Author: Melissa Prycer
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Afterglow: Reflections on Candlelight
Any time you welcome thousands of people to your museum over the course of 2 days, there will be stories. Candlelight is our biggest event of the year–and our longest running. This year, we celebrated its 45th anniversary–and it was my 13th as a staff member. At the end of each night, staff gather and…
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Mrs. Rachel Lynde Would Not Approve
When a favorite book is adapted for the screen, I try to keep an open mind. I really, really do. And there were reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the latest Anne of Green Gables movie. The casting of Anne was more age appropriate. It was filmed on Prince Edward Island. And the granddaughter of…
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On this historic election day. . .
The polls don’t close for another several hours, but I’ve already been teary several times today. We still have a long way to go before we get anywhere near gender equality, and yet, this day still means so much to me as a feminist and a historian. Today is a profound response to: The guy…
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Teamwork for the Exhibit Win
Last month, I headed to Detroit for the American Association for State and Local History‘s annual meeting. It’s always an inspiring few days, but sometimes that inspiration comes from rather surprising places. As a general rule, I don’t love art museums. As someone who doesn’t know much about art, I want to learn about art…
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Lessons from Fair Park
It seems everyone in Dallas is talking about Fair Park right now. And it’s not just the usual fried food anticipation that comes with every State Fair season. A few weeks ago, an old friend asked me on Facebook “Will you explain the Fair Park issue to me like I’m five years old? I don’t…
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New England Travels
Generally speaking, August in Texas is a terrible, terrible thing. So I planned a trip to escape to New England and catch up with a few friends, visit a few museums, and drink a few beers. Ironically, the temps in New England were about the same as they were in Texas, but it will still…
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When History Comes Home: Aftermath of Dallas Shootings
All of Friday, I continued to be stunned–not just to the events of Thursday night, but to the response of what I considered to be an obvious and far too small gesture. . . . But I am here to say this to the museum field: how sad is it that people are surprised when…
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A Historic House Museum Doing Everything Right
We all have our museum bucket lists–places that we desperately want to visit. Sometimes, it’s because of an admiration for whoever’s home it was. (See Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House). Sometimes it’s due to its place in a favorite book (See Green Gables). Sometimes it’s because you admire the work that they’re doing (See the…
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Milestones: The Consequences of a Successful Junior Historian Program
On this rainy Friday before a holiday weekend, I’m wrapping up one of my favorite annual tasks: creating a photo collage of our graduating Junior Historians. For many years, figuring out a way to honor graduating Seniors wasn’t an issue, because the kids never stuck around that long. But now, it’s an absolutely wonderful problem…
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Making the hidden visible: World War II Fiction
There are certain periods in history that seem to get all the attention. The pioneer experience. The Civil War. World War II. I’ve always enjoyed the less exposed parts of history more. My “preferred” war is World War 1, and the quantity of material centered around it pales in comparison to WWII. Though I know…
Prycer Consulting 