Each week, The Extraordinary Times catches up with leading folks from the local historical scene. This week we’re delighted to welcome friend and colleague Steve Gordon, administrator at Miami University’s McGuffey House and Museum. For 30 years Steve wore several hats while employed at the Ohio Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) before returning to Miami where he earlier had earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees in American History. * For the uninitiated, what is the McGuffey House and Museum? Allowing me a prefatory comment, former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill has been credited with the well-known refrain, “All politics is local.” If this axiom is true, then might we suggest all history is local, or at least agree its connective tissue is essentially local? In many ways it is the “localness” that connects Americans with history. At McGuffey House and Museum, a house museum long centered on the educational legacy of William Holmes McGuffey, the historical message is fundamentally local. McGuffey began his career as an early faculty member at Miami University, where he taught ancient languages and Moral Philosophy. Toward the end of McGuffey’s tenure at Miami (1826-1836), he wrote a series of graded school texts that became standards widely known as the McGuffey Readers. The story of the Readers illustrates how local history, in this case a university professor writing a series of textbooks in his Oxford, Ohio home, significantly facilitated advances in literacy in the United States for nearly a century. From the founding of the museum in the 1930s until the 1990s, the principal message was almost solely centered around the near mythic life of McGuffey and to a lesser degree the McGuffey artifacts housed in the museum. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, then under the guidance of Curtis Ellison, director, and Beverly Bach, curator, the museum expanded its mission to more fully explore Miami University’s heritage through education, research, history and public programs. More recently, based largely on primary research conducted by Dr. Elizabeth Johnson, a museum docent, current interpretation incorporates a broader examination of other families who lived in the house, coupled with such subjects as gender issues, domestic workers, student boarders and student life, and through individuals associated with the house the social history of Oxford. Further research conducted by Miami faculty and students has expanded and revised conventional interpretations while underscoring the importance of studying local history through the prism of national contexts. Not to be overlooked, the National Historic Landmark house (1833) is itself the museum’s most important artifact, and is a valuable portal to understanding Oxford’s significant 19th century material culture.
Given the historic authenticity of the house, interior signage and modern intrusions are kept to a minimum. Visitors to the museum are offered guided tours by trained staff and students. These tours are intended to be more conversational in tenor than a memorized script. With closure of the museum to the public in March, we posted a series of “Video Vignettes” online. Presently, our primary focus is how to safely accommodate visitors when the museum re-opens in August, assuming the best. As of July, the Oxford Museum Association through its historic sites is the only museum in Oxford open to the public. All Miami museums remain closed per guidance from Miami University, and as of this writing it is not certain when non-university personnel will be granted visitor access. While moving information access to websites and social media has helped maintain connections, we also recognize face-to-face, interpersonal engagement is still preferred by the majority of our audience. At McGuffey House and Museum, we look forward to the safe return of all visitors. Experiencing the real artifact and the virtual place, whether it is an 1833 house or a cast iron boot jack, cannot be replaced on a flat screen. For many Americans, their first contact with history often begins at a local history museum or historic site. Events of the past few months remind Americans how history is not only about the past, it is tangibly about the present, as we have witnessed in the debates associated with statues, monuments, flags, protests, individual rights and a legacy of racial injustices. As professionals, it is our responsibility - and our challenge - to make museum experiences authentic, inclusive and meaningful. We all recognize history offers all of us powerful teaching opportunities.
4 Comments
Sam Ashworth
7/14/2020 08:21:50 am
Excellent interview Steve. I enjoy the blog Matthew.
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Matthew Smith
7/14/2020 11:20:58 am
Thanks Sam. Hope all is well. Stay posted for more!
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Gratia Banta
7/17/2020 06:55:09 am
Matt- your much needed Blog is on my regular reading list now! Steve-good insights. Museums in the time of COVID. it's like a fast moving plane we need to jump on. As a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I am enjoying their Art History lectures, from the comfort of home.
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Matthew Smith
7/17/2020 09:11:13 am
Thanks for commenting Gratia, and for the Art History recommendation! Couldn't agree more with your point about museums, and hope they all (great and small) enjoy the support they need in these hard times.
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AuthorMatthew Smith, PhD (History). Public Programs at Miami University Regionals. Historian of Appalachia, the Ohio Valley, & the early American republic. Archives
February 2024
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