1. The Period of
Significance Is
Now
Enhanced Content
Presentation

2. PHOTO: PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S COTTAGE, WASHINGTON, DC
The Tenement Museum and President Lincoln’s Cottage have recently grappled
with the question of how best to identify the period of significance for historic
sites. The directors of these two sites have come up with a series of questions to
help staff at other sites tease out a more inclusive and relevant period of
history. The following questions and accompanying worksheet will help you think
about how your site connects to the broader human experience.

3. What are your site’s current periods of
significance?

4. “We interpret the evolution of Lincoln's thinking and the impact of his ideas throughout time and in our
world today, in a landscape that honors and respects its own history while embracing necessary
change.” – Erin Carlson Mast, executive director, President Lincoln’s Cottage
PHOTO: REPRODUCTION OF THE DESK THAT LINCOLN REPORTEDLY WORKED ON WHEN DEVELOPING DOCUMENTS SUCH AS THE
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION AT THE COTTAGE DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS OF HIS PRESIDENTCY CREDIT: DAVID PHILLIPICH,
COPYRIGHT NTHP.

5. What are the current site themes?

6. Is the relevance of these
themes limited to a single
period of significance or do
these themes reflect a
broader human
experience?
ENTERING THE COTTAGE FROM THE VERANDA. PHOTO
COURTESY PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S COTTAGE. PHOTO BY
MICHAEL DEANGELIS

7. Brainstorming Exercise:
List humanities themes related to your
site and whether or not their significance
is limited to a specific time and place, or
illustrates a theme that continues to arise
in contemporary society.

8. What types of audiences does your
site currently attract?

9. Does your current audience
reflect the diversity of the
community/ies you
serve? Are there important,
site-specific stories that are
relevant to your site that
are not used because they
fall outside your official
period(s) of significance
and/or themes?
TODAY, JUST AS IN THE 1860's, VISITORS LEARN ABOUT THE IDEAS
LINCOLN HELD AS WELL AS THE READING THAT INFORMED AND
REFLECTED HIS IDEAS. CONTEMPORARIES RECOLLECT LINCOLN
RECITING STANZA’S FROM ALEXANDER POPE’S ‘AN ESSAY ON
MAN,’ AND READING ALOUD FROM SHAKESPEARE’S RICHARD III
WHILE LIVING AT THE COTTAGE. PHOTO BY CAROL M. HIGHSMITH

10. Brainstorming Exercise:
Itemize the stories, identifying
significance to site, mission, and
theme.

11. THE EXHIBIT “CAN YOU WALK AWAY?” LOOKS AT SLAVERY IN THE U.S. 150 YEARS AFTER LINCOLN’S
EMANICIPATION PROCLAMATION PHOTO COURTESY OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S COTTAGE. PHOTOS:
HOWARD + REVIS©
“It is bad history to imply that slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation or
the 13th Amendment or any other legal action. Just because something is illegal
doesn't mean it disappears. Rationally we know that, but it wasn't until we looked
at the issue that we recognized there was so little awareness about the prevalence
of slavery in our society today. We couldn't just tell people that slavery has
continued, we had to provide more information and empower people to confront
these issues.”
– Erin Carlson Mast, executive director, President Lincoln’s Cottage

12. What are the limitations to your
current interpretive program?

13. What obstacles, if any, may
prevent you from modifying
the site’s period of
significance and
interpretive themes?
97 ORCHARD STREET. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LOWER
EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM. PHOTO BY GREG SCAFFIDI

14. Brainstorming Exercise:
Itemize the potential obstacles, their
impact, and support needed.

15. What additional research is
needed to explore other
periods of significance and
themes?
UNRESTORED HALLWAY AND ORIGINAL STAIRCASE AT 97
ORCHARD STREET. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LOWER
EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM. PHOTO BY GREG SCAFFIDI

16. THIS INTERIOR AIRSHAFT AT 103 ORCHARD STREET IS A SURVIVOR OF THE BUILDING’S EARLIER
INCARNATION AS THREE SEPARATE DUMBBELL TENEMENTS CONSTRUCTED IN 1888. PHOTO
COURTESY OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM
“Surviving structures and spaces are gifts; they allow us, in our own time, to
summon up the struggles and choices, the truths and values that past generations
confronted and drew on in building lives, families and communities. It’s a
tremendous opportunity—and responsibility—for the Tenement Museum to
interpret this usable past, this guide to the present and the future, in its programs.”
– Morris J. Vogel, president of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.

17. Brainstorming Exercise:
What do you need to do to conduct
targeted research to fill information
gaps.

18. “We are embarking now on an
ambitious new interpretation
that will carry the immigration
story into the recent past, into
the period when the major
sources of American
immigration shifted away from
Europe and to Asia, Latin
America and Africa. This new
exhibit will let us tell the story
of present-day America in the
same kind of immersive
environments…that we have
devoted to European
immigrations.” – Morris J. Vogel,
president of the Lower East Side
Tenement Museum.
TAX PHOTO, 103 ORCHARD ST., mid-1980s, NEW YORK CITY,
DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE
LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM.
.

19. Today, a number of historic house museums have realized
that they have a role to play in addressing present-day
concerns. They know that the stories they tell about “back
then” are still relevant today, and that this history can form a
basis for addressing and understanding social justice
issues and current events. These museums are playing an
innovative and unique role in helping today’s visitors
understand that challenges faced by people a century or two
centuries ago are still relevant in today’s world.
From the Summer 2014 Forum Journal.

20. www.PreservationNation.org/Forum