The Tour Marm in the Twilight Zone
The Tour Marm in the Twilight Zone
Mrs. Virginia Green is a retired teacher in California who taught me valuable lessons during my first year as a tour guide (trip leader). I owe her a debt of gratitude because she helped shape the way I design and conduct my educational student programs. What a blessing it was to meet her during my first season of my chosen profession!
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Mrs. Green approached her historic East Coast educational student tours through art discoveries.
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It was a good partnership because I was brought up with an appreciation of art, and had an almost intimate knowledge of the collections held by several museums along the Eastern Seaboard. She also reminded me of Miss Fastenberg, my affectionately revered fourth grade teacher.
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Her eighth grade class was traveling along the East Coast from Williamsburg to New York, stopping at several museums in and between these cities. Her enthusiastic eighth graders were well equipped with workbooks and journals. In addition to the paintings they studied, she introduced them to several iconic works of art that were not curriculum-related, but part of a decent liberal arts education.
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There were specific paintings she had chosen to illustrate historic concepts, events, biographies, and art in general. Her students not only knew these paintings by sight, but also the background of the respective artists and the events surrounding the subject. Sargent’s 'scandalous', Madame X (see below), was immediately sought out by her students during their art hunt! (Evidently, Mrs. Green knew some juicy tidbits about it and they were keen to find her!) Another gigantic canvas, Washington Crossing the Delaware, which was recently posted by both elementaryhistoryteacher and American Presidents was a big surprise due to its sheer size(approx 12'x21')!
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A couple of the paintings in their workbook i.e. Thomas Eakins’, Gross Clinic (see below), which has recently been in the news, were not on public display. I remember jumping off the bus while it was in traffic on a narrow, one-way street at the Jefferson Medical School to utilize my New York sense of mission and my acquired Virginia charm to convince the janitor to allow us in to view the gigantic canvas (96"x78") that CSI fans would drool over! I had a time limit; this had to be done before the bus could get around the block. (Mission accomplished!)
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At the time of this tour, I had recently moved to Alexandria, Virginia in a fit of pique. The choice of Old Town Alexandria as my home was an accidental, spur of the moment decision; I had not ever been there before, but that’s another story! However, at that point in my new career in tourism, I was forced to supplement my income by waiting tables, eventually becoming a serving wench at historic Gadsby’s Tavern. There is a separate museum adjacent.
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This tavern was one of several in one of the busiest seaports in America. Gadsby’s, as the city’s premier social center, hosted several of our founding families and other notables. George Washington and many of the Lee family owned town home within walking distance, and ate, gamed, danced, and met at Gadsby’s. As a daughter of a Virginian from Westmoreland County, we are kin to many of these First Families of Virginia (FFV) through both marriage and collateral ties.
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My father exposed me to our family and US history during our jaunts to Williamsburg, Jamestown, and all the great plantation estates along the Potomac and James River. I felt inordinately at home working at Gadsby’s, perhaps as a result of my familial connections as well as the ties to Colonial and Early Republic history. It also reminded me of Stratford Hall, home of the Lees. After I told him where I worked, he was concerned that the ghosts of family members might still haunt the building and I should be prepared for a meeting with a cousin or two! (Dad said that, tongue-in-cheek! He was a terrible tease!)
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As you know if you have read some of my other posts, I am originally from New York and was given a wonderful education through my family and the taxpayers of New York City. I spent countless Saturdays in art programs, plays, and concerts. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) was, by far, my favorite ‘hang-out’ and I am reluctant to admit that I often played hooky to visit the Met and the Cloisters. (I was once ‘caught’!)
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There was a particular room in the Met’s American Wing that I was drawn into. It was a small, plain, empty, colonial ballroom with wooden floors and wainscoting. With each visit I felt compelled to enter this ballroom and dance a few steps of my fantasy version of the minuet. I ended each dance with a curtsy! The guards came to know me and a couple would applaud at the end! I started this at the age of 9!
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The American Wing of the MET was closed down for many years for renovation and I don’t think it reopened in time for the country’s bicentennial. During that span of time, many changes took place in my life and I eventually settled in Alexandria.
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One of our last stops on the tour was the Met and I had already told the cute little story about my dancing days in the American Wing. Kids like these stories; it brings a personal touch to the site, so naturally the group wanted to see this! Time was running out, and we all rushed to the room, which was in the same spot I had remembered; I was on auto-pilot! They stood and watched me ‘perform’ and a few even tried dancing the minuet themselves. We all applauded but needed to return to the bus. Mrs. Green asked me where the room was from; I told her I that I didn’t know, I hadn’t ever asked! Imagine that! She asked me to find out, incredulous, that I had never inquired!
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It was the original ballroom from Gadsby's Tavern!
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Coincidence?
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You be the judge!
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