Many times I’ve read on these pages the prognostications of my fellow preppers as to the current direction and ultimate destination of our nation, government and way of life. Of these possible outcomes one of the most common themes that crisscross the apocalyptic visions of the future is the grid-down situation. The author’s often refer to the mid 1800s as a reference point to orient the reader to the reality of what life would be like without the precious electrical current that so directly (and alternately) influences our everyday life. Today we can read about the lives of people living then but wouldn’t it be convenient to hop in a time machine and travel back to the 1800s and interview them about what their lives were really like. Alas, time machines do not exist but a very good alternative does.
Five years ago while searching for a part time job I found a position that seemed to fit me perfectly. I’d be teaching history, one of my favorite subjects, in an hands on environment. The only requirement was that I actually had to wear replica clothes from the 1840 time period. A living history museum, in need of an interpreter had hired me on. The term “interpreter” is actually very accurate because, though I spoke English, I was interpreting a time period and a culture that was so radically different that most people simply could not grasp the way the people of that time lived, worked and thought without a specially trained person “interpreting” the culture. It was in this context that I began to realize the skills, information and historical wisdom that living history museums contained.
If you want to know what life was like before electricity then go to a living history museum and see it with your own eyes. At the museum where I work there is a working farm with heritage breed animals. The farmers plow with oxen which they have trained from birth. In the fields they grow grains that are harvested, threshed and winnowed by hand and with 1840s style tools. Hops are cultivated by hand, an important cash crop for our region of central New York during the time period. These skills are, for all practical purposes, extinct in our modern world.
In the small farm house the ladies of the farm cook every day over an open fire with recipes from the mid 1800s. They preserve their own meat by heavily salting it and then smoking it for several weeks in a brick smoke house. This meat now desiccated and covered with black creosote, can be stored indefinitely in a cloth bag hanging from the wall. Another form of meat preservation is submerging the meat in salt water brine. Checked regularly to make sure the brine has the proper amount of salt, the meat will still be very usable the next year for the ladies to cook with. Having consumed the meals from the farm house many times I know that tastes were different in the 1800ss but the food is filling and certainly would fortify you for a day of farm labor.
Much has been written lately on this fine blog about herbal remedies for illness. The pharmacy at the museum is staffed with experts on herbs and their historical and modern day preparations and uses. At the museum that I work at a beautiful herb garden is there to put a “face to a name” for the herbs, so to speak.
Here is a short list of everyday things taught by local living history museums that you could find an application for in a grid-down scenario:
1. Blacksmithing – creating blades, nails, hinges, hammers, hooks etc.
2. Gardening – open pollinating plants that have historically done well in your area
3. Animal Husbandry/ Bee keeping
4. Cooking and Baking – how to create meals using a fireplace or bake bread in a brick oven
5. Rope making
6. Food preservation
7. Cloth creation – shearing sheep, spinning wool, weaving, sawing
8. Pottery
9. Wild edibles
10. Making shoes
Living history museums don’t pay a lot and thus draw employees that are retired or in need of a second job. These “interpreters” bring a lifetime of skills and knowledge to the table that can be almost impossible to find in modern day world. The vast majority of these good people are talkers too. If you arrive at the right time, with a smile and a question they will gladly bend your ear for an hour or more on some arcane topic like barrel construction or dying wool with walnut [husks]. Workshops are often available as well for those who would like more hands on experience with a topic that interests them. You could also seek employment at a local museum. The museum where I work is extremely flexible in its scheduling and I and my family can come and go at our leisure. Networking with other interpreters has provided me with a number of very valuable resources to increase my own self sufficiency.
A couple of hints for those of you who may be interested in mining living history museums for potential information and resources. At least in the northeast, July and August are tourist season. You will not have the undivided attention of the interpreter and other then general site seeing and the information you may garner from the signs hung around the village you will not walk away with very much in the way of useful information. The time to come to a museum in the northeast is after Labor Day to the end of October. The tourists are gone and the interesting work of harvest and preservation has begun. This is the time to visit and bring a note book. Interpreters will be glad to actually reach some depth in their conversation with you after two months of 60 second conversations with hot, impatient tourists.
Secondly, most museums offer a yearlong membership. These are generally much more economical then paying each time to get in. I can assure you that you’ll be back.
Living history museums are fascinating places with significant amounts of practical wisdom and skills. You won’t discover the key to surviving a nuclear holocaust or how to do small unit tactical training but make friends with the interpreters and query them for the skills, information and resources they possess and you’ll walk away better prepared to live in a world that no longer enjoys the security provided by basic utilities.
A good web site to start your search for a local living history museum is OutdoorHistory.org/