Every year millions of Americans visit national parks and
monuments, state and municipal parks, battlefields, historic
houses, and museums. By means of guided walks and talks, tours,
exhibits, and signs, visitors experience these areas through a very
special kind of communication technique known as "interpretation."
For fifty years, Freeman Tilden's
Interpreting Our Heritage
has been an indispensable sourcebook for those who are responsible
for developing and delivering interpretive programs. This expanded
and revised anniversary edition includes not only Tilden's classic
work but also an entirely new selection of accompanying
photographs, five additional essays by Tilden on the art and craft
of interpretation, a new foreword by former National Park Service
director Russell Dickenson, and an introduction by R. Bruce Craig
that puts Tilden's writings into perspective for present and future
generations.
Whether the challenge is to make a prehistoric site come to life;
to explain the geological basis behind a particular rock formation;
to touch the hearts and minds of visitors to battlefields, historic
homes, and sites; or to teach a child about the wonders of the
natural world, Tilden's book, with its explanation of the famed
"six principles" of interpretation, provides a guiding hand.
For anyone interested in our natural and historic heritage--park
volunteers and rangers, museum docents and educators, new and
seasoned professional heritage interpreters, and those lovingly
characterized by Tilden as "happy amateurs--
Interpreting Our
Heritage and Tilden's later interpretive writings, included in
this edition, collectively provide the essential foundation for
bringing into focus the truths that lie beyond what the eye
sees.