In the United Kingdom (UK) historic houses form part of the tourism and leisure market. Heritage encompasses a wide variety of establishments including historic houses, historic gardens, heritage centres, town centres, countryside and museums. The UK has a vast cultural resource in this respect and the research intends to concentrate on establishments that are known as the "built heritage" and that are often described as "historic" or "country houses". Millions of visitors annually visit properties to experience an insight into earlier periods of British history and culture. Many operate similarly to small businesses and often have a more diverse range of needs. A model was developed for the study to show the information needs of historic houses and the information seeking behaviour of those managing historic houses. Data have been collected both via questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaires involved the investigation of those managing (owners, administrators, custodians) heritage establishments. The interview questions were put directly to individuals responsible for properties from a geographically dispersed area, with different categories of ownership (English Heritage, National Trust, private, local authority) and with different levels of visitor traffic. The survey focused on diversity of activities, information provision, use of information, developments (including technology) and collaboration. Historic houses have been part of a growing sector, allied to the growth in the leisure industry, which has led to increasing demands on their time and finances. In a world that increasingly provides more information than can be handled effectively by any one individual, properties need to be able to make effective use of this to protect the heritage for future generations. Building on the empirical work recommendations are made on policy making, education, audits, co-operation and technology to improve the provision and management of information within the sector to support these establishments. The research represents the first study to investigate the existing situation of historic houses and their information needs in the UK, to try and provide an overview of the sector and information provision and how that might be improved.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / Historic houses function as the stages for, and central figures in, processes of place-making and heritage construction. I offer the case site of the Fairbanks House (completed in 1641) in Dedham, Massachusetts as the subject of my investigation into these issues. Touted as the "oldest timber frame house in North America," the Fairbanks House is widely regarded as a significant example of early colonial architecture in the United States; it has operated as a house museum since it was purchased by the Fairbanks Family in America, Inc. stewardship group in 1904. This study expands beyond antiquity to include all eight generations of Fairbanks families who lived on the property. I argue that longevity, and a durational perspective that links the past with the present, is equally vital to peoples' understanding and appreciation. I trace the biography of the Fairbanks House from its creation in the early 17th century to its current use as a heritage site. This perspective emphasizes the continued saliency of accumulated individual decisions and actions, reified by both material culture and immaterial processes such as tradition and memory. I use archaeological, architectural, documentary, and oral sources to reconstruct the landscape of the Fairbanks farm and I demonstrate how residents made day-to-day choices, such as land purchases or neighborly socializing, to improve their socio-economic standing and establish a future for their children. In doing so for eight generations, they established a legacy that was celebrated beginning in the 19th century, when Fairbanks women living in the house promoted their family's history through storytelling and published media. These processes of heritage construction remain continuous and personal, as shown by the results of an ethnographic study that I designed, which reveals that Fairbanks House museum visitors define historicity not through specific facts about the Fairbanks family but through their own narratives based on their engagement with the site's material culture. In addition to providing an important example of how generations of modestly-successful New England farmers adapted their surroundings to fit their values and goals, this study positions local house museums as dynamic spaces for creative, personal engagements with the past.

Historic house museums have been the subject of very little structured research. As ideal learning environments for young children they have the potential to facilitate very special educational interactions, yet children's experiences in house museums remain relatively unexplored, with very little professional analysis of the nature, the value or the impact of school visits. As museums, historic houses are educational institutions, yet with limited professional expertise and restricted resources as commonplace, many house museums provide very little in the way of structured educational experiences for schools. This study aims to increase our understanding of educational encounters in house museums. Using Falk and Dierking's Interactive Experience Model this thesis explores the personal, physical and social contexts of young children's visits to house museums. It follows the progress of children aged 5-8 years, as they participate in class visits to two very different kinds of house museum. A structured, age-appropriate education program implemented at Calthorpes' House is compared to the approach taken at Blundells' Cottage, where a lack of resources and professional expertise has resulted in unstructured school visits, typical of amateur house museums throughout Australia. The study directly compares these structured and non-structured museum visits to determine the immediate and long term value of constructed learning experiences in historic houses. The thesis concludes that the structure of a school visit has a significant influence on the museum experience. Research revealed that structured education programs prepare children better for their visit, allow for more successful interactive experiences on site, encourage enjoyable social interactions and result in more detailed museum memories. Finally this thesis outlines implications for house museums as a result of this research and makes recommendations to assist under-resourced house museums provide more structured, more informed educational interactions for schools.

The following thesis examine the former homes of Charlotte Berlin and Wilhelmina von Hallwyl, two women who in the turn of 20th century donated their homes and collections to be museums. The purpose of this essay is to examine how Charlotte Berlin’s Museum and the Hallwyl museum work with musealization and authenticity.Both Charlotte and Wilhelmina lived their life in a changing time, where emigration, industrialization and urbanization took place. They are both women from the upper-middle class but with differences such as economic ones which has an effect of the collection and the size of their homes. Further distinctions between them is that Wilhelmina was married and Charlotte was not. Wilhelmina lived in the capital of Sweden, Charlotte in the small town called Ystad. Their similarities is found in their collections of clocks, clothes, paintings and books but most of all in their determination to make their homes museums once they were gone. They sought to make sure that their changing time could be seen through their collection. By examine how this is visible in the rooms they left 137behind, it is possible to see the relationship between the props and the authentic objects. The signs of it now being a museum, as cordons and glass stands, collaborates with the presence of the former inhabitants as well as movemements, seen through objects like chairs placed slightly obliquely. This essay also establish a new term called affective authenticity, which describe and develop the sensation of the past, the relation between the imagi-nation and the reality and the connection between people, objects and the milieu, with the importance that every-thing does not have to be all authentic, but has to mediate it. This is a two year’s master thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies.