ABSTRACT
Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM) was conceived in a church. The church was in an outdoor living history museum called Old Sturbridge Village, which was hosting the 1970 meeting of the Agricultural History Society. About two dozen members lingered in the well-worn wooden pews to share perspectives on a new type of agricultural museum known as the living historical farm. ALHFAM was different from other museum organizations. It advocated using reproductions rather than originals in museum programming, developed techniques for collecting and preserving living artifacts (plants and animals). Promoted the restoration and use of historic machinery, and fine-tuned a range of hands-on interpretation techniques its members used to teach the public about the processes, culture, and customs of various communities throughout history. In 1998, ALHFAM reflected the changing nature of its membership with a slight name change, becoming the Association for Living History, Farm, and Agricultural Museums.
