tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post1972729216436850767..comments2024-03-28T04:26:30.557-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: Philadelphia Moves to License Historic Tour GuidesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-78677722589211180192008-07-17T00:33:00.000-05:002008-07-17T00:33:00.000-05:00If the requirements to provied more correct histor...If the requirements to provied more correct history knowledge came from the guide's own professionalism or market needs from tourists, I think there won't be such big noises on this issue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-44085908657565996792008-07-15T14:41:00.000-05:002008-07-15T14:41:00.000-05:00On the question of height, I think it depends on w...On the question of height, I think it depends on what one infers from “significantly.” Yes, it’s clear from skeletons and military records that the average adult was shorter in eighteenth-century America than today (and even shorter in eighteenth-century Europe). <BR/><BR/>On the other hand, the difference is a matter of a couple of inches. Visiting the eighteenth century would not feel like dropping into Munchkinland.<BR/><BR/>And that height difference is too small to be the reason why so many of the beds and garments we see in museums look small. People didn’t sleep fully prone, and there are reasons to expect clothes on the small side to be preserved while larger garments would be cut up and refashioned.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-77804781684944563002008-07-15T10:49:00.000-05:002008-07-15T10:49:00.000-05:00Oh, actually, I meant to note--some things guides ...Oh, actually, I meant to note--some things guides say ARE correct, by the way...people were in fact significantly shorter several centuries ago, mostly due to diet. <BR/><BR/>Not only shorter beds and clothes, but gravesites confirm this...Old Cambridge has many head-and footstone groupings that show adults to have been much smaller than the 6-foot and greater distance between them we would now require if we still used footstones.<BR/><BR/>Dunno about window taxes, but there may be some who do...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-8937032119872166632008-07-15T10:44:00.000-05:002008-07-15T10:44:00.000-05:00As a guide myself, I also feel as if there needs t...As a guide myself, I also feel as if there needs to be some kind of control over the things other people say and do in the name of tour-guiding. Glad to know Philly is moving towards order and reason.<BR/><BR/>In my estimation the trolley drivers and Duck Boat conductors are the worst offenders in Boston, although I've also heard some pretty amazing things said on walking tours as well. (I usually only attend these when I have guests who insist, because I just end up with teeth marks on my tongue...) <BR/><BR/>Boston guides *used* to be licensed until the mid-70s, I've heard, and there was a group of Boston guides (that used to meet each year at the end of the season for a party; I've lost the emails I used to get from them) who were working to try to get licensing reinstated. <BR/><BR/>They said that (the now defunct? or severely reduced) Grey Line Tours used to offer a course for any guides who wanted to take it, that served as preparation for the test as well. Something like that would be a useful requirement in the Boston/Cambridge area, too.<BR/><BR/>Another issue for guides is behavior. I've had people lead their tours right through the middle of mine, put their hands on gravestones (a big no-no, the oils on your hands are very bad for the stones) and then yell at me when I quietly suggested in an aside that it was inappropriate to do so. <BR/><BR/>Most recently, too, in Harvard Square, there are a bunch of irreverent (that alone, I could stand) and rude (that, I can't stand) promoters for the "Unauthorized Tour of Harvard" that are not only brash and loud (that, too might be supportable alone) but wide-ranging in the statements they make and the way the swoop in front of other guides in the Discovery Kiosk area, poaching potential attendees to tours that are quieter, more reasonable and more well-considered. <BR/><BR/>They're very provocative and are making people irate; one fellow last weekend said, angrily, when I asked him if he were interested in the church history tour I was preparing to offer, "I've been pitched to already, leave me alone." (Mistress Elizabeth observed that, pitched, or not, he appeared to be now standing upright, which mollified him somewhat...)<BR/><BR/>While there is definitely a dearth of free maps available when the Discovery Kiosk is closed (and the volunteers in there do yeomanly work, by the way!) the "Unauthrorized" folks are rapacious in their insistence on pushing free maps under peoples' noses and then trying to sign them up for the next tour. <BR/><BR/>Whatever virtues capitalism might have, rudeness doesn't have to be one of them, and cutthroat competition needs to be curbed more than a little bit. I haven't had time (or a strong enough desire) yet to take one of their tours, but I've heard them yelling about the "Greeeaattt history lesson you're about to receive" in the Yard, which I would think Yard residents (yes, people live in those dorms all year 'round...) would resent as well.<BR/><BR/>I'd be glad to take (or help construct) a guide's test in this area. It's said that the Greater Boston Tourism bureau put the damper on it because it was seen as constraining business. But that suggests that one has to be rude, ignorant and loud to offer a successful tour, and I don't think that's really the case...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-65304530605338252562008-07-14T10:59:00.000-05:002008-07-14T10:59:00.000-05:00Don't know if licensing is necessarily the way to ...Don't know if licensing is necessarily the way to go, but I'm pretty much in favor of anything that will limit tour guides from spewing out crap. So many tour guides rely on cute stories in places of historical fact. A red flag goes up anytime I hear anything about "a tax on rooms/windows in houses" or "people were (significantly) shorter back then".I wonder how this compares to the Blue Badge guides in London? I wonder now that I've come down in favor of licensing if I would pass the test for the tours I lead in Boston? :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com