Pictures From Old Sturbridge Village

As promised, here are the pictures that I took when I went to Sturbridge Village.

This is a picture of the Meeting House, and look at those clouds! It was an amazing November day.

This was taken at the Tin Shop. Part of what I love about this living museum is the ability for those who work there to step out of a character and lines to show an interested little girl exactly how to curl a piece of tin. She was so interested in what he had been doing and was so excited to be able to help for a few minutes.

This is a picture of the Potter. One of the very few qualms I have with Sturbridge Village is that natural light is the only light one gets in these buildings. So very spacious buildings are very difficult to take pictures in without a flash because they are very dark. This is a totally understandable however, I don't advocate for unnecessary (and modern) light usage. I actually like this picture a lot, it shows the potter in action. I also like it when people can both work and talk, rather than some who have to stop to talk to someone.

This is a picture taken at the Cooper Shop. The Cooper was not there at the time. :-(

This is a picture from the Blacksmith Shop. Look at all of the tools! Also very interesting was how the Blacksmith had an apprentice. I liked that since it adds another element of reality to it all.

And what is a living museum with out real live animals? So here are a few pictures of them.

My Favorite Living Museum

My favorite Living Museum is Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA. Meant to capture life during the 50 year period of 1790-1840, it consists of 59 buildings including homes, a traditional New England church, places of work and industry and farms with real animals. Whereas some other outdoor living museums close during the Winter, at Sturbridge, there is something to do year round.

I enjoy it for numerous reasons one of which is the personnel's ability to perform characters but step outside of the role and truly explain what one is doing with a more modern understanding ... moving beyond a scripted dialog, so to speak. This also provides a revisitability because you could walk around on numerous occasions and hear different things said each time, even from the same people.

Once upon a time I may have not chosen it because of its having moved its houses to that spot to create an artificial village that never existed. I appreciate that now, however, because although these houses have in part lost their authenticity having been moved from their original contexts, they have been saved from a much worse fate. This, I think is a very good thing.

I last went two years ago in the Fall. It was a beautiful day and Sturbridge was a great way to spend that day.

Pictures to come.

------------------------------

There are a limited number of other Living Museums that could have earned the title of my current favorite Living Museum. This is due primarily to the fact that I have been less often to this type than any other and the one I have been to the most is Sturbridge Village. It apparently was also the favorite of the teachers in my elementary school and of my Girl Scout troop leaders.

Other contenders:

- Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, MA.
- The Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, NY. I haven't managed to go here during the museum season, missing it by only a few days the last time I went to Cooperstown. I did, however, participate in a hearth cooking demonstration here in one of the houses, which ranks among the top museum experiences that I have had. Hearth cooking is amazing and tons of fun.

I also intend on traveling to Williamsburg to visit Colonial Williamsburg. I don't know when that will happen exactly, but it is high up there on my list of places to visit.