The Aurora Historical Society is excited to announce its latest exhibition on clothing, entitled Wedding Attire: Gowns & Formal Wear of Yesteryear. The exhibition features a variety of formal attire and accessories that people wore to and for weddings. The gowns featured are donations and reflect the style & beauty of wedding dresses. Some of the gowns are not what we would today consider wedding dresses because they are not white, however, the trend to wear a white dress on your wedding day did not become popular until 1840, when Queen Victoria marriage to Albert of Saxe-Coburg. She chose the color to accommodate some favorite lace she owned. As a result, many brides now wear white gowns on their wedding days.
The exhibition features more than just a few gowns. Also on display are wedding invitations from local Aurora families such as the Goulds, Harmons, Parsons, and Treats. They are from the late 1800s to early 1900s and are similar to ones we still send today! Men’s formal attire Continue reading Wedding Attire Exhibit
My intern Natasha Davis-Harris and I visited the Kent State University Museum, more popularly known as the Fashion Museum. The trip was designed to show Natasha how other museums store, display, and exhibit their artifacts as well as confirm that we, at the Aurora Historical Society, were properly caring for our costumes and material artifacts. Joann Fenn, Assistant Professor and Collections Manager/Museum Registrar directed our tour. As Professor Fenn took us through many different storage areas, we discovered that we care for our collections in very similar ways. KSUM has more hanging storage space and follows a directive from the 1980s for storing its artifacts in open closets, covered with hanging blinds, making it easy to see Continue reading Marcelle visits KSU Museum
The American Library Association Public Programs Office has chosen the Aurora Historical Society to host Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War, a traveling exhibition developed by the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, and the American Library Association Public Programs Office, with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. AHS President John Kudley said that the exhibition will tour the country from October 2011 through the fall of 2015. It will appear in Ohio only eleven times. The exhibition will be on display in AHS’s museum from February to April 2013.
The historical society will spend the next year creating many programs featuring speakers and re-enactors to accompany the exhibition and AHS will create a mini-exhibit of Civil War Era fashions, photographs, and other artifacts. “We hope to partner with several local organizations, businesses, and groups to make this a community event which will educate, entertain, and delight people of all ages,” stated Kudley.
Possible events include humanities scholars discussing the topics of states’ rights versus federal rights, slavery, abolition, and the Underground Railroad, among other subjects. Dr. Wilson, AHS Director, will try to schedule a speaker on Civil War Era fashions as well as sponsor book discussions, an essay contest, and a family activity day featuring Civil War Era food, games, and music. The museum may also sponsor a Skype program with a virtual tour of the exhibition and artifacts from Aurora’s past.
AHS hosted the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibition, Key Ingredients: America by Food in 2008. The event, supported by many local groups, organizations, and businesses, was a great success and attracted over 1,500 people to Aurora in a six week period. If you are interested in this project, please contact Marcelle Wilson for volunteer activities, planning committee work, or sponsorship opportunities at 330-995-3336 or via email marcelle10@juno.com. The museum is free and open to the public from 2:00 – 4:00 pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and by appointment from 11:00 – 3:00 Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Aurora High School senior Livia Ward is the 2011 winner of the $1,000 Aurora Historical Society’s Veron Biggar Scholarship. Livia created a PowerPoint presentation entitled Mid-Century Aurora Businesses: As Seen Through the Eyes of A Local Family. The program chronicles the history of the Hanes’ and their connections to Aurora via their real estate, barbering, and construction companies.
The history covers eighty years and mainly utilizes primary sources in the form of oral history interviews and photographs as its sources. The program is well written, thoughtful, and contains original research which will add to the AHS’s data regarding local business in the twentieth century.
Livia Ward’s project helps the AHS meet its mission, which is to enhance and maintain the community identity of Aurora by preserving & communicating its’ rich history. After graduation in June, Livia will attend Kent State University’s College of Business Administration.
To see this exhibit, as well as the four other scholarship exhibits, make an appointment. The Aurora Historical Society plans its grand reopening for Sunday, May 22, 2011 from 2-4 pm. This event is free and open to the public.
Do you remember this Sesquicentennial Celebration? We’d love to know who some of these folk are. This was filmed by Otto Jackson who lived in the house that Anna Maria of Aurora now occupies. Donated by Otto Jackson, Jr. Watch the parades and games on the lawn of the city Hall & Church. And near the end, a baseball game is on a ball field where Craddock School now stands.
We are slowly re-organizing and re-indexing all items that were moved from the storage room during the flooding. Here are some photos of the room with the new shelving and organizational floor plan. All items are being entered into our Past Perfect Software catalog as we go.
The Aurora Historical Society often teams up with members of the Aurora Memorial Library to provide programming for the community. The library staff has planned many fine programs for this year and AHS will participate in five of them.
In February, AHS volunteers will be needed to help with a Girl Scout restoration badge.
From June 14 through July 19, the library holds its summer reading program. AHS will need volunteers to open the museum on Tuesdays at 1:00 pm and Wednesdays at 11:00 am so that readers and their parents can visit us before their library program starts.
On July 5th, AML is holding its Ice Cream Festival. AHS will hold a scavenger hunt in the museum and donate money toward the cost of ice cream. This event will also need volunteers to help out.
In October, the AML always holds a Halloween Party. This year AHS hopes to put on a Cemetery Walk. This walk will introduce some of Aurora’s deceased personalities to current residents and help describe what life was like in Aurora decades and even centuries ago. This Cemetery Walk will only occur with the preparation and planning of dedicated volunteers who want to research various Aurora figures and prepare their stories as well as lead the walk. This walk is designed to be educational not scary, and thus is a family friendly event. AHS will also provide a PowerPoint presentation of the walk for those unable to attend it or in the event of its cancelation due to inclement weather.
The last program of the year occurs in November with Santa’s arrival in the library. AHS has been involved with this for many years now, lending its lobby for use by Santa and Mrs. Clause as they pose for pictures with local children. This year we hope to expand our participation to include museum tours and a child-friendly activity held in our library.
Once again, the success of this, and all of the aforementioned programs, is dependent on members of AHS volunteering to plan and staff these programs. Our desire is show case the museum and attract visitors as well as new members. To achieve that goal, we need to get more people into the museum, which is often referred to as “Aurora’s best kept secret,” and show them why they should be concerned with preserving Aurora’s history and becoming active members of the society. If you and a few friends would like to volunteer to help create a program or open and staff the museum, please call B. Koglman or Marcelle Wilson. You can be involved in one event or several, whatever fits into your schedule. You will be rewarded with the excitement and enthusiasm that local children and their parents exhibit at the new and interesting artifacts on display and fun events planned for their enjoyment.
With a new year upon us the Aurora Historical Society is excited about the “New Look” that is taking place within the Museum’s archive storage area. While the work is still not finished, countless hours of work on the part of our director Marcelle Wilson, members of the Board of Trustees, and other volunteers will allow for a grand reopening of the museum in April. While dealing with the events of the “2010 flood” have demanded extensive time and money, the flood provided us the opportunity to examine and evaluate all of our artifacts and archives. As a result we are in the processing of making sure that our holdings match with our mission. Special mention must be made of the hard work that out-going president, Tim Holder, in dealing with the issues presented by the flood. As past president he will continue to lead the society through the complicated world of dealing with our insurance claims for the damage incurred from the flood. As newly elected president I looked forward to helping guide the society through a meaningful year as we to work together to make the Aurora Historical Society a continued vital part of the Aurora community. Not only will we continue to provide a wide variety of educational and social opportunities for our membership, we will also aggressively work to increase our membership rolls. We will work with the Rotary to explore new ways in which the two organizations can cooperatively work together as was done in the past with the Antique Show. Also on the agenda for the Board of Trustees in the coming year is a examination and review of the society’s constitution and bylaws, the creation of a “speakers bureau” which will provide the society with the opportunity to reach across the Aurora community; and the continued cooperation with City officials to evaluate the use of the community’s historic properties.
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