By Kaylee Redard, Public History
The House of the Seven Gables, a non-profit historic site in Salem, Massachusetts, is dedicated to preserving the past and continuing the American story. It is both an international tourist attraction as well as a community resource, particularly for the immigrant population in Salem. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 the historic houses on site are closed to the public and, like many other museums, they are limited to running a few programs virtually in summer 2020. This has made my internship an interesting and challenging experience.
The global pandemic greatly influenced and shaped my internship, both in content and practice. I was tasked with evaluating remote museum education programs during COVID-19, and to use this data to propose redesign of a Gables face-to-face school program–Naumkeag Settlers to Salem Shippers—as a virtual program.
Naumkeag Settlers to Salem Shippers is a school program for grades two through five that is designed to engage students in learning about colonial life during a visit to The House of the Seven Gables. Traditionally, this program begins by introducing three 17th century children: Jehoden Palfrey, the daughter of one of the original colonists of Salem, John Turner II, who was the son of a wealthy Salem merchant, and an Irish indentured servant named Joan Sullivan. The students are then divided into groups to do activities, directed by historical interpreters, around the historic site. These activities include a brief tour of The House of the Seven Gables, a wool carding activity, learning about colonial food, and lastly, playing with colonial toys. Once the students have gone through all the activities they regroup for a concluding discussion. The entire program is very hands-on and makes use of the entire site to accommodate large groups of children. My job was to propose a way to make this hands-on, face-to-face program into an engaging virtual experience.
To do this I needed to become more informed about the current state of the museum education field and learn about remote school programming. First, I reached out to the museum education community to see how other sites were adjusting their programs in response to COVID-19. I contacted eleven different museums and historic institutions, including Historic Beverly, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, and the USS Constitution Museum, and asked if they would be willing to share how they are doing programming during COVID-19. I received enthusiastic responses and quickly arranged meetings over Zoom or phone with everyone who was available.
In these meetings, I posed four questions:
- What programs did you run before COVID-19?
- Have you changed any of these programs to make them accessible during the pandemic?
- What feedback have you received about these programs?
- Did your institution work with teachers when making changes to their education programs?
Everyone was planning different ways to engage with their visitors of all ages. Most programs were geared toward students and families, but a few have been for the general public. Since my focus was on school programs, I tried to keep the conversation on those, but I was excited to hear everyone’s plans.
Every professional colleague had imaginative ideas on how to reach out to their community. These conversations helped me envision the program I wanted to build. Discussions on how to present content in an engaging way while on the other side of a screen, or which platform has worked best for connecting with students, were helpful in determining which way my project went.
Undertaking my internship during COVID-19 was challenging, but it offered me unexpected and rewarding opportunities. I had not expected making such broad connections with professionals in the field during an internship—I came to look forward to each of these meetings not only because it was a chance to talk to someone in the midst of quarantine, but because of the opportunities for professional development and building a network of colleagues.
I also learned the importance of flexibility. To communicate with colleagues and my site supervisor, I had to make sure that my schedule was as flexible as possible to accommodate the different forms of communication and time boundaries of multiple hectic schedules. With the weekly, if not daily, change in regulations surrounding COVID-19, many museums, including The House of the Seven Gables, have had to change guidelines without much notice. This can drastically alter staff schedules and limit contact time. I have learned two other crucial lessons from this internship: the importance of patience, with people and technology, and time management, because you never know what will come next during this pandemic. I am looking forward to hopefully implementing my proposal for a virtual Naumkeag Settlers to Salem Shippers program and the potential for other remote programs that result from this experience.
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