If I Had My Own Blue Box:

As educators, interpreters or reenactors we often encounter myths while working with visitors. These myths can range from a long propagated mis-truth to a family story. When facing these myths we need to find a way to educate while ensuring a good visitor experience.

In my opinion, the type of myth you need to be the most careful about when addressing it the family myth. This is a myth a person has grown up with, believing about their family. It is one which may or may not be rooted in fact, developing or evolving through the years. A family myth can come up at almost any time in a discussion with visitors. They may believe they have a connection with a person, a building, an artifact or a moment in history. The catch is, you have absolutely no idea whether their story is history or myth. With a visitor centered approach, I suggest you listen to what the visitor has to share. Even if everything they are saying doesn’t quite fit with what you know, listen. If you don’t listen to what they are saying, chances are they aren’t going to want to listen to you either. While you are listening, really listening, try to determine what level of additional information they will be receptive to. Some people will be open to a whole different version of the story, the researched and documented research you can provide. For these individuals, first compliment a specific aspect of what they shared, hopefully a piece that is documentable; then offer additional information beginning with a phrase such as “my understanding….” Be certain to offer the visitor a resource or two to go to for their own research such as a book at the library or website that is easy to find. For others, who are significantly attached to their story, possibly in an emotional way, an “opening the door” approach will allow the visitor to hold their story while you offer them a direction for self- inquiry. After acknowledging their story and offering a specific compliment, you could open the door with “have you looked at….?” or “I would be curious to know more about…” Yes, this is an extremely soft approach. But, you are allowing the visitor to retain the integrity of they family myth while encouraging research based education and giving the visitor a good customer experience increasing their likelihood of returning.

I’ll confess, teacher led myths  are the ones that really push my buttons. It is exceptionally challenging to have a tour designed for a class when the teacher continuously interrupts, pulling the students in a different direction filled with inaccurate information. It is also challenging to be giving an in-class presentation only to find the teacher has or is instructing with inaccurate information. Whether you are in their arena or yours, the key to avoiding these issues is communication before the visit. Provide the teacher or teachers with an outline of the tour or presentation as part of a teacher packet with grade specific information and resources. Most museums have a teacher packet for visits and outreach which include pre, during and post visit materials. If you are working with/for a museum, be sure to know this packet well. During one of your initial conversations with the teacher(s), ask about where your talk will fit into their teaching plan or curriculum mapping, what the students will have already learned, what points he or she would like you to address. This is an ideal time and way to focus or tweak your presentation plan and identify any potential areas of inaccurate information and provide the teacher with correct information and/or resources prior to being in front of the students. Of course, you may still have a surprise in the middle of a great talk with a group of students. In these cases, you need to convey the correct information and the importance of documentation all while still supporting the teacher. Yes, it is possible. You can start with something like “That information/story comes from ____. But, new research shows _______” or “That is true for these instances _____ But, at this time ______” (Teachers are one of the few groups you can get away with using the word “But” with without being defensive. They teach the use of the word. For most other people do you best to use words such as “and” to redirect the information.) Be certain to provide the teacher with resources to further research the information new to them after the conclusion of the talk.

Enough typing for tonight. I guess there will be a part 3. In the meantime, for regular postings regarding history myths, subscribe to History Myths Debunked. I enjoy the weekly posts.

In a field where we focus on research, facts and supportable evidence we often come across stories or explanations that are less than true. At times we find these un-supportable, un-documentable, un-researched tales to be irritating, unsettling or just pressing a button. I’m sure for many of you a particularly popular or unpopular myth often used as a marketing ploy comes to mind.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, a Myth is “1) a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events; traditional stories or legends collectively:the heroes of Greek myth. 2) a widely held but false belief or idea:he wants to dispel the myth that sea kayaking is too risky or too strenuousthere is a popular myth that corporations are big people with lots of money; a misrepresentation of the truth:attacking the party’s irresponsible myths about privatization; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing; an exaggerated or idealized conception of a person or thing:the book is a scholarly study of the Churchill myth.” Comparatively, Folklore is the “traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth; a body of popular myth and beliefs relating to a particular place, activity, or group of people.”

Our world is full of myth, folklore and tall-tales that have a great impact on how we perceive the world around us. There are monumental stories we learn in school or through progressing media, books, television and movies. How many of us remember being intrigued by a tale from Arthurian legend or the stories of and Robin Hood? There has been a recent resurgence of Greek and other ancient mythology seen in our movie theaters and working its way into television story-lines. While this grabs the newest generations so captivated by media, we all can see how mythology has worked its way into the art, architecture and stories of almost any generation. Looking at a more personal level, we each have the deeply personal family stories that may have a foot-hold in truth or may not. This could be a story about great-great-great-grandpa discovering gold in the back field of the family’s farm or the story of how the family came to live here or own “this” artifact.

As historians and interpreters we come across a few different types of myths we encounter.

• There are the myths and tales of folklore which have grown with our nation similar to the monumental stories mentioned above. These include stories about our founding fathers, presidents, and iconic leaders such as the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. We could also include stories such as those about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Big Blue Ox. Many of us in my generation learned these stories in school as a precursor to learning chronological history.
• There are the family history myths which include stories of family history and what a family memento might be. Often times we here that a great-great-aunt so-n-so was at the first Women’s Rights Convention or that on a family dad’s-dad’s-mom’s-mom’s side they are related to someone important. These stories may or may not be true. But, to the individuals who grew up with them, they are extremely important.
• There are the stories or explanations for something that developed about an event or item well after the contemporary era. In the areas of material culture we see this a great deal. This would include the previously alluded to marketing motivated myth above which began in the 1990s, nearly a 150 years after when the myth addresses with no plausible documentation. A good many myths about the 1700s and 1800s developed during the 20th century . In some cases the propagation of myth was unintentional due to research flaws whether narrow information, anomalies, or a missing piece. In other cases, the propagation of not-true, un-documented information was intentional.

In part 2 we will look at techniques for dealing with these myths.