1
100
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https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/051ee286f0903797947a051e97cf081a.pdf
d6d7cde96721d18bba333d517c8663a9
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection
Subject
Museums--Florida
Schools
Elementary schools
Grammar schools
Sanford (Fla.)
Description
The Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection encompasses a broad range of materials and items ranging from the late 19th Century into the present. The collection includes artifacts, photographs, documents, videocassettes, and other historical records pertaining to the history of the Sanford Grammar School, the Sanford community through the years, and the history of teaching and learning within the United States from the 19th century to the 2010s.
The Student Museum has collaborated with the University of Central Florida and established the UCF Public History Center (PHC). All of the Student Museum's collections are presently housed at the PHC. The goal of the PHC is to promote access to history through ground-breaking research connecting local to global, provide cutting-edge hands-on educational programs for students and visitors, and to engage the community in contributing to and learning from history.
Contributor
Student Museum
UCF Public History Center
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Sanford High School, Sanford, Florida
Westside Grammar Elementary School, Sanford, Florida
Sanford Grammar School, Sanford, Florida
Student Museum, Sanford, Florida
UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida
Contributing Project
Student Museum
UCF Public History Center
Curator
Marra, Katie
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
Public History Center/Student Museum
External Reference
"Public History Center." Public History Center, University of Central Florida.
"Student Museum." Seminole County Public Schools. http://www.scps.k12.fl.us/studentmuseum/Home.aspx.
Alternative Title
Student Museum and PHC Collection
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/44" target="_blank">Seminole County Collection</a>, RICHES of Central Florida.
Has Part
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/32" target="_blank">General Photographic Collection</a>, <span>Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection, </span>Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/73" target="_blank">Seminole County Public Schools Collection</a>, <span>Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection, </span>Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
Kelley, Katie
Interviewee
O'Connor, Florence
Location
UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida
Original Format
1 DVD
Duration
28 minutes and 57 seconds
Bit Rate/Frequency
127kbps
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of Florence Patchell O'Connor
Alternative Title
Oral History, O'Connor
Subject
Oral history--United States
Sanford (Fla.)
Museums--Florida
Teachers--Florida
Educators--Florida
Substitute teachers--United States
University of Central Florida. Department of History
DeBary (Fla.)
Description
Oral history interview of Florence Patchell O'Connor, a docent for the Student Museum and Center for Social Studies, located at 301 West Seventh Street in Sanford, Florida. O'Connor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 10, 1931. While living in Pennsylvania, she taught elementary school for nine years. After marrying, she moved to Marlton, New Jersey, and continued teaching and then substitute teaching until 1991. That same year, she moved to Florida. O'Connor worked as a substitute teacher, and began volunteering as a docent in 1996. This interview was conducted by Katie Kelley at the UCF Public History Center on October 11, 2012.
Table Of Contents
0:00:00 Introduction<br />0:01:55 Student Museum and Center for the Social Studies<br />0:05:00 Typical day at the museum<br />0:07:22 Teaching techniques<br />0:11:32 How the museum has changed over time<br />0:13:46 Teaching in a museum versus teaching in a classroom<br />0:15:30 Native American Exhibit: Life in an Ancient Timucuan Village<br />0:17:47 Pioneer Exhibit: Before the Settlement of Sanford<br />0:19:40 Memorable moments<br />0:21:50 UCF Public History Center<br />0:25:23 Lemonade Lectures at DeBary Hall<br />0:27:19 Closing remarks
Abstract
Oral history interview of Florence Patchell O'Connor. Interview conducted by Mary "Katie" Kelley at the UCF Public History Center, in Sanford, Florida.
Type
Moving Image
Source
O'Connor, Florence Patchell. Interviewed by Mary "Katie" Kelley. UCF Public History Center. October 11, 2012. Audio/video record available. UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida.
Requires
<a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/" target="_blank">Adobe Flash Player</a>
<a href="http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp" target="_blank">Java</a>
<a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html" target="_blank">Adobe Acrobat Reader</a>
Is Part Of
UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/31" target="_blank">Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection</a>, Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Has Format
Digital transcript of original 28-minute and 57-second oral history: O'Connor, Florence Patchell. Interviewed by Mary "Katie" Kelley. UCF Public History Center. October 11, 2012. Audio/video record available. UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida.
Coverage
Student Museum and Center for the Social Studies,Sanford, Florida
UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida
DeBary Hall, DeBary, Florida
Creator
Kelley, Katie
O'Connor, Florence Patchell
Date Created
2012-10-11
Date Modified
2012-10-16
2012-11-08
Format
video/mp4
application/pdf
Extent
350 MB
171 KB
Medium
28-minute and 57-second DVD
9-page typed transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Civics/Government Teacher
Geography Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Mary "Katie" Kelley and Florence Patchell O'Connor and published by UCF Public History Center.
Rights Holder
Copyright to this resource is held by the UCF Public History Center and is provided here by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a> for educational purposes only.
Accrual Method
Donation
Contributing Project
UCF Public History Center
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
UCF Public History Center/Student Museum
External Reference
"Public History Center." Public History Center, University of Central Florida.
"Exhibits." Public History Center, University of Central Florida.
"Student Museum." Seminole County Public Schools.
"<a href="http://www.seminolehs.scps.k12.fl.us/" target="_blank">Seminole High School</a>." Seminole High School, Seminole County Public Schools. http://www.seminolehs.scps.k12.fl.us/.
Sanford Historical Society (Fla.). <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53015288" target="_blank"><em>Sanford</em></a>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2003.
Click to View (Movie, Podcast, or Website)
<a href="https://youtu.be/mYUJ04qWmyY" target="_blank">Oral History of Florence Patchell O'Connor</a>
Transcript
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Okay, I’m with Florence [Patchell] O’Connor. Florence was born November 10<sup>th</sup>, 1931. Florence has been a volunteer at the [UCF] Public History Center since 1996. She started in the 1996-1997 school year, when it was still called the Student Museum [and Center for the Social Studies]. We are conducting this interview for the Public History Center’s History Harvest event and we’ll be hearing about Florence’s experiences as a teacher and volunteer at the Student Museum. Today is October 11<sup>th</sup>, 2012, we are at the Public History Center in Sanford, Florida, and my name is [Mary] “Katie” Kelley. Okay, Florence. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, um—about you childhood and your experiences prior to, um, coming to the museum?</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>About my childhood? I—I can’t remember that far back.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>But [<em>clears throat</em>] I am a school teacher. I don’t want to say former, ‘cause school teachers never die, I guess. Uh, I was in Pennsylvania teaching, and then when I was 29, I married my husband and moved to New Jersey. I was able to acquire two children through the marriage, so I did not keep teaching, but I stayed home to raise them and to raise the other three children that came along. However, I did do some substitute work at that time in New Jersey. Uh, we moved to Florida in 2000—no, we didn’t—in 19—uh, boo boo, right? 1991 and again we—our children were all gone by then, but we were co-parenting three grandchildren. So I was not able to go back to teaching right away, but by 1996, I was able to think about coming back, and you might be interested—I have, uh, notes here.</p>
<p>You might be interested to know that the way I got to the museum was—there was an article in the newspaper and they were asking for docents, uh—people who would like to teach in the museum. My husband and I drove over. There was no one outside. He said, “My, this is a very busy place,” but I did go in, and, uh Serena [Rankin Parks] Fisher, who was the director at that time—[<em>clears throat</em>] pardon me [<em>clears throat</em>]—took me around the building and told me about the different rooms. We had no Geography [Lab: Where in the World Are We?] room at that time, or the [American] Ingenuity room. They were not open as far—as I recall. I like to joke that I always wanted to work in Williamsburg[, Pennsylvania], and to be one of those people there in one of the buildings. However, this, to me, was a poor man’s Williamsburg. I was able to dress up and, um, be, um, an active teacher in the different rooms.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley </strong>Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like when you first started volunteering at the museum?</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Okay, when I first started, I truly did more in the Native American [Exhibit: Life in an Ancient Timucuan Village] room. For some reason, I leaned toward that room. I would do the others every once and a while, but, uh, that was my one I really liked the best, and then, I tried the [Turn of the Century] Classroom[: Lessons from 1902], and again, in the classroom you were wearing the costume of the day—of 1990—of 1902, where you would have a black skirt and a white blouse and you carried your hanky, ‘cause that’s what they did in those days, and you were very strict. Uh, [<em>clears throat</em>] Pardon me. Uh, I had fun. I wasn’t as strict as I am now, when I first started, it—it sort of eroded that I became more strict, and one of the things that I do make them do is to sit outside of the room and we discuss the fact that in 1902, children had to sit straight, had to sit with their hands folded, their feet flat on the floor, and put their hand up if they want to participate and talk to me [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Um, why did you decide to become involved, um—uh, you talked a little bit about this, but what—what was it about the fact—it was the poor man’s Williamsburg that made you want to volunteer?</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Well, the thing is, as I say, “School teachers never die. They just sort of fade away,” and, uh, I wanted something extra to do. My grandchildren had moved on—back to with their mom—well, their mom was with us, but she remarried and they moved on, and I had really nothing to do. I was subbing—at that time, I was subbing at Wilson School, and I would keep Thursday open to come to the museum. That was my day. I did not take any substituting jobs on that day, because I was depended on here at the museum.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Can you describe what your typical day, uh, at the Student Museum has been like, or at the Public History Center has been like?</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>I sure can. Okay, at the museum, what I would do when the children came in—again, it would depend if I was substituting or if I was just a docent.—when I substituted, I would do the, uh, verbal reading outside, and then we go upstairs and we talk a little more, and then we would go into a 45-minute class each time, and, uh, as I said before, they would start out in the hallway, and then I would take them in and they were not allowed to speak, and it was really cute to see that they really took on the character of the children in, uh, 1902, and then while I’m in the room—I think that’s part of this question you, uh—I would have them look around the room to see what was different from their classroom and what was different here at the museum.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Um…</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Do—do you have any—I mean, what else did you do when you, um—did you just teach or did you assist with lunch and that kind of thing? Or…</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Oh, with the children? Well, they would have two classes in the morning and then they would break for lunch, and again, it would depend on whether I was just a docent or a volunteer or in charge, because at lunch time, when we went upstairs, the director of the museum or the person in charge would talk about 1902 lunches and how they would not eat up there, because that was the auditorium, and then we also would show them, um, a box of animal crackers, which was first started—made in 1903, and why did it look the way it did, and the reason was the string was put on it to use to hang on the tree. It was a Christmas ornament. So they ate the cookies, they hung ‘em on the tree—the box—and then the box itself became a toy for them, and we shared all that and again, about their lunches with their bottles of soda and their water, you know? We would go out to the well and we would try to just show them, even at lunch time, the difference between 1902 and now, when they were eating.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Um, why was it so—why was it such an important teaching technique for you to show them the differences?</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Well, I don’t think children realize how well-off they have things sometimes, and, uh, eh, it was one of those things where, um, they didn’t think about the differences, you know, when they—the flag in the 1902 classroom is a[sic] artifact from 1902, and big and dirty and they never—they would try to guess why it was different, and usually a child would put their hand up, stand up to talk to me, and realize there were fewer stars in the blue field than now, and that was what—and just comparing what they have now and what we had then.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>What do you think, um—what do you think was the value then for them in—in coming here? When they left, what do you think that the students walked away with?</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>I meant to look up the sign and I didn’t come in time for it, but we have a sign that says, “Tell me and I forget. Show me and I might remember. Involve me and I will—it will become part of me.” Something like that, and I think that’s the whole thing, by them having hands-on. When we did—when I do the classroom, after they look around and decide different things, um, we would read from a McGuffey reader, again, trying to compare the difference from what their books are to our books now—or, uh, then rather—and, uh, we wrote on slates with the chalk, and I do have a—a funny situation, I guess, that could come in here.</p>
<p>Um, when I do teach the classroom, I always have my hanky, and [inaudible] right before that, I do walk through the classroom with a ruler, and the children would say, “Are you going to hit me?” And I’d look at them and say, “Well, it is 1902, so if you don’t behave…” And, you know, I had the ruler, and then when their hands were folded, I—if a girl had nail polish on, I would hit the desk, and then I’d laugh and say, “I didn’t hit you now, but would you please stand up?” And they would and they’d be scared really, and, um, then I would point out to them—or I would ask them, “Why am I so upset?” Well, they had different answers, but the main answer is nail polish was not invented in 1902, and they would say, “Well, you’re not allowed to wear it in school,” “Children aren’t allowed to wear it.” No, it wasn’t invented, and then I would ask them if they brought their hanky to school, and, uh, of course, they didn’t. So I would blow my nose and put my hanky back in my pocket, and you should have seen the faces like…</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>You know, and I would say, “Well, what do you do?” And their answer was “Well, we use tissues.” So then I would ask them to explain a tissue to me, and basically they’d say it—“It’s paper,” and then I would be shocked and say, “You want me to blow my nose on paper when I have such a nice soft hanky?” And, uh, then I would explain to them that tissues—or Kleenex, whatever—were not made until 1929, and then we’d have a little laugh, because that’s when my husband was invented.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>And they think that’s funny, but that was the kind of thing—I do have an example and it’s sort of a funny one. I had them sitting like this and I saw nail polish, and it was a little boy that had nail polish on, and I had to continue, ‘cause I’d already told Katie or Mary to stand up, and I said, “Oh my goodness,” and he goes, “I have it on, ‘cause I made a bet with my sister and she said I wouldn’t do it and I’m getting five dollars.” So there again we just had a good laugh, and the children, uh—I asked if it was worth five dollars and some of them said, “No,” and some said it would have been, so that’s—that was that.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Do you think you—you’ve been here for quite a long time teaching at the Student Museum. Um, have your experiences changed from the early days until know with either how the students react, or with how you teach, or—what has been the difference?</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Okay, there’s[sic] two things—I did make a list last night—you sort of—we sort of fell right into my next thing.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>I was teaching one day in this classroom, and after the—we were ready to go home, a little girl came up to me and she said, “Well, I liked your classroom, but I didn’t like you,” and I said, “Well, that’s okay, Katie, because I didn’t like you too much either,” and she looked at me and she said, “You can’t say that to me,” and I said, “Well, I just did,” ‘cause she was a little—little—you know, little 2011-type child who was just trying to rule the room, and another thing that I thought was so neat, um—I was the substitute at this time, and, uh, I did welcome the bus that came, and the group comes off with their chaperones and we take them upstairs, and at that time, we were not ringing the bell. The bell has been fixed and it’s wonderful. We can hear the school bell ring, but anyway, we went upstairs and I continued and the mother looked at—called me over, I guess, and she said, uh, “Are you from New Jersey?” And I said, “Yes, ma’am, I am.” Uh, “From Marlton, New Jersey?” And I said, “Yes, ma’am.” Well, here the mother was a child that I had taught—or when she was a child, I had taught here in New Jersey, and her comment was, “When I got off that bus and I saw you—I get the chills— saw you standing there, I couldn’t believe that I saw you again,” and that was a neat experience. I really—it’s a shame to think I didn’t change in those last 10 years, but, uh, she did remember me, and she lived right up the street from me. In fact, I believe she played with my older girls, but I’m not—not that sure about that.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>It’s a small world. My goodness.</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Isn’t that something?</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Uh, how does—speaking of your previous teaching experiences, how does teaching at the museum compare to the more formal classroom setting from when you were, um, teaching at a…</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Well, again, this is more hands-on. uh, as I do explain to the children going into the classroom, that I know that their teachers—and I will look at the teachers—allows[sic] you to talk a little bit, but eh, not in my room [<em>laughs</em>], you know, but each room is so different that it’s hard to compare, and again we only have them for 45 minutes, and you can almost put up with anything for even the—I al—I always will tell them that, you know, “If you don’t like sitting this way, realize in 45 minutes, you’ll be in the Native American room. You’ll be in Grandmom’s[sic] Attic. You will be able to walk around, but in my room, that’s the way we do it.”</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Are most of the children pretty willing to play along? Do they…</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Do they take on the role?</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Yes, they really are, except sometimes, I’d ask a question and they wouldn’t put their hands up and I’d laugh. I’d say, “I think that’s because I make ‘em stand up.” You know, they just went [inaudible], but they—they really did behave. I mean, the—I, uh—I ran a tight ship. I really did, but it was fun, and that’s why I say I started out in the Native American room and it was more casual, and then for some reason, I was in the classroom and I liked it [<em>laughs</em>]. I liked being mean. The only think I didn’t like was one of our uh, form—uh, former—she’s former now. Uh, she would announce to the children that I was the mean teacher and I just wish she’d let them not know that till they got in my room, but that’s alright.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>So you taught in the Native American room? What were your experiences like in there?</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Okay, I’ve done that. I’ve done basically all of them. I’ll start with Native American. Uh, y experience there was, uh—again, my way of teaching it—I had them come in and sit on the floor, and then we would discuss the room, and then I would send them on a scavenger hunt, and I would tell them the different things that, uh, are in the room, and one of them was a six-legged deer, and if they found it—you know, not tell the others—and I’d give them time to walk around and go in the buildings and—because we do have two buildings and one, uh, hut—and, um, they were not allowed to sit in the boat—in the dugout, because it’s so old—but they were allowed to pick up and look at and find—and then they’d come back to the circle and we would discuss what they found, and, uh, we have three bears in there, and we have—and the six-legged deer was just the idea that a Native American had the deerskin on him and that way he could come closer to, you know—to, uh, hunt, and then, uh, I would pick a child to be the fish and he had swim—and some of them are crazy, you know, and I would talk about the costume that they wore, and of course, there’s no costume we can wear, because the Native Americans went topless, and when I would tell that to some of the chi—some of the groups, some of the children—boys and girls—would sort of snicker, not often, and I would say, “Have you been to the beach recently? They don’t wear too much either,” and so we got over that hump, but, uh, it was fun. It was a fun room and they, uh—they liked it.</p>
<p>We used to paint—long ago, when I first started, we used to put, uh, the paint on their faces, and that was to show them—it wasn’t war paint. it was the, uh, chief—I couldn’t think for a minute—chief and their family wore the—the painting on their body to show that they were the—and then it has slowly dwindled down, and we don’t do that anymore, and in a way it’s better, I think, really. They’re not walking around with their faces all painted up.</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Oh, and then if you want the other room—I’ve been in the Native—the, uh—oh, I can’t think for a minute—the Pioneer [Exhibit: Before the Settlement of Sanford] room, and there—in there, again, it’s a different format, because they do have clipboards and they go on a hunt there, but write things down, and again, the circle to introduce the fact about pioneers and anyone, even now, could be a pioneer, and they figure out by going to the Moon or going under the sea, and, um, we talk little bit about that, and then I break them into groups. Some go in the cabin with me, which is a three quarter cabin, and we again talk about that, and the others stay outside.</p>
<p>You can always learn something, because I’ve been here since 1906—1906? [<em>laughs</em>] 1996, and Warren, one of our newer docents, taught me that in the cabin there’s a quilt that has no backing to it. Not at all. It’s just fabric, and I just never—I just used to tell the children, “There’s a quilt,” you know, and he’s pointed out to a group of children that that was used for privacy—that at night, they would drape that across the cabin so Mom and Dad would have privacy and the children—so you can always learn something.</p>
<p>The Grandmom’s[sic] Attic was definitely set up as an attic. Really cluttered, and again we had the fun there. We dipped candles—we don’t do that anymore—and we churned butter, and again, there you’d talk a little bit, and then you divide them to go explore and do those things, and then the, uh, Geography Lab[: Where in the World Are We?] is, again, another exploring situation. Did I cover them all?</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>I think so [<em>laughs</em>]. Um, do you have any, um, really memorable experiences that stand out in your mind?</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Well, as I say, the—one with the boy with the nail polish.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>I almost like—<em>What do I do now? There’s a boy with nail polish</em>, and then the little girl who didn’t like me very—oh, and there is another one—and then the lady who I taught years ago and it just was thrilling to see her, and then the other experience I had, basically, was there was a group of mothers—maybe three mothers in the back of the line while we were waiting to come in, and children were being a little noisy and I corrected them, but I corrected them not nicely. I corrected them as a 1902 teacher, because I was dressed for that, and you could see the mothers, like, <em>What is this woman doing talking to my child?</em> And I didn’t—I wasn’t nasty. I was—I just said, “Katie, stop talking.” You know? And, um—I’m using your name—and anyway, you could almost see the wheels turning, that I was so sure they were going to call the superintendent of schools and tell them this woman at the museum, you know—and all that. So anyway, I told the director, who was, uh, a different one now—than we have now, and they did come into my classroom, and again, I was strict, and she did speak with them and they said, “That teacher—we didn’t understand. she was so mean,” and so, uh—I can’t think of her first name, but the director said, “Well, once Mrs. O’Connor puts on the costume, she becomes that 1902 teacher,” and, uh, after the whole day was over, one of the women came up to me and told me what had happened and I said, “Yes, I noticed you were really upset,” and she said, “Well, I want to tell you that I understand and you did a very nice job.” So, what—whatever, right?</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>You have to be careful though. You do have to be careful.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Um, since UCF [University of Central Florida] took over with the Public History Center,<a title="">[1]</a> do you, um, [<em>laughs</em>] do[sic] want us to talk anything about that? I mean, is it…</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor <br /></strong>I will. I—I think it’s wonderful.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>I do think you might want—after we get this done, you might want to take this part out. I am just very upset over Grandmom’s[sic] Attic. They have chosen to not have it be an attic. It’s set up as a class—not a classroom—as a room back in the 1900s, and, uh, we had such interesting things in there. It was a clutter. It really was cluttered, and if you don’t want that, I understand Dr. [Rosalind “Rose” J.] Beiler’s, uh, under—thinking, but the children that used to come were just so amazed at what they saw, you know, and they even had, in the room, my skate key, which might sound funny, but the museum had the skates that they used back in the 1930s, when I was a little girl, and I had the skate key. You had it on a ri—string around your neck and you had the key, so you could fix your skates—tightening them and all that. They didn’t have the key, so I donated my key to the museum and to go with the skates. I think they’re still in there in the room.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>And then another thing that happened was, uh, my one daughter, who’s now mother of two and, uh, in her early forties—she, uh, had a big brown bear and I had it. Don’t ask me why I brought it to Florida with me. I have no idea, but I had it and she didn’t want it, and so I donated that to the museum. I donated Cootie game to the museum and I don’t—I haven’t really been back in the attic too much, but I don’t know, you know, where they are, and it was just the toys were in one area and the children could touch them, play with them, see the difference in how that monkey was not like soft and cuddly like they are now, and, so I’d, uh—I—I miss that. We had a wedding dress in there from Serena’s mother, I believe. We had a 1900-bathing suit and I’d ask the children, “Well, what—what—where would you wear this?” “Oh, you’d go to a party.” “Really?” You know? And then we’d talk about that and how everything would be covered in 1902. The hat the glo—they even had socks, not gloves, and, uh—and then we also had a chamber pot, and I don’t think it’s back there now.</p>
<p>So these are the changes and I have to roll with it. I mean, I have to understand it goes on, but the chamber pot was so funny, ‘cause they had two different sized potties and then a big glass one—or ceramic one—and I’d hold up the one and I’d ask, “What would this be for?” They didn’t have to stand up in Grandmom’s Attic, see? That was gone. They didn’t have—and it’d be, “Oh, we could cook our soup in that.” “No, I don’t think you’d want to do that,” and they’d ask, you know, and I’d say, “Well, that’s what they put under the bed because you didn’t want to go out to the outhouse in the middle of the night,” and then, “Who’s the oldest one here in your family?” Well, hands would go up and I said, “Because you would be the one to empty the chamber pot.” Well, then the hands would go down.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>But that’s my—my hang up. There’s[sic] things that I miss in Grandmom’s[sic] Attic and, uh—but I know progress moves on, and I know they’re planning something different, so…</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Well, that’s all of my questions. Um, I—I would like for you to share what you shared with me before the interview about the number of kids that you’ve, that you…</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Oh, okay.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>How you figured it out</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Well, last night I was doing my list of paper with—oh, I do have something else to tell you…</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Oh, sure. Oh, sure. Yeah, go ahead.</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>Before I do that. There’s a, eh—I don’t know what to call it, but they’re doing Lemonade Lectures over in DeBary at DeBary Hall. Every—this is a plug for them—every other Saturday, and it’s experts, and I don’t consider myself an expert really—come in and they talk about lighthouses, or they talk about, this, that and the other thing, and they asked me if I would go and talk about the museum, and I said, “Yes, I would,” and, um, I did bring—I took some artifacts over and some things over. The girls let me borrow them, and I went over there with my charts and my—my costume on, and I talked about that with them, and I guess it might sound conceited, but up until then, there weren’t that many people coming to the Lemonade Lectures. they were just starting. Well, they had to get extra chairs. People from John Knox [Village] came over, ‘cause it was in the paper…</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>About this lady who was gonna talk about a museum from 1902, and some of the people even went to school there, and that was fun, and then the other thing I pointed out there was that, in 1902—and I do it in the classroom too—that boys and girls did not play on the same playground. So I would ask that question, and of course, if they did [<em>claps hands</em>], they got a smack on the bottom from the principal and, uh—but that was something that I really felt honored that I did it. At first, I was a little scared, but that wore off, and the Lemonade Lecture was really fun.</p>
<p>Now, Katie has asked me—I got thinking last night. Uh, I worked here at the museum for 15 years, and if I taught 30 children a day, and let’s say, uh, I worked 30 days out of the year, okay? That would be 900 children I’d see in a year, and then I multiplied it by the, um—[inaudible] did I do? Oh, yeah, that was 15—yeah. I added that, rather, what all did I do here? Oh, yeah, okay. I’m with it, I’m with it. The total of that would have been in 15 years—okay, I would have been working with 13,500 children in my career here at the museum. I have chosen to no longer teach here for health reasons, but I do want to still be a part. So they’ve asked me to be a greeter, and maybe a little later, I’ll become a substitute in the, uh—in the classroom. I don’t know.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley <br /></strong>Well, that’s excellent. Well, thank you, Florence. Um, I don’t have anything else, unless do you have anything else you’d like to add?</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor<br /></strong>I don’t think so, no.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Alright, well, thank you so much for sharing your experiences with me, and, um, you know, now your interview will become part of the history of this building as well.</p>
<p><strong>O’Connor <br /></strong>Well, thank you for asking me.</p>
<p><strong>Kelley<br /></strong>Thank you.</p>
<div><br /><div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Correction: Student Museum.</p>
</div>
</div>
7th Street
American Ingenuity
animal cracker
Beiler, Rosalind
chamber pot
Christmas
Cootie
DeBary Hall
deer
fish
Fisher, Serena
Geography Lab: Where in the World Are We?
Grandma's Attic
greeter
History Harvest
John Knox Village
Kelley, Katie
Kleenex
Lemonade Lectures
McGuffey reader
nail polish
Native American Exhibit: Life in an Ancient Timucuan Village
O'Connor, Florence Ann Patchell
Patchell, Florence Ann
PHC
Pioneer Exhibit: Before the Settlement of Sanford
quilt
Seventh Street
six-legged deer
skate key
skates
Student Museum
Turn of the Century Classroom: Lessons from 1902
UCF
UCF Public History Center
University of Central Florida
volunteer
Williamsburg
Wilson School
-
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/2bca9f886cd7f48ed94fe8e02c1e5686.pdf
01843f1fd8a2b1c52a97b9fce648a676
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection
Subject
Museums--Florida
Schools
Elementary schools
Grammar schools
Sanford (Fla.)
Description
The Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection encompasses a broad range of materials and items ranging from the late 19th Century into the present. The collection includes artifacts, photographs, documents, videocassettes, and other historical records pertaining to the history of the Sanford Grammar School, the Sanford community through the years, and the history of teaching and learning within the United States from the 19th century to the 2010s.
The Student Museum has collaborated with the University of Central Florida and established the UCF Public History Center (PHC). All of the Student Museum's collections are presently housed at the PHC. The goal of the PHC is to promote access to history through ground-breaking research connecting local to global, provide cutting-edge hands-on educational programs for students and visitors, and to engage the community in contributing to and learning from history.
Contributor
Student Museum
UCF Public History Center
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Sanford High School, Sanford, Florida
Westside Grammar Elementary School, Sanford, Florida
Sanford Grammar School, Sanford, Florida
Student Museum, Sanford, Florida
UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida
Contributing Project
Student Museum
UCF Public History Center
Curator
Marra, Katie
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
Public History Center/Student Museum
External Reference
"Public History Center." Public History Center, University of Central Florida.
"Student Museum." Seminole County Public Schools. http://www.scps.k12.fl.us/studentmuseum/Home.aspx.
Alternative Title
Student Museum and PHC Collection
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/44" target="_blank">Seminole County Collection</a>, RICHES of Central Florida.
Has Part
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/32" target="_blank">General Photographic Collection</a>, <span>Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection, </span>Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/73" target="_blank">Seminole County Public Schools Collection</a>, <span>Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection, </span>Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
Glasshoff, Jesse
Interviewee
Muse, Shirley
Location
UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida
Original Format
1 DVD/DAT recording
Duration
23 minutes and 33 seconds
Bit Rate/Frequency
141kbps
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of Shirley Muse
Alternative Title
Oral History, Muse
Subject
Oral history--United States
Sanford (Fla.)
Museums--Florida
Archives--Florida--Administration
Archivists--United States
University of Central Florida. Department of History
Sanford, Henry Shelton, 1823-1891
Description
Oral history interview of Shirley Muse, collection cataloger for the UCF Public History Center, located at 301 West Seventh Street in Sanford, Florida. Muse was born in Corvallis, Oregon, on May 16, 1936. She was raised in the Panama Canal Zone. In 1958, Muse married her husband while attending Florida State University in Tallahassee. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Library Science that same year. She worked in the Florida Public School System as a Librarian/Media Specialist for 20 years until 1999. Following her retirement, Muse began volunteering at the Student Museum and Center for Social Studies. This interview was conducted by Jesse Glasshoff at the UCF Public History Center on October 12, 2012.
Table Of Contents
00:00 Introduction<br />0:00:48 Student Museum Collections Manager<br />0:02:47 Museum visitors<br />0:03:50 How the museum has changed over time<br />0:06:23 Exhibits<br />0:12:29 How the museum has impacted visitors<br />0:15:23 How the community has impacted the museum<br />0:16:34 How the museum has impacted Muse’s life<br />0:19:14 Most memorable visitor<br />0:20:54 History Harvest and future projects<br />0:23:00 Closing remarks
Abstract
Oral history interview of Shirley Muse. Interview conducted by Jesse Glasshoff at the UCF Public History Center, in Sanford, Florida.
Type
Moving Image
Source
Muse, Shirley. Interviewed by Jesse Glasshoff. UCF Public History Center. October 12, 2012. Audio/video record available. UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida.
Requires
<a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/" target="_blank">Adobe Flash Player</a>.
<a href="http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp" target="_blank">Java</a>.
<a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html" target="_blank">Adobe Acrobat Reader</a>
Is Part Of
UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida.
Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection, Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Has Format
Digital transcript of original 23-minute and 33-second oral history: Muse, Shirley. Interviewed by Jesse Glasshoff. UCF Public History Center. October 12, 2012. Audio/video record available. UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida.
Coverage
Student Museum and Center for the Social Studies,Sanford, Florida
UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida
Creator
Glasshoff, Jesse
Muse, Shirley
Date Created
2012-10-12
Format
video/mp4
application/pdf
Extent
99.9 MB
161 KB
Medium
23-minute and 33-second DVD/DAT recording
9 page typed transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Civics/Government Teacher
Geography Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Jesse Glasshoff and owned by UCF Public History Center.
Rights Holder
Copyright to this resource is held by the UCF Public History Center and is provided here by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a> for educational purposes only.
Accrual Method
Donation
Contributing Project
UCF Public History Center
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
UCF Public History Center/Student Museum
External Reference
"Public History Center." Public History Center, University of Central Florida.
"Exhibits." Public History Center, University of Central Florida.
"Student Museum." Seminole County Public Schools.
"<a href="http://www.seminolehs.scps.k12.fl.us/" target="_blank">Seminole High School</a>." Seminole High School, Seminole County Public Schools. http://www.seminolehs.scps.k12.fl.us/.
Sanford Historical Society (Fla.). <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53015288" target="_blank"><em>Sanford</em></a>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2003.
Click to View (Movie, Podcast, or Website)
<a href="https://youtu.be/JOXJPIjHHPU" target="_blank">Oral History of Shirley Muse</a>
Transcript
<p><em>Shirley Muse</em></p>
<p><em>Interviewed by Jesse Glasshoff October 12, 2012</em></p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Okay, we’re on. So—let’s see. Today’s date is October 12<sup>th</sup>, 2012, and it is 10 AM and we’re here at the [UCF] Public History Center in Sanford, Florida—formerly the Student Museum. Uh, my name is Jesse Glasshoff. I’m a graduate student at the University of Central Florida, and I’m interviewing Shirley Muse. Do you want to introduce yourself, Shirley?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Good morning. I’m Shirley Muse. I’m the collections person in charge of the collection, and I’ve been here for 13 years—almost 14—and loved every minute of it.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>All right. Well, we’ll go ahead and jump right into these questions. So how did you—how’d come to be working at the museum?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Well, Serena [Rankin Parks] Fisher, who was the director of the museum in 1999, um, asked me if I wanted to volunteer, ‘cause we were both media specialists together, and I worked at Sanford Middle School, and I knew a lot of the old timers here and their children, and I’ve enjoyed it very much, because I could follow it up over here and see pictures of the grandparents and etcetera [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>So what—what has been your involvement in the museum? You said you’re the Collections Manager right now. Uh…</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>I have been doing all the numbering of the pictures, cleaning the glass, putting them back with new labels, trying to make the print larger so that older people can read it without having to get right up to it, and then if they want a copy of it, they’ll tell me, or if they can identify someone in the picture that is not identified, then they will get in touch with me, make a note, and take the number down, then we go get the picture, and then I take it apart and put in the identity of that person that we didn’t have, and it helps a lot, and they’ve identified family members, and they’ve identified classmates from way back when, and it is really very, very satisfying to do.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Now, is that—is this the same job you’ve always had here?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Or have you done…</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>I have done only that, because I was the only one that[sic] knew about cataloging, because I’m a retired media specialist. So it’s all gone into the computer and we are getting there…</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Eventually, to the end, I hope.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>] Okay. Well, it sounds like a pretty big task, and it sounds like you’re the right person for it.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>I love it. I love it.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff <br /></strong>I think everyone else agrees, because you’re the person doing it.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Uh, so what—what kind of people—since you’ve been here, what kind of people do you see visiting the museum?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Well, we have visitors to the area, especially those that may be putting their car on AMTRAK to send back up north, or to pick up their car from the trains, and then they come into town and want something to do, and we are listed, I believe, at the [Historic Sanford] Welcome Center, and also maybe at the Amtrak Station. Then we have the old-timers that want to come back and look at the pictures and think about the old days, and then we have students.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>So we have quite a…</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>So tell me a little bit about the students.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>The students—we have mainly K[indergarten] through—well, we mainly have fourth- graders, ‘cause we are with the fourth-grade curriculum.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Uh huh.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>And we teach to that, but then we have a lot of other students that[sic] come in for the events that we have, and they like to look at the pictures that go into the rooms and peruse what we have on display.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>So—since you’ve been here for quite a while—you have been volunteering for quite a while…</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Uh huh.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>What would you think—what would you say has changed in the museum since you’ve been with them?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Well, for many years there wasn’t much change, but now that we have UCF [University of Central Florida] as a partner, things are changing for the better, and they are just doing a tremendous job, and I can see that it will go on and prosper and, I think just get better and better, and we are changing things now that we didn’t have the people to do it before, ‘cause there was only like a handful of us volunteers—maybe five or six that worked in the building, teaching the classes, and all of that, but I was the only one doing the cataloging, but then there were the gardeners, and they strictly stayed out in the Pioneer Gardens. So it’s been so many more people helping now, and we can see a real difference taking place now.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Okay, what was it like when you first got here?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>It was very quiet. We didn’t have many visitors. Well, we first had quite a few visitors for a while, but then when fourth grade would come, we were not allowed to have visitors at the same time, because we couldn’t have them intermingle with the students at that time, and that was, uh, school law to keep the children from wandering off or talking to strangers and everything, and we had to always abide by that.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>So…</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Just to make sure I’ve got it clear: when you first started, fourth-graders weren’t coming in, and then, shortly thereafter, they were?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>No, they’d been coming in for years.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Oh, they were?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Yeah, I misstated that.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Oh, okay.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Yeah, yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>That’s all right. I misunderstood you.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Yeah, but they’d been coming—that’s the main thing—the main that, uh, we did.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Was with them, but then as soon as they left, it was open to the public, but then when the economy went down, we had to close down, and only had three days, we had to cut if off early, uh, so…</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Okay, when was that?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>That was I think about three or four years ago. We had to start closing at 3, which didn’t give you much time, ‘cause the children were here until 1:30, and that was only an hour and a half, and a lot of people would have liked to come in, but we couldn’t allow them to come in until 1:30, but many-a-times—I will say—the director stayed until 4 and 4:30 on their[sic] own, to let those people go through and give them a tour. So I—I had to hand it to them.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>[inaudible].So kind of in line with that, who do you—who would you say the exhibits are targeted towards? What are the goals of the exhibits?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>I—I think most of the goals of the exhibits are the fourth-grade curriculum, and the geography of Florida is included in that, and the history of the Native American, and also the pioneers—the early people that settled Florida, and—and that[sic] was[sic] the main ones, and that fit into the curriculum at that time, and I think now it’s been broadened more, since we have other people coming in, and we’ve got new ideas, which we needed, and I think we also have welcomed it, because you get a little stagnant if you don’t have new blood brought in, and I think that’s been very good.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>And it, eh—so would you say since you’ve been here, the exhibits have generally been the same?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>They have generally been the same. There’s[sic] only been a few small changes when we got something that was really pertinent to that room, then we set up a little bit of a—a new part to that room, but that didn’t happen too often, because we weren’t really on the map that well. We didn’t get the publicity that we’ve gotten now.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Can you give me an example? You said that every now and then, maybe one little part would change?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Well, um, they were talking about, um, fossils, and one of our, um, gardeners was very interested in fossils and came from a part—a place in Georgia that they’d a lot of them. So when he went up there, he brought back a whole lot of them, and then they put this sand box in and then they put the fossils into the sand so the kids could take little rakes and find them, like they would out in the desert, you know, when looking for things. So that was a new one that was nice at that time, and I can’t tell you exactly when it was.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>That’s okay.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>That's why we write things down [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>So what do you think they’re meant to teach, uh—these exhibits? What—they’re directed towards the students?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Well, the Pioneer [Exhibit: Before the Settlement of Sanford] room showed how they lived, and how big of space—because we have a small, pioneer, log cabin. We have the cooking utensils that they used at that time in there. We have, uh, like, um, the—the pots that they used on the fire. We have, um, certain clothing. We have an old, pioneer-time nightgown that was actually donated, uh, just about—oh, about a year ago. The lady had two of them, and they’re really tattered and torn, but we washed them, and we hung them up in—one in there to show that they wore a long-sleeved, uh, long nightgowns and long to the floor, you know, and then they, uh—we put one also into the, uh, Grandma’s Attic. Yeah, so it was very neat, because the kids didn’t ever think about what they would sleep in [laughs].</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Right[?].</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>But it—it was fun, and the kids got a big kick out of it. Yeah, and if they just learn a few things, you know, and then they go home and tell their parents. Usually, they come back with their parents and their sisters and brothers to see it on their own.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>It’s nice, yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Well, what, uh—through all the exhibits you’ve seen—and you’ve seen all of them really, since you’ve been here—which exhibit was your favorite?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>My favorite was Grandma’s Attic.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Grandma’s Attic?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong> ‘Cause I had a grandma that[sic] had an attic like that.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>What was it like?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Well, the Grandma’s Attic—it used to have wallpaper, but they’ve since taken that down, and they’d pictures on the wall, but they were crooked, just like they would be if Grandma had put them up there to store them, and they got crooked. Grandma didn’t go up there to clean it. They just let them hang, and they were just out of the way, and then there was[sic] toys in the attic, and you would know which ones were yours to play with, and they saw that, and then they showed, uh, cooking utensils that Grandma used in the kitchen area, at that time. They had, uh, the irons that you used to heat on the big, uh, stoves that had coal in it or wood-burning stoves, and then they have the iron that they would have to put the coals in the iron and do it, and, uh, they had a coffee grinder there. They ground the coffee to let the children see that. They made candles also, so the kids could see how to make the candles, and everybody got a turn to dip it, but we had to be careful of that—and you might get burnt. So we had to take that out, much to our discouragement, but sometimes you’ve to do that for safety problems. Yeah, but it—it was just fascinating, because there were instruments that were hung from the ceiling on wires, just to keep them out of the way, you know, ‘cause Grandma stored all of that stuff up in the attic, you know, but it—it looked like a real grandma’s attic. Yeah, and everybody—I think the majority of people liked that one. It brought back a lot of memories. You had the old-fashioned toys—the ones that were made of iron and they were very heavy, but the kids still played with them, you know, but, uh, we had a little bit of everything, and we always let them play with the toys. We had, um, the old, um, wood toys that you could—I forget what they were—but they had this—pieces of wood—it was called something. I cannot remember what it was, but you always had to get it back together and it clicked. It was really neat, and the kids had never seen something like that. I should have brought one with me. Yeah, but I didn’t think about it. Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>[inaudible].Thinking about the exhibits and the changes through time, which parts of the museum do you think had the most impact on the children that have visited—the K through 12[<sup>th</sup> grade] children?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>I think the Geography [Lab: Where in the World Are We?] room, because the map of Florida is large enough they can walk on, and then they have to learn the names of the cities and where they’re located, and then they have kind of like tops—there's holes driven in the actual map, and you have to take the top that has the name written on it. Pensacola—they learned that it went up in the panhandle. Um, Tallahassee was up north—part, and then there was Miami, and there was Orlando, and they’d to put the right one—the answer— in that position, and they loved doing that, because it was big enough they could walk around it and look, you know, and then actually put that in themselves, like they named it, and they felt real good about that in fourth grade.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Mmhmm.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>And then I the second best was Grandma’s Attic. They liked the interaction, because they always gave them time to play with the toys and pick them up and touch things, because that’s how we believe, that you should be able to touch things.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Mmhmm. So aside from the children that have visited, uh, how do you think, uh—how do you see that the museum has had the most impact on the larger community?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Well, I think Sanford citizens that have been here for years love to come back and reminisce, and they see the houses that they used to walk by on their way to school, because they are still here in the pictures the same. A lot of them in Sanford have been restored and that’s just beautiful thing, but they can come back, and they find people on there that[sic] they haven’t seen in a long time, and it brings back memories, and if you get two or three of them from the same class, they start talking, and they really enjoy it, and they end up spending several hours here many-a-times, particularly the older people, because they are just so excited to be back in their element of time, you know? Yeah, and that toy with the blocks was the Jacob’s ladder, and I know a lot of people would know exactly what I’m talking about. Yeah, there.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>So the decisions to make changes in the, um, museum that have happened recently—and through the time of the museum since you’ve been here—how do you feel that the larger community has impacted the goals and the direction of the museum?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Um, that’s a good question, because not many changes were made for many years, ‘cause we didn’t have the people to do—to make the changes, and we didn’t have an assessment of what we needed. We didn’t have time to do that, and it’s something we are working on very diligently right now, and I’m very pleased about how it’s going, but at the time, we were so shorthanded, and we weren’t all professional museum people, and that makes a big difference, ‘cause you don’t realize exactly what goes into making a museum meaningful to that community until you start studying it like we are now, and it's really, I think, had a big impact on everybody working here, and I find we all are working together as a good unit, and that’s—makes me feel real good [<em>laughs</em>]. I really do.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>So how has the museum affected your life?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Well, my husband passed away, um, in 2007, and I find if I don’t get here to work at least two days a week, I get down, because I meet all the people here, I have something that's purposeful in my life, and I’m seeing things coming to fruition, and that makes me feel real good, but I’ve always liked detail-work, and I always feel like anything that has to do with books and pictures and things that have to do with one particular area has got to be a good situation to present to the public. I really do.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>And how has it—how has it affected the way that you understand Sanford?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>I find the people are so friendly and so happy to know that we treasure them and their city as something very worthwhile, and has been very, very, um, very instrument—instrumentally with the—sending things from Jacksonville, the transportation, the steamships all here, and then it's disseminated out along the—the coast—the east coast, the west coast of Florida, and it’s been very interesting for me to learn about it, and they, I think, are proud that we are studying this and keeping track of all the pictures and everything, so that we can look back and see it, and General [Henry Shelton] Sanford—he lived right here in Florida, right at the top of the hill here for many years, and he has a real connection to this city, and I’ve been amazed at how many people have visited his grave up in Connecticut, and we have pictures of that downstairs on the Sanford, uh, bulletin board right outside the office, and the man came and brought me the pictures all on a CD, and I made copies of them with his permission, and I—I thought it was very exciting, and then when people come in and see it, they’re even—they say, “Oh, that’s new,” you know, and I say, “Yeah, we got those by him giving them to us,” and it was wonderful. Yeah.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>So kind of moving in a different direction now [<em>laughs</em>]—you’ve worked here quite a while, and you’ve seen a tons of people come and go. Uh, who do you think was the most memorable person to you that has come to visit the museum?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Well, I think, Mr. Douglas Stenstrom, who was born here in 1921, and he passed away in 2010. He was a fantastic person, and he—he was in the World War II in the South Pacific. He attended the University of Florida, the University of Virginia, Stetson College.<a title="">[1]</a> He was a county judge, he was a state senator, and he did many more things than that, and he would come and sit and talk with us when we had an event, and he’d sit for an hour or two, and when he left, he always left a check for us to put into the—the—the bank for keeping this place going, because he was very attached to it—both he and his wife, and they were lovely people, and with all that education and everything, he always found time to stop by, and we just really delighted in him, and I think everybody did, because you couldn’t walk by him without saying something to him, ‘cause everybody knew him. Yeah, it was wonderful. He was a wonderful man. Plus he has a school named after him out in Oviedo, Stenstrom Elementary. Yeah, he[sic] a very generous gentleman.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>So kind of moving away from that, uh—do you’ve any people in mind that[sic] might have gone to the school here that we could contact for future projects at the museum?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Well, to tell you the truth, Jesse, I gave a whole list of them to Dr. [Rosalind “Rose” J.] Beiler, and they are a lot of the people—the Stiffys—and they are local people that have been here for years and donated their time in many schools and for many activities, and then, um, there’s, um, Bill Robinson. He’s a local person that lives here, and he is just as friendly and happy a man as I’ve ever known, and he went to school here, and his picture’s down one of the bulletin boards downstairs. Plus there is a number of other ones, but I—I can’t remember them all, but I did give her a long list of them with phone numbers, and how to get a hold of them.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>That’s good news [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>] In fact, you could get that list, if you’re interested, from her. I’m sure.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Do you’ve any ideas about spreading the word about the history harvest?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Well, I think one of the best ways we could do it is to get <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em> columnists—there’s, I think, a Kay—Kay Richardson or—or something. I can’t remember her name, but there’s[sic] several columnists that[sic] do stories on this, and also <em>The</em> <em>Sanford</em> <em>Herald</em>, and if they would do a piece on it and tell ‘em we’re looking for people to bring in things for this, um, um, history harvest, I think it would get out real quick that way, because most people take that <em>Sanford Herald</em>, and if—if they don’t get <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>—I know friends do, and they pass it around the neighborhood, but I’m sure there would be a lot of people that would be interested in it if they explained what it was and what they want to do. I think it would be great, and I’m excited about it. I really think it will be great.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Well, thank you for doing the interview. I think that’s[sic] all the questions I have.</p>
<p><strong>Muse <br /></strong>You’re quite welcome.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Is there anything that you wanted to say—that you wanted to add?</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>No, I’m just so happy with the partnership that we have. The people that are coming to work and help are so good, and they are doing a tremendous job, and it makes me feel so good that it’s going to be carried on for years to come, really.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>[inaudible].</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>Yeah, I really am.</p>
<p><strong>Glasshoff<br /></strong>Okay. Again, thank you for doing the interview.</p>
<p><strong>Muse<br /></strong>You’re quite welcome.</p>
<p><em>Shirley Muse</em></p>
<p><em>Interviewed by Jesse Glasshoff October 12, 2012</em></p>
<div><br /><div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Present-day Stetson University.</p>
</div>
</div>
7th Street
Amtrak
archival collection
Beiler, Rosalind
collection cataloger
collections manager
columnist
county judge
Florida State University
fossil
FSU
gardener
general
Geography Lab: Where in the World Are We?
Glasshoff, Jesse
Grandma’s Attic
Historic Sanford Welcome Center
History Harvest
Jacob’s Ladder
librarian
Library Science
media specialist
Million, Shirley
Muse, Shirley
Orlando Sentinel
Panama Canal Zone
PHC
Pioneer Exhibit: Before the Settlement of Sanford
Richardson, Kay
Robinson, Bill
Sanford Herald
Sanford Middle
Sanford Middle School
Sanford MS
Sanford Welcome Center
Seventh Street
South Pacific
state senator
Stenstrom
Stenstrom Elementary
Stenstrom, Douglas
Stetson College
Stetson University
Stiffy's
Student Museum
The Orlando Sentinel
UCF
UCF Public History Center
UF
University of Central Florida
University of Florida
University of Virginia
UV
volunteer
-
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/1382d312f61236de0818f1d85f3c268a.pdf
6a8fc9e72438766c811fa07b8b83cba5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection
Subject
Museums--Florida
Schools
Elementary schools
Grammar schools
Sanford (Fla.)
Description
The Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection encompasses a broad range of materials and items ranging from the late 19th Century into the present. The collection includes artifacts, photographs, documents, videocassettes, and other historical records pertaining to the history of the Sanford Grammar School, the Sanford community through the years, and the history of teaching and learning within the United States from the 19th century to the 2010s.
The Student Museum has collaborated with the University of Central Florida and established the UCF Public History Center (PHC). All of the Student Museum's collections are presently housed at the PHC. The goal of the PHC is to promote access to history through ground-breaking research connecting local to global, provide cutting-edge hands-on educational programs for students and visitors, and to engage the community in contributing to and learning from history.
Contributor
Student Museum
UCF Public History Center
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Sanford High School, Sanford, Florida
Westside Grammar Elementary School, Sanford, Florida
Sanford Grammar School, Sanford, Florida
Student Museum, Sanford, Florida
UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida
Contributing Project
Student Museum
UCF Public History Center
Curator
Marra, Katie
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
Public History Center/Student Museum
External Reference
"Public History Center." Public History Center, University of Central Florida.
"Student Museum." Seminole County Public Schools. http://www.scps.k12.fl.us/studentmuseum/Home.aspx.
Alternative Title
Student Museum and PHC Collection
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/44" target="_blank">Seminole County Collection</a>, RICHES of Central Florida.
Has Part
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/32" target="_blank">General Photographic Collection</a>, <span>Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection, </span>Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/73" target="_blank">Seminole County Public Schools Collection</a>, <span>Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection, </span>Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
See, MacKenzie
Interviewee
Parks, Serena Fisher Rankin
Location
Sanford, Florida
Original Format
1 DVD
Duration
32 minutes and 5 seconds
Bit Rate/Frequency
195kbps
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of Serena Rankin Parks Fisher
Alternative Title
Oral History, Fisher Parks
Subject
Sanford (Fla.)
Teachers--Florida
Educators--Florida
Museums--Florida
Schools
Gardens--Florida
Students--Florida
Special education--Florida
Description
Oral history of Serena Rankin Parks Fisher, a resident of Seminole County, Florida. Parks was born in Concord, North Carolina, on March 3, 1941. She has worked as a social studies teacher, a media center specialist, and a social studies resource teacher for Seminole County Public Schools, as wells as a Museum Specialist/Teacher Curator from 1992-2000. She then as a Volunteer/Docent at the Student Museum and Center for Social Studies, located at 301 West Seventh Street in Sanford, Florida. This interview was conducted by MacKenzie See at UCF Public History Center on October 8, 2012.
Table Of Contents
0:00:00 Introduction<br />0:01:01 Involvement with the Student Museum<br />0:03:52 Influence on the community<br />0:06:02 Accomplishments<br />0:09:23 Favorite stories<br />0:13:51 Field trips and student behavior<br />0:15:43 Role of the UCF Public History Center<br />0:18:03 Favorite room<br />0:19:43 Advice for volunteers and future of the museum<br />0:23:19 Hands-on learning, students, and other purposes
Abstract
Oral history interview of Serena Rankin Parks Fisher. Interview conducted by MacKenzie See at the UCF Public History Center, in Sanford, Florida.
Type
Moving Image
Source
Parks, Serena Fisher Rankin. Interviewed by MacKenzie See. UCF Public History Center, IMG_0036. October 8, 2012. Audio/video record available. UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida.
Requires
<a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/" target="_blank">Adobe Flash Player</a>.
<a href="http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp" target="_blank">Java</a>.
<a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html" target="_blank">Adobe Acrobat Reader</a>
Is Part Of
UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/31" target="_blank">Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection</a>, Sanford Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Has Format
Digital transcript of original 32-minute and 5-second oral history: Oral history interview of Serena Rankin Parks Fisher. Interview conducted by MacKenzie See at the UCF Public History Center, in Sanford, Florida.
Coverage
University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
Student Museum and Center for Social Studies, Sanford, Florida
Public History Center, Sanford, Florida
Creator
See, MacKenzie
Parks, Serena Fisher Rankin
Date Created
2012-10-08
Date Modified
2012-11-14
2014-07-16
Format
video/mp4
application/pdf
Extent
466 MB
160 KB
Medium
32-minute and 5-second DVD
13-page typed transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Civics/Government Teacher
Geography Teacher
Humanities Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by MacKenzie See and Serena Rankin Parks Fisher.
Rights Holder
Copyright to this resource is held by the UCF Public History Center and is provided here by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES</a> for educational purposes only.
Accrual Method
Donation
Contributing Project
UCF Public History Center
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
UCF Public History Center/Student Museum
External Reference
"Public History Center." Public History Center, University of Central Florida.
"Exhibits." Public History Center, University of Central Florida.
"Student Museum." Seminole County Public Schools.
Sanford Historical Society (Fla.). <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53015288" target="_blank"><em>Sanford</em></a>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2003.
Click to View (Movie, Podcast, or Website)
<a href="http://youtu.be/WU_e8k8SgOA" target="_blank">Oral History of Serena Rankin Parks Fisher</a>
Transcript
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>This is an oral history interview of Serena [Rankin Parks] Fisher. The interview was conducted by MacKenzie See at the [UCF] Public History Center on Augu—er, on October 8<sup>th</sup> of 2012. Interview topics include experience with the Sanford Student Museum [and Center for the Social Studies] and Public History Center. Okay. Um, what is your name?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>My name is Serena Parks Fisher.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, and what is your occupation?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>My occupation is dilettante. In other words, I’m a retired teacher and I now do things that I enjoy doing. A little of this and a little of that.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, and how long have you lived in the Sanford[, Florida] area?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>I don’t live—well, it depends on what you consider the Sanford area. I do not live in Sanford, but I have lived in Seminole County since 1978.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Okay, um, how did you become involved with the Public History Center and what is your role here?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Okay, uh, um, I’m a little confused about you asking me about the Public History Center, because, uh, my involvement with the Public History Center came as a result of my involvement with the Seminole County Public School[s’] Student Museum, and I was involved with the Student Museum. First, as a social studies teacher in the school district. At the time the museum was created, I was hearing about it, etc., and at that point, every school was asked to submit a display that gave information about their school. Now, that would have been during the time period of [19]85-‘86 and so forth.</p>
<p>Um, then as time went on, I left the social studies classroom, and went into a media center at a middle school, and again, I would hear about groups going to the Student Museum, and then later, I became, uh, the social studies resource teacher for the district, and then from that position, had the opportunity to become the museum specialist, which was the teaching position at the Student Museum, and as such, I was the teacher, curator, what—whatever, and so, uh, I retired in 2000 and went about my merry way just being a volunteer at the Student Museum, until there was a crisis regarding the restoration of the building, and there was some, um, controversy regarding that, and so I was involved as a member of the restoration committee, and then that morphed into, uh, UCF [University of Central Florida] having the agreement with the school district and the Public History Center, and I must say that I could not be more delighted about this relationship between the University of Central Florida Public History Center and what, uh, has taken place with the school district, because I feel now that the Student Museum—Public History Center—will be achieving the goal that it originally was intended to achieve.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, in what ways do you feel that the Student Museum is important to the community?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Well, I feel that the Public History Center and the Student Museum is important to the community—just the building itself. One of the few remaining examples of Romanesque revival architecture—educational architecture—that is, uh, in the state of Florida. So just from an architectural standpoint, I think the building has a special purpose, but I think more importantly, the reason for me that it is so important is that it is a hands-on museum for students coming through, so that they learn by being involved and actually doing work here at the center. I think that for adults in the community, um, in many ways it’s a reminder of what their school days might have been like and also a reminder of things they have heard their family, um, talk about, and I feel something that the Public History Center will be working on now is using the archives here at the Public History Center, so that those who are doing research can find out more about the past in this area. Um, uh, so I think that is more speaking to the building and the interpretive exhibits, uh, here in the building. Uh, I also feel that this is a very unique setting, because of the teaching gardens here, and there are other hands-on museums in [U.S.] National Register [of Historic Places] buildings, but I don’t know of any other that is a hands-on museum in a National Register building and also has the teaching gardens, and I think this is an added dimension here.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, you were telling me earlier about the three things that you thought were really important about, um…</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>During me my time here?</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>During your time here [<em>laughs</em>], yes. Can you tell me more about those?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Okay, I interpreted my job here—as a museum specialist—that I was a teacher—that my job was to work with students every day and to also work with the teachers, uh, and this gave me many opportunities, not only for, uh, elaborating on curriculum, but also in providing for in-services and so forth, but looking back over my time here at the museum, the three things that I am most proud of—that I can say, “Well, this is something tangible that I did,” uh, was seeing that, um, the gardens were established. This was something I wanted to do, and I realized when I was talking to the students in the Native American room<a title="">[1]</a> about the three sisters and, um, about the plants, the crops that were grown by the Native Americans, or in the Pioneer Room<a title="">[2]</a> talking about the three G’s—grits, greens, and gravy. I realized that many students did not quite understand about—what I was talking about. “What are these vegetable for?” For them, these things just came from the store in frozen packages or in cans, and so I thought if they could actually see the plants growing, that that would be important, and fortunately there was, in the neighborhood, a master gardener, Walt Paget, who needed to have a project, and therefore, he was the one who actually came, and we worked together in establishing the very first garden, which was more of a pioneer-oriented garden, but I felt that the establishment of the teaching gardens—showing plants, herbs, and also the historic rose garden— that this was a significant, uh, development during my time here, and the other two things may seem trivial, but to me, they made a difference, and one was having the animal sounds in the Native American room. I thought that, with the subdued lighting, that created more of an atmosphere of traveling back in time to a Native American village, and then here in the Turn of the Century Classroom[: Lessons from 1902]—the ticking of the clock. because I realized that many students could—are just accustomed to digital clocks and had never heard a clock ticking, and so we not only have a clock that ticks, but the face of the clock has Roman numerals, which again, served as a teaching tool. So I guess the three things, when I look back on my tenure here as a museum specialist, were the gardens, the animal sounds, and the ticking clock.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>What’s your favorite story about the Public History Center or the Student Museum?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>I have many, many [<em>laughs</em>] that I guess would be favorites that are quite different. Um, two immediately come to mind. One involves students. I had the privilege of working with the tea—uh, a teacher of the autistic, uh, students at Eastbrook Elementary [School], and we worked on a curriculum that we would have the students visited once a month throughout the entire school year. I found that most of the students who were coming were not able to communicate with us verbally, but they seemed to have a real appreciation. They could identify items and so on and so forth. So we felt that we were accomplishing something, and then one day, we were in the Pioneer room, and I had brought down the items from the <em>American Girls</em> book that corresponded to the pioneer period or to a pioneer period, and one of the students in the class was examining the items, and he picked up the item and called it by the name in the book—the, uh, <em>American Girls</em> book, and the teacher had told me earlier that he had read all of the books, but they weren’t sure if he were—was really understanding what he had read. He picked up the lunch pail—and the pail was called a “tenet”—and he picked it up and said that word, and the teacher was astounded and she said, “Did you tell him this?” And I said, “No,” and she said, “I did not.” His mother could not believe it, and that’s when the teacher and the mother realized that this student was reading these books and truly was understanding. That was a memorable day.</p>
<p>Another memorable day was a very early morning knock on the door, uh, at the Student Museum, and an older man was there with his wife and asked if he could come in, and he explained that he had just come in on the auto train—uh, was here in Sanford, because of the auto train, and they were headed on into South Florida, but as a child he had lived here in Sanford, and this was his elementary school, and he wanted to show it to his wife. He asked if he might go upstairs to the auditorium, and he began telling his wife about the plays that the students put on here, and that one of the most proud moments in his life was being in a school play, and that his parents had come to the performance, and how proud he felt, and that he was just bursting with pride when he greeted his parents after the play, and they told him—this was in the depths of the [Great] Depression—that this would be his last time at the school—that they had lost their house, and they moved from the area, and he said that they had to move in with relatives in another state, and he went from this high point, where he was feeling so good to—about himself to a point where he felt that he was—he—he didn’t have anything anymore, and he wanted to come back and show his wife this location, where he had once felt so good about himself.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, did you ever have any students who misbehaved during a field trip [<em>laughs</em>]?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Um, it depends on what you call “misbehave.” Um, I dressed in the role of a turn-of-the-century teacher, and I—I—I did not have any real problems. I had some I had to speak to, and, uh, I tend to use a lower voice when I am really serious and really stern, and it worked out.</p>
<p>I think one of my interesting experiences, though, uh, took place when I student came in at lunchtime, and I just—he was joining his class—and I just assumed the student had been to a doctor’s appointment or something like that, and I noticed that the other students were very much interested in talking to him and I thought, <em>Well, you know, maybe it was an unusual appointment or something</em>, but it was at lunch and they were chatting, you know? So that was it, and after lunch, I took the group to Grandma’s Attic, where they had the opportunity to try on clothing and so forth, and, uh, that’s when I realized that the student had been given—at the appointment in the morning—an ankle monitor, and that’s why [<em>laughs</em>] his classmates were very much interested in how his appointment had gone, but it—it was no problem with the child. He cooperated beautifully.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, how do you see the Public History Center’s role in the community changing, now that it’s open to the public, instead of just for fourth grade field trips?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Okay, the key thing there is “open to the public.” Because of very limited staff— it was very difficult to have it open for extended hours, and working under the school district, we could not have the public in when students were here, and so that meant there were just limited opportunities for the public to come. I now see this for—as an opportunity for, uh, people from all over whether they’re coming in by auto train or the airport or, uh, wherever—having the opportunity to visit here, because of the extended hours and the fact that the, um, Public History Center will be open on the weekend.</p>
<p>I also envision that there will be learning opportunities—special programs for adults here, and I had mentioned one that I hope—I would love to see it develop—um, where there was to be a workshop here for adults, where they would be given the opportunity to start writing down their own personal history—their own life story, [<em>air conditioner turns on</em>] and I think that this would be an ideal setting for that, because there are so many visual props that would remind them of episodes in their own life, that they might want to jot down these stories and pass on.</p>
<p>Now, we’re probably being distracted by the sound of the air conditioner, but that points out [<em>laughs</em>] a challenge now, but it also points out something special about this building—that the building itself can be used as a teaching tool, with the wonderful windows, and how they were used for light, as well as ventilation, and how the design of the building was also used to take advantage of cross- ventilation, but we obviously have a very loud air conditioner.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>] Um, do you have a favorite room in the museum?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>I guess, being a teacher, this Turn of the Century Classroom is my absolute favorite room. Uh, I feel very much at home here, and, um, I have very happy memories of teaching in this room. I have very happy memories of teaching in other areas, but I’m the daughter of a teacher, and in many ways this reminds me of things my mother would tell me about.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, do students seem to get more out of some rooms in the museum than others, or does it just depend on the student, or all the rooms equally valuable?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>It depends on the students, and it depends on the preparation they have had before they had come here. I think, for me, the beauty of the hands-on experience is that students, who might not excel at the written word or reading in the traditional classroom, all can do very well here because of hands-on and verbal participation, but, um, I think—I think it depends on the student’s own interests, and, uh, again, it probably has a lot to do with the enthusiasm of the guide who is showing them the particular area. That might be a factor, as well.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, what advice would you give people who want to volunteer at the museum?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Do it. Uh, the beauty of the Public History Center is that there are so many volunteer opportunities, not just for working with the students. Now, the main[?] one that I found most rewarding was working with the students and the exchange—the interaction—but there are jobs that are needed to be done behind the scenes. Whether it is inventorying the suitcases or books, or whether it is working with the archives, or whether it is working as a gardener in the teaching gardens. I think that there is—or a greeter. Oh, that is a wonderful job for someone who enjoys people, but really does not want to, uh, work with the students in the instructional program. That is a wonderful opportunity. So I really—that there is something here for everyone, and so, if someone is a little tentative about volunteering, I would suggest that they come and tour, and say, “Alright. This is what I like to do. What can I do to help you?”</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, if you could describe your ideal future for the Public History Center and the Student Museum, what would it be?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>] For the instructional program to continue for fourth graders, but also for that program to be expanded, and again, during the time, I was here, I had the opportunity—we had year-round school. We had multi-age classes—that was a phase that the district was going through. I especially enjoyed working with the multi-age classes, because that meant that students came here one year and then they would come the following year, and so we could do different things. I also liked working with teachers on special programs, and I think this is where the Public History Center, working with UCF students, could do a great deal—is working with teachers collaborating—using the resources here at the Public History Center—to develop special programs. I would like to see more in-service staff development done with, um, teachers here. So that teachers, who are required to do certificate renewal, could take a course here at the Public History Center. Again, going back to what I had mentioned about community programs—and I hope that someday there is an elevator, so that we aren’t limited in the use of the auditorium and use of the, um, second level, but I just see this more as a very active center in the community and—where all of us can learn about changes in education and innovation in the education.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, what do you think is the ideal age for students to come to the Student Museum? I mean, we’ve heard about the fourth grade field trip. Is—is that about the ideal age or…</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Oh, I think it depends on what you are offering. I think that, uh, the fourth grade fit in with the Florida curriculum, but again, depending on what the teacher might be doing—or special programs that could be developed. You see, uh, at one time there was an eighth grade program here as well, and, um, due to budget cuts and so forth, that program had to be eliminated, and also, there were problems scheduling with the middle school schedule, but, um, I—and I have had the opportunity again with year-round education to work with senior high students. So this is the beauty of this facility. It can be taught at so many different levels, depending on where you’re putting your focus.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um…</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>I think everyone should come here and, as I said, I am delighted at the potential that I am seeing, the enthusiasm with those from UCF, uh, in transforming this into a Public History Center, and I’m delighted that the public will now have greater access to this facility.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, I’ve heard that the Public History Center serves—or has served—a lot of other purposes in the community, other than just as a museum and a teaching facility. I even heard a story about someone getting married here. Um, do you have any experiences with it in other capacities, other than as just the, uh, museum?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Well, I was not involved with someone getting married here, but I know that it has been open, thanks to the Sanford Historic Trust, several years ago inviting the museum to be part of the annual tour. It was opened for that. So for—that would be more of a social, um, learning experience too, but I—I really do not know beyond that. I know students always want to know about ghosts. “Are there ghosts here at the Student Museum?” But I, um, don’t know about that.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Well, speaking of ghosts, um, do you have a favorite aspect of the history of this place? I mean, as a school, as Sanford Grammar, or, um…</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Uh, no. I do not. Uh, I think that could definitely be addressed by students who came here, and something that I found very rewarding was when reunion groups from what had been Sanford High School and now is Seminole High School, when they would have their reunions and request that the museum be open on the weekend, so that they could come back and visit. I enjoyed hearing the stories of that and since I had no grown up in the Sanford community. Um, I learned a lot from that, but, um, no. Nothing else I don’t think.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, so I’ve heard that there are a lot, um, of seasonal celebrations that take place here, um, especially around fall and things like that. Do you—do you go to those? Or…</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Well, in the past, I have volunteered with those, and, um, one of the favorite celebrations—it depends on how the, uh, calendar goes—is the Spring Fest around May Day, because when this was Sanford Grammar School, the May Day celebration was a major celebration for students here, and so—for several years, the Spring Fest has included that dancing of the May Pole, and that was of appeal to those who had gone here remembering their days as students.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, we’ve talked a lot about school-age children coming to the Student Museum and Public History Center. Um, is there a minimum age where it’s appropriate to bring children?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Uh, I think it depends on the parents, who would be bringing them. Um, uh, I would think that a child from, I would say, maybe three on—although we have had them in strollers and so forth coming through, but, um, I—I think it depends on—are you talking about them coming just to visit the building, just to see the building or to participate in a program? I—I would think that three would be about the youngest, but it depends on the parents, and, um, what the children have been exposed to before.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Um, what about adults coming here? I mean, I know Student Museum sort of implies that it’s only for children, but do you think there’s something for adults also?</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Oh, absolutely, and, um, again, uh—going back to things that I remember—um, I remember, um, an adult friend of mine bringing her mother here, and the mother, uh, was quite elderly and had limited vision, but coming into this classroom and hearing the sound of the footsteps on the hardwood pine floor and so forth, and the ticking of the clock, and just feeling the chalkboards and so forth, brought back memories of her school days, and the mother just began sharing these stories that the daughter had never heard. So I think that this is a multi-generational location. Student Museum—remember that its origins are with the Seminole County Public Schools, so I think that that is larger, but there was another part to that name. It was the School Board of Seminole County’s Student Museum and Center for the Social Studies, and this goes back to the point that I was—wanted to make earlier—was that I think with, um, UCF now and with the emphasis on public history, that this is going to be more of a center for social studies and for adults to be involved.</p>
<p><strong>See<br /></strong>Alright. Thank you so much for talking to me.</p>
<p><strong>Fisher<br /></strong>Okay, thank you.</p>
<div><br /><div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> The Native America Exhibit: Life in an Ancient Timucuan Village.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[2]</a> Pioneer Exhibit: Before the Settlement of Sanford.</p>
</div>
</div>
7th Street
American Girls
archive
curator
docent
Eastbrook Elementary
educator
exhibit
Fisher, Serena Rankin
garden
Geography Lab: Where in the World Are We?
ghost
Grandma’s Attic
May Day
maypole
media center
museum
museum specialist
National Register of Historic Places
Native American Exhibit: Life in an Ancient Timucuan Village
oral history
Paget, Walt
Parks, Serena Fisher Rankin
PHC
Pioneer Exhibit: Before the Settlement of Sanford
Romanesque revival architecture
Sanford
Sanford Grammar School
Sanford Highs School
Sanford Historic Trust
school
SCPS
See, MacKenzie
Seminole County
Seminole County Public Schools
Seminole High School
Seventh Street
social studies
social studies resource teacher
social studies teacher
special education
Spring Fest
student
Student Museum
Student Museum and Center for the Social Studies
teacher
Turn of the Century Classroom: Lessons from 1902
UCF
UCF Department of History
UCF Public History Center
University of Central Florida
volunteer
-
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/897d41e7e2d49ffdd901b72466ca5f42.jpg
43c6a61ec1e7ccfb961953981ef6a0f6
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oviedo Historical Society Collection
Alternative Title
Oviedo Historical Society Collection
Subject
Oviedo (Fla).
Description
The Oviedo Historical Society Collection encompasses historical artifacts donated for digitization at the Oviedo Historical Society's History Harvest in the Spring semester of 2015.
The Oviedo Historical Society was organized in November 1973 by a group of citizens. The society is a 501(3) non-profit organization. Its purpose is to help preserve the community identity of Oviedo by collecting and disseminating knowledge about local history, serve as a repository for documents and artifacts relating to Oviedo history, promote the preservation and marking of historic sites and buildings in the Oviedo area and foster interest in local, state, national, and world history.
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/128" target="_blank">Oviedo Collection</a>, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Oviedo, Florida
Contributing Project
<a href="http://oviedohs.com/" target="_blank">Oviedo Historical Society</a>
<a href="http://history.cah.ucf.edu/staff.php?id=304" target="_blank">Dr. Connie L. Lester</a>'s Introduction to Public History course, Spring 2015
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
External Reference
"<a href="http://oviedohs.com/" target="_blank">Oviedo Historical Society</a>." Oviedo Historical Society, Inc. http://oviedohs.com/.
Adicks, Richard, and Donna M. Neely. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5890131" target="_blank"><em>Oviedo, Biography of a Town</em></a>. S.l: s.n.], 1979.
Robison, Jim. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/796757419" target="_blank"><em>Around Oviedo</em></a>. 2012.
"<a href="http://www.cityofoviedo.net/node/68" target="_blank">History</a>." City of Oviedo, Florida. http://www.cityofoviedo.net/node/68.
"<a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/audio/Ep41-Oviedo.mp3" target="_blank">RICHES Podcast Documentaries, Episode 41: Oviedo, with Dr. Richard Adicks</a>." RICHES of Central Florida. http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/audio/Ep41-Oviedo.mp3.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Original Format
1 newspaper article
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Fire Association to Begin Drive
Alternative Title
Fire Association Drive
Subject
Goldenrod (Fla.)
Winter Springs (Fla.)
Fire departments--United States
Description
A newspaper article published by <em>The Oviedo Outlook</em> on July 7, 1971. This article discusses the Seminole-Goldenrod Fire Association membership drive. Goldenrod formed its volunteer fire department in the 1950s with its own trucks and erected a building on Palmetto Avenue in Goldenrod, Florida, to serve both Orange County and Seminole County residents. Around 1969, Orange County established a fire department at that location at 4755 Palmetto Avenue. In order to service the Seminole County residents of Goldenrod, the volunteer fire department moved to this location and became the Seminole-Goldenrod Volunteer Fire Department. The location was later taken over by Seminole County and renamed the Seminole County Fire Station 23.
Type
Text
Source
Original newspaper article: Mathers, Marilyn. "Fire Association to Begin Drive." <em>The Oviedo Outlook</em>, Vol. 1, No. 3, July 7, 1971: Private Collection of Dan Beistel.
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/147" target="_blank">Oviedo Historical Society Collection</a>, Oviedo Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Is Format Of
Digital reproduction of original newspaper article: Mathers, Marilyn. "Fire Association to Begin Drive." <a href="http://www.seminolevoice.com/" target="_blank"><em>The Oviedo Outlook</em></a>, Vol. 1, No. 3, July 7, 1971.
Coverage
Seminole-Goldenrod Volunteer Fire Department, Goldenrod, Florida
Creator
Mathers, Marilyn
Publisher
<a href="http://www.seminolevoice.com/" target="_blank"><em>The Oviedo Outlook</em></a>
Contributor
Beistel, Dan
Date Created
ca. 1971-07-07
Date Issued
1971-07-07
Date Copyrighted
1971-07-07
Format
image/jpg
Extent
216 KB
Medium
1 newspaper article
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Marilyn Mathers and published by <a href="http://www.seminolevoice.com/" target="_blank"><em>The Oviedo Outlook</em></a>.
Rights Holder
Copyright to this resource is held by <a href="http://www.seminolevoice.com/" target="_blank"><em>The Seminole Voice</em></a> and is provided here by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a> for educational purposes only.
Accrual Method
Donation
Contributing Project
<a href="http://oviedohs.com/" target="_blank">Oviedo Historical Society</a>
Curator
Dossie, Porsha
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
Private Collection of Dan Beistel
External Reference
"<a href="http://www.goldenrodhistoricalsociety.com/" target="_blank">Goldenrod Historical Society & Museum</a>." Goldenrod Historical Society & Museum. http://www.goldenrodhistoricalsociety.com/.
Eastbrook
fire department
Forest Brook
Gladys James
Goldenrod
Jamestown
Marilyn Mathers
Phil Haggerty
Robert Parker
Seminole-Goldenrod Fire Association
Seminole-Goldenrod Volunteer Fire Department
Tanglewood
volunteer
Winter Springs