"Home, Family, Community": Public History Students Help Create New Exhibition

On March 22, the Historic Columbia Foundation opened a new exhibition, "Home, Family, Community: African-American Heritage at the Mann-Simons Cottage." The project is the result of teamwork by the organization's professional staff, Collections Committee volunteers, and two graduate student assistants from the Public History Program, Mary Carolyn Voght and Jeffrey Durst.

"Home, Family, Community" is located in the ground floor of the Mann-Simons Cottage, a house that belonged to Celia Mann (d. 1867), a well-respected Columbia midwife who bought herself out of slavery and became a free woman and property owner in antebellum Columbia. This considerable achievement by itself is worthy of commemoration, but the site also was home to her descendents until the late 1960s and became a house museum in the 1970s. The exhibition discusses the daily lives of Celia Mann's descendents, including the small businesses they operated, the changes they made to the family homestead, and their involvement in African-American churches, lodges, and schools in the city.

"Home, Family, Community" is a good example of the kinds of projects in which our museum studies students are involved. In this case, Mary Carolyn Voght, curatorial assistant at HCF, articulated the exhibition's three principal themes, drafted the script, and participated in selecting the archaeological artifacts and photographs to be displayed. She notes, "Writing the label copy for the exhibit gave me insight into the special needs of museum audiences. Conveying history to the public through exhibits is a lot different from academic essay writing." Jeffry Durst, graduate assistant for education and public programs, assisted with last-minute research for the exhibit script and prepared the teacher packet and lesson plans as the script developed. The experience has strengthened his belief "that education and curatorial staff should work closely together on exhibit design and interpretation."

Mary Carolyn and Jeff were part of a team that also included dedicated volunteers working alongside Historic Columbia Foundation staff. Volunteer Bill Bowman helped HCF Director of Collections John Sherrer, a 1998 graduate of our program and coordinator of the project, construct the exhibition's panels and artifact cases. Kirsten Doescher, HCF Registrar and a brand new graduate of our program (yay, Kirsten!), processed all the collections paperwork, lent technical assistance on digital imaging, and helped build the exhibit's casework. Mary Sherrer, a 1999 graduate, also served as a volunteer exhibits preparator. I was another volunteer for the project and enjoyed editing the exhibition script with Mary Carolyn and John (ask them -- I'm a vicious label editor), helping develop the hands-on elements of the exhibit, and working alongside John with installation. If I do say so myself, I paint a fabulous "family tree."

Historic Columbia Foundation, a local organization dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of this community's history that administers four historic house museums, is experiencing a renaissance under its Executive Director, Patrick Brennan, who arrived from the Jamestown Foundation in the summer of 2000. John Sherrer is an able and generous mentor to both student interns (who work on projects for academic credit) and graduate assistants (who receive financial aid and stipends as part-time employees). He calls the "Home, Family, Community" project "the perfect synthesis of public history theory and practice. By combining the professional staff from the Foundation with the energies of Public History students, we produced a quality exhibit on a modest budget and in record time." The organization, which received AAM re-accreditation in 1998, is an important "laboratory" for our students, a relationship that the Public History Program will continue to develop in coming years.

Kasey Grier