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Garden Interpretation
Orientation is not a substitute for experiencing a garden;
it serves as a prelude to a visit. The next step in a program
of visitor and information services at Old Salem is the inter-
pretation of the garden from the time visitors leave the Recep-
tion Center until they finish their tours. To quote the American
Association of Museums (AAM) in its recent accreditation
program for historic sites, interpretation is a "planned
effort to create for the visitor an understanding of the history
and significance of events, people, and objects with which the
site is associated. I'
Currently, a one-on-one relationship is heavily relied
upon for interpretation of Salem yards and garden through guided
group tours (approximately 40,000 children on school tours) as
well as through stationed, seasonal garden interpreters. However
mass communication techniques might be improved and strengthened
to meet the needs of the approximately 100,000 visitors
who tour Old Salem at their leisure. Grant Sharpe (2) divides
such techniques into non-personaljunattended and personal/
attended categories in his book, Interpreting the Environment.
Non-personal interpretive services in Old Salem gardens
can include:
Signs
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Signs: descriptive story labels, plant identification
labels
Publications: descriptive brochures, garden guides,
maps, booklets
Self-guiding activities: walking tours of the historic
district and gardens, discovery
rooms
Exhibits: temporary, permanent, "Hands-On"
Audio-Visual services: slides, film, videotape, multiimage
shows
Garden administrators and horticulturists face the conflict
between the aesthetic experience and educational need for signs
and labels. signs in most historic garden settings have no
historical precedence and become anachronisms in the re-created
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