Beyond Text Panels and Labels: Education and Public Programming in American Historical Societies
I N 1982 PHILADELPHIA CELEBRATED the tercentenary of its founding by William Penn with an array of public programs including exhibitions, performances, history mobiles, lectures, and street fairs. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania contributed a six-month exhibition, entitled "Philadelphia Portrait 1682-1982," which surveyed but did not interpret the city's history. The funding for this exhibition included budget lines to establish two new departments—museum and education—charged with the responsibility for creating exhibitions and programs to serve a broad general public of all ages. This new dimension of institutional life signaled an important shift in the Society's interest and direction. After 158 years of functioning as a research library serving scholars and genealogists with only the occasional exhibition and lecture for members, the Society joined a national movement to make historical societies an integral part of the communities in which they existed. History, at the Historical Society, would be more than collection and conservation; thereafter, it also would mean exhibition and interpretation. The Society's interest in a "public history" responded to a growing interest in popular social history in America. The social and political climate which broadened audiences for historical societies began most obviously in the 1960s, with African-Americans, white "ethnics," and women pushing for full participation in American life. These pressure groups recognized that legal changes were a necessary but not a sufficient condition for instituting societal changes in attitudes and perceptions about their members. The "action agenda" which these