ALHFAM - About ALHFAM

About ALHFAM

ALHFAM is an organization of people who bring history to life. ALHFAM enables its members to make history a valuable part of the lives of museum visitors. It achieves this purpose through the exchange and sharing of ideas, information, tools and experiences centered around accurate, active, participatory, object-based historical interpretation. ALHFAM, through its membership, is committed to leading museum interpreters, educators, researchers, administrators, curators and volunteers in these fields:

Historical agriculture
Historical trades and manufacturing
Historical clothing and foodways
Living history programming
Historic site administration, care of collections, and program delivery within the above specialties

ALHFAM & ALHFAMers in the News

The current Univeristy of Delaware Messenger (Vol. 18 No. 2) features alum and ALHFAMer Tony Shahan. Congratulations, Tony. To see the article go to www.udel.edu/udmessenger

ALHFAM Vice Pesident Pete Watson to Receive 20th Annual John Cotton Dana Award

(May 5, 2010) -- Peter Watson, Director of the Mercer County Park Commission's Howell Living History Farm in Titusville, NJ, has been selected to receive the 2010 John Cotton Dana Award from the New Jersey Association of Museums (NJAM). This prestigious annual award honors outstanding individuals from New Jersey cultural institutions. The award will be presented to Mr. Watson at the annual NJAM meeting in historic Drumthwacket -- the official Governor’s mansion -- in Princeton, NJ on May 18.

Mr. Watson is being honored for advancing the service of museums to the region, for demonstrating visionary and innovative leadership, and for exemplifying the highest standards of professional commitment as exemplified by museum pioneer John Cotton Dana (1856 -1929).

Those of you who recieve the American Profile insert in your newspaper. The April 11-17, 2010 version featured a great picture of the Holland, Mich. windmill on the front. ALHFAMer and Lady Miller, Alisa Crawford was quoted in the article, "Europe in American". Nice
press, way to go, Alisa.

Institutional Members, Plimoth Plantation (RE: embroidered woman's jacket) and Colonial Williamsburg (RE: American stoneware) are each featured in separate articles in the latest issue (April 2010) of Early American Life magazine. (The is also an article about Fort Ticonderoga's twice-yearly historic re-enactor camps)

Sandy Oliver was featured in an interview in The Boston Globe, Feb. 17, 2010, and on their website Boston.com, talking about what George Washington may have eaten on his birthday.

At Washington’s table

Need some information to put some new "spice" into your Thangsgiving this year? Check out ALHFAMer Kathleen Wall's videos on the how2heros website.

Indian Pudding

The History of Thanksgiving

ALHFAM founding member John T. Schlebecker was awared the Hiram College Alumni Achievement Award. His award cites John's key role in the development of ALHFAM and the living history farms movement.

The ALHFAM Annual Meeting and Conference hit the airwaves in Winston-Salem. See the video clip of the WXII Channel 12 report on the mowing contest at Old Salem

On June 5, 2009, the Museum of New Mexico Press will publish a landmark book that tells the story of ALHFAM Institutional Member El Rancho de las Golondrinas (The Ranch of the Swallows), a historic Spanish Colonial-era ranch in La Ciénega, just south of Santa Fe, that is now the site of New Mexico’s only living history museum.

Read the Press Release.

Iowa's Living History Farms, is featured in the Places section of American Profiles (an national weekly newspaper insert magazine) this week, April 12-18, 2009. The article is called Farming through the Centuries

Check out the online version

April 2, 2009
Commitment to sites plain to see

To the Editor:
I have never felt so much pride in being a resident of Morris County as I did on this past weekend. The occasion was the Mid-Atlantic regional meeting of ALHFAM (the Association for Living History, Farm & Agricultural Museums), which was hosted by the Morris County Park Commission at Fosterfields, Speedwell Village, and Cooper Mill.

Almost 100 people attended the event, coming from places as diverse as Rhode Island, West Virginia, and western New York state. I was one of the few local residents there, so I got to see the excitement and enthusiasm for the beautiful sites we have here in our midst. The recurring comments I heard were overwhelmingly positive about the freeholders' commitment to preserving these (and other) sites, how well-run they all are, and even nice remarks about New Jersey in general.

The people who made this wonderful event happen are the employees of the park commission's historic sites division, the Morris County Heritage Commission, the Morris County Tourism Bureau, and the friends' groups that support each historic site. I'd like to thank them for helping me to see how fortunate I am to live here.

JOYCE HUSSA
Denville

Web Ed. Note:

FYI, just a week prior to the conference, the Morris County Tourism Bureau awarded Mark Texel and his colleague, Peg Shultz, the first-ever annual county tourism award. New Jersey's Secretary of State, Nina Mitchell Wells attended to do the honors along with the MCTB director, Leslie Bensley.

Tom Kelleher is prominently featured in the February 2009 Early American Life in an article about a new building at Sturbridge. Jane Radcliffe is mentioned in the Letters from Readers section as an expert on Rufus Porter and his murals. Congratulations to both
of you.

Tom also has an excellent article, excerpted from a talk he gave at an ALHFAM conference, in the 2009 Winter issue of Old Mill News, the publication of the Society for the Preservation of Old Mills (SPOOM).

A Colonial Dame: My brief, inspiring career as a historical re-enactor.

ALHFAM is noted and our web site is linked in this recent article about institutional member Claude Moore Farm in Slate Magazine

"Colonial Farmers" Featured in OUT HERE Magazine

Colonial Williamsburg Farmers, and ALHFAM members, Ed Schultz (FARM PIG Co-Chair) and Wayne Randolph were featured in an article titled The Colonial Farmer: "The highest worth was a man in agriculture", in the October issue of the Tractor Supply Co. publication OUT HERE.

Check it out On-line with related stories

Check it out as a PDF