During the spring of 2020, I saw many museums and historical sites create online content to respond to the limitations they faced in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. My favorite, though, was that of Mount Vernon. Since, at that point, they could not let people into the house or grounds and could not host events, they switched to livestreaming the events on YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms. This was not a totally unique solution, since many other sites did something similar, but I was struck by a couple elements of Mount Vernon’s approach, especially in regard to the way they organized and ran these events and the variety of events.
Each day of the work week was given a broad theme. At noon on that day, there would be a livestream related to the theme. For example, there was “Teaching Tuesday,” in which a Mount Vernon employee would discuss a method or tool for teaching students, especially in elementary and middle school, about George Washington and his era. This way, someone would know to attend a livestream on a given day if they want a particular theme, even if they did not know what the specific topic of that day would be. It helped the Mount Vernon staff plan and helped their audience find content that interested them.
These events were accessible on a variety of platforms simultaneously. Although I generally attended them using Facebook, they could be accessed on any platform that Mount Vernon had an account on. I appreciated how wide the reach was. It made the events easy to find, regardless of what platform the user preferred. This also aided in interactivity. During the event, comments received on different platforms would appear at the bottom of the screen and questions would be answered by the speaker. I enjoyed having the chance to ask questions during the presentations instead of watching them passively. I got to interact with the experience from my home and probably asked more questions than I would have in person.
The best part of these events was the variety. In the same series, the Mount Vernon staff showed their audience artifacts, the Mount Vernon sheep, and various guest speakers. Once, they even streamed a staff member playing Be Washington, a free online educational game. I attended many livestreams in this series and felt like I learned a lot. I think these events were a great example of the different ways in which public humanities can deepen one’s understanding of a topic.
Mount Vernon’s response to the pandemic not only made their resources more accessible when they could not be visited in person, but also brought these resources to people all over the country who might not have gotten to experience them even outside of the pandemic. Personally, I enjoyed it greatly and learned a lot about the Mount Vernon estate and George Washington’s era. Beyond this, I learned about the different ways the humanities can be presented and delivered to people regardless of their locations.
