COVER STORY

Lawrence Yerdon, president of Strawbery Banke inside Stoodley’s Tavern, where programs are conducted with area schoolchildren. Photo: Jay Reiter

"There are far different expectations for museums than when I was a kid." LAWRENCE YERDON, president of Strawbery Banke

At first glance they appear as natural historical beacons for tourists in the region. Strong brand names such as Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, the Museums of Old York, or the younger American Independence Museum in Exeter conjure sentiments of a young and developing nation.

But looks can be deceiving. In an age when businesses are increasingly being altered by the speed of technology, these living historical museums are seeing attendance and revenues declining, and are in the danger of slipping into irrelevance.

And for museum leaders such as Lawrence Yerdon, president of Strawbery Banke Museum, it is not an academic question to consider whether these vital reminders of our history will survive deep into the 21st century.

"There are no quick and snappy answers," Yerdon said. "We saw extraordinary growth (in the museum business) in the 1990s. We have seen a steady downturn (in attendance) since 9/11, which was a watershed for our entire industry. Audience tastes have changed as have travel patterns."

Scott Stevens, executive director of the Museums at Old York, said, "We have been in a long period of declining admissions since the end of the bicentennial."

At Old York, for example, the most popular attractions of its eight historical buildings is the Old Gaol. Stevens said that attendance for that exhibit has dropped more than 60 percent since 1976.

And that decline, Stevens thinks, is partly due to the fact that many historical museums are trapped in business and cultural practices more than a century old. They are in competition for the leisure dollar and traditional practices such as guided tours at set times are reflective of outdated methods.

"There are far different expectations for museums than when I was a kid," Yerdon said. At Strawbery Banke those changing expectations have led to an attendance drop from 34,700 in 2002 to 25,000 in 2005.

 What are your favorite museums to visit on the Seacoast? Post your comments here!
What are your favorite museums to visit on the Seacoast?

The threat to our region’s large and small museums is not isolated.

"If you were a company that made widgets and saw this type of decline, you’d go out of business," said Beverly Sheppard, the CEO and president of Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. Sheppard has seen attendance numbers decline dramatically at one of the country’s most prestigious institutions, from 566,000 in 1989 to 283,000 in 2005.

In a new book she co-authored, "Thriving in the Knowledge Age," Sheppard argues that museums will have to radically change their way of doing business by, in a sense, paying attention to the buyers of their products by offering more personalized and community based experiences.

In an age of iPods and video games and instant global communications that render history into sound and video packages, Sheppard said museums will have to think way outside the box and consider avenues such as becoming major research institutes or hosting public television stations – anything to show that they aren’t static.

Solutions

Funi Burdick, the executive director of the American Independence Museum since 2001, said the anxiety in the industry is quite high but she welcomes the challenge.

"We need to think hard and change to fit into modern society," she said.

Burdick, who worked at Strawbery Banke for a decade, said museums have always been "trying to say history is fun. I think it’s important we say that history is fun and relevant."

The AIM is the newcomer on the block. Founded in 1991, the museum is known for its document collection, which includes two drafts of the U.S. Constitution and an early copy of the Declaration of Independence. The AIM has a budget of around $250,000 a year and draws about 12,000 visitors, many from New England who often are on their way to other destinations such as Portsmouth or Maine.

Burdick said that the museum strives to connect "America’s revolutionary past" to the present through its artifacts, special day-long events throughout the season and lecture series. The 18th century Ladd-Gilman House acts as a fulcrum, highlighting the Gilman family’s role in the founding of the country.

To show its historical relevancy, Burdick said the AIM has taken the controversial headlines of today such as The Patriot Act and issues such as loyalty and civil liberties and turned them to its advantage by changing exhibit themes and forums where experts debate the historical roots of these modern dilemmas.

"The more stories we can tell, the more effectively we can use our artifacts to tell those stories, the more engaged children and adults become," Burdick explained.

School children tours have become more vital to the future of these museums. In York, Scott Stevens said that children’s tours are going "gangbusters" and Strawbery Banke will be opening a new Discovery Center for children and families on July 1.

As with the AIM and its muster day for children – in which they carry a wooden musket, wear a three-cornered hat and learn what it was like to train as a Revolutionary War soldier – the Discovery Center emphasizes a hands-on experience which is a departure from past passive, guided-tour practices. While Strawbery Banke continues to raise money for important restoration projects, it also has reorientated itself by adding more educational programs, opening the Tyco Visitor’s Center to help make the museum more accessible and the Dunaway Restaurant, to help keep people there a while longer.

"We need to serve our audience better with more of an overall experience," said Yerdon, who also thinks that integrating technology into the museum experience will play an increasingly important role in the museum’s long-term prospects. In York, they have unveiled a new marketing effort. What was once known as the Old York Historical Society has become the Museums at Old York, which Scott Stevens said, better reflects the institution’s mission and experience. And while Old York has altered it practices to reduce guided tours and emphasize more hands-on approaches, Stevens isn’t convinced that increasing technological wizardry at his museum will help.

Tom Johnson, consulting curator and Funi Burdick, executive director of the American Independence Museum Exeter. Photo: Jamie Cohen

"The more stories we can tell, the more effectively we can use our artifacts to tell those stories, the more engaged children and adults become." Funi Burdick, executive director, American Independence Museum

"The problem with a device like a touch screen is they break down and it can isolate people," he said. He thinks the museum can thrive with the ideal "that the present can be enriched by the past" and that a better presentation of its exhibits can reflect that.

This is why the museum, which celebrated its centennial as an organization in 2000, recently opened the restored 18th century Ramsdell House that is unique due to the fact that it was a house of a working family of six who inhabited two rooms. "Where was the shower?" was a question a child asked Stevens.

There’s also another generation to watch as a potentially large market. In other words, here come the baby boomers and museum directors are planning for them.

"You start appreciating history when you get older," Stevens said. The boomers are being watched because they will be the largest retirement population group in American history and may have plenty of disposable income to spend.

Where’s the community?

"From Kennebunk to Portsmouth, we have the highest concentration of historical architecture than anywhere else," Stevens said. But the depth of appreciation of that fact on the local level also may help determine the future of these institutions. Strawbery Banke in particular is unique because, as Yerdon said, it is a downtown history museum. "We are a center of community engagement."

Whether the community shares that feeling is important. Though Strawbery Banke, which was founded by local citizens in 1958, has developed a strong donor base, for most locals it has become a place to avoid as only 117 area residents were official visitors last year and the number of family memberships continues to decline.

In a sense, there is paradox at work – pride in the institution while taking it for granted.

Part of the responsibility for enhancing community awareness, said communications marketing director Stacey Brooks, belongs to the museum, which needs to do a better job of communicating the museum’s changes and its importance to the community.

The reality, as related by Yerdon and others in this story, is that these institutions are far more vulnerable than the general public realizes. And though no one wants to cry wolf too loudly, it’s clear that many in the industry think that if these living museums become history in their own right, it may be too late for a revival.