The Diverse Stories at the Coastal Heritage Society (Podcast 72)

06/25/16 • 14 min

Preservation Technology Podcast

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The Diverse Stories at the Coastal Heritage Society (Episode 72)

Maggie O'Neill speaks with Emily Beck, the manager of interpretation for the Coastal Heritage Society in Savannah, Georgia, as they talk about how to interpret a history spanning three centuries across five different historical sites.

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TRANSCRIPT:

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Georgia State Railroad Musuem Roundhouse Photo by Rich Burkhart Georgia State Railroad Museum Roundhouse Photo by Rich Burkhart

Kevin Ammons: Welcome to the Preservation Technology Podcast, the show that brings you the people and projects that are bringing innovation to preservation. I’m Kevin Ammons, with the National Park Service’s National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. In this podcast, we hear NCPTT’s Maggie O’Neill as she speaks with Emily Beck, the manager of interpretation for the Coastal Heritage Society in Savannah, Georgia, as they talk about how to interpret a history spanning three centuries across five different historical sites.

Maggie O’Neill: Hey everyone – welcome to the Preservation Technology Podcast. I’m Maggie O’Neill, and I’m sitting down with Emily Beck, who is the Manager of Interpretation at the Coastal Heritage Society in Savannah, Georgia. Thanks so much for sitting down with me today, Emily.

Emily Beck: You’re welcome – I’m so excited to be here.

Maggie O’Neill: Why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself?

Emily Beck: Well, um, I think I kind of have museums in the blood. Both of my parents were in the National Park Service, so I was always interested in history. When I came back here, to Savannah, to do graduate studies in history, I got this job. It started as a part time job while I was in graduate school, and then it turned into something much more permanent (laughs). I’m very happy for that.

The Coastal Heritage Society is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that was founded in 1975. We operate five museums in the Savannah area, including the Savannah History Museum, Savannah Children’s Museum, Georgia State Railroad Museum, Old Fort Jackson, and, most recently, Pin Point Heritage Museum, which is out on the south side of Savannah.

Maggie O’Neill: Emily and I are currently at the Georgia State Railroad Museum, in the Columbus Executive Car right now, recording this podcast. Coastal Heritage Society, specifically Tri-Centennial Park, which is where we are now, has a really interesting history. The site itself spans three centuries, so I wanted to talk to you today a little bit about the cultural landscape of the site and how you guys interpret that history at once.

Emily Beck: It can be difficult and challenging at times, but I think we are really fortunate at this site to have a lot of physical resources – a lot of structures from different time periods – that can help us get across to visitors that we have different time periods of history here. The land that the Railroad Museum is now on was a Revolutionary War battlefield in 1779, and the railroad began construction on their repair facility here around 1851 and completed it around 1855. We have half of a roundhouse left, a lot of the shops buildings in the back, and a working turn table, so we are lucky in that we have a lot of the resources to be able to illustrate to the visitors a lot of the different parts of the history of the site.

The History Museum – we very recently started having interpretation of the battlefield. We have costumed interpreters do a presentation about the battle of Savannah, and we also have a replica redoubt that his built out by the Savannah History Museum. That also helps us to illustrate that it was a battlefield, because it can be very hard for people to picture that this space is a battlefield, or anything other than a railroad facility.

Coastal Museum Association Awards - Coastal Heritage Society received awards for Pinpoint Heritage Museum and Savannah History Museum "Loyalists and Liberty). Coastal Museum Association Awards – Coastal Heritage Society received awards for Pinpoint Heritage Museum and Savannah History Museum “Loyalists and Liberty). CHS Staff Ray Christie, Emily Beck, and Aaron Bradford (3 center) are pictured.

Maggie O’Neill: Do you see any problems with your audience connecting all of this history at once? And how do you solve that if you do?

Emily Beck: Sometimes, yes. Sometimes it is very hard to get people to understand that this was a battlefield because the section that we have sort of sectioned off from the battle field is a very small portion of it. So, we really have to emphasize – especially when we’re on the train ride – to say that this whole area was a battlefield and was not always a railroad facility. And, I think for us, it really helps that our History Museum interpreters are in costumed. That gives them sort of a visual clue that it’s an 18th century battle.

And um, as far as the Railroad Museum, we even have two different time periods for railroad int...

Next Episode

Museum Studies at Midland State University in Zimbabwe (Episode 73)

Students Rebuild Baboon Damaged Walls Davison Chiwara, lecturer at Midland State University in Zimbabwe, Africa.

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TRANSCRIPT:

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Davison during the AIC Angel's Project At the Miami Dade History Museum. Davison during the AIC Angel’s Project At the Miami Dade History Museum.

Kevin Ammons: Welcome to the Preservation Technology Podcast, the show that brings you the people and projects that are bringing innovation to preservation. I’m Kevin Ammons, with the National Park Services National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. Today we join NCPTT’s Jason Church as he speaks with Davison Chiwara, lecturer at Midland State University in Zimbabwe, Africa.

Davison Chiwara: I work in the department of Archeology, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies. I mostly specialize on collections management, looking at conservation as a general upkeep of collections in heritage institutions.

The whole group from level one, one up to the fourth level, approximately I can say we have around two hundred students. We have four main disciplines that they’re studying, which are all related, they’re interrelated that is archaeology, cultural heritage management, museum studies, as well as archives and records management.

Jason Church: Now when students leave your university where do they go to work?

Davison Chiwara: Mostly they’re employed in heritage institutions like museums, especially in museums this is the major market that employ our students. They’re also employed in galleries, archival institution, libraries, and even in national parks where there is heritage which is found in most national parks.

Picture6Jason Church: Now Davison, you and I met at the Annual AIC Conference-

Davison Chiwara: Yes.

Jason Church: At that conference you were presenting on a project where you and your students were saving dry-stone stacked walls, can you tell us a little bit about that project?

Davison Chiwara: Okay, this project was originally a brain child of the Midland State University, working in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Military Museum which is a museum which falls under the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.

We came together to restore this monument which was deteriorating. We sort funding from the United States Embassy here in Zimbabwe, and fortunately they came on board and they supported us by funding the restoration exercise, so that’s how we got to work together that is the National Museum and Monuments of Zimbabwe, The Department of Archeology, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Midland State University as well as United States Embassy.

That whole project involved lecturers, students, and museum staff working together. Initially, what we did is we documented the extent of deterioration of the walls and the site, by looking at previous photographs that were taken as well as maps and sketch diagrams. We managed to establish the extent of dilapidation or deterioration of the walls by looking at the collapsed rabbles against what was initially documented on the photographs and sketch maps.

After this documentation exercise then we started the restoration project by restoring the walls following what was captured on the photographs as well as on the maps. These walls were built in the thirteenth century AD. They mostly face problems of wall collapse, which emanates from environmental factors as well as human induced problems.

They have been restored from the years 1937, that is what we got from archival research, whereby the collapsed walls had been restored by previous restorers who were in charge of the monuments then. Then from there on wards there have been ongoing restorations which have been done, but in some cases we have discovered that some of the restorations which were being done were not following the, were not respecting the principles of originality and authenticity of material.

Basically this is what was done before in terms of restoration of the monument. We’re actually taking over from what has been done before.Picture3

Jason Church: When you mentioned they did not keep with the original intent of the monument, so what was done to them?

Davison Chiwara: Basically the dry-stone walls structures or the stone walled monuments, they are built using stone without any mortar which is, without any binding mortar between the stone blocks, so that’s why they’re called the dry stone structures.

What was done when restorations were made in 1937, is that they restorers then they introduced cement which is not part and parcel of the original material that were used in the construction of the structures. This addition of cement was against the principles of originality and authenticity.

Jason Church: What sort of factors led to the deterioration of the walls, just age or what other factors?

Davison Chiwara: Yes, yes, we cann...