# Presentation: 180569

## Discovering Drayton Hall

**Discovering Drayton Hall**

**Archaeological and Interpretive Review**
**February 5, 2004**

## Review Team

- Barbara Little, Archaeologist, National Park Service, Washington DC
- Ellen Strojan – Park Ranger, National Park Service, VA
- Gwen Beavans – Interpretive & Ed. Specialist, USDA Forest Service, SC
- Steve Fosberg – State Archaeologist, NM Bureau of Land Management
- Jim Ross – Archaeologist, Corps of Engineers, Mississippi
- Bob Del Carlo – Interpretation, National Park Service, Arizona

## Current Interpretive Media

- Archaeology incorporated into programs –
- 	 - Self-walking tour
- Personal house tour – 1-hour tour
- One sign (greenhouse)
- African American Programs (daily)
- Educational Programs for groups (extra cost, has to be pre-scheduled)
- Dig This!
- Diaries in the Dirt

## Dig This!

## Diaries from Dirt 

## Management Issues

- Need a continuum of history related –challenge of interpreting various time periods at one site without confusing the visitor.
- Want to bring geography in to tell the agricultural story...rice fields, garden history, cows in the back yard, calcium phosphate  mining, indigo and rice plantations.
- Protect against environmental damage (urban sprawl, vandalism, economic development). Get your site surveyed NOW, BEFORE a natural disaster or growth of your site (i.e. Hugo and land purchase)

## Environmental Threats

## Project Planning Team

- George, Director
- Craig, Education Specialist (also a film writer), tends to write most of the script and design programs
- Small committee of 4 or 5 experts, depending on the subject
- 15 guides/Interpretive Staff
- Script or content is based on the resource specialists information
- Monthly guide meeting, sends draft text to them for review
- Hires or consults experts from different fields if it is not his expertise

## Relative Success of Team Process

- Good team process, opportunities for sharing and editing
- Feel additional players such as an educator, curator, or interpretive specialist are needed on the team.

## Current Program Critique

- Like the two educational programs, obviously very successful. This same program is currently used for adults. Would like to see a completely different program for adults.
- Like having archaeology incorporated into the African American Tour and other aspects.
- Educational programs meet state standards. Pre and post visit lesson plans. This is excellent.
- Could benefit from a formal assessment of knowledge learned.
- Difficult to analyze tour, social aspect was alluded to, but we didn’t experience that. Was an architectural tour.

## Future Plans Critiqued

- Palm Pilot type tour – PDA. Great idea. Lots of flexibility. Possibly multiple language options. Could use timelines, old photographs, etc. to tell the continuous story which is a primary objective.
- More signage – we strongly agree with this as long as it is INTERPRETIVE signage.
- Visitor center/museum – Good idea. Involve and interpreter in the planning. Would like to see the artifacts and replicas at various places and in the house, rather than in the museum.
- Web site with archaeological components. Like the interactive elements proposed. Sounded like a great resource of information, marketing, and interpretation.
- Would suggest a peer review of all components, rather than an internal review.

## General Recommendations

- Tour by an African American to hear just their side of the story.
- Interpretive signage using drawings that show what the visitor can’t see. Meet ADA regs., 36” high, high contrast, visuals.
- Museum collection and interpretive specialist on site.
- Select an architectural component, make miniatures of it at each time period.
- Consider interactive components on the website to show changes over time
- Develop an oversized book, for interpretive purposes, that shows the landscape changing over time, with mylar over each page, reflecting the different time periods. Could do this for the house as well.
- Continued peer review.
- Living history would really add to this site.
- Use timeline that exists that shows data sources.

## Ya’ll Come Back!