Tag: Arch Street Meeting House

Sinclair Brown, BMC ’28

Praxis Course: Museum Studies Praxis Seminar

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Dr. Monique Scott

Community Partner: Arch Street Meeting House

Praxis Site Supervisor: Jennifer Gray

Praxis Poster:

HART_SinclairBrown-compressed

 

Further Context:

When I began my search for a Praxis internship site, as an art history major, I started with art museums and art related organizations—but none of them felt like quite the right fit for me. However, I met Jenn (my eventual supervisor) at a museum career fair and almost immediately felt that Arch Street Meeting House could be the right fit for me. Religion has always interested me, but I knew little to nothing about Quakerism. Further, ASMH was in the process of renovating their exhibition space ahead of the United States semiquincentennial, and I was excited by the opportunity to be involved in the process of exhibition design.

Arch Street Meeting House is a historic Quaker meeting house and burial ground that hosts both a local weekly Friends meeting and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, an annual gathering of all of the Quakers in the region. As well as serving as an active site of worship, ASMH has converted the East meeting room and a smaller reception room into a museum space. In my opinion, the character of this space as simultaneously holding a significant historical legacy aswell as still being an active site of worship and community renders the museum even more relevant and impactful.

Upon starting my time with ASMH, I had the wonderful surprise of discovering that I would be working alongside two Bryn Mawr alums: Beth Tinker ‘97 and Isabella Dorfman ‘17. It was incredibly special to have the opportunity to learn from two alumnae with careers in my desired field of study! My primary responsibility at ASMH was assisting Beth, who is an independent museum consultant (meaning that she creates and coordinates exhibitions and surveys) in the final months of preparations before the April 30th grand opening. I had a wide variety of tasks, large and small, and each workday was a fun surprise!

My most significant project was the development and prototyping of a choose-your-own-adventure-inspired interactive exhibit that would educate visitors about evolving Quaker values in the 1700s. Visitors will imagine themselves to be Quakers in this time period, follow a path, and make decisions that will either allow them to continue or cause them to be “read out of meeting” (disowned) and therefore be ‘out’ of the game. Each ‘out’ point is accompanied by a real historical example of a Quaker being disciplined for the same offense. When I received the project, Beth had already conceptualized it and came up with a list of possible decision points. I researched the historical context surrounding the three topics/paths—for example, one of the paths deals with Quaker practices and beliefs surrounding enslavement, which shifted drastically within this time period—and shaped the decision points into a chronologically-driven flow chart that visitors could actually progress through. I also supplemented these decision points with many more based upon significant historical events or interesting instances of Quaker disownment that I came across. I then worked with Beth to prototype this exhibit by printing a mockup and encouraging museum visitors to try the paths. I collected observations of visitors’ behavior, as well as surveying them after they felt they had completed the activity. After implementing the feedback gathered here, the flow charts I designed have been sent to a graphic designer, who will adapt them to be printed on a large mat that visitors can walk across in the center of the exhibition space!

Some of my other favorite tasks were assembling a kids’ scavenger hunt (in which they follow fox-shaped signs, in honor of Quakerism’s founder George Fox), voicing suffragist Alice Paul for an interactive exhibit, transcribing a cursive note affixed to an artifact, and writing image
captions for the displays. I had plenty of less glamorous tasks as well, such as cleaning the 200-year old (and extremely dusty) benches and installing UV film on the object cases. As a whole, I feel that it’s incredibly fulfilling to know that I have left a lasting impact upon the exhibition space as well as the experiences of every visitor who explores Arch Street Meeting
House. More personally, I’ve truly loved my time at ASMH and all of the people I worked with, and found it extremely impactful in shaping my goals for my future museum career.

 Natalie Cincotta , BMC 26′

Quaker Collection and
Education Templates

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Arch Street Meeting House

Field Supervisor: Jennifer Lee Gray

Praxis Poster:

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Further Context:

Arch Street Meeting House was a chance find from searching for praxis internship opportunities online, and I was incredibly fortunate to work for them for my junior spring semester. I’ve always had a deep interest in the work that goes into maintaining a historic property museum, and I’m overjoyed to have had the opportunity to gain such a wonderful experience. Arch Street Meeting House is a historic Quaker meeting house that functions as a museum, rental space, and meeting place for an active Quaker congregation. I worked there as an intern through Arch Street Preservation Trust, an organization created to preserve and create museum spaces in the building.

I worked on two main projects in my time at ASMH. My first task included researching and cataloging a collection of historical objects that belong to a Quaker community member from New Jersey. The collection of over 140 objects contained clothing, keepsakes, and letters, which ranged in date from 1830 to 1930. As I took time photographing each piece of clothing, written correspondence, shoe, or household object, I became enraptured with this history puzzle, connecting different generations of one family into a complete and detailed document. This project taught me a lot, including how to delve into Quaker databases, navigate Ancestry.com, and strengthen my transcription skills with old letters and notes. I hope that my work sheds some light on the objects and their history and brings some happiness to the women who brought them into ASMH looking for some family stories.

My second project focused on the education side of museum work. I created a hands-on worksheet activity for kids to learn more about museums! My activity involved rolling a set of giant dice to determine a specific kind of museum that visitors could then draw and design on paper. I gave examples of what ASMH was with each one, and I even had a little boy roll a perfect set of dice to describe ASMH! It is a small, urban, historical property museum that does not collect new items for its archives and focuses on religious history. I found my experience in creating educational materials to be overwhelming at times, especially since I had never attempted that kind of work before. While I had ups and downs throughout the process, both my supervisor and other staff members helped me constantly, from start to finish. I loved learning what things worked and what things I need to rework for the next time.

In my entire time at ASMH, my favorite part was the people I met, from research-minded visitors to the lovely museum staff and docent volunteers. I loved every conversation I was able to have about museums, Quakers, and the historic building itself. Throughout this experience, I have not only increased my research and activity-building skills but also my understanding of how small museums work day to day, and even month to month.  I hope to continue interning at ASMH this coming summer and assist with the refurbishing of their exhibition space, which has plans to be revealed next year.  If you’re ever in the Old City area and want to stop by a wonderful museum with an amazing history, stop by Arch Street Meeting House; you may find me there!