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Over the past two weeks finally got in contact with two more oral history candidates to interview and I had two very different interviews.

The first interview was with a man named Joe who never actually raced himself, but instead he was an avid spectator at one of the local racetracks. However, even though he had never raced Joe was incredibly passionate about racing. Joe had been going to races since he was very young and he had lots to say about the track and the drivers who raced there. In fact, Joe had so much to say that the interview ended up being nearly two hours long. I only needed to imply a question and Joe would talk for ten minutes about the subject, and within that ten minutes, he would answer questions that I hadn’t even asked yet. He was willing to open up and share personal stories about himself, other spectators, and the drivers. It was very easy to have a conversation with him, and that conversation turned into a great oral history with plenty of material that will be easy to place in the future exhibit.

The other interview I had did not go as well. This interview was with an older man named Stover, who raced bicycles when he was younger. Instead of the easy conversation found in my previous interview, asking Stover questions was a lot more like pulling teeth. I would ask him a question that got previous interviewees excited or talking a lot (like how did you get into racing? Or why does racing matter to you?), and he would answer in only a few words or sentences. While I was able to get material that will help with the exhibit, the interview itself was much shorter and it flowed less well.

I think part of the problem is that Stover went into the interview with a much different attitude than Joe. Whereas Joe was enthusiastic about sharing his experiences and memories with others, Stover was much more reticent and would stop himself from getting very personal. I also contributed to the problem because I came into Stover’s interview a little less prepared with background knowledge than with Joe. I had already done two other interviews about automobile racing by the time I interviewed Joe, but Stover was my first bicycle interview.

So far the most difficult part of the oral history process is getting people to respond with a time that they would like to do the interview. Despite starting this internship at the beginning of June it was only the very last week of June when I finally got to record my first oral histories.

I interviewed Wally Stronski, a drag racer from the 50’s/60’s, and Larry Holbert, whose brother and father were sportscar racers. Overall, the interviews went pretty well and it was really interesting to hear their stories. Both of my interviewees also had several bits of racing memorabilia that would potentially be used for the exhibit.

While I am waiting for more people to respond to my email I have begun the next step of the oral history process—transcription. While transcription is not particularly difficult it requires a lot of concentration and it can get kind of tedious. However, as I was transcribing the recordings I was able to see where I could make improvements in my interview technique.

My goal for these interviews is to make them feel like more like conversations where the interviewee really opens up and talks about the given subject. One way to do this would be to work on my follow-up questions. While I did ask several follow-up questions, at times I jumped too quickly away from something that the interviewee probably would have talked more about.

I definitely want to order my questions a little better because it would be helpful to have a clearer direction instead of jumping around so much. For example, I noticed in one of my interviews that I brought up one specific subject early on in the interview and then came back to the subject with a similar question at the end. I had forgotten about the second question until the end of the interview and if they had been grouped together, it may have helped the interview to flow better.

 

I am happy to have gotten the first set of oral histories done and I hope that the next few go even smoother now that I have had time to analyze my methods.

This week, while I was waiting to hear back from oral history candidates, I helped take down part of the temporary exhibit and begin the process of putting up a new exhibit. It was interesting to see what really goes on in the creation of exhibits.

 

Putting back all of the different artifacts took the most time. The artifacts had to be replaced either to either the permanent exhibit or one of the storage facilities. With the artifacts from the permanent exhibit, I got the chance to learn more about organizing and placing artifacts in exhibits.

I was also able to go into Mercer Museum’s storage facilities. The Museum has two different off-site storage buildings. It was amazing to see the many different artifacts that are not normally on display. Many of the artifacts were simply repeats of things displayed in the permanent exhibit, others (such as the fire truck) were from prior temporary exhibits. While I was not able to take pictures, it was still really interesting to see how many just how many artifacts the museum owns.

 

The biggest storage facility is climate controlled and it is home to the larger artifacts (including a fire truck from the 1800’s), the textile and portrait collections, as well as other sensitive objects. It is also where much of the work for exhibits is done, and it is where I helped prepare for the upcoming American flag temporary exhibit.

My main job in the preparation process was making the labels for the new exhibit. Labels are not something you ever really think about when you walk through a museum, and yet they are essential in helping people understand what is going on in the exhibit.

I’m proud of the work that I put into this exhibit and I am excited to see how the final product comes together.

The Mercer Museum was originally founded by Henry Mercer in 1904. Mercer was an anthropologist who was interested in preserving the history and art of American tools and crafts prior to the Industrial Revolution. Many of the artifacts in the museum focus on what everyday life was like for Americans working and living in the 18th and 19th centuries. Mercer himself organized the permanent exhibit, and the unique layout has remained relatively untouched since Mercer’s death.

The Museum also has its own research library, which is where I will be spending most of my time this summer. I will be researching an exhibit for the Museum’s temporary exhibit space. The exhibit is scheduled to premiere in the summer of 2018 and it is about racing. Specifically, it will look at the history of foot, bike, auto, and horse racing. It will look at the different ways people race and the different reasons why people are inspired to race.  The Museum is also very focused on local history, so this new exhibit will be sure to highlight racing in Bucks County.

Basic research had already been done on the subjects of bike racing and auto racing, so in my first few days at the museum I was responsible for getting caught up on the pre-existing information. The pre-existing information was pretty broad and not very specific.The oral histories that I collect will be used to gather further information and they will possibly be used as multimedia elements in the future exhibit.

A key part of the exhibit is also focused on local history and how racing has been a part of the Bucks County community, so all of my oral history interviews will be centered around people who are a part of the local community. We are looking to interview people from the community who either raced in the past, or who had connections to someone who raced. By interviewing local people we will be able to get information that is much more specific and personal.