My work this week for Greenwood has involved reviewing previous walking tours. This includes some wonderfully detailed notes provided by a local moonlight walking tour attendee on the Historic Orlando Facebook group, a video presentation given by former Greenwood Cemetery sexton, Don Price, and the book Greenwood Cemetery Historical Trail: Orlando, FL by Steve Rajtar. I am using these three sources to create a base for the stops on the first general digital tour. Additionally, I am also incorporating several requests by my supervisor to include some other highlights that she likes to discuss when she gives tours of the cemetery.
Another component of reviewing the presentation given by Don Price is that it will allow for the citation of some stories which Mr. Price tells, in an oral history format. Ideally, I will be able to go back and find more documentation for these stories to be able to provide a reasonably exhaustive proof standard. This type of well documented citation is essential to my work as it is what the City of Orlando requires. Luckily, because of my experience with genealogy, I have no problem using a multi-pronged approach to source research.
A big task this week has been the development of the survey that I mentioned last week. This survey will accomplish several goals. First, it will give us a baseline with which to develop the tours.
Who is our audience? What do they already know about Orlando’s history? What would they like to know more about?
The answers to these questions can guide the tour development and ensure that we are meeting the public’s needs. In addition to those questions, I also have included some used in Rosenzweig and Thelen’s study in The Presence of the Past which I felt were pertinent. Some of the information I expect to see might hypothetically look something like this: "20% of those surveyed don’t know who July Perry is, 90% wished they knew more about Orlando's history, only 50% feel that a cemetery can be a historic site, etc." I am nearly done with the draft of this survey and am awaiting feedback from my supervisor regarding the suitability of sending this survey out or if there are any limitations from the City of Orlando in sending it to the public. My plan if there are limitations is to reduce the reach and send it to my own contacts and possibly to UCF students and faculty. It would be ideal, however, to send the survey out to a broad range of those that live in Central Florida, so that the results are not skewed. I’m very interested to see the results and I look forward to having some data points to address in my final presentation and methodological paper for this internship.
Finally, an exciting development has arisen that I’m also looking forward to! A Lake Davis Greenwood Historic District resident and member of a local heritage group has approached Greenwood with an offer to donate some materials related to the cemetery’s history! Apparently, her father owned a local plant nursery and had donated the plants that were originally used to beautify the cemetery back in the 1960s. She also indicated that she had many contacts with ties to Greenwood that would be interested in doing oral history interviews. I am thrilled with the prospect of being able to record this important information for the city and hopefully assist with the collection. As soon as we see what the donated materials are, I will be speaking to my contacts at the Orange County Regional History Center archive to see what the procedure should be. Depending on what is donated, I would love to develop a small display for the Greenwood office as there is room there for at least a case or two. I'll report back next week with any news on this exciting front!
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