Trailheads

What is there left to say about 2020? In previous issues, we’ve chronicled the response of PHMC’s Trails of History sites to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of early October, it looked unlikely that sites would reopen by the end of the year. The uncertainty surrounding reopening sites and welcoming visitors in person has caused a great deal of frustration on all fronts. Nevertheless, our staff and volunteers have created new online programs and experimented with drive-through events to continue serving the public and carrying out our mission of sharing Pennsylvania’s rich heritage. A new calendar on PHMC’s website lists all of these (go to phmc.pa.gov and click “Events Calendar”).

There have been numerous bright spots this year, so let’s focus on a few of those as we send 2020 out the door.

Toddler Carson Venetz watches a PHMC virtual program in June 2020. Carson is younger than most of our online visitors, but it is never too early to develop an interest in history.
Bureau of Historic Sites & Museums, PHMC

Happy 50th Anniversary

The original visitor center at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum (lumbermuseum.org) was dedicated on August 1, 1970. The General Assembly had approved funds to build the site in 1966, and construction began in 1969. The building, located on the commonwealth’s northern tier in Potter County across Route 6 from Denton Hill State Park on a 160-acre site acquired by PHMC, echoed logging camp structures in its design. As current curator Josh Fox noted in a blog post on the museum’s website, “the idea for a museum highlighting the heritage of the lumber industry in Pennsylvania started with the suggestion that the Penn-York Lumberman’s Club acquire a logging locomotive to display at their annual Woodsman Carnival, which had been held at Cherry Springs Park since 1952.” The Penn-York Lumberman’s Club began promoting the museum project in 1963 and continued to support the Lumber Museum in multiple ways.

Due to a lack of appropriated operating funds, the visitor center closed immediately after the 1970 dedication ceremony. But over the next two years, an early-20th-century logging camp was constructed on the site to tell the story of lumber workers and their daily lives. A formal opening ceremony was held on August 4, 1972, coinciding with the annual Woodsman’s Carnival to honor the Penn-York Lumberman’s Club.

Local residents and dignitaries gather for the dedication of the expanded visitor center at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum on May 15, 2015.
Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, PHMC

The year 2020 also marked the fifth anniversary of the expanded visitor center that opened in May 2015, with new exhibits and collections storage as well as a large meeting space used for museum programs and community events.

On the southern tier of Pennsylvania, Somerset Historical Center (SHC), the 150-acre rural heritage museum that preserves agricultural buildings and artifacts from the region’s first farmers to the present, marked the 50th anniversary of its opening to the public, as well as the 225th anniversary of Somerset County, which was created from part of Bedford County in April 1795. In place of large public gatherings to celebrate, the anniversary committee, which includes staff from SHC, created a passport program that directs people to towns around the county.

Over the course of Somerset Historical Center’s 50 years, the 1830s Farmstead has developed around the Adam Miller Farmhouse (one of several original structures moved to the site) to include a detached farm kitchen and double-crib log barn.
Somerset Historical Center, PHMC

Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Inclusion (DEAI) Initiatives

The goals of PHMC’s Bureau of Historic Sites and Museums (BHSM) 21st-Century Museums initiative are to make historic sites and museums more relevant to their local and regional communities, reach and serve new audiences, and allow historic sites and museums to share Pennsylvania’s history in all its complexity.

Last fall PA Museums, our statewide museum association, received a National Leadership Grant from the federal Institute for Museum and Library Services for a project called Accessibility Excellence. PHMC’s BHSM is the primary partner on this effort. Work on the project began in earnest in January 2020 with the hiring of project manager Jenny Angell and an in-person meeting of the Accessibility Excellence Working Group. The working group is made up of BHSM staff with expertise in site infrastructure, education and interpretation, collections care and management, administration, and governance.

Over the course of the year, the group has worked with Angell to craft the project’s assessment tool, which will enable historic sites and museums to determine their accessibility on a wide range of factors, including physical and programmatic access, audience outreach, hiring practices, and financial transparency. The project’s Access Advisory Council includes people with lived experience and professional training in disability, equity and inclusion, and evaluation. In addition to the assessment, the project will develop a set of resources geared to helping participants move forward on accessibility issues, once they have determined their baseline.

We had intended to begin pilot testing of the assessment tool and resource kit this summer, using BHSM’s sites as the laboratory. Due to COVID-19 closures, the timetable was delayed. But later, with strict guidelines in place, a small group of sites moved forward on the pilot phase, in concert with the Disability Empowerment Center of Lancaster.

Other DEAI initiatives this year included staff training workshops led by Cecile Shellman, a consultant with numerous museums as well as the American Alliance of Museums. We managed to hold two in-person workshops in February, and through the magic of Zoom, we completed the remaining workshops online in September. Just before the COVID-19 closures, we held two customer service workshops for staff with presenter Katie Boardman, a consultant with the Cherry Valley Group.

The staff workshops were designed to build awareness among staff about DEAI issues. To advance the work of addressing these issues at our sites and museums, we started the 21st-Century Museums Conversations series. Topics have included monuments and memory, inclusive collecting, and racial identity. The series is organized by BHSM, but we have had enthusiastic participation from staff at The State Museum, State Historic Preservation Office, and the Pennsylvania State Archives. The ability to erase geographical distance allows staff interaction that rarely, if ever, happens in person and has built a new sense of collective purpose.

Digital Programming

Since COVID-19 precautions led to site closures in March, Trails of History sites have explored new avenues in digital programming. Over the course of the summer and fall, we saw an increase in collaboration, as staff were freed from geographical distances to present multiple perspectives on topics of interest to the public. For example, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania moved its STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) educational program online and incorporated presentations from staff at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, Drake Well Museum & Park, Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum, Eckley Miners’ Village, and Cornwall Iron Furnace.

In September PHMC received funding from the IMLS CARES grant program for Pennsylvania History to Go. Over the next two years, we will film, edit and produce a basic virtual tour at each site. We’ll also work with a team of advisors to build live programs or other layers onto the basic tours to serve a variety of audiences and reduce barriers to access. Regional equipment hubs at selected sites will create infrastructure to produce more programming, and staff will receive training to enhance the skills they’ve already gained through experience.

Amy Killpatrick Fox is a museum educator in PHMC’s Bureau of Historic Sites & Museums. She writes a weekly blog also called Trailheads at patrailheads.blogspot.com.