A very busy month....

So October is gearing up to be one of those months at the LHS that is ridiculously busy. But it's in a good way.

We have a lot of the normal stuff going on---planning for a new exhibit, hopefully beginning the steps to get some new lighting, planning a holiday open house, and more. You know, the normal stuff.

But we also have a bunch of really exciting programs that will take place this month.

We'll start off the month's programming this Saturday with a collaboration with Venus Theatre. Venus Theatre is a small theatre in Laurel that is dedicated to setting flight to the voices of women and children. They have professional playwrights submit plays to them and all of their actors are professionals. A really cool gem in Laurel. What, you may ask, are we doing with them?

Well, we have collaborated with them to put together "Laurel: A Haunted History". It's a candlelight walking tour around Laurel. You see, one of the people at Venus has a background in giving Haunted Walking Tours in places like Gettysburg and NY City. So we worked with him using material from the Laurel Museum's collection to develop a haunted walking tour for Laurel. As far as we know, it's the first time this has ever been done. And we're really excited about it!

So if you're interested in a night of fun in Laurel, sign up.
Here's the link: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/8442425


But if you can't come Oct 2, don't worry. Venus Theatre is running the tour every Saturday in October. So come another day to be scared!


We quickly follow up our Oct 2 ghost walk tour with something quite different. On October 4, Mike Boivin will be giving a lecture for the LHS titled "Researching Immigrants Through the Port of Baltimore". Mike is the leader of our Genealogy Group, a group that meets monthly to discuss topics related to genealogy and help one another in their research. This group has been quite active and began about a year ago following a lot of interest in the genealogy programs we offered then.

Mike's talk is not only done as part of the LHS's regular programming, but it is done in collaboration with "Between Fences". "Between Fences" is a traveling exhibit put together by the Smithsonian for small museums throughout the country to show and build upon. This fall it is being shown at Montpelier Mansion along with "Barriers and Gateways: The Immigrant Experience" a companion exhibit that the people at Montpelier put together in collaboration with BF.

When Between Fences is brought to locations throughout the country, the hope is that the locations will work collaboratively on programming to accompany it. We've done just that with Montpelier and many of our programs this fall relate to that exhibit. Mike's program on immigrants coming through the port of Baltimore is just one iteration of that collaboration.


Not too long after Mike's talk, we have another exciting collaborative program. (Who would have guessed??). On October 9 we are partnering with Laurel Mill Playhouse. Laurel Mill Playhouse is a community theater non-profit located on Laurel's Main Street. They run plays continuously throughout the year and involve people in the community in a number of exciting and refreshing ways. Like Venus Theatre, we've partnered with them before and it has always been a pleasure.

On October 9 we are working with them again to offer another of our "Have You M.E.T." Events. Museum, Eats, and Theater in Historic Laurel has been a popular evening out every time we have done it. This time we'll begin with an all-american dinner at the Laurel Museum and continue our evening at LMP to see "The American Way." An epic take of the American immigrant experience in the early 1900s, this play is done in collaboration with Montpelier's "Between Fences" as well. So in fact, we're partnering with both Laurel Mill Playhouse and Montpelier on this program!

On October 20th we'll have our normal Book Club meeting. Last month we discussed "Outcasts United" a book that was part of the One Maryland One Book initiative. This book tied directly into "Between Fences" at Montpelier too, so it was also a part of the collaborative programming as well. This month we'll be discussing a crowd favorite, "Love in the Time of Cholera." I haven't read it yet, so please, don't post any spoilers in the comments!



We complete the month with one of our quarterly children's programs. This month is "Harvest Some Fun at the Laurel Museum: Harvest Time Traditions from Around the World." October is always a harvest themed children's program and since we have the opportunity to tie it into "Between Fences" and the idea of immigration, we thought we'd do so.

At this event children will explore Vietnamese, English, Indian, Salvadorian, and Mexican harvest traditions. Members of Montpelier's staff will be helping us as well--making it a very collaborative event.

We hope we'll have the usual kids running around having fun and eating lots of yummy food while learning a little something too.

So, as you can tell, it's going to be a really busy month. We hope to see you around the Museum, or at the playhouse, or walking along Main Street being spooked!

Happy October!

One of those moments...

Today is one of those days in the small Museum field when you never feel like you have enough time. In between volunteer training, helping with a mailing, a conference call, budget work, membership programming, and more all in one day, things can feel a little hectic.

So when you hear that visitors are walking up the walk an hour after you've closed sometimes you have to take a deep breath to calm down. It is my policy that if at all possible in my schedule, I let visitors in. In the end, aren't they the reason we're here? So turning them away is something I do my absolute best to avoid.

This afternoon I took a break from catching up on emails and the long list of other stuff to field one man's questions about Laurel. He came with his two sons and he had found somewhere on the internet information quoting Gertrude Poe that had to do with an old exhibit. After trying to find the information he had found and showing him more information on that exhibit, we convinced him he should do a tour.

So I had the opportunity to show him and his two inquisitive sons around the museum. The sons were the first kids to the exhibit that I've been able to work with one on one and we did the scavenger hunt while I talked with their father about the "big" themes present in the exhibit. The father, a longtime Laurel resident, was genuinely excited to learn about the Mill and the history of the house. He marveled at how clear the images from 1910 were and the entire family was excited to see an image of the old Laurel High School, a place they are quite familiar with in their lives today.

After showing them the exhibit and the basement, I let them leave with their hands full of our kid's pamphlets, walking tours, program material, and more. It was very exciting to give a tour to a family that was genuinely interested in the history of Laurel. It almost made me forget that it is supposed to snow tonight!

A Friendly Ghost Story

This past Sunday at the Laurel Museum we had our Kids Fall Fun Day. Featuring the wonderful world of Pumpkins, this 2 hour event brought about 30 children and their families. We had some fun crafts like pumpkin weaving and pumpkin seed mosaics. We also had a pumpkin patch for children to pick their own pumpkins that they then decorated. We had lots of tasty pumpkin related food--pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin whip, pumpkin butter, etc.

We also told the public that we would be having an age appropriate ghost story. I took up the charge to be the person to tell the age appropriate ghost story. I spoke to one of our wonderful volunteers who is also the vice principal at a local school for some rules on what I could and could not talk about.

Here were my parameters:
It can not be scary.
No one can die.
You can not talk about dead people.
Try to make it related to the history of Laurel and the house.

Hmm. Sounds easy, right?

The ghost story was to begin at 2:15 and right around that time people started trekking to the spot we picked for our ghost story.

As I watched the little ones trickle in, I realize how much of a challenge this will be.

We had kids ranging in age from those who could barely walk to those who were already putting on makeup. It might be a little difficult to reach all of them with the same story.

But that's fine. Who doesn't love a great challenge? Certainly not small museum directors--we live for the challenge!

So I begin telling them the story.

I start by talking about the Museum building and how 4 families would have lived in the house.

I asked them where the people would have worked (The Mill), how old they had to be to start working (8yrs), etc.

I tell them about a little girl who was only 5 yrs old named Samantha who was left alone in the house to do chores while all of her family went to work. Her mean older sister liked to play tricks on her and hide things from her so that she couldn't finish her chores.

My story was interrupted by one boy who insisted Samantha could not have told us this. I asked him why, and he said "Because she's dead". I realized at that point I had never given a date for the story and asked him how he knew she was dead. And he said because this happened like a long time ago. GREAT!

I responded, "Yes, this all happened over 100 years ago." Whew! I almost didn't tell them the date. And I thought, yes, she is dead, but you brought it up so I didn't technically go outside my set parameters.

Now back to the story...

Luckily, the little girl had a friendly ghost named Rebecca who would help her with her chores. Rebecca helped Samantha find the bucket to get water from the river for doing laundry that her mean sister would hide from her before she went to work. Rebecca also helped Samantha find the soap and other things her sister would hide.

All of this concluded with the children coming up one by one to plunge the washer plunger into the clothes bucket three times.

Throughout the experience I tried to keep their attention by asking questions. I asked them things like if any of them ever hid things from their brothers and sisters. I also kept asking them how old the little girl was and how long she had to wait before she could work at the mill.

Some of the kids were really annoyed that the story wasn't scarier. According to our evaluations, others seemed to really enjoy the story.

In the end, it was an interesting experience of us all. I learned that maybe I should plan out the ghost story a little better next time so the kids don't end up doing laundry. But I'm not sure. I think some people liked the "hands-on appropriate for all ages ghost story." We'll see. Maybe Samantha and Rebeccawill make another appearance sometime soon.