Great Tours!: Thematic Tours and Guide Training for Historic Sites

by Barbara Abramoff Levy, Sandra Mackenzie Lloyd, Susan Porter Schreiber

Overview

Creating tours that are interesting and educational for visitors (and guides!) is a challenge every historic site faces. Great Tours! helps you focus clearly on the material culture and significance of your site and then shows you how to use that focus to train and energize your guides. You will be able to move your tours to a fresh new level that is engaging and educational for visitors of all ages and abilities.
Readings and workshop activities frame the process throughout and allow you to develop what is most appropriate for your site, while working to strike a realistic balance between ideals and every day reality. Great Tours! offers a unique combination of theoretical guidance and practical activities, supplemented by reproducible forms and a bibliography and index, that make it an invaluable resource for anyone involved with planning tours and training guides.

Published in cooperation with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Visit their web page.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759100985
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	02/07/2002
Series:	American Association for State and Local History
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.26(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

Barbara A. Levy first practiced her interpretation skills as a choral conductor, singer, and music teacher. Although she moved on to work in the historic site field, her experiences in music and teaching confirmed her belief that interpretation in any field required understanding and effective communication. Her professional commitment to creating great interpretive experiences at historic sites began when she was the Interpretation Planner for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, Planning Division, and continued when she became Director of Education and Interpretation for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. In 1993 she founded Barbara Levy Associates, a consulting group that has helped history museums and historical organizations across the country improve their interpretation, planning, and education programs. Well known as a skilled interpretive planner, teacher, and trainer, she is also a frequently requested presenter at regional and national professional conferences. She holds a B.M.A (with distinction) from the University of Michigan, and both M.M.A and M.A degrees from Boston University.

Sandy Mackenzie Lloyd first interpreted history to the public as a kindergartner when she wrote, directed, and starred in a play about Betsy Ross. A year later she began collecting antiques and she was hooked. Her combined love of history and "things" led to a degree in American Studies from Smith College and the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. She was the first curator of Wyck, a historic house in Philadelphia, and the curator of education at Cliveden, a property of the National Trust. She has written several Historic Structures Reports for significant buildings in Philadelphia, given tours of historic sites for over twenty years, conducted guide training, lectured, and taught the toughest historic site audience—school children. She lives in Philadelphia with her family where she works as a museum consultant to many historic sites including Pennsbury M

Table of Contents

Part 1 Foreword Part 2 Acknowledgments Part 3 Preface Part 4 Part 1: Developing the Thematic Tour Chapter 5 Introduction Chapter 6 Chapter 1. Preparation: Assemble the Facts Chapter 7 Chapter 2. Planning: The Theme Development Team and the Roundtable Workshop Chapter 8 Chapter 3. Creating: Writing, Testing, and Revising a Thematic Tour Online Chapter 9 Sample Materials Part 10 Part 2: Training Guides to Give Thematic Tours Chapter 11 Introduction Chapter 12 Chapter 4. Site Specifics and Historical Context Chapter 13 Chapter 5. Material Culture: The Physical Evidence Chapter 14 Chapter 6. Interpretive Themes and the Thematic Tour Chapter 15 Chapter 7. Communication: Audience and Presentation Techniques Part 16 Part 3: Managing Guides Effectively Chapter 17 Chapter 8. Managing Guides Effectively Part 18 Index Part 19 About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

Bad tours are easy to parody. Great tours are hard to copy. And thus the need for this book... The book is divided into three parts: developing the thematic tour, training guides to give such tours, and finally how to manage guides effectively. It is all to the good that the organization is so clearly defined, with the subdivisions given equal care, for the wealth of material would be difficult to absorb without such orderly presentation... One cannot, in all truth, single out a single section or chapter as more useful than another, but there is no doubt that in working with enthusiastic guides the training activities, formatted as worksheets, will be invaluable. Although packed tight with information, the messages are succinct. It will be an unusual reader who does not underline constantly with a pencil or else scatter 'stickies' throughout to secure the most salient places.

Museline, Texas Association Of Museums - Jane Manaster

Great Tours is a practical and easy-to-use training manual for anyone developing guided tours of historic sites.... It is a methodical guide to planning, implementing and managing a guided tour program.

Inform: Newsletter From Museums Of Alberta - Kerri Button

...this excellent resouce guide will help every site, no matter how large or small.

Nebraska History - Lori Cox-Paul

This is a book well worth pursuing ... The kind of book for discovering its contents and placing in a convenient slot on the shelf until an idea strikes and one remembers one of its gems and reaches for it once again.

ALHFAM Bulletin - George D. Chapman

Great Tours is a practical and easy-to-use training manual for anyone developing guided tours of historic sites.... It is a methodical guide to planning, implementing and managing a guided tour program.

Inform: Newsletter From Museums Of Alberta, Winter 2002 - Kerri Button

Great Tours! is a wonderful resource for sites that want to improve their interpretation and guide training. With loads of activities and practical advice, the book is designed to be adaptable for sites of varying sizes, resource levels and sophistication. Great Tours! does a good job of addressing new issues and problems facing historic sites today.. .. The book's format is easy to use and its program will help any site to strengthen and discipline its interpretation. Great Tours! provides practical help and advice for historic sites, helping them to address the increasingly important and linked questions of visitor experience, good interpretation, and changing audiences.

Insites - Jessie McCulley

...this excellent resouce guide will help every site, no matter how large or small.
— Lori Cox-Paul, John Wornall House Museum

Nebraska History

This is a book well worth pursuing ... The kind of book for discovering its contents and placing in a convenient slot on the shelf until an idea strikes and one remembers one of its gems and reaches for it once again.
— George D. Chapman, Living History Interpretations consultants

Alhfam Bulletin

Great Tours! is a wonderful resource for sites that want to improve their interpretation and guide training. With loads of activities and practical advice, the book is designed to be adaptable for sites of varying sizes, resource levels and sophistication. Great Tours! does a good job of addressing new issues and problems facing historic sites today. . . . The book's format is easy to use and its program will help any site to strengthen and discipline its interpretation. Great Tours! provides practical help and advice for historic sites, helping them to address the increasingly important and linked questions of visitor experience, good interpretation, and changing audiences.
— Jessie McCulley, Heritage Investment Program

Insites