Help a nerd go back in time.
August 23, 2016 8:44 AM Subscribe
I'm fascinated by history, all kinds of history. I’d love nothing more than to wake up in a very convincing facsimile of another time—and I just found out about this. Can you help me find more?
I watch a ton of reality TV shows like 1940s House, 1900s House, Coal House, Colonial House, Regency House Party, and so on.
I’m also completely enamored with Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlan, and Peter Ginn, and all of their series.
I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, I want to do that.
My chances of being cast on a reality show are extremely unlikely, but I’d still love the opportunity to “go back in time” via historical immersion/living history as realistically as possible—and I’m willing to splash out on it.
I’d be excited to try on all kinds of different lives, really, not just those of the upper crust.
I’m pretty adventurous and not afraid of some hard work. Therefore, I'm down for pretty much anything—a week with a family in a Viking roundhouse, making beer in the Middle-Ages, becoming an Athenian housewife, working a ranch in 1840s Texas, managing a manor house in Victorian England, leading as a 19th Century Native American matriarch, hauling water as a scullery maid, or swanning about as a Regency lady. Whatever.
However, I’m super not interested anything that reeks of creepy moralizing like these idiots, blindness to/erasure of the experiences of everyone but the privileged few, or of cultural appropriation. I understand how problematic this could get with the wrong program or participants, so I'll have to be careful and sensitive. But I'm coming at this from a place of respect, a desire to learn more about history, and to gain an even greater sense of empathy for people from our past. Many of the warts and all. (*All* of the warts would be very, very bad, especially for a woman.)
Basically, the impossible dream is to hang out with Ruth Goodman in X era for a couple weeks.
I'm aware of:
Plimoth Plantation
(Doesn’t look like you can stay overnight, without becoming an employee or volunteer.)
Old Sturbridge Village
(Rad! Gonna do it, hopefully for longer than a night.)
Beamish
(Doesn’t look like you can stay overnight, without becoming an employee or volunteer.)
The Queen Mary Art Deco Festival
(Yes!)
Coombe Abbey Medieval Banquet
(Just a costumed banquet—and what looks like a pretty cheesy Medieval Times-ish theater experience. *GASP! THE PLAGUE!*)
Charlton Park
(Doesn’t look like you can stay overnight, without becoming an employee or volunteer.)
Guédelon Castle
(Doesn’t look like you can stay overnight, without becoming an employee or volunteer.)
This seems like an amazing resource full of historic places to stay, but none seem to have specific “historic immersion” programs. More like a historic AirBnB. I’ll have to do more digging.
Anyway. For the sake of this question, let’s assume:
* Money’s no option (It will be, but let’s pretend)
* Anywhere in the world is good
* Any era is acceptable
* I have about 2 weeks to spend on any experience
* I don’t have time to volunteer, join a group, or become an employee
Thanks for humoring my silliness!
I watch a ton of reality TV shows like 1940s House, 1900s House, Coal House, Colonial House, Regency House Party, and so on.
I’m also completely enamored with Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlan, and Peter Ginn, and all of their series.
I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, I want to do that.
My chances of being cast on a reality show are extremely unlikely, but I’d still love the opportunity to “go back in time” via historical immersion/living history as realistically as possible—and I’m willing to splash out on it.
I’d be excited to try on all kinds of different lives, really, not just those of the upper crust.
I’m pretty adventurous and not afraid of some hard work. Therefore, I'm down for pretty much anything—a week with a family in a Viking roundhouse, making beer in the Middle-Ages, becoming an Athenian housewife, working a ranch in 1840s Texas, managing a manor house in Victorian England, leading as a 19th Century Native American matriarch, hauling water as a scullery maid, or swanning about as a Regency lady. Whatever.
However, I’m super not interested anything that reeks of creepy moralizing like these idiots, blindness to/erasure of the experiences of everyone but the privileged few, or of cultural appropriation. I understand how problematic this could get with the wrong program or participants, so I'll have to be careful and sensitive. But I'm coming at this from a place of respect, a desire to learn more about history, and to gain an even greater sense of empathy for people from our past. Many of the warts and all. (*All* of the warts would be very, very bad, especially for a woman.)
Basically, the impossible dream is to hang out with Ruth Goodman in X era for a couple weeks.
I'm aware of:
Plimoth Plantation
(Doesn’t look like you can stay overnight, without becoming an employee or volunteer.)
Old Sturbridge Village
(Rad! Gonna do it, hopefully for longer than a night.)
Beamish
(Doesn’t look like you can stay overnight, without becoming an employee or volunteer.)
The Queen Mary Art Deco Festival
(Yes!)
Coombe Abbey Medieval Banquet
(Just a costumed banquet—and what looks like a pretty cheesy Medieval Times-ish theater experience. *GASP! THE PLAGUE!*)
Charlton Park
(Doesn’t look like you can stay overnight, without becoming an employee or volunteer.)
Guédelon Castle
(Doesn’t look like you can stay overnight, without becoming an employee or volunteer.)
This seems like an amazing resource full of historic places to stay, but none seem to have specific “historic immersion” programs. More like a historic AirBnB. I’ll have to do more digging.
Anyway. For the sake of this question, let’s assume:
* Money’s no option (It will be, but let’s pretend)
* Anywhere in the world is good
* Any era is acceptable
* I have about 2 weeks to spend on any experience
* I don’t have time to volunteer, join a group, or become an employee
Thanks for humoring my silliness!
Best answer: You can experience life in 16th century Tudor England at Kentwell House. I first read about it in a book that may be relevant to your interests: I Believe In Yesterday by Tom Moore.
posted by shelleycat at 8:59 AM on August 23, 2016
posted by shelleycat at 8:59 AM on August 23, 2016
Coombe Park, at Coombe Abbey, was landscaped by "Capability" Brown, a pioneering landscape architect in the 18th c, and would be worth a visit just for that IMHO!
posted by maggiemaggie at 9:03 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by maggiemaggie at 9:03 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: A lot of the events tend not to be as long as you're looking for (mostly weekends or long weekends), but you might look into various types of reenacting (US Civil War is probably the most common/popular but there are people who do colonial/revolutionary, French and Indian war era mountain man "rendezvous" gatherings, etc. ) Even if you're not interested in the military aspect, many reenacting groups also have affiliated civilian units who set up alongside soldiers as "camp followers." Predictably, "authenticity" / historical accuracy may vary wildly from group to group and event to event. Some people really do try to portray dress/food/customs as accurately as they can, others mostly just like to dress up and play army. By and large though, everyone seems to really value that "period rush" where you look around and can believe for a moment that you're somehow in the past.
Most reenactments are open to the public during the day, but in my very limited experience the atmosphere is quite different once they go home and evening draws on; I've never joined a reenacting group or stayed overnight at an encampment, but I did once get to visit a camp after the public all went home; I was performing period music in period dress, and the atmosphere was pretty incredible with nothing but fire and lamplight, and quiet camp noise.
posted by usonian at 9:13 AM on August 23, 2016
Most reenactments are open to the public during the day, but in my very limited experience the atmosphere is quite different once they go home and evening draws on; I've never joined a reenacting group or stayed overnight at an encampment, but I did once get to visit a camp after the public all went home; I was performing period music in period dress, and the atmosphere was pretty incredible with nothing but fire and lamplight, and quiet camp noise.
posted by usonian at 9:13 AM on August 23, 2016
Hopefully someone comes up with the perfect answer for you. It's a question RIGHT up my alley and could totally be written by me.
In the event that you don't get the experience you are hoping for, maybe you could consider an awesome history road trip. New England is the perfect place. Plimoth Plantation is only an hour and a half from Sturbridge, add Mystic seaport, Minute man National Park, Shelburne Museum, Billings Museum, Newport, RI, Cogshall Farm, and Strawberry banks. In between those places are a zillion historic restaurants, homes, and towns.
You could schedule it during a time that a couple good reenactments were going on or when some of the special events are going on at the museums (ie. Sturbridge has "boarding with the Bixbys" or their Hearthside in a tavern nights).
And since you like the things I like, maybe you'll love Brimfield fair. Next to Sturbridge - it's giant with miles of antiques of all kinds. It's a week long, 3 times a year. Some people have such interesting booths. I love talking to someone that is an expert on antique pin cushions, or buttons, dresses, or daguerreotypes. You couldn't see it all in a few days it's so big.
Two weeks would be perfect to hit them all, and still experience some really cute, quaint old towns.
posted by ReluctantViking at 9:14 AM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
In the event that you don't get the experience you are hoping for, maybe you could consider an awesome history road trip. New England is the perfect place. Plimoth Plantation is only an hour and a half from Sturbridge, add Mystic seaport, Minute man National Park, Shelburne Museum, Billings Museum, Newport, RI, Cogshall Farm, and Strawberry banks. In between those places are a zillion historic restaurants, homes, and towns.
You could schedule it during a time that a couple good reenactments were going on or when some of the special events are going on at the museums (ie. Sturbridge has "boarding with the Bixbys" or their Hearthside in a tavern nights).
And since you like the things I like, maybe you'll love Brimfield fair. Next to Sturbridge - it's giant with miles of antiques of all kinds. It's a week long, 3 times a year. Some people have such interesting booths. I love talking to someone that is an expert on antique pin cushions, or buttons, dresses, or daguerreotypes. You couldn't see it all in a few days it's so big.
Two weeks would be perfect to hit them all, and still experience some really cute, quaint old towns.
posted by ReluctantViking at 9:14 AM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
This doesn't totally suit your guidelines, but as an add-on: I bet you'd really enjoy one of the Dapper Days at Disneyland.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:24 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:24 AM on August 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
What about getting involved with the SCA? I don't know if it entirely meets your guidelines, as you create a character who is from a certain place and time, and YOU attend events in a historically correct manner. But there's nothing to prevent you from being a wine merchant from Savoy in 1460 and the guy next to you being an actor from England in 1590, and the woman across the table at the banquet being a Viking. You also mostly won't be in historically significant places a la your Plimoth Plantations and Colonial Williamsburgs and the like. (Regular meetings take place in local parks and rec centers, and weekend events are often out in the wild or rural areas for a more period feel.)
It's definitely something to look into if you enjoy research into life in the European middle ages for its own sake, rather than the picturesque aesthetic of actually living among period structures, surrounded by people who are all living in the same pretend year as you are.
posted by Sara C. at 10:02 AM on August 23, 2016
It's definitely something to look into if you enjoy research into life in the European middle ages for its own sake, rather than the picturesque aesthetic of actually living among period structures, surrounded by people who are all living in the same pretend year as you are.
posted by Sara C. at 10:02 AM on August 23, 2016
My husband and I stayed overnight at the Village Historique Acadien (Historical Acadian Village) in Caraquet, New Brunswick on a trip down to the Maritimes. They have a reconstructed turn of the century hotel (The Hotel Albert) with a number of rooms. Some of the rooms have period bathrooms, all have period furniture and fixings. There is electricity in the rooms. After the site has closed up and before it opens in the morning, you and the other hotel guests have exclusive access to the property. The buildings in the village date from 1770 to 1949.
posted by deadtrouble at 12:01 PM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by deadtrouble at 12:01 PM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Many years ago, I floated for two days and spent a night with friends who were participating in the James River Batteau Festival, a week long river float done more or less completely in period dress and with period batteaux (and some period camping equipment, depending on the commitment level of individual participants).
It's not quite total immersion because there are some canoeists and some guests (like I was), but it's pretty close. There's more info in this year's brochure and the pictures at the top of their home page pretty well sum up what it was like (keep reloading the page to see more of them, no way to advance the slide show otherwise that I can tell). I'm afraid this year's festival already took place, but that means you have lots of time to help out with planning and building for next year's, if such things interest you.
If you like colonial to early American history, it's hard to beat!
posted by MoTLD at 10:10 PM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's not quite total immersion because there are some canoeists and some guests (like I was), but it's pretty close. There's more info in this year's brochure and the pictures at the top of their home page pretty well sum up what it was like (keep reloading the page to see more of them, no way to advance the slide show otherwise that I can tell). I'm afraid this year's festival already took place, but that means you have lots of time to help out with planning and building for next year's, if such things interest you.
If you like colonial to early American history, it's hard to beat!
posted by MoTLD at 10:10 PM on August 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Best answer: It's been quite a while, but I spent a long Fourth of July weekend at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, in Kentucky. Though I didn't dress in Shaker garb, my room at the inn was a reproduction Shaker room and I dined onsite. I should go back!
There's also the guest houses at Colonial Williamsburg.
I've thought about doing something like the Jamestown, ND, Fort Seward wagon train (period costume required).
posted by apartment dweller at 9:54 AM on August 24, 2016
There's also the guest houses at Colonial Williamsburg.
I've thought about doing something like the Jamestown, ND, Fort Seward wagon train (period costume required).
posted by apartment dweller at 9:54 AM on August 24, 2016
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Thanks in advance!
posted by functionequalsform at 8:50 AM on August 23, 2016