Article
3 – History of Interpretation Before
we jump into a discussion on guidelines of interpretation maybe we should look
at the history of this fascinating profession.
Long before the National Park Service
(NPS) was born in 1916 interpretation was sought out by the public and they
were willing to pay for that service.
This was the case at Yellowstone and Yosemite, long before they became national
parks. Military troops had responsibility for protecting the land. A few troops
found themselves in the position of interpreting these sites to visitors.
However not everyone was as conscience in sharing their information as the
troops. Some stagecoach drivers and
“guides” at the hotels told clients all manner of stories hoping for good tips.
Interchange Cruise Lines with Yellowstone or Yosemite and it is easy to
understand that National Parks Service, cruise lines and other entities
appreciate professional, ethical guidelines or principles.
The National Park Service (NPS) is
first recognize as the entity that sought to find common guidelines or
principles which could be taught to rangers in the field who were imparting
information to the public. What NPS discovered in the 1950’s were some rangers
were great in engaging the public, other rangers left people yawning and
leaving the campfire and park tours. Freeman Tilden was hired by NPS to find the
common denominators of interpretation that could be taught to rangers. He visited
scores of national parks. He visited state parks and private historical areas.
He visited living history or craft demonstration areas such as Colonial
Williamsburg. He engaged in discussions with those who interpreted their sites
for the public. He gave interpretative talks. He looked at brochures, signs,
and displays to find common principles among the written and spoken word. He pondered what the guiding principles for
interpreting information were. In 1957 he wrote Interpreting Our Heritage. He found six principles that an interpreter
must use when sharing information with an audience. These six principles have
stood the test of time. In 2002 Larry Back and Ted Cable expanded on these six principles
into fifteen when they wrote Interpretation
for the 21st Century.
The art of interpretation is now used
by those involved in the interpretation of natural and cultural resources in
settings such as parks, zoos, museums, nature centers, aquariums, botanical gardens,
historical sites, historical societies, corporations and cruise ships.
A professional organization, National Association for Interpretation (NAI), with over 5,000 members, has various
levels of training for those interested in this profession. At one time there was a cruise line that only
would hire those trained by NAI for their programs aboard their ships. This
cruise line is no longer around, although they did realize the need for
speakers who could connect information to their audience using the interpretive
guidelines.
The same principles NAI promotes are
the same the principles that the cruise lines expect. However unlike the cruise line that discovered Certified
Interpretive Guides or speakers, most cruise lines are not aware of a program
that would enhance their speaker programs. You have the advantage of learning
these principle and guidelines and putting them into practice to help secure
your place as a speaker on various cruise lines.
In the next postings we will look at a couple of
Beck and Cables fifteen principles and how they apply
to cruise lines.
