussion on Murray's values, philosophy, activism, and writing during the museum's interpretive tour.
It is important to document the ownership of artifacts and not perpetuate "verbal legend." Longfellow NHS has an unusual number of personal papers that specify what objects belonged to Alice Longfellow, for example, but -- as a preservationist herself -- she was an exception. Still, many house museums contain family papers or governing documents that can reveal details about women residents. Recently, the Sargent-Murray-Gilman-Hough House turned to board meeting minutes from its founding days in the early 1900s to help catalog its collection. The minutes recorded donations of items and their "provenance," or history of ownership. Through this process, they were able to determine which objects belonged to whom and discovered many inaccuracies passed down through generations of the governing families.
Dozens of artists and poets visited Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's home and left behind letters describing Fanny Appleton Longfellow's hospitality. Judith Sargent Murray's recently-discovered letter books contain copies of letters that describe her visits with Abigail and John Adams and her relationship with Martha and George Washington who subscribed to her volume of political essays. The letters from Murray's 1786 trip to Portsmouth, NH and the home of Elizabeth Langdon (her home, Langdon House, is now owned by SPNEA) include extensive details about her hostess's home and gardens, furnishings, guests, and the entertainment she provided. These kinds of first-hand accounts add color and accuracy to the tours given in historic homes.
Other kinds of primary source material can be helpful. Genealogies are fruitful sources of domestic information about women, and many of them are annotated with first-hand accounts of an individual's character and interests. Papers of prominent families can still be traced by perusing probate records. Wills, themselves, reveal important details about a woman's life as they usually list possessions, financial arrangements, and benefactors. Old newspapers can offer clues if a woman was part of a news-worthy event, hosted an open house, or had her obituary published. A recent project at the Memorial Libraries in Deerfield, Massachusetts involved funding a scholar to re-categorize their primary source documents based on what made sense for women's history. The key is to become a good detective -- and befriend local librarians and archivists whose expertise and assistance will be invaluable. An added benefit is that this kind of all-out detective work provides opportunities to involve local libraries, schools, historical societies, and residents and engage them in rethinking "their" community historic site.
If details specific to the women being researched are few or vague, there is a wealth of secondary resources from which general information can be extracted and applied to interpretive tours. Jane C. Nylander's Our Own Snug Fireside which documents, in exquisite detail, domestic life in 1760-1860 New England is a good example. Her forthcoming Windows on the Past is another. In this book, Nylander traces the evolution of daily life in New England over four centuries using historic house museums owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities to illustrate her points. Her findings can be used at house museums to discuss, in general terms, what women's lives were like and help fill gaps in the tour left by unattainable primary source information.
Local histories, especially old ones, can offer insight into daily life. Histories of African Americans in a particular town, or works on the arrival and treatment of different immigrant groups, can shed light on the experiences of less documented residents. Gibson House in Boston, for example, discusses the Irish and French Canadian servants who worked for the Gibson family during the late 19th century. Quite a bit of information on the experiences of these immigrant groups in Boston is available, along with local histories from the time period. Whether or not they can detail the actual lives of the actual residents, Gibson House can legitimately extrapolate information from these secondary sources and apply it to their tour. "Downstairs," as a result, is just as interesting and important as "upstairs."
Women's lives can easily be included in historic house museum interpretation. Sites like Longfellow NHS and the House of the Seven Gables have both set a precedent that can be followed. Resources and information are available. It takes commitment and work, and ultimately depends on who makes the decisions. If leadership is professional, understands its stewardship in terms of the public trust, is willing to embrace current scholarship, museum industry knowledge and practices, then the lives of women, minorities, and different classes, are more likely to be included. Historic houses are wonderful educational tools. They are part of our material culture, connecting us with our past in a uniquely accessible way. Women were part of the story each one should be telling.
NOTES
1 Nylander, Jane C. "A View from Our Windows," newsletter of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Boston, 1999.
2 West Patricia. Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America's House Museums (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1999), 1.
3 Ibid., 2.
4 Ibid., 44.
5 Ibid., 44.
6 Robinson, Cynthia and Storin, Gretchen S. Going Public: Community Program and Project Ideas for Historical Organizations (Waltham: Bay State Historical League, 1999), p. 2.
7 Foner, Eric. "Our Monumental Mistakes," review of Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong by Loewen, James W. (America On Line, 1999).
8 Hodson, Janice, interviewed November 5, 1999.
9 Fellner, Kelly, interviewed November 5, 1999.
10 Hodson, Janice, interviewed November 5, 1999.
11 Olson, David, interviewed August 19, 1999.
12 Olson, David, interviewed August 19, 1999.
13 Foner, Eric. "Our Monumental Mistakes." (America On Line, 1999)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to the following individuals for generously sharing
with me their experience in interpreting women's lives in historical
settings: Irene Axelrod, The House of the Seven Gables (Salem,
Mass.); Kelly Fellner, Longfellow National Historic Site (Cambridge,
Mass.); Janice Hodson, Longfellow National Historic Site (Cambridge,
Mass.); Caroline Keineth, Adams National Historic Site (Quincy,
Mass.); David Olson, The House of the Seven Gables (Salem, Mass.);
Cynthia Robinson, Bay State Historical League (Waltham, Mass.); James
Shea, Longfellow National Historic Site (Cambridge, Mass.); and to
Will La Moy (Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.)
for additional assistance.
SOURCES
Butcher-Younghans, Sherry. Historic House Museums (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
Loewen, James W. Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong (New YorK: The New Press, 1999).
Miller, Marla R. "Reclaiming the Past: Finding Women's History in Manuscript Collections," from Commonwealth, newsletter of the Bay State Historical League (Waltham: Bay State Historical League, 1999).
Robinson, Cynthia and Storin, Gretchen S. Going Public: Community Program and Project Ideas for Historical Organizations (Waltham: Bay State Historical League, 1999).
West Patricia. Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America's House Museums (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1999).
Whitehill, Walter Muir. Independent Historical Societies: An enquiry into their research and publication functions and their financial future (Boston: The Boston Athenöum, 1962).
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Kaufman, Polly, Smith, Bonnie Hurd, Smoyer, Mary, and Wilson, Susan, Boston Women's Heritage Trail Guidebook (Gloucester: Curious Traveller Press, 1999).
Nylander, Jane C. Our Own Snug Fireside (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994).
Nylander, Jane C. Windows on the Past: Four Centuries of New England Homes (Boston: Bulfinch Press, 1999).
West Patricia. Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America's House Museums. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1999).
Wilson, Susan. Boston Sites and Insights: A Multicultural Guide to Fifty Historic Landmarks In and Around Boston (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994).