Looking for unique gifts.

The Williamson Museum can help you.

• Give the gift of history by buying a Williamson Museum membership.
• Visit the Museum Store.  We have historic toys, great history related books, jewelery, hand made soap, a poster of Texas Courthouses, cooking aprons and much, much more.

Proceeds from the store help support ongoing programs and exhibits.

Collections Housecleaning

If you've been to the Museum lately, you've probably noticed us moving our offices around- what an ordeal!! WHEW!!
Amy our Educator, moved her office out in the upstairs area and now has access to a storage closet to keep all of her education stuff together (Yay!) and Dana our Curator, moved into Amy's old office upstairs in the same space as Abby, our Registrar. That was a smart move!
We've now got the downstairs collections office area open and free to use as a workspace for our faithful collections volunteers who come weekly to help catalog artifacts.

Now that we have access to that workspace, Abby & Dana have been hard at work (a sort of 'housecleaning'), going through the collections, and re-housing archives in archival boxes and making sure that we have the entire collections cataloged. When we pull objects we also inspect them for deterioration, and try to preserve them to the best of our ability. (this is a rather large task, mind you)  A large part of accessioning objects is the legal paperwork that goes along with it, and keeping track of collections could easily be a full time job! And along the way, we find some pretty interesting items. Some recent donations include items from a local barbershop, Swedish baptismal records, and a large collection of family photographs. The curator & registrar must have a close relationship with the collections artifacts, because this is what we build our exhibits from.
(and let me tell you, we have some pretty cool exhibits coming in the future!- So keep your eyes peeled!)

Dana
Curator

Ghosts and Graves, Oh My!

October can be a creepy, spooky month and we at the Williamson Museum were determined not to be left out of all that ghostly fun.  On Halloween weekend, we hosted Ghosts on the Square, where costumed docents led tours of the Georgetown square and related the stories of the many other-worldly specters which haunt the historic buildings there.  We had four sold-out tours each night and our guests left the square with a new appreciation for the people of the county who were perhaps none too ready to leave this world for the next.  A shout-out to Quenan's Jewelers, who added creepiness to our tours with a mummy in their second story window!  It gave everybody a bit of a start to find something unexpectedly lurking in that window!

Continuing with the other-worldly theme, the museum hosted a Cemetery Tour at the Independent Order of Oddfellows (IOOF) Cemetery on November 6th.  In this event, costumed interpreters told the story of the many prominent citizens of Williamson County buried at the IOOF and how they contributed to the success of Southwestern University.  Among the dead who "returned" to speak to our guests were SWU presidents, trustees, businessmen, ministers, and their wives.  Many returning Southwestern graduates, in Georgetown for Homecoming, enjoyed touring the cemetery and learning about the many men and women who worked diligently to ensure that Southwestern would continue to "survive and thrive" into the twenty-first century.

The success of these two programs ensures that the museum will survive and thrive, as well.  I look forward to planning the next Ghosts on the Square and Cemetery Tour next year.  And in case you missed it, I hope you will plan on coming out to one or both events in 2011 to experience the rich and (sometimes) spooky history that Williamson County has to offer.  

Things You Never Thought You Would Do As A Museum Professional

Ever since I started working at the Museum three years ago, I have had duties I never imagined I would have when choosing this field as a career. This was especially obvious this month as there have been several events we were involved with that don't fall under your regular Museum work, which I love!!

To start with, let me mention that three years ago, I had to dress up in a witch's hat for the launch of the last Harry Potter book. Downtown Georgetown turned into J.K. Rowling's world and there were witches and warlocks walking around the square waiting for Hill Country Bookstore to release the book. The Museum, I mean Gringotts (the Wizarding Bank), had flashlight tours that night. It was so much fun!

Coming back to October, here is a brief list of the events we were a part of this month. Notice they do not include our regular monthly events (First Friday, The Salon at Wildfire, Hands-On History or Books for Texans) or our educational programs (Field trips and trunk shows).

• First of all, earlier in the month, I created big pink bows and pink ribbons for the Museum's facade in honor of the 2010 Pink Heals Tour. Our Visitor Services Coordinator was up on a ladder attaching the bows to our columns. We were pinked out!
• That same week, I decorated a table (place settings, centerpiece and all) for the Georgetown Garden Club's Tea Party to celebrate their 70th anniversary. It was a delightful event.
• The day after the tea party, a volunteer and I maned a booth at the first Jonah Harvest Fest, while the rest of the staff worked a craft booth for Art in the Square in Georgetown while keeping the Museum open. We can do it all!
• Last weekend we hosted the registration tables for the Taste of Georgetown for the second year in a row and our Educator got a taste of how our courthouse rentals work. (We rent the 1911 Williamson County Courthouse)
• Finally, the Brown Santa program asked us to decorate a jail cell for their Nightmare on Jail Hill Haunted House this year. This involved shopping for headstones, creating dead bodies, and a trip to a pecan orchard on HI29 to get branches for our fake cemetery inside the cell. Let me tell you that jail doesn't need much decorating to be scary.

Usually, when you think of a Museum you might think of exhibits, artifacts, and educational programs. Right? Well, The Williamson Museum is definitely no exception, but make no mistake, we do more than that.

Celina Aguirre

Volunteer and Membership Coordinator

New Exhibit Coming Soon

Jno. Trlica, a first generation Czech-Texan, spent decades documenting the town of Granger and its inhabitants.  His commercial studio made the dream of owning a photographic memory a reality for all.  In the sometimes racially charged atmosphere of early 20th century Texas, Trlica never discriminated against any person who wished to have their picture taken. 

His advertising slogan:

Where there is beauty,

We take it.

Where there is none,

We make it.

We take anything.

Where There Is Beauty opens during First Friday, November 5, 2010.

New Life For An Old Exhibit

...well, not that old.  Our most recent photography exhibit, Recuerdos, has been given a new lease on life at Texas State University's Round Rock Higher Education Center.  You may recall that the original Recuerdos resulted from a collaboration in which The Williamson Museum asked members of the Hispanic-American community to share their memories (recuerdos) of life in our county.  The photographs graced our walls from May 2010 until just a few days ago, when they were removed to make room for our next photography exhibit.  

But that's not the end for Recuerdos.  The original photographs, along with many additional historical images, can now be seen in the 1st floor hallway of the Round Rock Higher Education Center.  If you missed Recuerdos the first time around, don't miss this new opportunity to view memories of Hispanic-American life in Williamson County.

The Round Rock Higher Education Center is located at 1555 University Boulevard in Round Rock.  Recuerdos is on display in the 1st floor across from the library.  We hope you enjoy the "new" Recuerdos.

Changes, Changes, Changes...

It has been a long time since we have updated the blog, and I apologize for that! It is a sad fact that when changes come about in an organization, something falls through the cracks and this was one of those things. I will remedy that today and we will make it a priority from now on!

Lots of things going on this week, but the most immediate is the scheduled stop of the Pink Heals tour on the historic downtown square this afternoon at 5:30. Please wear your pink and join us for the parade of pink firetrucks and all of the festivities at the Fire Station on Main Street until 7:00 pm this afternoon.

If that is not to your liking, you can join us at The Salon at Wildfire at 6:30 for a presentation on Community Gardens by Natalie Vreeland.

And don't forget that tomorrow is our fundraiser at Casa Ole here in Georgetown. Let us know if you need a flyer!