Interpretive Napping

A Beginners Guide

Mark A. Turdo
2016

https://www.scribd.com/document/332727379/Interpretive-Napping-a-Beginners-Guide

If living history does anything successfully it helps humanize the past for visitors.
They can see how people used to sew, dance, cook, fight, clean, build, and drink, among
other activities. As it is usually practiced, living history is all action and drama, but not
everything in the past was always so. Sometimes, out of luxury or need, they did nothing.
An easy and immediate way to offer such placid moments is the interpretive nap.
In case you have not witnessed or taken one, an interpretive nap is one of living history
lifes unexpected pleasures. It has the benefit of accomplishing two goals at once: it is an
historically accurate activity for military and domestic settings and it leaves the
interpreter well-rested (for or from the evenings party).
There are difficulties in documenting historical naps. Then as now, they are often
stolen moments. Very little about them would have been recorded. Still, it is reasonable
to assume people of the past were occasionally tired.
Natural as naps are, the interpretive nap is more than just a little shut eye. In order
to create the proper setting and not distract visitors with a game of are they/arent they,
the following guidelines, distilled from years of field experience, are recommended:
1. Prevent eye contact with visitors. They will be looking to see, is she really
2.
3.
4.
5.

asleep? It is best to have a hat or other period-appropriate covering for your eyes.
Be aware of your surroundings. As you doze and wake, peek from under your hat
to gauge where visitors feet are in relation to your supine body.
On snoring, dont fake it. It will be obviously artificial and only detract.
Dont be dramatic. No loud yawns, falling down, or waking with a start.
Wherever you sleep interpretively, dont be in the flow of traffic or generally in
the way.

There are a few drawbacks to the interpretive nap. Skeptical visitors will loudly
ask if you are asleep. A few will even nudge you with their foot. To prevent such modern
intrusions on your interpretive experience, its best to work with a partner who is willing
to interpret your interpretive nap. Children between the ages of 5 and 10 are particularly
good at this.
Interpretive napping can be be done in many contexts and by all ages and genders.
It is a universal, and thus accessible, experience. All of which makes it ideal for use
during living history events.1

1 True, it leaves one unable to talk with visitors, but some people are more effective interpreters when they dont
speak.

Mark A. Turdo has interpretively napped at some of the biggest events and most important
historic sites, including various 225th Revolutionary War events, Mt. Vernon, Monmouth
Battlefield, the Plains of Abraham (Quebec City), Crown Pointe, Schoenbrunn Village, Old
Sturbridge Village, Colonial Williamsburg, and many others. He hopes his work has inspired
interest in the lives of common people through their connection to such mundane, yet universal
moments - though hell never really know as he was asleep at the time.
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Cover Image: Detail from Drinkstone Park, Thomas Gainsborough, ca. 1747. Museu de Arte de So
Paulo, So Paulo, Brazil. Wikimedia.
Bio Image: Courtesy of Ruth Konrad, April 2016.