When I began bringing the Everything is a Primary Source Podcast out into the public a few years ago, the sign for the New Hampshire Telephone Museum I’d see on I-89 outside Warner called to me. Even before stepping foot inside their building I figured, just from the title of it, that the museum would be the perfect spot to gather stories for my podcast from a candid public. A visit two years ago and then a wonderful impromptu recording with the museum’s director, Graham Gifford, at a conference this past Fall confirmed it. The vibrant, uber-interesting, communications museum proved today to be the perfect setting to preview my America at 250 Public History Road Trip Project.
The tone of the day
I brought along some (my version of “some” is about 100 pieces) artifacts to go along with NHTM’s collection and inspire conversation, and the variety of options made for the first two hours to be filled with one enthusiastic guest after another.
Dave was the first drop-in guest—making his the first episode of this coming season—and was glad to show and tell me about the blue box used by “phone phreaks” in the 1970s. In addition to my usual primary source analysis questions to guide conversation, this special season has my guests and I linking topics to the Declaration of Independence in some way. That wasn’t hard to do for Dave’s artifact from the Bicentennial era, which was used by rebellious youth to undermine elements of “the system”.
Sage, a NHTM staff member, selected Virginia Lee Burton’s 1942 Caldecott winning The Little House to discuss. We shared in a quasi-Mandela Effect moment in that the book seems to exist in pieces somewhere in everyone’s memories, but doesn’t gel until it’s opened. The story of a little pink, personified cottage being gradually overtaken by urban sprawl not only made for a great conversation between us, but allowed for a wonderful oral history about Sage’s grandfather and his attempts to move portions of his house away from the main road in front of it!
Pam, a fellow social studies teacher, stopped by next, and right after so did Bill, a retired career telephone man. Pam has been a regular to museum, donating several pieces over the years, but it was Bill’s first visit, and neither had ever met. This was the first time in the five years I’ve been hosting the show when I sat back and said very little; Pam and Bill carried the conversation and provided stories that I couldn’t have imagined would come up.
Today was Gwen’s first day working at NHTM but you wouldn’t be able to tell with how comfortable she was talking history. She joined me next and we talked about a mutual favorite movie, Back to the Future. I loved her connection to the Declaration, saying that the 1985 movie is all about teenage culture, and the colonies were very teenager-esque when they declared their separation from Britain in 1776.
My last guest was Ric, who enlightened me that we Erics can actually shorten our name further. A retired electrical engineer, he elected to talk about the Electronic Selector game that I picked up at Goodwill Buy the Pound a few months ago. I like the graphics on the box, but he and I were able to add so much more to its status as an artifact with a really interesting conversation.
Today’s event in Warner has set this public history project off on the right foot. I hope you follow as it’s being made, and enjoy the podcasts once they begin being released in July. You can support this initiative and listen to the raw audio well ahead of time by becoming a member at Buy Me a Coffee.