Table of Contents

Part 1 Foreword Part 2 Acknowledgments Part 3 Preface Part 4 Part 1: Developing the Thematic Tour Chapter 5 Introduction Chapter 6 Chapter 1. Preparation: Assemble the Facts Chapter 7 Chapter 2. Planning: The Theme Development Team and the Roundtable Workshop Chapter 8 Chapter 3. Creating: Writing, Testing, and Revising a Thematic Tour Online Chapter 9 Sample Materials Part 10 Part 2: Training Guides to Give Thematic Tours Chapter 11 Introduction Chapter 12 Chapter 4. Site Specifics and Historical Context Chapter 13 Chapter 5. Material Culture: The Physical Evidence Chapter 14 Chapter 6. Interpretive Themes and the Thematic Tour Chapter 15 Chapter 7. Communication: Audience and Presentation Techniques Part 16 Part 3: Managing Guides Effectively Chapter 17 Chapter 8. Managing Guides Effectively Part 18 Index Part 19 About the Authors

About the Author

Barbara A. Levy was the Interpretation Planner for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, Planning Division, and later became Director of Education and Interpretation for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. In 1993 she founded Barbara Levy Associates, a consulting group that has helped history museums and historical organizations improve their interpretation, planning, and education programmes. Sandy Mackenzie Lloyd was the first curator of Wyck, a historic house in Philadelphia, and the curator of education at Cliveden, a property of the National Trust. Susan P. Schreiber is Director of Interpretation and Public Programs for the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., working on the creation of the City Museum of Washington.

Reviews

Great Tours! is a wonderful resource for sites that want to improve their interpretation and guide training. With loads of activities and practical advice, the book is designed to be adaptable for sites of varying sizes, resource levels and sophistication. Great Tours! does a good job of addressing new issues and problems facing historic sites today. . . . The book's format is easy to use and its program will help any site to strengthen and discipline its interpretation. Great Tours! provides practical help and advice for historic sites, helping them to address the increasingly important and linked questions of visitor experience, good interpretation, and changing audiences.
*Insites*

This is a book well worth pursuing ... The kind of book for discovering its contents and placing in a convenient slot on the shelf until an idea strikes and one remembers one of its gems and reaches for it once again.
*ALHFAM Bulletin*

...this excellent resouce guide will help every site, no matter how large or small.
*Nebraska History*

Great Tours is a practical and easy-to-use training manual for anyone developing guided tours of historic sites.... It is a methodical guide to planning, implementing and managing a guided tour program.
*Inform: Newsletter From Museums Of Alberta, Winter 2002*

Bad tours are easy to parody. Great tours are hard to copy. And thus the need for this book... The book is divided into three parts: developing the thematic tour, training guides to give such tours, and finally how to manage guides effectively. It is all to the good that the organization is so clearly defined, with the subdivisions given equal care, for the wealth of material would be difficult to absorb without such orderly presentation... One cannot, in all truth, single out a single section or chapter as more useful than another, but there is no doubt that in working with enthusiastic guides the training activities, formatted as worksheets, will be invaluable. Although packed tight with information, the messages are succinct. It will be an unusual reader who does not underline constantly with a pencil or else scatter 'stickies' throughout to secure the most salient places.
*Museline, Texas Association Of Museums*