Abstract

This dissertation delineates the development of a Best Practice Model of Living History Interpretation through greater accuracy in the reconstruction of historical clothing. It specifically focuses on a case study of the Costumed Interpretive Master Plan to be developed for the Nova Scotia Museum, suggesting how the modern understanding of the history of dress and accurate historical clothing can add to the interpreter’s arsenal of tools to help teach history utilizing a broader sensory experience. Through a research-creation project, carried out over several years, I experimented in how one creates clothing using historical methods, and then how those clothing pieces work within a living history environment. This was a form of “living inquiry” or “making as research” in that through the recreation of the garments and then wearing them I could determine how closely the reconstructions worked as clothing instead of costumes.
The objectives of this dissertation are two-fold: first is to prove the importance of reconstructed material culture; and, secondly, to examine how experimental archaeological practice can inform and help to better understand how original material culture was made and used in the historical period. I discuss how interpretation developed in the early twentieth century, how re-enactment developed into living history and the important role of accuracy in both the interpreter’s and the audience’s experience of living history. For the characters developed, I consulted with the models I wanted to employ, taking into consideration both the site’s needs, as well as the living history actor’s personality. I began in the Nova Scotia Museum’s collection realizing that expanding my research parameters to include online resources from other museums would be required. To fulfil my research goals, I sought out digitally accessible archives and collections from the north of Scotland to the southern United States and beyond.