Contact:  Amanda Nikkel,                                            FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Humanities Educator/Volunteer Coordinator

Phone:    (870) 793-2121

E-mail:   Amanda@oirm.org

Museum to Host Home School Days

Old Independence Regional Museum will host Home School Days on Mondays, April 16^th and 23^rd.  This spring the theme is the White River, which played an important role in Arkansas’ history and the lives of the early settlers and pioneers.  The river provided water, food, transportation, and recreation, but flooding was a frequent threat.

“Once again we are offering the same program on two different days, so families have a little more flexibility when scheduling.  We encourage all area home schooled students to attend this day at the museum that is designed just for them,” states Amanda Nikkel, Humanities Educator and Volunteer Coordinator. Nikkel goes on to say, “Many of our regular attendees are beginning to feel like members of our museum family.  We always enjoy seeing returning students and really look forward to meeting new ones.”

“The museum is thrilled to collaborate with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission for this spring’s Home School Days,” Nikkel comments.  A representative from Arkansas Game and Fish will be on-site, with their1000 gallon mobile aquarium, leading a session about aquatic resources. The aquarium is stocked with a large variety of native fish species and aquatic turtles.

Museum staff and volunteers will lead sessions about pearling and shelling, river travel, early settlements, and recreation.  As part of these sessions students will make cane fishing poles, create a model flat boat, and draw river maps. Students will also learn about the legend of the White River Monster, and will create their own interpretation of this monster.

The museum has several artifacts from the pearling and shelling industry in its collection.  Students will get to feel how heavy some of the early diving helmets were and learn about the hard work and long hours that went into shelling.  Mussel shells will also be on display for students to examine.

Please call the museum to register for one of the days. A $5 program fee per participant must be paid in advance to hold your spot in the program.  There is a limit of 50 participants each day.  “In the past, Home School Days have met capacity before the day of the program, so anyone interested in participating will want to reserve a space soon,” said Nikkel.

This humanities program is made possible by local support from Independence County and the City of Batesville, as well as by Challenge Grant Endowment funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities.  Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Old Independence serves a 12-county area:  Baxter, Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Marion, Poinsett, Sharp, Stone, White, and Woodruff.  Parts of these present-day counties comprised the original Independence County in 1820s Arkansas territory.

The museum is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Sundays.  Admission is $3.00 for adults, $2.00 for seniors and $1.00 for children.  The museum is located at 380 South 9^th street, between Boswell and Vine Streets in Batesville.   During your visit, stop by our gift shop.  We stock many items from local artists, authors, and crafters, as well as historical toys and games.

OIRM Blog - What's happening at OIRM

Contact:  Amanda Nikkel,                                              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Educator/Volunteer Coordinator

Phone:    (870) 793-2121

E-mail:   Amanda@oirm.org

Museum Celebrates Easter

Hop on over to Old Independence Regional Museum to celebrate Easter on Saturday, March 31, 2012, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. This fun day at the museum will be filled with Easter games, crafts, and stories.  Admission for this event is free for the entire family, but donations are always appreciated.

The morning will begin at 10 a.m. with story time in the Southerland Theater.

Following story time, activities will commence outside, on the museum grounds.  Families will be able to participate in an Easter egg roll, spoon and egg relay races, and sack races on the museum’s side lawn.  The Easter egg roll is a tradition that started in our nation’s capital.  It is thought to have begun sometime during the presidency of Andrew Jackson (1839-1837).  Youngsters from the Johnson family dyed eggs on Easter Sunday and rolled them on Easter Monday.  This tradition soon turned into a family affair for many in the Washington D.C. area, with the majority of all-day picnics and egg rolling taking place on the Capitol Grounds.  The egg rolling moved to the White House grounds in 1878 under the Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes.  Today, the Easter egg roll still takes place at the White House on Easter Monday; however, it is now so popular, you have to enter a lottery to be able to attend.

Visitors will also be able make a simple Easter baskets and Easter cards.  Keepsake eggs will be available to paint, and hard boiled eggs will be available for dying using natural dyes such as onion skins, turmeric, red cabbage, and spinach.

Egg Roll

Old Independence serves a 12-county area:  Baxter, Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Marion, Poinsett, Sharp, Stone, White, and Woodruff.  Parts of these present-day counties comprised the original Independence County in 1820s Arkansas territory.

The museum is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Sundays.  Admission is $3.00 for adults, $2.00 for seniors and $1.00 for children.  The museum is located at 380 South 9^th street, between Boswell and Vine Streets in Batesville.   During your visit, stop by our gift shop.  We stock many items from local artists, authors, and crafters, as well as historical toys and games.

This humanities program is made possible by local support from Independence County and the City of Batesville, as well as by Challenge Grant Endowment funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities.  Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Click here to visit it.

OIRM Blog - What's happening at OIRM

Fun with Hair Dos and Wigs at the Museum

A program “Remember Those Hair Dos and Wigs?” will be presented at Old Independence Regional Museum at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 12.  Photographs of early hair styles, including the 1920s “bobbed” hair, will be on display. An array of White River Water Carnival programs will show how styles changed from 1937 until the present.

A door prize of a “free hair styling” will be awarded by Julie Gregg, owner of the Cutter’s Corner shop in Batesville.

Gregg went to cosmetology school in Newport, Arkansas. “I also received training through individual classes that I have taken through the years in Little Rock, Dallas, and Tampa, Florida. The classes ranged from cutting techniques to coloring techniques,” Gregg said. “I feel very lucky to be doing something that I love. I’ve been a hairstylist for 32 years and hope to be one for another 32 years!” Gregg will do a demonstration of hair care at the museum on Tiffany Duke who is a new stylist at Cutters Corner.

Two other women will carry the audience back in time with their memories as hairdressers.

Bertha Wade Hughes started her career while still in high school by working Saturdays in a local beauty shop answering the phone. After finishing high school she attended 1,500 hours at Blackwood’s Beauty School in North Little Rock, then passed the state board exam and received her license.  “After I returned to Batesville, I went to work for Bessie Jane Cook. With the exception of working in two other shops, I retired after spending most of forty-five years doing hair,” she reported. She will also share some funny experiences she had during that time.

Janet Gray began cosmetology school just after graduating from high school in Michigan. Then she transferred to a beauty college in Lakeland, Florida. Upon her graduation from that college she took her Florida state Board exam en-route home to Michigan, and that is how she ended up having licenses in two states.  She worked for several years there before moving to Arkansas.

“My mother always wanted to be a hairdresser and when she was growing up “finger-waving” was popular. She would boil flax seed to make a setting solution and even finger-waved her sisters’ hair on her own wedding day!” Janet related.  “I worked for about a year at Jane’s Hair Fashions in Batesville at the same time Bertha Hughes was there.”

Wigs were popular in the 18^th century for both men and women, and resurged in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s for women. Both Hughes and Gray will show the outcome of their work on a number of the museum’s wig collection.

Twyla Wright, museum curator, invites all who would like to spend an hour of fun memories to bring a photograph or two of themselves. “Do you have a picture of yourself or a family member who was wearing a Poodle, a Beehive, an Updo with “spit curls”, a Pageboy, a curly Afro, or maybe a 1970s Shag or a later “Hamill” Wedge? “ she asked. “Of course there were also the Pixie, the Flip, a French Twist, or even a Bubble (helmet) hairdo! Boys were known to wear Flat tops, Burrs, Duck Tails, Mohawks, Bowl Cuts , and Pompadours like Elvis Presley.”

The program will be free and open to the public.  Normal museum hours are: Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Sundays.  Admission is $3.00 for adults, $2.00 for seniors and $1.00 for children.  The museum is located at 380 South 9^th street, between Boswell and Vine Streets in Batesville.

Old Independence is a regional museum serving a 12-county area: Baxter, Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Marion, Poinsett, Sharp, Stone, White, and Woodruff.  Parts of these present-day counties comprised the original Independence County in 1820’s Arkansas territory.

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The 2012 Calender of Events is now posted under Programs/Events on the main web page or click here to view.

OIRM Blog - What's happening at OIRM

OIRM Blog - What's happening at OIRM

Location:  Mezzanine room, T & E for Science and Technology

Description: Heavy iron working lock and key. Has heavy brown string attached from which the key may have hung. Ethel Gray married David Whisnant. Ethel received the lock and key from her brother, who was a jailer at the Batesville jail. Date unknown.

OIRM Blog - What's happening at OIRM

The Museum will be closed New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Happy Holidays !!

OIRM Blog - What's happening at OIRM

Old Independence Regional Museum hosted its Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon on Monday, December 5, 2011.  This annual event honors all of the volunteers who worked at the museum throughout the year.  Several of our volunteers were honored with through the Presidential Volunteer Service Award program and received either a bronze, silver, or gold service award, in addition to a certificate and letter signed by President Barak Obama.

Twyla Wright, Museum Curator, received the Presidential Call to Service Lifetime Award.  This is given to a volunteer who dedicates 4,000+ hours over the course of his or her life.  Twyla has given this much time in the three years that the museum has been participating in the Volunteer Service Award program.

The following volunteers were honored:

Up to 100 hours:

• Amelia Bowman
• Alice Clark
• Ann Mobley
• Barbara Stevenson
• Beverly Grigsby
• Debbie Smith
• Dennis Wright
• Esther Thomas
• Fern McMahan
• Randolph Mathis
• Gail Harley
• George Lankford
• Jean Crouch
• Marilynn Chlebak
• Phyllis Terhune
• Eric Reed
• Cynthia Reed
• Ron Karg
• David Pittser
• Steve Massey
• Tia Broadway
• Jimmy Hughes

Youth volunteers up to 50 hours:

• Becky Kelley
• Ronnie McCann
• Lillian Murrell
• Trenton Johnson

Youth volunteers who received a Presidential Service Award:

• Clara Nikkel – Bronze Award
• Greta McCann – Gold Award
• Josie McCann – Bronze Award
• Brianne Reed – Gold Award
• Cheyenne Reed – Gold Award

Volunteers Who Received the Bronze Award:

Ann Rhodes

• Bertha Hughes
• Clara Bufford
• Dody Pouliot
• Frances Mathis
• Limuel Parks
• MaryAnn Marshall
• Laura Reed
• Nona Floyd

Volunteers who received the Silver Award:

• Claudia Nobles
• Janet Gray
• Kay Longenbach
• Linda Wann
• Mary Miller
• Scott Blackwell
• Cheryl Matthews
• Sylvia Crosby
• George Pouliot

Volunteers who received the Gold Award:

• Bill Hoskins
• Sharan Pittser
• Twyla Wright

OIRM Board Members:

• Jan Smith
• Charles Barnett
• Dwight Ford
• Anne Moore
• Arthur Montgomery
• MaryAnn Marshall
• Kenny Gerhardt
• Sylvia Crosby
• Kay Longenbach
• Sandy West
• Dianne Tebbetts
• Mark Rorie

Over the course of 2011 these volunteers have donated more than 6,000 hours of their time to Old Independence Regional Museum.

Thank you!

OIRM Blog - What's happening at OIRM

The Museum staff asks for new ideas.

1. What exhibit themes or items would you like to see?
2. What program topics or speakers or demonstrators would you like the Museum to schedule?
3. Do you know of tobacco-related objects from our 12-county region that might be donated?

Please leave your input as a comment to this posting.

Thanks for any input you may have.

OIRM Blog - What's happening at OIRM