New London Day a Week Later

New London Day was an incredible experience in more ways than one. First off, it exceeded all my expectations. I am not sure what the official visitor count was, but it was easily over 150 people. I am something of a pessimist, so I was expecting fifty or so people at best. Another thing I was surprised by was how interested people were in what we had to say to them. There were even several people who clearly loved our presentation. I am used to going to museums where the majority of the people walking through are barely interested in the material, if at all. Almost every group that came by the display asked one of us a question, and all of them genuinely listened to what we had to say. It was rather eye-opening for me to see that there are people out there besides us who are actually interested in things like New London.

Another aspect of New London Day that made it such an incredible experience is the value of what we learned. Our group picked out a topic, devised an interpretation plan, carried out the plan and presented the results. Granted, this was on a much smaller scale than most historical sites would do, but the experience was invaluable. Even for those of us who do not pursue a career in public history, the skills we honed and developed such as collaboration, research, presentation, and others are incredible assets in any career. Possibly the most important lesson learned on New London Day, for me at least, was the value of preparation.

Our finished display before the crowds came.

I did not know what to expect on New London Day, so I was not sure how to prepare for it. There are probably several things I could have done to be better prepared, but the one thing that stands out is practicing. I knew the material I was presenting, but I did not practice my delivery nearly as much as I should have. In the end, it worked out. After the first few groups that went by our table, I was not nervous anymore, but a little extra practice beforehand would have been a great help.

           With all the different groups involved in New London Day, it is a little difficult to see what 

our contribution was to the event as a whole. Perhaps our presentation was the first stop some people 

made, and just maybe it is what convinced them to walk the rest of the town. It is hard to say, 

however one thing that is a little more certain is that some of the people who stopped at our table will 

be back next year. There were many people who loved our display, and at least one little boy who was

fascinated by it. The chances that they will be back next year are definitely high. Another way I 

believe our group contributed is by rounding out our classes efforts. Meaning that our class had 

something to present that would interesting to everyone. Our group probably interested the people 

who may not have found Mead’s Tavern all that exciting and vice versa. All in all, I think it is hard to 

determine how much our group contributed to the event’s success, however I do believe we made a 

valuable contribution. We educated and entertained a lot of people on New London Day, and I call 

that a success.

Professor Donald's coming, look busy !! 

Interpretation of New London's Place in Colonial Conflict

Every interpretation project must begin with a theme. My group decided we are going to tell the story of how the people of New London stood strong through the trials of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. Like all themes, ours was the result of a process of refinement. Our project initially focused completely on the arsenal that was present in New London before, during, and after the American Revolution. While it is a fascinating topic, our group decided that we needed to expand upon it.

After some discussion we chose colonial conflict in New London as our new topic. Our main focus was still the arsenal, but this  allowed us to talk about the town’s involvement in the French and Indian War, the Tory conspiracy, and the John Hook trial that took place in the New London courthouse. Unfortunately, this theme had the opposite problem of trying to include too many stories in one project. In the end, we decided that the Hook trial did not fit with our theme well enough to justify focusing on it, and that the lack of available information on the Tory conspiracy made it impossible to adequately cover in our project. This leaves us with the arsenal and the French and Indian War. Fortunately, interpretation is an ongoing process. Hopefully future historians will have adequate information to properly interpret these topics.

The courthouse at New London was the site

of the famous Robert Hook trial. This story

unfortunately had to be cut from the project.

All projects need some kind of plan in order to ensure timely completion. There are some slight differences among our group’s deadlines, but the major dates are the same. All initial research is ideally to be completed by October 1^st. Unfortunately, the late omission of the Tory conspiracy from our project has required that date to be adjusted to later this week. After the initial research is completed, the next step is to summarize information into easy to read, interpretive text to be put on posters. This will hopefully be completed by October 7^th or at least as close as possible. The final text and the finished posters will be completed by October 10^th and ready for display on New London Day.

There are many sources that have been invaluable to this project. Some of the more helpful sources are “New London: The Forgotten History” by Claude A. Thompson, Public History: A Textbook of Practice by Thomas Cauvin, and Nearby History by Kyvig and Marty. The Thompson work has been helpful in identifying key events and people in New London’s history, giving us a starting point in our research. The other books deal specifically with public history and interpretation, and give us invaluable guidance on how to interpret a project like this.