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Greetings all,
Some of you may know me, but for those of you who don't, my name is Matt Cassady and I have been an active member with the 104th Illinois and the 1st Illinois Battalion. Now I am a Program Associate (fancy name for a museum program developer) for Historic Fort Snelling in Saint Paul, MN, and I serve as coordinator for the site's Civil War living history event. I am writing to see if there is any interest among the authentic community in supporting the fort's Civil War programming in 2010. This year's Civil War living history event will be the weekend of August 7 - 8, 2010.
The format of the living history event has changed from what it was in past years. Rather than recreating a specific event in the fort's history, the program is now focused on presenting hands-on and interactive learning experiences for the public, often taking the form of learning stations around the fort (ie. a station interpreting the Signal Corps where visitors could send messages using flags back and forth across the fort to each other; hardtack cutting in the fort's Bakeshop; a music station where visitors learned basic drum calls; and so on). These interpretive stations are manned either by the fort's staff or by reenactor volunteers who have an interest in a particular subject. The fort's management team decided to adopt this format after seeing that our visitors better responded to this method.
In addition, our base living history program is now 3rd person. This is not to say, however, that staff or reenactors are not or cannot be in 1st person for internal program interactions, but we no longer interact with the visitors in 1st person. We still use period vernacular or at least period-neutral vocabulary, and the military program still operates with period social conventions (saluting, deferring, etc.). It had become problematic to interpret in 1st person to the public, even modified first person, with an ever-increasing base content, including sensitive content issues; American Indian relations, Slavery, Alcoholism, Violence. etc. (Just a reminder, Historic Fort Snelling is a dry site, day and night, going on 5 years now.)
We are looking for more high-quality reenactors who can help support our public program and share their vast wealth of knowledge with the visiting public. I would like to encourage anyone who might be interested in participating to check out our website (www.mnhs.org/fortsnelling) and to contact me for more information. Thank you very much, and I hope that you all will consider participating in Historic Fort Snelling's Civil War programs in the future.
Thanks for your time,
Some of you may know me, but for those of you who don't, my name is Matt Cassady and I have been an active member with the 104th Illinois and the 1st Illinois Battalion. Now I am a Program Associate (fancy name for a museum program developer) for Historic Fort Snelling in Saint Paul, MN, and I serve as coordinator for the site's Civil War living history event. I am writing to see if there is any interest among the authentic community in supporting the fort's Civil War programming in 2010. This year's Civil War living history event will be the weekend of August 7 - 8, 2010.
The format of the living history event has changed from what it was in past years. Rather than recreating a specific event in the fort's history, the program is now focused on presenting hands-on and interactive learning experiences for the public, often taking the form of learning stations around the fort (ie. a station interpreting the Signal Corps where visitors could send messages using flags back and forth across the fort to each other; hardtack cutting in the fort's Bakeshop; a music station where visitors learned basic drum calls; and so on). These interpretive stations are manned either by the fort's staff or by reenactor volunteers who have an interest in a particular subject. The fort's management team decided to adopt this format after seeing that our visitors better responded to this method.
In addition, our base living history program is now 3rd person. This is not to say, however, that staff or reenactors are not or cannot be in 1st person for internal program interactions, but we no longer interact with the visitors in 1st person. We still use period vernacular or at least period-neutral vocabulary, and the military program still operates with period social conventions (saluting, deferring, etc.). It had become problematic to interpret in 1st person to the public, even modified first person, with an ever-increasing base content, including sensitive content issues; American Indian relations, Slavery, Alcoholism, Violence. etc. (Just a reminder, Historic Fort Snelling is a dry site, day and night, going on 5 years now.)
We are looking for more high-quality reenactors who can help support our public program and share their vast wealth of knowledge with the visiting public. I would like to encourage anyone who might be interested in participating to check out our website (www.mnhs.org/fortsnelling) and to contact me for more information. Thank you very much, and I hope that you all will consider participating in Historic Fort Snelling's Civil War programs in the future.
Thanks for your time,
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