Those who find traditional history museums a stuffy procession of rusty spoons and dusty dioramas may want to explore an open-air alternative: "living history museums" where one can time travel on the cheap. Consider the Spanish Village in Barcelona, where travelers and scavenging scholars can efficiently inspect 49,000 square meters of historical buildings and tilt at old slides with Don Quixote. At Heritage Park in Calgary, Banff-bound hikers can stop to pose for photos (and eat 19th century ice cream) with locals dressed up as Canadians from the days of fur trading and the occasional American invasion. For those who can get visas to China, and local families on their first post-Covid-zero outing, the Millennium City Park in Kaifeng offers a hundred acres of life in the Northern Song Dynasty (a Northern Song Dynasty in which food vendors take WeChatPay). Discuss with your team: do such living history museums offer valuable lessons in culture and history, or should we treat them mainly as entertainment—more Frontierland than the Smithsonian? Should schools take field trips to them?
Let's cover the facts first. There sure are a lot of them.
Dioramas: Aaron Delehanty is an artist who works in making Dioramas, or depictions of animals and people in their habitats, which he has been doing since 6th grade. This idea of a Diorama was first thought of by Carl Akeley in 1890, creating a whole scenery instead of just taxidermy.
The process of making one, as Delehanty says, requires a lot of research, meeting botanists, zoologists, anthropologists, and archaeologists to get a good sense of the surroundings. He, working with many others, constructed various dioramas with this idea and technique in mind.
A situation arose in 2015, where Delehanty worked with Akeley(Wow surprising) as well as others in a crowdfunding campaign led by Emily Grasile from "The Brain Scoop". This was a Youtube series which was filmed at the Field Museum and allegedly raised over 150k!
Some dioramas he has worked on are a group of 5 striped Hyenas in Somaliland, 1896 as well as the Cyrus Tang Hall of China, near the Yangtze river from 5500 to 3300 BC. Now, he is currently working on restoring an old diorama from the 1940s which depicted Rochester in 1838.
Overall, Dehanty believes that dioramas are a way to truly immerse yourselves in the past, with the scenery and everything present.
Poble Espanyol: This is an open-air museum located at the bottom of Montjuic, Barcelona which was built in 1929 for the World's Fair. This features replicas of 117 buildings from various regions of Spain, giving all visitors a taste of the genuine Spanish culture.
Highlights of this place include watching craftspeople work, feeling the "soul" of Spain with their technology and media, admiring artworks from famous artists, including Picasso, as well as hosting events in the summer.
The blueprints to build this were designed by Puig i Cadafalch, and went into action with their students Frances Folguera and Ramon Reventos. Along with others, they traveled to 1600 cities to find good buildings for the project.
After the fair was done, the plan was to demolish it but it was so popular it was kept. Later on, from 2008 to 2018, there was a project where over 8 million euros, 2.3 million of which were solely for audio-visual technology, were invested in modernizing this work.
The goal of this project was to combine architecture from all over Spain into 1 village. Basically, if you go to Poble Espanyol, you will be able to see every type of Spanish architecture. Puig i Cadafalch (Poble Espanyol Designer) made this to show Spanish history relative to modernism. (Ethan, see, I'm actually good)(No you bad Ben Zhong)
Overall, a visit to Poble Espanyol is definitely worth it for its historical context, atmosphere, craftspeople, and restaurants.
Heritage Park: "Heritage Park Historical Village" is the largest "Living" museum in Canada, located in Calgary(Hi Ryln!). There are several attractions and settings which are present, and give an overview of the history of the place as well as acting as an amusement park.
This park is a great experience for both children and adults to learn about Alberta's cultural heritage and its past. It is populated with several buildings referencing the histories of Alberta, as well as having a steam engine in the background and even horse carts! With over 200 exhibits, there are plentiful things to explore there.
Overall, this is just a fun experience to take children and adults to see the historical background to Alberta, and will certainly cover up an entire day! It's also a charity, so visiting them allows us to do more research on this topic.
Millennium City Park: Ughhh I had to do a lot of my own research on this one This is a large-scale cultural and historical theme park located on the western shore of Longting Lake, Kaifeng, China.
Founded in 1992 July, based on the painting "Riverside Scene" by Zhang Zeduan from the Northern Song Dynasty, this was opened in October 1998. The park was a recreation based on the image, and war about life in the Song Dynasty and its history.
Throughout the park there are several attractions based on the cultural background of the Song dynasty. This includes several older architecture like castles and bridges, and also staff in traditional costumes and over 20 performances depicting the life there!
The main highlight and performance of this is "The Great Song Dynasty - Reminiscences of the Eastern Capital" which has hundreds of actors, and includes 9 parts and 8 spectacular Chinese song poems and a lifelike picture, "Qingming Festival", again by Zhang Zeduan.
Overall, this park is a fantastic way to experience the life and culture of the ancient Song Dynasty in an entertaining and informative way. Just hope you can get a Chinese Visa, though!
Frontierland: Yep, here we are with another advertisement. First of all, I want to clear up something, being that the Smithsonian, what this was being compared to, is just a typical museum with all the boring historical things and everything.
Now, onto the "Truly Magical Place", or Frontierland. This is one of the theme lands in the Disneyland resort, and is like Disney's take on the general past, as we think of it. This is inspired by the wild west and includes many attractions themed like so.
When you think about stereotypical past ideas, you would think of the wild west, as well as maybe Mexican culture or others. Essentially, Disney is taking the most stereotypical ideas and incorporating them into this section of the park. This includes several of their movies, for one example being Coco. That movie in general references the thought and culture of Dias De Los Muertos(How do you spell it lol), a Mexican traditional holiday like Halloween, celebrating those spirits of whom have passed away.
Just overall, think of this place like a child-ified version of history. Although this can be an incredibly fun experience and influence kids to want to learn about this, it is certainly not a replacement for the immersive and direct thoughts of traditional museums, however it certainly can be one day.
This isn't a good idea. We're oversimplifying everything in the enriched history of things. There are just some aspects and ideas which can not be represented in any way except for the boring and conventional approach. And while the Dioramas may be very immersive, it still may not have enough historical context. What was going on at the time? We cannot see that in these new and simplified ways, and we need new context.
However, this is also an amazing idea. Having children learn about history in this way may inspire them to learn more, and spark their imagination and interest. This could, instead of being thought of as a direct alternative, just a spark in the right direction. So don't get my ideas wrong, I truly believe that this is an amazing idea, just not a complete removal.
Now, onto the true question. "Should there be field trips to these places?" My answer is yes. And I believe that all of you will agree. It's simple, letting children be entertained and learn a bit at the same time? Win-win.
The most famous of these museums can also be the most controversial. Consider Plimoth Patuxet in Massachusetts, where visitors can explore a colonial village and take selfies with healthy Pilgrims. The museum has recently been criticized for not paying enough attention to the indigenous peoples displaced and given smallpox by those same Pilgrims. One concern: that the tribe members staffing a Native American settlement recently added to the museum are not descendants of the actual tribe the Pilgrims first encountered. Discuss with your team: would it be better if they were—or would this be a different form of exploitation? Would it ever be okay for someone not of tribal descent to staff the Native American area of the museum? What if they weren't tribe members but had adopted tribal practices and cherished tribal customs?
Plimoth Plantation: This is a popular living history museum which recreates 7.5 months of 1627 over the span of every year, depicting actors portraying the "Pilgrims" arriving and their situation, with a heavily researched environment.
This village includes realistic timber-framed houses, forts, a water-powered mill, and barns, like a Wampanoag village. Visitors to this place can also visit a replica of the Mayflower II, a complete replica of the ship the pilgrims used to sail to Plymouth in 1620. Costumed "Intermediaries", or like middlemen, answered questions about the daily life and inquiries that visitors had.
Overall, there were many characters and homes which represented historical residents of the Plymouth colony including typical furnishings, gardens, and kitchens. Life mentioned before, it is home to a recreation of a Wampanoag homesite with Wetu(Wattle and daub) huts. The Mayflower II's replica was built in Devon, England around 1950 and returned in 2020 for the 400 year anniversary of landing in Plymouth.
All in all, the Plimoth Plantation gives a very immersive and exciting experience for those who want to learn more about one of America's first settlements.
Controversy time!: Although this idea seems very cool, there are some flaws, and there are always going to be those who complain about things. This is no exception.
Members of the Wampanoag community itself as well as their supporters are trying to Boycott the previously mentioned live action museum for several factors, prominently not telling the full story of the indigenous people and the pilgrims.
They say that the museum is not living up to the promise of breathing a bi-cultural museum which equally tells the story of both sides. Camille Madison, a memored of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe, is one expressing their frustrations with this museum on social media. Although the museum changed its name from the Plantation to Patuxet in 2018 to honour the 400th anniversary, the community still expresses the issue of telling their side of the story.
According to Paula Peters, a member of the tribe and a former worker, they say that the museum has not made much effort at all with expressing both sides of the story, and the view for doing this has not changed despite the controversies.
However, things may just be starting to shift. The museum has not received grants for Native American education programming ,and has hired a new director for the exhibits who is a Wampanoag member. Carol Pollard, whose late brother was a historian based on this, is still disappointed in the situation of this, with another lack of modernizing and expanding the outdoor exhibit.
Actions keep being taken, but people are still upset. Kitty Hendricks-miller is trying to reach out to teachers to get to the natives and have access to updated and more historically accurate information about this situation. And even with this action, as the same thing has been repeated over and over again, it is believed that the museum's efforts has, if not been stationary gone backwards to actually tell the story!(At least according the Casey Figueroa)
And finally, my opinion on this. I think that the problem is certainly real, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there were problems with finding the information from the indigenous people's side, and that there wasn't enough connection between the museum and others beforehand. It's all about perspective, and I'm not sure whether or not the museum is doing this intentionally.
To make the experience more realistic, some of these museums have diligently bred versions of animals that look more like their counterparts in the past: wilder pigs, gamier hens, dogs that are less Pomeranian and more wolf. Discuss with your team: is it okay to breed animals to serve as props in these kinds of exhibits—and does it make it better or worse if they are used for food, or taken home as pets?
Think about this. Animal testing is everywhere. And what is it for? Learning. Learning about new medicines, and these levels. At this point, the discoveries in this grade are so impactful that people are willing to make a sacrifice of animals to ensure that they work well.
Now, we get to my controversial-ish point. I think it's fine, depending on how important the motives and ideas are. If this, learning about our past and history is just as important as moving forward(In which I'm indifferent on the matter), it should be fine to do this. As an added bonus, this idea helps us learn how to selectively breed in a more efficient manner, and essentially genetically modify creatures in the future for our benefits.
And yes, everyone can blame me or any other person for thinking this way. However, If it is for a greater need, then it will certainly be ok in my mind to conduct these experiments. It's one step closer to refiguring out the past, and improvements will just be inevitable.
You may know someone on a "Paleo" diet, meaning they avoid processed foods on the theory that it is healthier to eat like our ancestors did 10,000 years ago, when their life expectancy was about 35. (To be fair, on average people died young because the super young died often—a lot of children never grew up.) Some archaeologists and historians are interested less in what we should eat now, however, and more in understanding ancient menus. What did people call dinner at different times in different places? Consider this reconstruction of a Roman thermopolium—where a young Caesar might have grabbed an isicia omentata to go, then discuss with your team: would you patronize restaurants that served food more like that in the premodern world? In North America, at least one chain, Medieval Times, has made a business of it, though its menu is less than authentic; for instance, it offers tomatoes, which didn't exist in Europe before the Spanish invaded Mexico. Speaking of tragedies, check out this menu from the last first-class meal on the Titanic; would there be a business opportunity in recreating it, or would such a business go underwater?
Paleo diet: Namely, AKA the "Caveman diet", is a diet which copies the food groups and choices of our ancestors during the Paleolithic era, from 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago. This would, of course, refer to the older diets and fooding from these times, and basically copies the stereotypical thought.
The diet emphasizes foods like lean meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, nuts, and seeds. All very natural foods, and avoiding processed foods in general, as well as grains and dairy. Imagine "being in the wilderness all alone and having to salvage and hunt for food yourself" type fooding, the easiest to access.
Many argue that it is supposed to be more nutritious and leads to weight loss, improved energy, and reducing the risk of several severe diseases. In other words, "Rejuvenating with the natural, and steering away from the modern".
However, critics argue that it is too restrictive on foods, and doesn't provide enough nutrients, as well as being unsustainable. Some things I've taken note are that the diet isn't scientifically proven at all, and some have jokingly said the opposite is true, with people's life spans being shorter in that era(Although that is most certainly because of the improvement of living conditions lol).
So overall, the idea of a Paleo diet is to only eat foods which would be easily accessible in the wild, and mimicking the ancient foods consumed(So ancient in fact, it's barely history recorded except for some cave paintings). Although many say it helps with many problems with the processed foods we're used to, the diet isn't scientifically proven and should be taken with caution.
So, basically this was the idea of eating like the past, like literally everything else in this section of the curriculum. Now, let's dive into some more modern, although still very ancient, meals and foods which were consumed, and how exactly people discovered them.
Meals from the past - China Edition!: The above mentioned article overviews making ancient recipes from molecular evidence, analysis based on archaeology, and stereotypical culinary thought. Essentially, this is done by making assumptions based on culture and leftovers from past and previous dishes.
Yitzchak Jaffe and Karine Tache examined a cooking pot from Gansu, a province of China from 1400-500 BC to try and guess what people were eating at the time period. They used many analysis techniques, and finally used lipid analysis.
Overall, they determined that millet was the main ingredient, and then recruited a chef, Raymond Childs, to try different recipes based on their findings. In the end, they came up with a millet-pork stew with eggplant, cumin, cloves, and star anise.
Finally, at the Appetite for the Past meeting, the dish was served and received positive thoughts from diners and other people. They also noted that certain dishes could've and were also ruled out, based on the immediate taste either fitting or not fitting the general human taste instinct.
So in general, using a type of food analysis(Which is incredibly complicated), researchers were able to reconstruct an old dish based on a cooking pot preserved from thousands of years ago. However, it is worth mentioning that they are just guesses based on a stereotype of the food back then overall.
The Thermopolium: This was a type of snack bar that served hot food and drinks back in Ancient Rome, like a modern bar. This word has a Greek origin and literally means "Hot Shop".
The structure was a small room with an opening to the street and a marble counter. As well, there were large terracotta containers(AKA Dolia) for storing food. The wall pictures in the places often showed the food sold in the place, like legumes, vegetables, eggs, olives, onions and meat.
89 Termopolums have currently been found in Pompeii, one of the most famous being the thermopolium of Vetutius Placidus from the 1st century. The thermopolium of Asellina on Via Dell'Abbondanza was also popular and famous.
One of the most popular foods sold there was the Isicia Omentata, a historic version of the hamburger. This was a specialty at the time, and contained minced meat, breadcrumbs, pepper, pine nuts, and many more.
So overall, imagine thermopoliums like older versions of modern bars, generally. However, something to mention is that they served food in individual stalls separate from one another, as well as there being "Cauponas" which were also ancient motels.
A medieval food re-creation failure… Or is it?: Medieval Times is a mimic of what feasts and food may have been like in the, you guessed it, medieval times. However, because there are always flaws in recreating the past, two people decided to go to it and review the foods to see if they are historically accurate, and actually good.
The two scribes who wrote this review of food, Ben of Robinson and Karen of Palmer, from "The Table That Many Good Fellows Taste At" traveled to Lundyhurst, New Jersey's restaurant "Medieval Times". Afterwards, they started to assess the foods.
The Wine and Cheeseburger were a success, being scrumptious as well as accurate, but the rib of boar was lacking in flavor and "Taste". The towel of heat was praised for its magical feeling, while the turnover was overcooked. However, the pastry of chocolate wasn't actually served, despite it being Karen's birthday(Whoops!).
However, overall, the pair found that the restaurant still had a good and enjoyable taste and experience of the past at the time, and was entertaining. Although there were improvements to be made about some of the foods, it was positive overall. Not a failure after all!
The Titanic's last meal: This is about the last meal served on the infamous RMS Titanic on April 14, 1912 at night. Needless to say, the meals were grand and lavish for those on the ship, being a very prominent and giant attraction for many. An interesting thing is that these were some of the only documents salvaged from the wreck of the Titanic, and are published in a book.
The first class passengers, some of the most wealthy people, were served a giant 10-course dinner in one of the ship's multiple dining rooms. This included Filet Mignons, lamb, roast ducks, and many more that I don't have the patience to list. This was also paired with fine wines, and every dish was served on silver plates. A first class survivor, Walter Douglas, recalled the night being cold and clear, with the dinner excellent.
To commemorate the centennial year of the tragic incident, the Balmoral cruise ship left the Southampton port on April 8th, 100 years after the Titanic sank, serving a seven-course dinner to try and replicate the very luxurious dinner on the Titanic.
And now, for my thoughts. Recreation of past foods is never perfect, and there were many flaws over historical depictions of food. Although historians may be interested in these foods, I believe that there is no market for this otherwise, and that using this as a business opportunity won't work well.
The Ulster American Folk Park isn't American at all—it's in Ireland. Visitors can experience the lives of Irish people who moved to the United States, from boarding crowded ships to sleeping in makeshift log cabins. Discuss with your team: is it all right for a country to reconstruct and market another country's history? If someone next door in Scotland were to build a similar museum about the lives of early British settlers in India or South Africa, would that be more problematic? Are there some periods of history that should never be simulated in the real world, even if the purpose is to demonstrate to visitors that they were terrible?
The Ulster American Folk Park: This is an open-air museum located in Tyrone, Northern Ireland. This tells the story of the emigration of people from Ulster to North America in the 18th and 19th centuries.
This park features a range of activities and explorations, like reconstructed buildings such as a farmhouse, and an Emigrant ship, which visitors can board and explore. It also has several costumed people showing traditional crafts and activities like spinning, weaving, and many more.
Something cool about the park is that it also has a range of animals, including horses, cows, and sheep which tourists can interact with. This means riding horses, petting sheep, and whatnot.
In addition to the strong history that the folk park represents, the museum mainly tells the story of three centuries of Irish emigration.
This park is operated by the Northern Ireland Museums Council, and is open from April to October. And Overall, this is one of the, if not the best open-air museum in Ireland.
And my thought about it is this: The museum is a great idea, even if it has US history. It tells a story between it and the connection it has. So, even if it is not in the USA, it still portrays something unique and special about history. So yes, this is a completely justified museum and idea, at least in my opinion.
There are fewer examples of "living future" museums—with good reason. But they do exist, often at World Expos or in amusement parks. Consider the following examples of such museums, then discuss with your team: do they tell us more about the future or about the past? If you were designing such a museum today, what would it look like?
Tomorrowland | Museum of the Future | "World of Tomorrow" (1939)
Crystal Palace | American National Exhibition (Moscow, 1959)
Ok I'm just going to give the facts about the places, nothing more, nothing less.
Tomorrowland: This legitimately took me the longest time, because I couldn't find out about what it was referring to. Now that I know, I can finally write about it.
Tommorowland is a themed land found in several Magic Kingdoms and Disney theme parks around the world. This was designed to portray Disney's views of the future, and constantly updates to accommodate research and new thoughts about the future.
This "Tomorrowland" is currently in its third iteration for Disney, and its second in Magic Kingdom. The Walt Disney Company mentioned they wanted to keep Tomorrowland from becoming Yesterdayland, and thus updated frequently.
Current attractions in this place include many futuristic thoughts from their movies and IP featuring Buzz Lightyear, Monsters Inc, The infamous Space Mountain, Stitch, and more.
A funny fact is that the 2007 Walt Disney Animation Studios film "Meet the Robinsons" features a parody called "Todayland" which is incredibly similar to the IRL version.
Museum of the future: This is an exhibition located in the Financial District of Dubai, founded by the Dubai Future Foundation and officially opened to the public on February 22, 2022.
This was set up to promote technological development and innovation, notably with robotics and AI. This was announced by the Ruler of Dubai on 4 March 2015, and was selected to be built on the date 7 February 2016, but not complete until later.
The goal of this museum is to foster solutions in the challenges that the future holds, and that cities later may have. This is a hub for researchers, inventors, and just in general every involved in the scheme of setting up the future.
This has held several exhibitions and tests since its announcement to the public, and all of them had different themes, although they all revolve around technologies. Every floor has different subjects on every floor, with 7 in total.
Several initiatives have been launched with it, such as making the Office of The Future, a 3d printed building, as well as the Global Blockchain Council, establishing stronger controls and connections to blockchain technologies.
Overall, this museum is a very important part in the Government of the UAE's mission to promote thought and innovation in new technologies.
World of Tomorrow: This was a world fair held at Flushing Meadows, Corona Park in Queens, NY. This was formed with a group of NYC businessmen who formed the New York World's Fair Corporation and chose Gover Whalen for its president. This was the second-most expensive World' fair of all time, and a whopping 44 million people attended its exhibits in two parts!
The overall theme of the world fair was "Building the world of Tomorrow" and it features stands and pavilions from countries all over the world, as well as businesses and organizations showing their advancements in technology, as well as predictions for the future at the time.
Danial Sarnoff of RCA introduced TV to the mass public for the first time at the RCA pavilion, and Edward Bernays directed public relations of the fair in 1939, in what he called "Democracity".
Some cool highlights of the fair were the Westinghouse Time Capsule, which is not to be opened until 6939, as well as a 7-foot tall robot named "Elektro the Moto-man". As well, on July 3, 1940, the fair hosted "Superman Day", a whole day based on, you guessed it, superman.
One of the most famous exhibits was the Futurama exhibit in the General Motors section. Designed by Normal Bel Geddes, this was a large-scale model of a futuristic city, with highways, skyscrapers, airports, and other things which are considered "Normal" now. Keep in mind, this was a depiction of the 1960s, and people could ride through and see what it may be like.
Enough blabbering, now to the actual section called the "World of Tomorrow". This features exhibits and ideas solely about science, technology, and the "Future" of humanity. This included space travel, atomic energy, computers, as well as things about transport, housing, and new medicine. This is what we're referring to as the World of Tomorrow, although everything else in the fair was still incredibly interesting.