Interpreting Religion at Museums and Historic Sites

Gretchen Buggeln holds the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christianity and the Arts at Valparaiso University. She previously was associate professor and director of the residential research program at the Winterthur Museum. Buggeln is the author of Temples of Grace: The Material Transformation of Connecticut's Churches, 1970-1840 (2003) and The Suburban Church: Modernism and Community in Postwar America (2015), as well as numerous articles on religious architecture and artifacts, museums, and American religious history. She is co-editor, with Crispin Paine and S. Brent Plate, of Religion in Museums: Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives (2017).   Barbara Franco has had a long career in American history museums as a curator and administrator and most recently served as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and as Founding Director of the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum. She served as a past chairman of the American Association for State and Local History and co-edited Ideas and Images: Developing Interpretive History Exhibits (1992). She has written numerous articles on museum practice and historical interpretation, and currently works as an independent scholar and museum consultant.  

Introduction
Acknowledgments
 
Part I Case Studies
 
Chapter 1. Religious Sites
Arch Street Meeting House,
Reinterpretation of the Arch Street Meeting House,
Lynne Calamia
 
California Missions Trail
California Missions,
Elizabeth Kryder-Reid
 
Ephrata Cloister
Interpreting Religion at Ephrata Cloister
Michael S. Showalter and Nick Siegert
 
Hancock Shaker Village
Hancock Shaker Village - Training for Staff & Docents Who Interpret Religion,
Todd Burdick
 
Joseph Smith Farm,
Facilitating a Reverential Experience.
Gary L. Boatright, Jr.
 
Kirtland Temple
Kirtland Temple: Creating Sacred Space for Pilgrimage
Barbara B. Walden
 
Mary Baker Eddy Library
Fervent Hearts, Willing Hands: Christian Science in Nineteenth-Century Context
Katherine Connell
 
Museum at Eldridge Street
Interpreting the Eldridge Street Synagogue: Two Dialogues
Amy Stein Milford and Richard Rabinowitz
 
United States Capitol Visitor Center
“In God We Trust” – Interpreting Religion in the US Capitol
Fred W. Beuttler
 
Chapter 2.  Historic Sites
Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage
Reform and Religion at Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage
Marsha Mullin
 
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Satisfaction Through Honesty
Stephen Seals
 
Conner Prairie
Religion at Conner Prairie
Catherine Hughes
 
George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Interpreting Religion in the Life of a Founding Father
Mary V. Thompson
 
Hawaii Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives
Revisiting the Historical Role of the ABCFM Missionaries in Hawaii
Thomas A. Woods
 
Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum
Talk-Back Boards And Religion,
Josh Howard
 
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Interpreting Religion at the Tenement Museum
Annie Polland
 
Newport World Heritage Commission
Interpreting Tolerance to a Skeptical World: The Case of Colonial Newport and Providence
Ken Yellis
 
Old Economy Village
Religious Interpretation at Old Economy Village
David Miller
 
Southeastern Pennsylvania Historic Sites and Houses
Interpreting the Diversity of Pennsylvania German Religion at Historic House Museums
Cynthia G. Falk
 
Chapter 3. Museum Exhibitions
Abbe Museum
Religious Appropriation Issues and the Abbe Museum
Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko and Geo Soctomah Neptune
 
American Revolution Museum at Yorktown
Interpreting Religion at The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown
K. Lara Templin
 
Arab American National Museum
Interpreting Religion at the Arab American National Museum
Petra Alsoofy
 
Delaware Historical Society
Forging Faith, Building Freedom: African American Faith Experiences in Delaware, 1800-1980
Constance J. Cooper
 
Jewish Museum of Maryland
Chosen Food: Eggrolls, Oreos and Judaism in the Museum
Karen Falk
 
Minnesota History Center
Interpreting Religion in Peb Yog Hmoob—We Are Hmong Minnesota
Brian Horrigan
 
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Black Sacred Objects and the Matter of Religious Meanings: A Case Study from the National Museum of African American History & Culture
Eric Lewis Williams
 
National Museum of American History
Religion in Early America: An Exhibition at the National Museum of American History
David K. Allison
 
National Museum of the Civil War Soldier at Pamplin Historical Park
Interpreting the Religions Life of Civil War Soldiers at Pamplin Historical Park
A. Wilson Greene
 
The Rosenbach and the Rare Book Department, Free Library of Philadelphia
Religion on Display: Three Exhibitions at the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Rosenbach
Katherine Haas
 
Winterthur Museum
Open the Doors and See all the People: Interpreting Pennsylvania German Material Culture and Religion
Lisa Minardi
 
Part II Essays
 
Chapter 4. Scholarly Approaches For Religion in History Museums
Gretchen Buggeln
 
Chapter 5. Issues in Historical Interpretation: Why Interpreting Religion is So Difficult
Barbara Franco
 
Chapter 6. Religion in Museum Spaces and Places
Gretchen Buggeln
 
Chapter 7. Strategies and Techniques for Interpreting Religion
Barbara Franco
 
Chapter 8. Interpreting Religion at Museums and Historic Sites: The Work Ahead
Gretchen Buggeln and Barbara Franco
 
Bibliography
 
Contributors
 
Index