ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) - Visitors who want to dive deeper into the region’s history have a new option at Museum of the Albemarle.
An audio tour is now available at the “Our Story” gallery, adding new details about how the region changed as modes of transportation changed.
Visitors can access the tour through any mobile phone, not just smart phones. The tour includes 30 stations and takes an hour and a half to go through all of them, but listeners can skip stops if they want. Each station has a number that visitors can punch on their phones or tablets if they want to hear the narrative. The average stop is about 3 minutes but some are longer.
“It’s pretty straightforward. It’s not hard to navigate,” said collections specialist Clay Swindell, who wrote the tour’s script. “It really adds to the experience for touring this particular gallery. We have folks who are interested in learning more, and this is a way for them to get a lot more detail.”
Swindell said he drew from research by former MOA curator Tom Butchko and others whose work was used to create the exhibit. Because of limited space - and limited attention spans - the museum abbreviates that research in the displays. The tour is one way to incorporate more details that were left out, he said.
The audio tour also adds a new dimension to the panels, pictures and artifacts that make up the exhibit, he added.
“This is the modern age…mobile devices, everybody pretty much has them these days, so we thought this was a pretty good approach to getting that content to visitors.”
Swindell enlisted two actors from Encore Theatre Company, Robyn Eure and Dean Schaan, to read the narrative that Swindell worked on for several months, in addition to his other job duties. The audio tour is a first for the museum although it has used local voices for some displays.
Swindell said the audio tour may help visitors better understand how the exhibit is arranged.
“They have an opportunity to learn a lot more about why these items are where they are in relation to the exhibit itself, so it provides a really good back story,” he said.
The tour offers an overview of the region and its progression through various eras of transportation - maritime, railroad, automobiles and flight.
The exhibits begin with native Americans, descendants of the Meherrin or “People of the Muddy Water.” From there, the tour goes to Fort Raleigh, the Lords Proprietor, and Blackbeard, all history connected to the 13-county region represented on the tour.
One popular stop is the Jackson House, built by a farmer/possibly carpenter in the 18th Century when a 26-foot-long, 16-foot wide and 11-foot tall house was considered better-than-average comfort.
“People are always amazed that there’s a house in the museum,” Swindell said.
Other stations march through time, eventually leading to world wars when enemy submarines lurked off the coast at “Torpedo Junction.”
“Most people don’t realize how close the war was, both World War I and World War II,” noted Swindell.
The new tour will also help the museum learn where visitors are coming from and which exhibits they like the best. Swindell said the tour’s software by OnCell, a popular app builder for museums, parks, and cultural destinations, tracks how many people are taking the tour and the area codes they call from.
Twenty-six people from five states accessed the audio tour when it became accessible last week for the first time.
The Museum of the Albemarle is located at 501 South Water Street, Elizabeth City, NC. Website: www.museumofthealbemarle.com. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am - 4 pm Closed Sundays, Mondays and State Holidays.
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Information from: The Daily Advance, https://www.dailyadvance.com/
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