T o m  K e l l e h e r

        Old Sturbridge Village Interpreter

Which place at the village had the biggest impact on you during your first visit?  My first visit?  Probably the farm, although I have no memories of it.  In 6th grade, probably the gift shop!!

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How did OSV impact your interest in History?

I had long loved history; OSV was one of many supporting fuels of that interest, although frankly it was a fairly minor one before I came to work here.  Mystic Seaport, Colonial Williamsburg, and books sparked more romantic feelings for me that more low-key OSV did.

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How long have you been an interpreter at OSV?

Since March 14, 1984.  I thought it might be fun for a summer; it has been a long summer!

 

Tell us a little bit about yourself. 

 Not much to say… Studied history education and nursing, could not get a permanent teaching job, and after grad school ended up here. I live in a log cabin in the woods, like to hike and camp but do not do it as much as I used to .

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Share one of your favorite moments while interpreting at the village. 

 Any day when I can get into a conversation beyond just relaying the basics is a great day! Any light of realization in someone’s eyes is priceless.  I wish I could spend more time in costume. I guess most Independence Days are a lot of fun, esp. since we began doing he naturalization ceremonies.  Redcoats weekends are fun too, with so much going on and so many people, although those are marathons and exhausting.  Eating Thai food with Jim O’Brien on Saturday night during Redcoats in the lounge while the reenactor's party in the great room @ Bullard is always fun.  I also like Performance days, although I do like some characters better than others.  I miss the days when my Revival program was better received.  Shorter attention spans make it less popular these days so I rarely do it.  I like working in Blacksmith or Tin a lot, although my happiest day in 34 years was when they made me training interpreter for the cooper shop in the spring of 1985.  I had no greater aspiration and was just tickled to death!!  Second was in ’97 when I was named a research historian and program coordinator. Wow, a job title with “historian” in it, and they still let me work in costume part of the time too!

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What question by a visitor stumped you the most?  

How old is the millstone?- I don't know that to answer that.... a million or hundreds of years!

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Which is your favorite part of the village and what do you love about it?

I reluctantly was made mill lead in 1985 but have come to love the mills, and dream about them often… especially the sawmill.  That is somewhat scary although they are not quite nightmares!  JBut the mills are alive, and that is extra special.  I hold a warm spot for all the buildings I have helped build or restore from the Sawmill on, especially the Cider mill (officially my favorite mill), although Small House is my favorite of the ones I worked on since I was master carpenter of that project.  The Small House project was a shining star of what living history should be at a time, the dark days,  when not much good was going on at OSV.  I guess the stagecoach too holds a place in my heart.  It came just as our recovery began.  That was an idea I kept pitching for years until a whole lot of stars improbably aligned to let us have one custom-built and develop a program around it here.  That was a fun project.   I wish we could do more with transportation but that is something, and even folks who do not ride it can enjoy it.  Our two best exhibits, our most essential,  however, are ones I have had little to do with, viz. the Freeman Farm and the Asa Knight store.  If a visitor can only see two things, those are the ones. 

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If you could add a new feature to the village, what would that be and why?

The long anticipated and now long abandoned textile mill village.  That is such an important part of the time and place we portray, and NOT having it is a major gap in the story we try to tell.  It was ambitious but truly visionary. 

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What advice would you give a new interpreter?

Always remember that YOU are the face of OSV.  Relax and do your best to give people a pleasant and memorable experience, but do not sweat details.  No one knows it all and no one ever will, so enjoy learning something new every day. Have fun and the public will too.

Do you remember the first time you visited the village?  

No, but I must have been pretty young, so the mid-1960s.  My parents brought my younger brother and I to OSV, Mystic, and various natural history museums frequently.  OSV was the farthest away, since I grew up in Fairfield County, CT.  I do remember coming here in 6th (not 5th) grade, though, in 1970. I recall eating hot dogs for lunch in the Fuller Conference Center, then the school services building (pre-Museum Ed. Days) and that the broom maker was a long haired young guy with blond hair, and he was constantly pushing the hair out of his eyes.

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