TAE logo
 
Alan Machin: Tourism As Education
Home page: blogs, introductions, links to main pages
 
 
Berlin: Editing a Townscape
... and reading a city that has had many rebuilders
 
 
Making Sense of The Travel Learning Experience- 1
1 Information Streams
 
 
Making Sense of the Travel Learning Experience - 2
Some basic theories
 
 
Back to Basics: Presentation given at the Cuba EduTourism Conference
The CETA Conference in Havana, Cuba, 8/9 November 2010
 
 
About the author
Comments - CV - photos
 
 
Showcases
At the heart of the tourist experience
 
 
Learning through Landscapes
Exploring Oxfordshire (and a bit of Gloucestershire!)
 
 
The Environment As Data: Building New Theories For Tourism
How tourists relate to places
 
 
Sail Gives Way to Steam
A return visit discovers just how much has been achieved in this iconic restoration
 
 
Richard III and the Battle of Bosworth Reenactment
Visits to Leicester and the battlefield event, 2013
 
 
Along The Way
Recollections and Reflections of 60+ Years' Learning about the World and its Ways
 
 
On the Edge of the New World
Shaping New England
 
 
Flatland
Exploring Holderness in East Yorkshire; October 2012
 
 
Past Historic
Graf Zepplin, Spain 1968, OS History, Much Wenlock Olympics, Chatham Dockyard, Hawes Tourism, Colonial Williamsburg,
 
 
A Summer of Travelling / Matthew Starr
Three months' backpacking in Africa, Asia and Australia
 
 
East Anglia
The Broads, Pensthorpe natural history, Radar Museum, Caister Lifeboat Service and more!
 
 
A Richer Earth
Discoveries in the landscape and attractions of Shropshire
 
 
Blog Index Page
Blog pages from 2009 listed
 
 
From Strip Map to Sat Nav
'Finding the way' aids to exploration
 
 
Showcasing the World
How the Tourist Microcosm took centre stage
 
 
Doing A Dissertation
Notes to help students preparing their proposals
 
 
The Japanese Tsunami Destruction at First Hand
Sarah and Tom Wadsworth saw for themselves
 
 
Showcases: Examples
The range and variety of tourism's focal points examined
 
 
Jigsaw: Frameworks of Knowledge
The tourist jigsaw puzzle of - knowledge
 
 
Bibliography
Books and other works useful in studying tourism as education
 
 
Tourism's Educational Origins: Part 2
The development of tourism as education, 1845 -
 
 
Tourism's Educational Origins: Part 1
Tourism's educational origins and management
 
 
Impressions of Tourism in Cuba
Thoughts on having seen some of the country myself
 
 
Captain James Cook: North Yorkshire Days
Tracing the early life of Britain's greatest maritime explorer
 
 
Hunting the Hound of the Baskervilles
Tracking down places that inspired the famous detective story and moulded Dartmoor's image
 
 
Exploring the Idea of Dark Tourism
What is it? Is it a useful idea?
 
 
Talking to Tourists
Visitor interpretation - guide books, visitor centres and other media
 
 
Shades of Light and Dark in the Garden of England
An exploration in East Sussex and Kent, June/July 2010
 
 
Hunting the Gladiator and the Gecko
A thirteen-year search for a wartime adventure
 
 
Steam Up For A Famous Film's Birthday Party
The Railway Children weekend on the Worth Valley line raises questions about heritage presentations
 
 
Anne-Marie Rhodes: Making a Difference in South East Asia
Leeds Met graduate of '07 describes her activities
 
 
Discoveries in Northumberland, April 2010
Alnwick Gardens; Winter's Gibbet; Holy Island, Cragside, Wallington Hall
 
 
Discoveries in the Midlands, March 2010
Bletchley Park National Codes and Cipher Centre; and the Rollright Stones
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - April 2010
The development of tourism as education continued
 
 
Jigsaw Puzzle!
The Adventure of the Timely Tourist
 
 
Leaders Into The Field
People who inspired everyone to explore
 
 
Alan Machin's blogs - February and March 2010
Postings on the history tourism as education - redirection
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - January 2010
Tourist photography and souvenirs
 
 
Earlier front-page blog postings - January 2010 onwards
Archived after being on the Home Page
 
 
Bickering
News from higher education and - beyond
 
 
The Development of Educational Tourism
Key dates in the development of educational tourism
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - December 2009
Christmas Quiz and other postings
 
 
Analysing Heritage Tourism
Ideas and perspectives on a hugely important sector
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - November 2009
Visitors' Views of Stonehenge, West Sussex - and other Postings
 
 
Are Universities Losing Their Way?
Reflections having retired
 
 
Teaching Tourism At Leeds Met
Remembering the Best
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - October 2009
Thoughts about university life and discovery by travel
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - September 2009
Further postings about a trip last month to the USA, and about higher education
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - August 2009
Postings about a trip this month to the USA
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - July 2009
The Story So Far reaches the summer
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - June 2009
The Story So Far looks back on seventeen years at Leeds Met
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - May 2009
Another month of The Story So Far
 
 
Alan Machin's blog - April 2009
Yet more of the Story So Far
 
 
Alan Machin's blog - March 2009
More of The Story So Far
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - February 2009
The Story So Far - pioneers, people and places
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog: January 2009
The Story So Far .... first postings of '09
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog: December 2008
The Story So Far .... latest postings
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - November '08
The Story So Far.... continued
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog: October 2008
The Story So Far....
 
 
No Place Like Rome
The eternal city with the eternal tourists
 
 
Charleston, South Carolina
A photo essay about a fine historic city
 
 
Idealog - December 2007
Ideas, notes and comments
 
 
Idealog - November 2007
Ideas, notes and comments
 
 
The Educational Origins of Tourism
Discussion paper
 
 
Idealog - October 2007
Coton Military Cemetery; Education and Tourism; Chatham Maritime; Dickens World; Quiz Answers; Tourist Guides; Mediation In Tourism
 
 
Idealog - September 2007
Plane Paradox;Tour Guiding; Where in the World?; Do Tourism Students Know Where They Are?; Leeds Met's Wow!; Sea Harrier; Scarborough and Tourism As Education; Doing A Dissertation; Types of Tourist; A Media Lens; Cost of Travelling Alone; Risk of Bias?
 
 
Idealog - August 2007
A People Industry; Heritage Interpretation; Lud's Church; Tourists Go Home!; Stone Gappe YHA; Insight Guides; Eyewitness Guides; Bramhope Tunnel; Elizabethan Progress; Information Quality Matrix
 
 
Idealog - July 2007
Hidden Heroes, Health Tourism, Holme Fen Posts; Harrogate (again); Whitby Abbey; Dramatic Interpretation; Harrogate Interpretation, Attractions and Royal Hall
 
 
Idealog - June 2007
Christian Pilgrimage; Cincinnati Museums Centre; The Coming of the Guide Book; Talking to Tourists - Media, Stages of the Visit, The Service Journey; Tourism's Missing Link; The Final Call; SATuration level; Halifax's Edwardian Window on the World
 
 
Idealog - May 2007
Martin and Osa Johnson, Wensleydale Creamery, Malham Tarn, Thomas Cook, Northern Ireland's Tourism Rebuild, Jamestown Festival Park, Cite des Sciences
 
 
Idealog - April 2007
The Promenade Plantee, The Jardin des Plantes, Environmental Data, Victorian Beauty Spot Rediscovered, Jamestown, The Anglers' Country Park, Children's Museums, Fairburn Ings
 
 
Idealog - March 2007
A Sense of the Past- The 'Amsterdam', The Outdoor Classroom, Film-Induced Tourism, Making Tracks for the Coast and Country, Pictures, Context and Meaning, Classics-on-Sea, Hi Hi Everyone!, Dark Side of the Dream, Holodyne - The Action Cycle
 
 
Idealog - February 2007
Don't Go There!, Space Tourism, The Crystal Cathedral, New Books on Tourism, Dark Tourism - Undercliffe Cemetery, Showcase - The Louvre, A Class Act, First Impressions Count, Postal Pleasures, Canaletto in Venice, Serpent Mound, Capsule Culture etc
 
 
Idealog - January 2007
Capsule Culture,Seaside Style, Poble Espanyol, Mallorca, Edgar Dale, Children's Holiday Homes, Representations of Reality, Outdoor Education in Germany, Baedeker Guides, Geography Textbooks, Environmental Data Theory etc
 
 
Idealog - December 2006
Writers on Landscape, Story Books, The Deep, Flour Power and the Archers,Showcases: Grand Tour, Halifax Piece Hall, Books of Concern about Tourism, Tourist Traces, Tourist Typologies, The Growth of Educational Tourism, The Field Studies Council, etc
 
 
Idealog - November 2006
A blog of ideas, comments and notes
 
 
Travel To Understand: Belfast
Telling the stories of troubled times
 
 
World Quiz 2010
Geography with a tourism angle
 
 
The Monterey Bay Aquarium
An outstanding educational facility in California
 
 
Chicago: Tourism Re-Imaging
A closer view of an iconic city
 
 
Colonial Williamsburg
A Virginia history showcase
 
 
A Social Club Outing By Train, 1935
How to do Scotland in 30 hours flat
 
 
Going Dutch
Presenting the past in the Netherlands
 
 
Keukenhof: Business is Blooming
Using tourism to promote an industry
 
 
A View of Italy for the City
Trentham Gardens Revived
 
 
A Case Study in Heritage Management
A curious tale of misleading publicity
 
 
Old Rice Farm
The story of the house in the 'holler'
 
 
Perfection in Paradise: The Eden Project
New page being added: The Eden Project's design for success
 
 
Escaping From Slavery: Facing Our Past
The US National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
 
 
Prague Tourist Shows
Outstanding showcase attractions in the city
 
 
Retracing the Steps: Tourism as Education
ATLAS Conference paper given in Finland, 2000
 
 
Tourism and Historic Towns: The Cultural Key
A background paper for a Council of Europe Conference
 
 
The Social Helix
Visitor Interpretation as a Tool for Social Development, 1989
 
 
Malta Residential, 14-21 Feb 2006 - Page 1
Reports and Pictures
 
 
Malta Residential, 14-21 Feb 2006 - Page 2
Photos and reports of Friday 17 Feb onwards
 
 
Malta Residential, 14-21 February 2006 - Page 3
Reports and pictures from Sunday, 19 February onwards
 
 
Tourism Alumni Reunion, 8 March 2003
Leeds tourism students reunion 2003
 
 
World Geography Quiz 1
A test of your knowledge
 
 
The Adventure of the Timely Tourist
The answers
 
 
Tall Ships Race 2010 Converged on Hartlepool
A major event-based boost for tourism in the town
 
 
Plymouth: From the Tamar to the Sea
Starting point for explorations round the globe
 
 
Plimoth Plantation
A reconstruction of the Mayflower settlers' village of the 1620s on the north east coast of North America
 
 
World Geography Quiz 2010 - Answers
Geography with a tourism angle
 
 
World Geography Quiz - Answers
 
 
Christmas Quiz 2009 - Answers
 
 
Oxford
A day in the city including the Botanic Garden
 
 
Tourist Showcases
Examples from around the world
 
 

On the Edge of the New World

Plimoth Plantation

Plimoth Plantation

Alan Villiers sailed a full-size replica of the ship Mayflower from England to New England in 1957.  In the same year, building had begun on Plimoth Plantation, a representation of the village set up by the Mayflower colonists.

The town was named for the last place the settlers had seen in England in 1620.  Spelling was not standardised then.  The Plantation version was one of several used at the time and distinguished it from the name of the modern city close by.  The Mayflower is moored alongside the State Pier there.

Plimoth Plantation fulfilled the vision of ‘Harry’ Hornblower II who had spent boyhood holidays in Massachusetts.  He became fascinated with the stories of the Pilgrim Fathers and the symbolic landing point they were supposed to have first stepped onto – the ‘Plymouth Rock’.  There is no documentary evidence to support the claim, and, in fact, the settlers actually made landfall near the tip of Cape Cod close to modern Provincetown.  They made their first permanent homes within a couple of hundred metres of where the Rock sits under a classical canopy dating from 1920.

Hornblower opened a ‘first house’ representation on the waterfront in 1949, adding a second house and then a fort/meeting house soon after.  In 1956, his family provided the land for the present village reconstruction, where building began the following year.  The fort was moved there.  It now acts as the main entrance to the colonists’ village project, with many houses with their backyards, workshops and fields with sheep, cattle and goats.

Native ‘wigwams’ were set up in 1964.  Costumed guides described life in the colony and the ways in which the houses had been furnished with antiques.  Mannequins were placed to represent the inhabitants.  It depicted the village as it might have been in 1627 when it really stood where the city is today.

In the late 1970s, staff began to try out techniques that had been established in other US museums such as Old Sturbridge, also in Massachusetts, and a few places in Britain.  This was First Person Interpretation.  They adopted well-researched roles based on real historical people, their lives and characters.  Visitors found themselves being greeted as if they were seventeenth century travellers.  Careful training by linguistic specialists prepared them to use one of seventeen local or regional English dialects with appropriate vocabulary.  Meticulous preparation allowed them to deal with questions about village life and the culture of the colony.  Suitable ways of responding to visitors who referred to twentieth century features such as fridges or automobiles were devised.  These glossed over such things by saying something like “you will have your new devices; we have to make use of what we can”.
In the late 1960s, a crucial development began to appear.  People from the nearby Native American community, the Wampanoag, were drawn in to operate a ‘summer camp’ Native Village alongside the Pilgrim Village.  It gradually established close to the settlers’ homes but with its distinct style and culture.  Wampanoag huts, crops and craftwork were placed on view and in the hands of Native peoples.  The route in to the main village from the museum entrance runs through the Wampanoag site, taking visitors in the correct historical stages of Native America being followed by settlers arriving from England.

Other museums have had to move away from the white European view of the United States.  Black slave history is the subject of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Centre in Cincinnati.  The Magnolia Plantation and Gardens near Charleston has been restoring slave huts for visitors to see.  Native American life and culture is so far on show in small centres and archaeological sites.  But Colonial Williamsburg, an important museum and town in Virginia with key War of Independence connections, has been building up the depiction of black history slowly over some decades.  Sited in a prominent slave state the role of black people was central to life in Williamsburg.  The problem has been twofold.  As a museum devoted to the mid-eighteenth century, it has to have black folk shown in slave and servant roles, which can reinforce a status that is no longer acceptable.  At the same time, at least in the 1950s and 60s, the museum could only go so far in placing black people in more important staff positions as some whites opposed such moves.
Plimoth Plantation now gives more stress to the use of the Native American name of Patuxet, while still referring to Plymouth as the nearby modern community.  The terms ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ and ‘Mayflower settlement’ are played down while the phrase ‘English Village’ has been adopted.  Polite information panels request visitors not to employ out of date Hollywood vocabularies such as ‘red indian’ or ‘war whoop’ when talking with the Wampanoag staff.

How ‘living history’ attractions present history is fraught with problems of accuracy, disputed implications and sanitisation of social and environmental conditions.  The need to raise money for charitable foundations to survive is central to their function but can be loaded with controversy.  But there is no doubt that many successful moves have been made, even if they sometimes have only edged towards improvements.

[14.08.12]

The JFK Library

JFK: On the Edge of the TV Age

The John F Kennedy Library stands overlooking Boston Harbour.  Eleven US Presidents since Herbert Hoover have libraries dedicated to them.  They house archive materials relating to their life and times and their periods in office.  The collection from the Kennedy years is accompanied by a visitor centre open at a small charge to anyone wishing to see it.  The Library exists for research and debate about JFK’s achievements and failures alike.  On the day we were there, sat eating sandwiches by the small cafe, Dave suddenly noticed Laura Bush walk past with a group of people.  She is the wife of President George W Bush.  They have a summerhouse – actually a whole compound full of them – at Kennebunkport, further up the New England Coast.  When we left, we saw the small motorcade that carried her, parked outside.  Two State Troopers wandered around.  They looked pretty much of pensionable age.  Well, she wasn’t the President.

The exhibition on JFK begins with an audio-visual theatre presentation.  It tells of his life up to his election as President.  The first part of the exhibition sets the scene of home life in the USA at the time through a display of domestic goods in which a TV set is prominent.  His early days were shown in the theatre show: like all modern US Presidents he came from a wealthy background with brothers Robert and Ted also moving into politics.  Marriage to Jacqueline Bouvier brought a new element of glamour that helped his image on TV.  Since television was increasingly important in 1950s political campaigning, this was important.
 
The exhibition has three main themes.  The first is the role of TV in helping his elections, in channelling his political campaigns and in publicising issues of the day, notably the position of black peoples in the USA.  The second is about the image of the Presidency, with Jackie Kennedy’s attractive style and life in the White House playing a glossy part.  The phrase of the time about the Court of a modern Camelot comes to mind, playing up the near-regal aspect of the Kennedys along with their perceived youthful, idealistic character.  It was not a description that survived, untarnished, in the years following his assassination.  Third in the set of themes is that of his successes and failures in international politics such as the Bay of Pigs debacle and the Cuban missile crisis, and in domestic affairs, notably in connection with the moves towards the ending of racial segregation.

How visitors react to the exhibition depends, of course, largely on their ages.  As someone who lived through those years my response had more personal elements, having seen Walter Cronkite in near-tears announcing Kennedy’s death in Dallas, and remembered the missile standoff against the USSR the previous year.  Incidentally, the tragedy of the assassination is played low-key.  A darkened corridor with a few TV monitors tells the story through news clips, and that is about all.  My son and daughter-in-law knew their history, having been mainly educated in the USA and living there for many years.  Simon, their nine year old, probably related best to the tableau showing TV studios, control desks and the White House’s Oval Office rigged for TV the broadcasts by which Kennedy excelled.  The rest was more likely distant history.  It would have to be understood better in later life.

The iron furnaces of Saugus seen later in the day were much more immediately exciting.

[10.08.12]

Saugus Iron Works

Saugus Iron Works

As we arrived at one of the USA’s most important industrial sites, the heavens opened.

Ominous black clouds delivered the torrential rain they had been promising.  Our small family group scattered into the shelter of whichever building looked dry and interesting enough for the duration.  Dave and Tara ran for the visitor centre with Simon.  James vanished somewhere.  I made it to a large wooden building with a water wheel strapped to its side that looked particularly promising.

It was naturally dark as a replicated seventeenth-century iron works.  The lashing rain made it even darker.  One side was open, looking out over a narrow arm of water that connected with the sea somewhere distant.  Rain dripped down through some gaps in the roof.  Drying my glasses and peering around a little out of focus showed me a huge trip hammer to the left.  On the right was a welcome glow from a charcoal fire.  It took a few moments to locate one of the National Parks guides sitting in front of a giant leather bellows contraption behind the fire.  The threat of rain had kept visitors away so there was no one to be shown around just then.  It would be a bonus for us as we were to have exclusive access to Kate Bittenden’s wealth of knowledge - and blacksmithing skills - for the next hour.

It was late July 2012.  We had rented a house near to Cape Cod for a week, reuniting a dozen people aged from 8 months to grandparents.  They live in the USA and England but try to get together every couple of years as a large gathering.  As often happens, not everyone can make it – a full complement could be at least twice as many.  Visiting places with historical and landscape interest such as coast or countryside, shopping and eating out are all on the bucket list.  Having everyone together round the breakfast and dinner table is one of the delights.  Excursions to places of interest may occupy one devotee or everyone.

If there was a common theme to the Massachusetts trip, it might be called ‘On the Edge’ – landmark locations associated with key events or giving views of unfamiliar worlds.  Whale watching was a good example of the latter this July.

I had been hankering to see Saugus for over thirty years since working at the Ironbridge Museum with the iron furnaces that fed the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century.  Saugus was an older museum-type project and celebrates an older, though briefer, industrial age with barely a toehold on the edge of North America.  So the opportunity to go first to the JFK Library south of Boston downtown and Saugus in the afternoon was irresistible.

What a difference between the two.  How would 9-year old Simon react to them?  He spent quite a bit of time following the narrative, with his mum helping along the way.  The Kennedy era ended ten years before Tara was born, so there were no first-hand recollections from her either.  The next posting will be about the John F Kennedy story as told by the Library exhibition.

Saugus was more fun in most ways.  Actually sited in a place called Hammersmith, on the Saugus River, it was almost the first iron-making site in the fledgling American colonies.  It had blown-in its smelter in 1646.  Such a long way from its backers in England and the skills of iron making that the old country enjoyed, it struggled financially and closed for good twenty-two years later.  But the need for iron goods in the colonies led to many other furnaces and forges being established.  Their success made the English government distinctly uneasy since it saw the colonies as sources of raw materials for Britain to make into manufactured goods.  American needs for iron should have been met by buying from Britain.  For the settlers it meant greater expense, much wasted time and unnecessary communications.  The iron makers on that side of the Atlantic were among the first to chafe at the bit of colonial rule.

Soon after World War II, the American Iron and Steel Institute organised the excavation of the Hammersmith works.  In the early 1950s, there were no conservation rules to prevent the next step.  This was to replicate the ironworks structures on the remaining foundations of each original, as it was uncovered.  Later, such a project would have had to have been carried out somewhere close by so as not to prevent any further archaeological exploration.

Now, it is possible to follow all the stages of making iron goods from ore to item.  In the general view above (photographed as that rain began to clear) the blast furnace is on the left.  Out of sight is the water wheel that powered the bellows putting the blast into the furnace in order to reach the smelting point of the ore.  The wooden bridge is visible across which men pushed barrows of iron ore, charcoal and gabbro in order to tip them into the open furnace top, a dangerous and dirty job.  Gabbro was used here in place of limestone as a flux to aid the smelting process.  Iron would be cast into channels in sand in front of the furnace.  When cooled to a solid it was hauled away to be used as required in the next building, the one with the taller, white, chimney.  This building is also seen in the right-hand photo with James investigated to water wheels set into motion by our guide, Kate.  One operated another set of bellows to fire the forge seen burning above.  Iron bars heated in the fire would be swung under the quarter-ton head of a huge hammer lifted and then released by another water-powered mechanism to beat the metal repeatedly.  The iron would be reheated, hammered out and folded many times.  The wrought metal was more malleable then. 

It was taken next to the rolling and slitting mill – building number 3 with the smaller, white, chimney in the middle of the general photo.  More of the works’ seven water wheels operated rollers and cutters able to turn the bars into different seized billets or rods.  These might be sold to blacksmiths for their own use or taken to the Saugus smithy close by.  This was the final part of our tour.  Here, Kate Bittenden donned a leather apron, heated up the smithy fire and cut and shaped nails from some of the iron rods.  Simon is proudly showing one made as he watched.  It was cut to length, a point hammered at one end and a crude head beaten at the other.  Hundreds would have been made every day.  And it was quite a surprise to Simon, with several years of schooling ahead of him, to learn that in the mid sixteenth century he could already have been working at a forge for a year by the age of nine.

[09.08.12]

Text-only version of this page  |  Edit this page  |  Manage website  |  Website design: 2-minute-website.com