Speaking of artifacts which get visitors.  We have a 200+ year old Conestoga wagon.  Built in the late 1700s in eastern PA, it carried a family to Hamilton Co. IN in the early 1800s.  That family still lives here in Hamilton Co., and has relatives all over the State.  Every year we get one or two calls from descendents asking if they can come see the family wagon.  When they arrive we show them the wagon, take their picture with the wagon (which they get to take home) and have them sign the wagon's guestbook!  We don't raise any money - it's just a fun story.

Lana Newhart-Kellen
Registrar
Conner Prairie

>>> [log in to unmask] 07/02/03 04:18PM >>>
I'm posting this query on behalf of our development director. We
have a doll in our collection, the Polly Sumner doll, that came
from England aboard one of the Boston Tea Party ships. She was
sold in a Boston shop and was passed down through 5 generations
of the same Boston family before being donated to the museum.
She's become a little bit of an icon for some folks (I had a
family visit from Arizona last summer and tell me she was the
number-one thing they wanted to see while they were here) and
there is a children's book (now out of print) that uses her to
tell the story of Revolutionary-era Boston.

Our development director is interested in having a fundraising
event featuring Polly Sumner for girls and their families. It
would be a tea party, perhaps we would read the book aloud,
people could buy replicas of the doll, see the real thing
up-close (she's in collections storage at the moment), and maybe
some other programming.

I know there are museums out there that have been capitalizing on
the "American Girl" book craze by having similar events. If
you've done this kind of thing before, can you send me a message
off-list to let me know of potential problems, suggestions, etc.
so we can make this as successful as possible? Also, if you know
of a company that makes reproduction dolls that would be great
too; we have some leads but can always use more.

Thanks in advance.

Rainey Tisdale
Collections Manager
The Bostonian Society
206 Washington Street
Boston, MA  02109-1773
617-720-1713 x24
617-720-3289 Fax

For more information about The Bostonian Society, or to become a
member, visit our website: www.bostonhistory.org 

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