The following recommendations are based on discussion amongst and comments
from Stenton staff, volunteers and consultants. They reflect current
thinking about the new interpretive focus for Stenton and how that focus
can be propelled forward. These include specific recommendations for
the arrangement of Stenton exhibit rooms in the short, medium and long
terms as well as suggestions for additional research that will provide
the fullest possible interpretation and underpin the main themes outlined
in this document.
Recommendations for
TOPICS FOR ADDITIONAL RESEARCH
FOR EXHIBIT SPACES
These recommendations relate directly to room furnishings in the mansion
and other exhibit spaces. Short-term recommendations are those that
can be made with a minimum of effort, are easily reversible, and are
in keeping with the direction of the new interpretation. Medium and
long term recommendations require further consideration or considerable
effort and decisions related to those recommendations will be informed
by additional research and the Furnishings Plan to be undertaken in
future.
1. Short Term:
- Display wampum belt
- Put Indian redware bowl on exhibit in office
- Change tour route to go directly into Yellow Lodging Room. Finish
2nd floor with White Lodging Room. - Move shell work shadowbox to Parlour to illustrate genteel female
crafts and polite landscape - Furnish Parlour cupboard with silver
- Remove spinning wheel from Small Adjoining Room
- Move Sarah Logan portrait to Nursery
- Move Yellow Lodging Room bed into corner
2. Medium Term:
- Undertake a Furnishings Plan for Mansion and Kitchen
- Create a Deborah Logan writing vignette in the Blue Lodging Room
using documents, diaries, and ledgers - Display more copies of Logan letters to represent James Logan’s
voluminous use of expensive paper for his time. - Interpret Adjoining Room as a servant’s room
- Obtain color reproduction of the Hannah Logan Account book for the
Nursery - Acquire more books and display them on bookcase (consult conservator
on weight issues) and throughout the house - Create a bathing room in space next to Yellow Lodging Room
- Acquire man’s shaving supplies, hair grooming accessories
- Emphasize the use of pewter in the Dining Room, including possibly
replacing china with pewter - Move rectangular tea table to Dining Room as pier table under a
looking glass - Move Queen Anne chairs to Parlour
- Move crutches to First Floor Lodging Room
- Arrange a formal and accurate tea service display in Parlour
- Focus Yellow Lodging Room interpretation on the James Logan period
by, e.g. relocating chest on chest
3. Long Term:
- Acquire appropriate maps and prints
- Purchase Native American related reproductions for display in Office
- Explore loan of PMA maple chairs and PMA/Loudoun chairs
- Investigate Logan tea service loan from PMA
- Investigate loans of Logan objects from HSP/Atwater Kent
- Assess the feasibility of incorporating the basement into tour
TOPICS FOR ADDITIONAL RESEARCH
Although there is always more research to be done related to historic
house museums, several distinct research projects were suggested as
part of the interpretive planning process. Each would be designed to
support the revised interpretation and to contribute to the overall
story of the site.
- The Stenton Plantation: Slaves and Servants
Additional research into the indentured and hired servants and enslaved
Africans who worked the Stenton plantation is central to further development
of the site interpretation. This will include research into the Logan
Papers and other sources to develop more information about the complex
web of relationships at Stenton and those who peopled the Plantation.
Our context for discussions of slavery and servitude will also be broadened
to encompass the most up to date scholarship. Finally, the story of
the servants will be extended from the kitchen into the mansion itself:
not that they should not appear there, but that they should leave some
trace everywhere else as well. - Stenton Census Study
Create a census of who was living in the house at particular junctures,
with ages, family relationships, etc. as known. It was evident as part
of the planning process that it was not always known what child was
living in the house at given moments in time or just how many servants
might be living in the house. A census would be a great help in "peopling"
the house and figuring out to a certain extent how the house operated.
The census could be for some general decades, or at the time of the
wills; a couple of eras would provide a sense of any changes in how
the house functioned. - The Dinah story
Related to the issues of slaves and servants who lived on the Stenton
plantation, Dinah is an important figure who requires definition. The
Dinah story has become an integral part of Stenton’s interpretation,
and is of great interest to the African-American schoolchildren who
are a large part of the audience. From the standpoint of social history,
however, there is a much more fascinating story to be told about Quakers,
slaves, and Dinah’s family than simply the legend of how she saved Stenton
from the British in 1777. This is a story with a masculine component,
dealing with Dinah’s sickly husband and his attempts to find someone
to buy him so that he could stay near his family, and the grandson who
was free while his mother and grandmother remained slaves. The fact
that Dinah was trusted enough to be left in sole charge of such a valuable
property needs no embellishment of a tricky exchange with British soldiers.
The present story can continue to be presented as a wonderful myth handed
down and enlarged over time, although it is interesting for a more sophisticated
audience to ponder why this story developed, particularly in the face
of the ostensibly unQuakerly attitude toward slavery it projects. - James Logan and Native Americans
Review the published and manuscript minutes of councils and treaties
in which Logan participated during his public career, compiling a list
of objects exchanged in those meetings. This will suggest objects that
might be replicated to represent the sort of diplomatic gifts known
to have been kept (if only briefly) in the houses of provincial officials
in British North America. In addition, survey the Logan papers, particularly
correspondence and account books, during the periods in which Native
American delegations are known to have stopped at Stenton. This may
reveal hitherto unrecognized details about the experience of Native
visits to Stenton. - The Architecture of Stenton: Public and Private Use of Space
It is important to continue to explore how Stenton functioned as both
a private and very public house. Research should continue comparing
Stenton to other similar houses, especially in how space was used. The
flow of occupants through spaces might be better defined. For example,
why was there a nursery at Stenton if in actuality the children slept
on the third floor? Or, how was the grand second floor room used situationally
as two bedchambers but also for important entertaining? - Logan’s Library and 18th-Century Ideas
Assess Logan’s books, as per the published description, to relate what
he actually owned to the kinds of transatlantic concerns that were found
in his own writings. What, for example, did he actually own in moral
philosophy, on which he was still writing in his later years? How up-to-date
was Logan on transatlantic discussions? Developing a better awareness
of Logan’s intellectual interests will help to link his reading and
learning to wider Enlightenment thinking. - Action Statements File
Work should begin on compiling an action statements file, which would
include important primary source quotations from letters, diaries, etc.
that provide information about the Logan family and life at Stenton.
These sources can be made available to offer flavor on tours, or might
serve as the subject of the creation of specific vignettes -
Guide Manuals and Guide Training Program
Stenton should develop a new Guides’ Manual. It should reflect interpretive
goals, eliminate extraneous information (if interesting in marginal
way this material can still be made available at the site as "enrichment"),
include stronger research than is currently apparent, and offer specific
advice about guiding strategies and techniques. This manual should
be part of a strong, energetic and well-designed guide training program
that will help Stenton achieve excellent front-line presentation of
the house to the public. -
Furnishings Plan
A Furnishings Plan is needed to complement the interpretive choices
made for the house and kitchen. This may require attention to moving
objects (as already suggested in the memo that preceded our meeting),
acquiring objects (most likely reproductions that can propel interpretation
and offer some hands-on learning), and possibly deaccessioning objects
which have no Logan provenance and do not contribute to the interpretive
goals, either for short or long-term (this must be done very cautiously,
but still must be considered as part of the range of possibilities).
Close work in the inventories and various Logan papers will contribute
to the Furnishings Plan. -
Landscape Interpretation
The interpretation of the landscape is a significant issue that requires
further exploration. In time, Stenton may want to consider developing
a landscape interpretation that could be done by a self-guided walking
tour map of the site and/or landscape interpretive signage. In the
meantime, the problem of interpreting the "absent" and ephemeral
landscape at Stenton increasingly weighs toward the idea of using
visual surrogates, and has the advantage of being both (relatively)
easy and inexpensive. Reproductions of historic images can offer some
of the missing context. Specific areas of the site and/or themes where
landscape images might be used: -
Entry Hall
-
An image that gives a good visual sense of the
original size of the Stenton property overlaid on a current
map, but including key streets is crucial. -
A reproduction of the original Norris house,
Fairhill (rather than the Colonial Revival print) as a comparison
for the Stenton façade and landscape.
-
-
Colonial Revival Garden
-
State of the property at the end of the nineteenth
century, showing dilapidation -
Creation of the Colonial Revival Garden
-
The preservation of Stenton by The NSCDA/PA
-
-
Barn:
-
Views of the property showing agriculture and
agricultural buildings
-
-
Greenhouse – Stenton in the nineteenth century:
-
Stereopticon views and individual prints that
show: hemlock allée, family graveyard, house in context,
Wingohocking Creek, flower garden on southeast side of the house,
rear of house in good repair, etc.
-
-
Sample Tour
The Staff will need to develop a sample tour that focuses on the interpretive
themes. This should delineate logistics (route), timing, what to be
certain to cover and what to eliminate and how to accomplish the tour
in about 45 minutes. This will not be a rigid but instead a skeletal
outline into which each interpreter can insert ideas, stories, some
interactivity, and their own personalities to connect with people
who are listening.
-
Visitor Surveys
It is imperative to know what interests the public, what they find
memorable and special about Stenton, what is working with the tour
and visit experience and what is not working so well. This step is
crucial to improving the overall visitor experience at the site. -
Learn From School Tours
Stenton is engaging in the design of some ambitious, thematically-driven
school tours. The information, style of presentation, and choice of
hands-on materials/activities can inform what happens with more general
adult tours. One of the findings of a recent visitor survey about
visitor learning was that the most effective level of general visitor
assimilation of knowledge occurred when interpreters focused energy
on the children in family groups. The presentation became livelier
and engaged the children, and the adults listened because the style
was lively and also because they felt some degree of responsibility
for reinforcing the information by explaining it again to the children.
INTERPRETIVE PROJECTS
Stenton must examine a number of interpretive issues in order to
make its revised interpretation as meaningful as possible. Inclusion
of the interpretive themes will only happen if the interpretation
and additional research can be conveyed in an interesting and coherent
way. The following recommendations point the way toward effective
implementation of the Interpretive Plan.
TESTS AND EXPERIMENTS
The interpretation of Stenton is not meant to be a static
presentation and will continue to evolve over time. As more research
becomes available and as more people experience the revised interpretation
we will need to respond to these external forces in revising what we
say about the site.
