New dress in Street of Shops!

A new guest waits in the Hotel Lobby!

This morning Bonnie Stich came in and donated a mannequin that was used in Stern & Mann's before it closed. She wanted it to come to a good home where it could be used and enjoyed by lots of people.

Within an hour, I dressed her and moved her up to her new home in the Hotel Lobby of the Street of Shops!

She is wearing a Worth of Paris dress from 1896, and she is waiting to check in at the front desk of the hotel! The parasol was already in the room setting, and it hung securely in her hand. I moved the suitcase in front of her, as if she had just arrived and was waiting to be shown to her room.

Thank you so much Bonnie! What a wonderful addition to the Street.


Just after I dressed her in my workspace.


Close-up in my workspace.


Close-up in the Hotel Lobby.


An overall view of the Hotel Lobby.

Soup at Six - Presidential Funerals

I know I am a bit late posting this, because the Soup was last Thursday, but lo and behold on Friday our internet was down yet again. I took the camera card home for the weekend and completely forgot about it until this morning.

So here are some photos and film clips of the wonderful, SOLD OUT, Soup at Six: "Presidential Funerals." Very emotional. I choked up a few times, although I did not film any of those parts of the program. (Just so you don't think I got emotional from the clips you're about to see! I'm not THAT fragile!!)


Volunteers clearing the tables for a full house!


Chris beginning his lecture.


VIDEO CLIPS:



Chris's opening remarks regarding State Funerals.



George Washington.



John Adams.



Abraham Lincoln.



James Garfield. (Chris is talking about his assassin, Charles Guiteau here -- I didn't start the filming soon enough to catch his name!)



Ulysses Grant.

There are still a few more spots left for my Soup at Six: "An Armchair Walking Tour of West Lawn Cemetery" on October 2. Call the museum for reservations!

The internet is back!

Due to Hurricane Ike, we have been without the internet all week at the museum. Thankfully, we've had power though!

The internet returned a few minutes ago, and the whole staff is thrilled!

It is amazing how much you rely on the internet for so many things. For example:

• My graphic design program relies on the internet to get clip art (so I wasn't able to finish text panels for A Doll's World)
  
• New PowerPoint templates are online (I'm glad I had saved some that I liked on my hard drive, so I could create some new programs)
  
• All of Lynette's animal supply sites are bookmarked for her to easily place orders
• A media contact wanted a photo of the Monument emailed
• Staff meeting minutes had to be printed and copied instead of emailed
• As I was compiling my OAHSM program "Celebrating and Noting Historical Anniversaries," I needed photos from Chris -- we had to save them on a flash drive instead of emailing them like we usually do
• No email! Split Rock had sent requests, someone wanted a program, and there was a research question when I finally was able to check
• Without power at home, Joyce was unable to send the membership list to our mailer to send out the postcards for the opening of A Doll's World
• Press releases could not be sent via email
• AND MUCH MORE!

Of course, we were thankful to at least be open, so our visitors could still come. We had power, and certainly no damage to our building, like those hardest hit areas in the Gulf Coast. And we all found ways around the problems we faced without the internet. Whatever we couldn't do, simply had to wait.

We did lose large parts of a few big, old trees on our grounds, and Steve (who was already overworked with projects in Discover World, the Keller Gallery, and the building overall) had to spend several days cleaning up outside, which I'm sure has put him behind schedule for some of his projects.

But as I said, we are thankful that no one was hurt, and that our museum fared far better than many places around town. Many schools were closed, and even the Football Hall of Fame, which is literally down the street from us, didn't have power.

In other news...

• We are all set for the Soup at Six program tonight on "Presidential Funerals." It is SOLD OUT!
• There are only 12 spots left for our next Soup at Six program, "An Armchair Walking Tour of West Lawn Cemetery."
• I've finished writing the text panels for A Doll's World, and will begin object labels later this afternoon.
• We had our first participant in Stories of a Life on Monday.
• My program "Celebrating and Noting Historical Anniversaries" is DONE. (Very excited about that -- I think conference participants will enjoy it and will get a lot of ideas from everything we did last year to celebrating the 100th anniversary of the McKinley National Memorial!)

It's nice to be back in the "virtual reality" of the internet!

Workin' hard!!

This week has been a blur.

Split Rock needed some details before they finish final design. Like, a lot of details.

So I have been making some decisions about what artifacts will be in the exhibit, including:

• 12 pieces of Canton glass
• 12 pieces of Morgan china
• items from Canton Cutlery
• 3 dresses from the 1930s
• 3 dresses from the late Victorian Era
• World War II uniforms
• Gibbs toys
• AND MUCH MORE!!

Somehow, I discovered some gorgeous dresses that I didn't even realize we had yesterday! And I thought I had been through our textile collection thoroughly. One is a white dress with a black abstract pattern and puffy sleeves, c1890. Another is a delicate pink embroidered satin with light green velvet trim and HUGE leg-o-mutton sleeves, c1895. Just beautiful!

I am happy to say that I completed my list for them yesterday, with just a few exceptions. I also had to send along many images I had already scanned for previous projects.

This exhibit is going to be amazing. I can't wait to see final design drawings. I'll be sure to post a few here so you can see what's coming!

* * * * * * * * * * *

Also, yesterday was Volunteer Enrichment. It went very well! Stephanie does a great job of planning events for the volunteers. The idea behind this day is to update the volunteer team on what all the departments are doing and to have department meetings to discuss changes, new policies, etc.

Instead of a speaker, this year Steph asked each of us to do a tour of our area so that volunteers could see something other than the area in which they normally work. I led a tour behind-the-scenes, which was pretty popular! I showed the volunteers all of the storage areas, the room where the dolls are waiting to go on display, and some of the equipment I use to create posters, flyers, and exhibit panels.

It was a lot of fun!

* * * * * * * * * * *

Today I will resume working on the doll exhibit, which is actually a bit behind at the moment. I need to complete my research of overall doll history, so I can create the exhibit panels for the exhibit. I also need to research our records on the dolls who were chosen, so I can make object labels for them. My goal is to have all of that completed by the end of next week, so I can focus on checking some other things off the pre-exhibit checklist!

My story is in the Rep today!

Here it is!

13 Ways to Save Money on Food

Hopefully people will pick up some tips. And I seriously DO what I wrote about. Every single week!!

Immersed in dolls

I am attempting to get some research on doll history done this week, so that I can move forward with my pre-exhibit checklist!

I am finding some very interesting information.

For example, in the Victorian era, it was extremely popular for girls to stage doll funerals! Mourning rituals were a part of every day life in that era. And at the same time, the rural cemetery movement was in full swing, meaning girls often visited cemeteries with their families as a recreational activity.

So rather than view this behavior as a pre-occupation with the macabre, it is really a natural expression of the reality of their lives!

There will be many more interesting tidbits in the A Doll's World -- opening October 24!!

I'm back!

I've been on vacation since August 22! I returned to 40 emails and 7 voicemails, which was pretty good, I think!

I feel like a kid going back to school, since we were gone for so long! But I am ready to get back into the swing of things, and start planning exhibits, programs, and events!

While I was gone, the idea for a gala opening for the new Stark County exhibit in September 2009 came up! Very exciting! So mark your calendars for September 25. More details as they happen.

I am working with Split Rock to finalize design and content plans. Even though the exhibit opens in one year, the timeline is tight. Not only do we need to finalize photo and artifact choices, we have to finish editing text panels, etc. And all of that has to be completed BEFORE they begin constructing the actual components of the exhibit in their studio, which takes several months to complete.

So, you can see that lots of prep work has to be done in advance of the gala celebration!

All of their plans look fabulous, and the entire staff is excited about this project! I'm sure the community will just love it.

So, back to answering messages and emails now!

It's good to be back...