I worked as a docent at Homewood Museum last weekend and had the opportunity to interact with what I hope is a future historian. A little girl came to the house museum with her father, and I approached them to see if they had any questions.
“Yes,” the little girl said earnestly, “I do. How old is this house?”
“How old do you think it is?” I asked her.
“Really really old,” she replied.
“It’s over 200 years old,” I told her, and her eyes grew huge.
I walked the two of them through a couple of rooms and fielded her questions.
“What is that?”
“Where does that door go?”
“What book is that?”
“What are those things on top of the book?”
“Where are the lights?”
On and on she went, and she was truly interested in the answers.
Her father looked at me with equally wide eyes and said “I had no idea she would like this that much…she’s only 4! I just saw it in the paper when I was looking for something to do!”
Truth be told, the reason he selected it from the paper is because of the horse-and-carriage rides we were also offering that day, which of course, his daughter also loved.
Watching her drink in her surroundings was a welcome sight for me, especially compared to the two children who came in later that afternoon, were several years older than her, and nearly decimated the gift shop in their bored, but still active, state.
But I also noticed that the little girl’s father was just as interested in the tour, and in our antique books especially. So it isn’t as surprising that his daughter was also interested – she learned it from her dad.
I hope that as she grows up, she will always be as inquisitive as she was that day at Homewood. And even if she doesn’t become a historian, I hope that her dad inspired in her a lifelong love of history.
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