Tag Archive for: Museum Moments

Medicine Wheel Gardens, Museum Moments, March 16

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NEmiss.News Tammy Greer, PhD

 

Museum Moments on Thursday, March 16, at 12 noon will feature Medicine Wheel Gardens. This topic will be discussed by Tammy Greer, Ph.D., a member of the United Houma Nation, and a faculty member at the University of Southern Mississippi. She is Director of the Mississippi Center for American Indian Research and Studies and is faculty advisor of the Golden Eagles Intertribal Society.

The program will be at the Union County Heritage Museum, located at 114 Cleveland Street in New Albany. A sack lunch will be available, courtesy of the New Albany Garden Club at 11:30.

Dr. Greer developed the Medicine Wheel Garden in 2005 along with others to highlight the plants that were used by the indigenous peoples of this area, and to promote awareness of the rich histories and cultures of Southeastern Native Americans.

Programming associated with the Medicine Wheel Garden includes the many uses of native plants from natural dyes to cordage to making medicine. Greer has a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to explore these uses.

These circular gardens are considered places for healing and tranquility. They are considered by some to be sacred spaces within certain cultures. The gardens follow simple, circular designs based around the number four for each of the four cardinal directions. Each direction represents a unique spiritual connection with the earth.

NEMiss.News Aerial view of Majorville Medicine Wheel

Aerial view of Majorville Medicine Wheel, circa 3200BCE

Medicine wheel gardens have been built and used for ceremonies for thousands of years. Each one has enough unique characteristics and qualities that archaeologists have not deciphered them in their entirety. One of the older wheels, located in Canada, has been dated to 3200 BCE (5200 years ago).

Museum Moments is a monthly lecture program which is free. It is made possible by the Community Partners of the museum. For more information contact the museum at 662-538-0014.

 

Jill Smith, Director
Union County Heritage Museum
114 Cleveland Street
New Albany,MS 38652
662 538-0014

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February events at Union County Heritage Museum

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NEMiss.News Dr. Ethel Scurlock

 

 

Museum Moments

Museum Moments on Thursday,  February 16,  features Dr. Ethel Young Spurlock, PhD  talking about “The History of Mississippi Black Physicians and Their Medical Journey.” The program will begin at noon and is free.  A lite lunch is provided by the Museum Guild beginning at 11:30.

NEMiss.News R.f.Boyd, MD, DDS

R. F. Boyd, MD, DDS practiced medicine and taught school in New Albany in the late 1880s.

Dr. Spurlock is Dean of the Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi and is Associate Professor of English and African American Studies.  A Memphis native she joined the faculty of the university in 1996.  She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and from Bowling Green Sate University of Ohio. She has published numerous articles and reviews of African American literature.

She was named the College of Liberal Arts Teacher of the Year in 2003, UM Humanities Teacher of the Year as well as other honors.  She has been recognized by the Mississippi House of Representatives honoring her work promoting diversity.

NEMiss.News Croup vaccine administration

Administration of croup vaccine

Flag Program for Fourth Grade

Other activities during the month of February include a flag program for all of the fourth grade students in Union County and the City of New Albany .  All of the students will receive both national and state flags and curriculum materials related to the flags.  The museum will have an exhibit featuring  objects invented by African Americans through the years.

African American Community  Businesses

An ongoing project of the museum is collecting information and photographs related to the African American business which closed following desegregation as well as the communities that once existed.  If anyone has information to share on this project, please contact the museum so that the photos can be scanned and the information documents, said Jill Smith, director.

B. F. Ford and The Sporting Life exhibits

The museum is continuing to schedule videos on the history of B.F. Ford and for the upcoming exhibit The Sporting Life of Union County.  If you would like to participate in this, please call the museum to set up a time on the schedule call 662-538-0014.

The deadline is approaching for submitting photos to the sports exhibit, which is expected to open in April 2023.

The museum is located at 114 Cleveland Street, New Albany. Call 662-538-0014 for more information.  Follow the museum on Facebook at Union County Heritage Museum.

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Winter Backyard Birds to be discussed at Museum Moments, January 19

NEMiss.News January Museum Moments: Winter Backyard Birds

 

Museum Moments is beginning the 2023 season with a program all about birds.

NEMiss.News Hooded Warbler Museum Moments

Hooded Warbler
Photo by Chara Megelsh; birds are handled by a licensed professional.

Chara Megelsh, Wildlife Conservationist, will talk about “Winter Backyard Birds” on Thursday, January 19, at 12 noon.

Lunch begins at 11:30 and is courtesy of the Museum Guild.

Museum Moments is made possible by the Museum Community Partner Program. It is free.

For more information call the museum at 662-538-0014 . The museum is located at 114 Cleveland Street in New Albany.

Attached photos are by Chara Megelsh and the birds are handled by a licensed professional.

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Jill Smith, Director
Union County Heritage Museum
114 Cleveland Street
New Albany, MS 38652

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November’s Museum Moments features woodworker Chad Fletcher

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NEMiss.News Chad Fletcher at work

 

 

 

Museum Moments Features Chad Fletcher and Superior Artisan Wood Products on Thursday, November 17, 12 noon.

His topic is “4 Billion Board Ft.” He will have some of his wonderful woodwork at the museum that day.

 

NEMiss.News Chad Fletcher

“Live edge” wood work by Chad Fletcher

Fletcher’s mission is to save urban wood from the landfills, and in doing so create artistic live edge wood products as well as other objects.

Free lunch will be served beginning at 11:30 – thank you, New Century Club!

Superior Artisan Wood video.

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Dr. Kate Stewart, Ph.D., is the August Museum Moments guest speaker

NEMiss.News Museum Moments for 8-18-2022

 

Young Detectives of Nancy Drew and Chick Mallison are the topics of August 18, 12 noon, Museum Moments at the Union County Heritage Museum.  Dr. Kate Stewart, Ph.D. is the guest speaker.

A native of the Cotton Plant area, Stewart graduated from New Albany High School and the University of Mississippi.  She is currently an English  professor at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

Her expertise in Faulkner and pop culture bring an interesting perspective to the 2022 Literary Fest.

The museum is located at114 Cleveland Street in New Albany.

The event is free and the Union County Master Gardeners will furnish a sack lunch.  For more information call the museum at 662-538-0014.

Jill Smith, Director

Union County Heritage Museum
114 Cleveland Street
New Albany, MS 38652
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Hiking the Appalachian Trail: Museum Moments Thursday May 26

NEMiss.News Hiking the Appalachian Trail

 

Hiking the Appalachian Trail is the focus of  Museum Moments on Thursday, May 26 , 12 noon at the Union county Heritage Museum. The program is free.

Margaret and Wayne Vanlandingham of New Albany have recently completed the 2,193 mile hike through 14 states and will talk about their journey and show the gear that they carried through the trek.  In a recent article, they say that they were not experienced hikers . But they were very determined to finish what they had started.

The accomplishment of completing the trail was a good experience for the couple, they said.

They celebrated birthdays, an anniversary, Christmas , New Years on the walking trail.

Come to the museum Thursday and learn more about this fascinating experience.  Lunch is courtesy of the Museum Guild.

Jill Smith, Director
Union County Heritage Museum
114 Cleveland Street
New Albany, MS 38652

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March Museum Moments to feature author and Faulkner scholar, Robert Hamblin

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NEMiss.News Robert Hamblin at Museum Moments 3-17-22

 

Museum Moments Thursday, March 17, 12 noon at the Union County Heritage Museum, will feature Robert Hamblin, Faulkner Scholar Emeritus of Southeast Missouri State University.

Hamblin, who grew up in the Brice’s Crossroads area, was instrumental in the creation of the Center for Faulkner Studies at the University.

NEMiss.News Robert Hamblin

Robert Hamblin

The University houses the L.D Brodsky Collection of Faulkner Materials, including the Blotner Papers which Hamblin was instrumental in collecting.

Since his retirement, he has published several volumes of poetry, as well as a book of fiction, Memories that Bless and Burn, which was published in 2021. In this work of fiction set in the 1950s, childhood playmates in Mississippi grew up to find themselves on opposite sides of the racial conflagration, during the early days of integration. Years later, one of them, now a civil rights lawyer, returns to his boyhood home to confront unresolved issues from his complicated past. It is reviewed as a heart heartrending story of loss, brokenness, guilt, and possible redemption, that invites comparison with the political divisiveness of the present day.

In another novel, A Spool of Thread, an unusual friendship begins.

In 1951 Evelyn Russell, middle-aged wife of a Mississippi sharecropper, uses a spool of thread and finds written on the empty spool the name and address of Paula Tillman, a young cotton mill worker in Maine. Evie writes to Paula, and thus begins a two-decade pen-pal friendship between the two women. Structured around the letters the women exchange over the years, A Spool of Thread recounts the experiences of two families who never meet, but are linked by their shared joys and challenges, heartaches and triumphs. The thread of the novel is the fragile and precious thread of life, woven into a story celebrating our common humanity.

Hamblin’s poems fill more than one volume. One of them is We Smile as We Go. He says, “Old folks live a lot in the past, and when you read these poems you’ll know why. They’ve learned that the restorative and redemptive power of memory enables them to deal with aging, loss, sadness, and grief. In remembrance of loved ones, friends, and times gone by, the elderly live again. This book is a celebration of life and its many passages.”

Museum Moments is made possible by the Community Partners of the museum and the New Albany Garden Club, who will prepare a free sack lunch for attendees. The museum is located at 114 Cleveland Street in New Albany. Call for more information 662-538-0014.

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Jill Smith, Director
Union County Heritage Museum
114 Cleveland Street
New Albany, MS 38652

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African American String Bands & White Blues is topic at Museum

NEMiss.News Black strings band at Lafayette Springs Hotel

 

 Museum Moments at the Union County Heritage Museum is set Thursday, February 17, at noon and will feature music scholar Scott Barretta talking about African American String Bands and White Blues: Challenging assumptions about music and race.

Elvis Presley is infamous for revolutionizing music through his mix of country and blues, and this talk will focus on other musicians from the region whose music resists simple genre classifications, Barretta said.

NEMiss.News Scott Barretta to speak at Museum Moments

Scott Barretta

“New Albany’s resident bluesman Sam Mosley’s first exposure to music was through the family string band featuring his father and uncles, which inspired Mosley to be flexible in playing for varied audiences.”

“Harmonica Frank Floyd from Toccopola was a white musician and harmonica master who recorded blues for Memphis’ Sun label and Chicago’s Chess Records in the early ‘50s.  Keyboardist and songwriter Bobby Wood from Mitchell Switch was a member of the Memphis Boys, the house band at American Sound Studios, which played on hit recordings by soul giants as well as Neil Diamond and Elvis Presley. We’ll also look at Pontotoc’s Jim Weatherly, whose country-pop composition “Midnight Train to Houston” became the R&B classic “Midnight Train to Georgia” in the hands of Gladys Knight and the Pips.”

Baretta is the host of the Mississippi Blues Hour Highway 61 Blues Show. He has edited two roots music magazines, “Jefferson” (in Sweden) and “Living Blues” (University of Mississippi) and is working on a sociology dissertation on blues revivalism. He writes a weekly roots music column for the Clarion-Ledger newspaper, is writing historic marker text for the forthcoming Mississippi Blues Trail and is head content consultant for the B.B. King Museum and Delta Cultural Center. He has taught blues courses at the University of Mississippi and Millsaps College.

 The public is invited to this presentation made possible by the museum’s Community Partners.  A light lunch will is courtesy  of the Museum Guild.

The event is free.  The museum is located at 114 Cleveland Street in New Albany.  For more information call the museum at 662- 538-0014 or email uchm@ucheritagemuseum.com.

 

Please share any thoughts, comments or questions in the Comments section below!

 

Jill Smith, Director

Union County Heritage Museum

114 Cleveland Street

New Albany,MS 38652

 

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How to have Happy Feet is topic of November Museum Moments

NEMiss.News Happy Feet at the Museum

 

 

Reflexologist Kelly Hall from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is the guest speaker at  Thursday’s Museum Moments on Nov. 18 at 12 noon. He topic is How to Take Care of Your Feet for Better Health, Better Balance and Better Living.”

NEMiss.News Kelly Hall to discuss Reflexology

Kelly Hall, therapeutic reflexologist

Hall is a therapeutic reflexologist in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She specializes in hard to heal foot pain as well as stress release.

Reflexology is a type of therapy that uses pressure on specific points along your feet, hands or ears to help you feel better. The theory is that this eases stress, and that helps your body work better. It’s also known as zone therapy.

It is an ancient practice, its origin and history are difficult to track. It is believed to have been passed down through an oral tradition, and possibly first recorded as a pictograph on an Egyptian tomb in 2330 BC along with other medical procedures.

The way reflexology connects spots on the outside of your body to the inside is a bit like acupuncture and acupressure. Those therapies use points all over your body, not just on your feet, hands, and ears. And while reflexologists do use their hands, it isn’t a form of massage. Like those other therapies, though, reflexology is complementary to medical treatments.

Museum Moments is made possible by the  Union County Heritage Museum’s Community Partners.  The Museum Guild will provide a sack lunch beginning at 11:30.  The museum is located at 114 Cleveland Street in New Albany.  For more information call 662-538-0014.

 

Jill Smith, Director

Union County Heritage Museum

114 Cleveland Street

New Albany, MS 38652

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Museum Moments to host Tom Brown, “The Johnny Carson of the Elvis World”

NEMiss.News Tom Brown to speak at museum

 

Former Turner Network Personality Tom Brown, currently Program Director and 6-10am Morning Host on Sunny 93.3 is the speaker for Museum Moments at the Union County Heritage Museum Thursday, September 16, 12 noon.

Tom’s career spanned 17 years at Turner Classic Movies in Atlanta as the Vice President of Original Productions, overseeing the Robert Osborne studio unit and all original long form productions. Multiple Emmy nominations followed. “No wins, but it’s an honor to be nominated!” he said.

Brown was born just outside of Roswell, New Mexico Air Force Base. He moved at age four to Tupelo with his parents, and he entered showbiz as a teenager with his first job: projectionist at the Malco Theatres. (Yes, he thinks the Lyric is haunted) .

His career in television started after graduation from Ole Miss when Tom got a job overnights at WTVA in Tupelo. There Tom shot commercials, local sports highlights and hosted the live on-air “Wheel of Fortune” giveaways. “Spinning and winning!” Continuing in television now as an entertainment reporter, Tom moved to Shreveport and St. Louis where he also served as a radio morning co-host and reporter. For over ten years he traveled to Los Angeles, New York City and all over the country, conducting interviews with hundreds of celebrities. His favorites to interview were Tom Hanks, Robin Williams and Burt Reynolds.

A thread that has been woven throughout Tom’s life is his love of Elvis Presley. He produced multiple Elvis projects for TCM and has worked over 17 years with Elvis Presley Enterprises hosting live events and the Youtube series, “Gates of Graceland.” Tom also hosts the Tupelo Elvis Festival and co-produces and hosts the Nashville Elvis Festival. Tom is happy to be back where he comes from in Tupelo with his wife Lisa and their three dogs The Nash, Maxine and Millie. He spends his free time as he has for many years – watching Johnny Carson on Youtube. He is known as the “Johnny Carson of the Elvis World”

A brown bag lunch will be provided by Historic Northside Garden Club.

 

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Jill Smith, Director
Union County Heritage Museum
114 Cleveland Street
New Albany, MS 38652

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Deadbolt Mystery Society coming  to the museum on August 19, 12 noon

NEMiss.News Deadbolt Mystery Society

 

Doesn’t everyone love a good mystery? Mysteries, who dunnits and more are part of the Deadbolt Mystery Society, whose creators will present a program, Making Mysteries,  at Museum Moments at the Union County Heritage Museum on Thursday, August 19, at 12 noon.

Brothers Jason and Shawn Brannon created the Deadbolt Mystery Society to augment their Tupelo Escape Room in 2017, and the mystery society has blossomed into a monthly subscription that extends into some 40 countries.

Business boomed during COVID since so many people were stuck at home and looking for something to do.  “People were looking for something to do and we were fortunate they found us,” Jason said.

The mysteries range from serial killers, to the “Infected” box, which was developed a year before the actual pandemic occurred. This was one of the most popular boxes during the pandemic, he said.

With more than 40 employees currently, the company has expanded into larger accommodations a couple of times.  Writers, graphic designers, and marketing people are using “the little gray cells” as the dapper Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot would say, to create monthly mystery boxes for subscribers.  One of the largest customers for the society is Amazon.  And the success story continues.

The public is invited to attend Museum Moments and hear the brothers  talk about the interesting success of the Deadbolt Mystery Society and what is coming next.

Social distancing, sanitation and masks are what the museum is doing to stay safe.

For more information contact the museum at 662-538-0014.  The museum is located at 114 Cleveland Street, New Albany. The event is free thanks to the museum’s community partners.

A sack lunch will be provided by the Museum Guild beginning at 11:30.

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Baseball and the Blues -Terry ‘Harmonica’ Bean is Museum Moments speaker Thursday

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He has a very unique story- able to throw a baseball more than 90 miles an hour as well as playing blues music all over the world.

Terry “Harmonica” Bean of Pontotoc will be the guest at the Union County Heritage Museum’s Museum Moments Thursday, June 10, noon.

Musician and athlete, Bean has found successes in life as well as troubles that derailed portions of his career.  The public is invited to Museum Moments to hear more of this fascinating story.

A sack lunch will be served courtesy of the Pilot Club of New Albany.

The event is free.  The museum is located at 114 Cleveland Street, New Albany.  For more information call 662-538-0014.

 

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