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.

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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.