Reconstructing the Past

How far can a folk museum go in reconstructing the past? This question is posed after reading a monograph by Dr John T. Schlebecker of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. entitled The Past in Action: Living Historical Farms. Schlebecker is primarily concerned, of course, with the United States and deplores the fact that while ‘tools and implements’ are shown in open-air museums, ‘processes and life’ are not. He maintains that the farmer regulates and manages ‘biological activity’ and that tools, implements and machines ‘only vaguely hint at the more essential biological processes’. In short, he wants ‘farmers at work in field and barn, historical implements and machines in an historically recreated farm setting

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