Inaugural Ball

We're busy behind-the-scenes planning this major fundraising event!

Tickets are $125 per person.  Call 330-455-7043 anytime to make your reservations.  The Ball will be held at The University Center at Kent State Stark.  We are finalizing menu details soon!  We will be having a cocktail hour with appetizers and a sit-down dinner, followed by dancing to a live orchestra.

Black tie suggested, period costumes encouraged!

Open Hearth Dinner

On Friday night we had another successful Open Hearth Dinner!  Believe it or not, this was our 8th annual dinner.  How time flies.

It was a lovely night, as always, with delightful guests, great volunteers, delicious food, and holiday cheer!  The menu included homemade bread, pumpkin soup, fried chicken, bubble & squeak (red cabbage, apples, bacon, onions, brown sugar, and vinegar), green beans, and homemade apple pie.

If you're wondering why you never see this event advertised, it's because we sell it out every year!

Street of Shops under construction!

If you're not a fan on Facebook, you're missing a lot of wonderful "Historic Photo of the Week" opportunities!

This is the photo I posted this morning, showing the Street of Shops under construction in the 1980s:

Only the fireplace in what would become the Cabin is finished!  You can see the lines on the floor where the Doctor's Office sticks out, and where the horse prints would be near the door too.

I picked this photo for this week because that fireplace is going to get a work out on Friday -- our annual Open Hearth Dinner is this week!  It is completely SOLD OUT, as it is every year.

Here are some images of that area of the Street today, for comparison:

Cookies!

We are busy getting ready for the Holiday Open House tonight at 6PM!  There will be lots and lots of cookies!  Plus entertainment, Santa, Christopher Pop-in-kins, samples from the open hearth, the dollhouse exhibit, and much more!

Members are free (and you can buy a membership tonight, if you want!), guests are $5.  That is a discounted admission from ALL of our regular rates, and you get a lot more for your money tonight!

Sirius-XM radio interview

Chris was interviewed this morning on Sirius-XM Channel 106 for a series they do on American Presidents!

I sat out in the parking lot in the car with an MP3 recorder to capture the interview for our files.  (It felt very "old school" -- like when I was a kid back in the '80s and would hold my Fisher Price tape recorder up to the radio, hoping the DJ wouldn't talk too much at the beginning or end of my favorite song!)

We had trouble uploading it as a plain audio file, so Chris made it a "video" with some photos of the Museum and McKinley so we could post it here to share it.

There was so much to talk about with McKinley, his original 30 minute interview was extended!

Where's the Dentist?

Have you visited the Street of Shops recently and noticed something's missing?

The Dentist and his patient have gone on a little trip to LifeFormations in Bowling Green, Ohio!  In 2013 you will see a brand new Dentsit and patient in the Street of Shops!

LifeFormations built our animatronic McKinleys, as well as the Doctor and his patient in the Street of Shops.  Their work is amazingly lifelike!  They have done excellent work for us in the past, and we are excited about some of the projects we have coming up.

We have plans to add even more figures to the Street to "bring it to life" for our visitors in the future.  Our next project is to add an African American figure to the Blacksmith Shop.  One of the new audio tour buttons is dedicated to this aspect of African American history:

In the South, large plantations were often isolated and had to be self-sufficient when it came time to re-shoe a horse or repair agricultural equipment.  A few slaves were given a rare opportunity to learn an important skill.  After the Civil War, African Americans migrating north found work in many communities as a blacksmith.

Special thanks to the Museum's Auxiliary and our Capital & Replacement donors for making the Dentist and patient refurbishment project possible!  In the coming months we will be raising money for the Blacksmith.  If you would like to contribute, please let me know.  Every dollar helps!

Black Friday shopping at ShopforMuseums.com

Same Gifts, Same Stores, More Joy! 

Use ShopforMuseums.com When You Shop Online for the Holidays and Give a FREE DONATION to the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum!

Make your online Holiday shopping go further this year by using the ShopforMuseums.com portal. Simply start at ShopforMuseums.com, select us as your Museum Partner, then use the links to click through to hundreds of your favorite stores. A percentage of your purchase amount is given back to us as a FREE DONATION.

Find the best Holiday sales and exclusive coupons online. Shop for everyone on your list at stores like Tommy Hilfiger, Macys, Zappos, Best Buy, HP, Target, Petsmart and Barnes & Noble. There are over 1,000 stores to choose from.

Be sure to also check out the Gift Certificate and Travel Planning sections of ShopforMuseums.com to generate extra donations for us.

Thank you for thinking of the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum during the Holiday season. Your donations are greatly appreciated.

New exhibit at Stark County Courthouse

My intern Elizabeth completed the second of her two exhibit installations on Friday with a look at a typical 1950s "date night" in the case in the lobby of the Stark County Courthouse:

"Nearer My God to Thee" in the Monument!

On Friday night the McKinley National Memorial (known to locals as "The Monument") was the mystery ending location for a Canton Food Tour! 

Barbara Abbott's new company, Canton Food Tours, finished up its inaugural season with a fundraiser for the Jackson School for the Arts.  We met at the Canton Club, where we had a fantastic pork empanada to go.  Three groups rotated between Picciano's Martini Lounge (yummy martinis!), Basil Asian Bistro (Thai spaghetti and crab rangoon!), and Tozzi's Downtown (beef filet in a chocolate wine sauce!) before gathering at the Joseph Saxton Gallery where the secret final location was revealed.

Singer Brittany Cary sang the President's favorite hymn, "Nearer My God to Thee," inside the Monument.  The echo in the rotunda was hauntingly beautiful. When McKinley was assassinated, this song was heard across the country as our nation mourned the slain President.

I think everyone present had chills as Brittany sang this special hymn in honor of the President, just a few steps away from where his body was laid to rest.

Movie premiere tomorrow!

We're all very excited about the WORLD PREMIERE of the Movie Camp Movie "The McKinley Frankenstein"! 

Join us tomorrow (Saturday November 27) at 2:30 PM at Lions Lincoln Theater!  Cost is $5 per person. 

Will the kids beat Frankenstein -- with President McKinley's help?  Come FIND OUT!

Help the museum AND get some holiday shopping done!

Visit Shop For Museums and choose us as your Museum Partner before clicking through to your favorite shopping websites!  We will receive a percentage of your purchase as a donation with NO ADDITIONAL COST TO YOU!

Soup at Six - McKinley's Presidency Through Film

Chris will be presenting his program "McKinley's Presidency Through Film" at our next Soup at Six on Thursday November 15.  At 6:00.  Hence the term Soup at SIX. :-)

This program uses rare film footage of important events in the life and presidency of William McKinley. Footage includes his 1900 inauguration, his 1901 visit to the Pan-American exposition in Buffalo, and the moments immediately following his assassination. 

The program is $15 and includes a signature soup, fresh baked bread, beverage and dessert. Reservations are required. Please call 330-455-7043.

Modern Presidents are on TV all the time.  There are literally thousands of hours of footage.  But capturing a President on film who served from 1896 to 1901?  Well, THAT is extraordinary! 

We're so lucky to have film clips, no matter how short, of our 25th President.  It helps us to fulfill our mission to honor his legacy, and to bring him "back to life" for the public.

Don't miss this event! 

Halloween Party at the "Boo-seum" TONIGHT!

We're ready for all of our Halloween guests who will be coming to our Halloween Party tonight at the "Boo-seum"!

We've been holding this event for well over a decade, and it has become a local favorite.  There will be trick-or-treating throughout the building, games, science shows and demonstrations, freshly pressed apple cider samples, and a costume contest!  Hayrides for $1 per person will be held weather-permitting.  Visitors can even purchase a hot dog cooked over the fire!

We hope to see you tonight!!

Here are some photos from past Halloween parties:

New exhibit at St. Luke's Home

One of the projects our interns can choose is to do an exhibit at one of our off-site partner locations.  Today Elizabeth Phillip installed her exhibit of toys at the St. Luke's Home in North Canton.

She did a great job!

The Monument at sunrise this morning

If you know me, you know I'm NOT a morning person.  So, while I hate getting up in the dark this time of year, it's really the only chance I have to see the sunrise!

This was what the Monument looked like this morning when I got to work.  It's going to be an unusually warm fall day (a high of 81!), and the sun was falling on the Monument in such a beautiful way, I had to take a picture of it.

Isn't it gorgeous?!

Working on Depression glass...

Part of the collection set up in my workspace for processing

We recently received a large collection (123 pieces!) of Depression glass in many patterns and colors.  The donor was kind enough to identify every piece, and provide a value for it based on collectors' publications!  This is very rare, and VERY MUCH appreciated!

Usually I will have to research a piece myself in order to identify it.  So I am thrilled with how easy it has been for me to catalog this donation so far.

Even though it's "easy," it does take some time.  Each piece must be numbered, photographed, and put away, in addition to the data entry I have to do to catalog it.  It takes approximately 5 minutes per item to do all of the tasks required in the process.  Multiply that times 123, and you can see why it takes some time!  And this is just one of many donations that we've received lately, all of which need to be processed in the same manner.

We got this collection of Depression glass because the donor was at a program I did this spring on our glass and china collection, and I mentioned that we only had a handful of Depression glass.  She spent the summer organizing her collection to give to us!  And now we have a lot.  Perhaps I should think about another glass and china exhibit...

Ironically, another donor brought in some Depression glass last week.  It is only a few pieces, but it is interesting how we hadn't gotten any in the 11 years I've been Curator here, and two donations walk in the door so close together!

So what does a Curator do after her latest exhibit is opened?  She numbers glass!

More dollhouse photos!

We were finished with the exhibit this morning, so we went ahead and opened the doors for our Friday visitors.  A family with a few kids came right in!  It was great to see visitors IMMEDIATELY enjoying the exhibit!

Here are some photos I took this morning of a few of the houses that I didn't get last time I went up with my camera.  Come see them in person!!  The exhibit opening is TONIGHT from 6 to 8 PM -- it's free and open to all.  The exhibit is on view in the Keller Gallery through Sunday March 3, 2013.

SPECIAL THANKS to the miniaturists who loaned their amazing work for the show!

Carol Barr
Kathy Cooperrider
Joe DeNardi
Theresa Draper
Christine Guthridge
Cathy Palmer
Martin Pertican
Laura Staley
Jim Wertz