Final Project - Harriet Beecher Stowe Center

For the the final project I will be examining the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, CT and how they portray information to the public during their renovation process.  The Stowe House is currently undergoing a renovation to upgrade the fire suppression, environmental controls, and to re-interpret the House to fit the vision of the existing administration.  This will be the first large scale renovation of the author's home since the late 1960s when it became viewable by the public.  Prior to that the Stowe Center was actually a library and research archive focused on the Hartford history and the sprawling descendants of the Beecher family.  The founder, Katherine Seymour Day, was the grand-niece of Harriet and grand-daughter of Isabella Beecher Hooker, and began the library with the acquisition of the Chamberlain House (now the Day House) on the corner of Farmington Avenue and Forest Street in the 1930s, while Katherine resided in the former residence of Mrs. Stowe.  This is how the Center functioned for the first 30 years of existence before moving into the traditional house museum world after the passing of Katherine Seymour Day.  The Curator she hired in the 1930s to organize her collection became the Director and stayed there for another 30 years, guiding the museum in its traditional educational format until a new Director shifted focus to social justice inspiration using Stowe's story of Uncle Tom's Cabin.  This move has been occurring over the last decade and the current renovation and re-interpretation will result in an experience solely designed around inspiring action.  It is this change in how the institution delivers information about a single person over eighty plus years of existence.  Also with this is how the institutional purpose has morphed from a research oriented site to a public "edu-tainment" center to a Social Justice Worker training ground and how these factors have changed the delivery of Mrs. Stowe's life.  Another avenue to explore is how a house museum delivers its message without the house of the person they are named for is out of commission. How effective can a narrative be carried on outside the confines of its usual space?  Does this impact the user experience? Is the less biographical and more inspirational story better for this delivery outside of the traditional space?

The Museum is open year round and offers a variety of public programming on its own and also in conjunction with other local museums, libraries, and social justice oriented organization.  There most frequent collaborator is their (and Stowe's) next door neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum.  Both authors discussed race in the 19th Century so it may be worth exploring or noting how each institution delivers information regarding race or their authors in general.  This study will utilize existing public information, interviews with staff and visitors, and attendance of the multiple programs the Stowe Center uses to convey information about Mrs. Stowe to the public.