Guest Post: Interpretation

A couple of months ago, I guest wrote a post for my friend and fellow blogger Ryan O'Connell. Ryan and I met five years ago when we both worked at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park's education division. That summer, we taught middle school students from around the country about John Brown and what life was like during the Civil War. Now, Ryan has guest written a post for me! Enjoy!


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Freeman Tilden is not a name many people know. He was not someone important on the world stage. He will probably not appear in any history book or be remembered for being a leader. Yet this humble and down-to-earth man has indirectly affected the experiences of millions of people visiting the National Parks since 1957. 

Photo: vialibri.net

He was born in 1883 in Massachusetts to a well-to-do newspaper family. He became a writer traveling the world penning articles for notable periodicals such as the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, the New York Evening Post, the Ladies' Home Journal, and the Saturday Evening Post. He also spent his spare time to writing creatively, authoring 25 books of fiction and nonfiction, hundreds of articles, short stories, poems, plays, and radio serials. To some, it would have been enough to retire after a long career of journalism and writing at 58. Instead, it was a new beginning for Freeman, which goes to show you that it is never too late to find a new calling.

Photo: npshistory.com

He met Newton Drury, the director of the National Park Service (NPS) at the time and eventually given a title of Administrative Assistant and given the opportunity to travel the NPS and write public relations and interpretation. He could see that it was not enough to give a tour, or set up an exhibit, or have a class. Education was simply not enough. The Parks needed to be sublime, transcendent, and meaningful. Tilden wrote about the National Parks for over 40 years based on his observations and his travels within the parks. Nothing speaks for itself because as Tilden states, 

"Through interpretation, understanding; through understanding, appreciation; through appreciation, protection." 

To this end is what the Parks were originally set up to do, to protect the resources of our shared iconic environment and our cultural heritage.

Photo: communicationconstipation.wordpress.com

            Tilden's best known work was entitled Interpreting Our Heritage. It was the result of years of observing visitors and park rangers giving tours of National Park sites, often giving talks himself. The book centered on “The Six Principles of Interpretation,” which were designed to be easy and common sense. The principles are:

1. Interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile. Interpretation should be personal to the audience.
2. Information, as such, is not interpretation. Interpretation is revelation based upon information. Successful interpretation must do more than present facts.
3. Interpretation is an art, which combines many arts. Any art is in some degree teachable.
4. The chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation. Interpretation should stimulate people into a form of action.
5. Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part. Interpretation is conceptual and should explain the relationships between things.
6. Interpretation addressed to children should not be a dilution of the presentation to adults, but should follow a fundamentally different approach. Different age groups have different needs and require different interpretive programs.

Photo: amazon.com

The chapters of the book illustrate and give examples of how each of these principles work and things to consider, enhance, or avoid in order to make each site meaningful to each individual visiting a Park. Since the book was published in 1957, the NPS as well as other organizations have used the Six Principles as the basis for their interpretive programs. So not only has Freeman Tilden affected the National Parks, but also state, local, and other places where the public can visit and so indirectly he affects the education and the experiences of visiting public everyday these places are open.

Freeman Tilden passed away in 1980; 97 years young.