Session 4 | March 1, 2025
Focus on Visitor Engagement
The most engaging volunteer docents don’t just share facts—they create meaningful connections between visitors and the past. In this session, we explored strategies you may use to make your tours and programs more dynamic, personalized, and inclusive. We explored techniques to learn visitor interests, allowing you to tailor your tour to their background knowledge and unique needs. We also practiced effective questioning methods that encouraged deeper interpretation of artifacts that engage visitors’ curiosity. We also explored strategies to foster an inclusive mindset that will help you to navigate diverse perspectives and move beyond a singular, “dominant narrative.” Review the activities below to review all that we accomplished this session:
Pre-Session: Read & Reflect
Then, we imagined our perfect trip to a historical house museum. Jotting down a few notes to document your thoughts, we reflected on these prompts:
Are you greeted at the door?
Do you have the opportunity to ask questions during the tour?
Imagine you encounter these three artifacts or structures. Which one are you most drawn to? Why are you drawn to this artifact or structure?
What might be the function or use of this artifact or structure? Who might use it and why?
Notice how you described its use. Who is included in your narrative? Who is not?
Now, imagine you go back to this historical house museum with someone else. This may be your grandchild, your neighbor, or your best friend. How might your expectations of their experience change? What would you want the docent to do differently to make sure their trip to the historical house museum is as perfect as yours?
Prior to the session, we read the following sections of your blue Essential Skills of a Volunteer Docent toolkit:
Creating an Inclusive Mindset and Civic Narrative - pages 5-9
Establishing a Connection with Your Visitors - pages 10-13
Using Effective Questioning Techniques - pages 48-51
History docents don’t just tell facts but are able to tailor their tours of the historical house museum to meet the interests and needs of their visitors. Review this slide deck to consider the different strategies and techniques docents may use to engage the many types of visitors you might encounter during a tour, program, or event:
Getting to Know Your Visitors’ Interests
Next, we met with Paula Podgurski, a volunteer docent at the Jacobus Vanderveer House, who shared many suggestions on how to greet visitors, assess their various interests, and tailor tours to meet their interests. She offered many resources where docents could find appropriate clothing, fabric, and shoes to wear if you have an interest in dressing in accurate period attire for reenactments or living history events. Paula also shared some of the humorous quotes from historical figures like General Knox and General Washington that she uses to spice up her tour narratives.
We met with Olinda Young, a volunteer docent at the Van Veghten House, who demonstrated how she lures the interest of visitors into the stories behind the artifacts they encounter in a historical house museum. Olinda used a portrait hanging over the mantle in the parlor of the Van Veghten House to lead us to discover not only who the subject of the portrait may be, but how itinerant portrait artists sold their ware during the Revolutionary Era. She then discussed how docents were often called upon to do research to determine the authenticity, provenance, and historical accuracy of an artifact. Olinda distributed a collection of artifacts that had been donated to the Van Veghten House or found during excavations of the property. Through our examination, we discussed their possible use, and used the National Archives’ resources (found on pages 29-30 of our blue Essential Skills of a Volunteer Docent toolkit) to guide our analysis. These artifacts included wooden scoops to measure grain, a “crazy” quilt, historical buttons, powder horns to carry gunpowder, a hand grenade, a heavy iron used for laundry, a midwife’s journal, and a framed portrait.
Using Inquiry to Interpret Artifacts
Finally, we met with Daniel Sieh, a public historian with 18 years of volunteer docent experience at historical house museums along the East Coast of the United States. In his lecture about moving beyond the dominant narrative, he defined the term “dominant narrative”, explained why and how it exists, and then talked about the importance of moving beyond it if you are a docent at an historical house museum. Daniel used the metaphor of “front of the house” and “back of the house” to emphasize the importance of including all people when relating historical narratives. In response to a question from the floor about whether it is wise to “just present facts” or whether it was better to try to tell “all the stories”, Daniel reminds us that “facts” might be seen from many perspectives. He encourages us not only to talk about the prominent people who sat at a dining table, but to also include the people who harvested the crops, cooked the meal, and then served the food. Daniel presented several case studies and challenges us to join in creating an inclusive narrative that includes dominant voices and voices that might have been marginalized, forgotten, or not heard.