Five museum studies students will begin internships this summer. Furthest to the north, Toria Strickland will intern at the Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich, Connecticut. Down south, Alexis Joiner has begun an internship at the Florida Holocaust Museum in Saint Petersburg. Closer to campus, Samantha Eldridge is working at the McKinney Center in Jonesborough and Paul Johnston is at the Jonesborough Heritage Alliance. Last but not least, Maggie Brown will complete an internship at the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site in Greeneville. Good luck to all our interns!

SATURDAY SUMMER HOURS! We are Proud to announce that the Doak House will be open from 10 am to 2 pm the following Saturdays in June and July. Come by and see us for a tour!
June 6th, June 20th, July 11th, and July 25th

Leah Walker, a smiling fixture of the museums for more than ten years, left Tusculum at the beginning of May to become the new Director of the Rogersville Heritage Association. Our loss is most certainly Rogersville’s gain. If you are in the area, stop by and say hello and wish her the very best! We miss her already!

Congratulations Tusculum Museum Studies Grads!
This May we bid farewell to museum studies majors Erika Allison, Josh Helvey and Melanie Sigman. We also say goodbye to Matthew Moyer, long-time workstudy student and museum studies minor. We will miss your smiling faces at the Doak House! We wish all our Tusculum College graduates the best, we know your futures are bright!

Museums of Tusculum Shine at Old Oak Festival: Exhibits, Workshop, Music, Tours & More!
Fiddlin’ Carson Peter’s Band and the Old Time Travelers, a duo from Chattanooga Tennessee, will perform on the Doak House lawn on the Saturday of the festival. Picnic tables are available, bring a lunch, tour the museum and hear great bluegrass and old-time music. Performance times TBA.
Sittin’ Pretty: Selections from the Doak House Furniture Collection. For the length of the festival only, the museum will open its collections storage to display never before exhibited Appalachian chairs and other furnishings. Admission is free, donations are appreciated.
Mamie Hassell, a sophomore museum studies major, is currently overhauling the Tusculum history exhibit at the Andrew Johnson Museum. The first exhibit in the new flexible exhibit space is curated by Joshua Helvey, a senior museum studies major. Josh’s exhibit will feature artifacts and photographs of past Old Oak Festivals and will be open to festival visitors.
The President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library will sponsor a 19th Century Toys & Games booth in the kids area. Come and play with traditional folk toys and make-and-take your very own toy as a souvenir.
Both the President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library and the Doak House Museum will be open on Friday and Saturday to visitors during the festival and will have special activities planned for adults and children. The Doak House will be open 1-4 pm on Sunday.
From 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., the President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library will feature the Reaper: Nettie Fowler McCormick and the Machine that Built Tusculum College exhibit. This exhibit explores the changes wrought by the mechanical harvester and explores the context through which Mrs. McCormick viewed her philanthropic mission.
Check out the Old Oak Website for the complete schedule!

Bragging time! We won two awards at the recent Tennessee Association of Museums Conference held in Jackson. We are particularly proud of the Award of Excellence our students won for their exhibit Reaper: Nettie Fowler McCormick and the Machine that Built Tusculum College. Our undergraduate students were competing against professionals! WAY TO GO!!

 

Recent Grads Hit the Ground Running!

Two recent alumni of the Museum Studies program are forging ahead in their professional careers. Tynan Shadle and Kate Kolodi graduated in December of 2014. Tynan is employed at Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site through the Americorps program. Tynan has been busy redesigning promotional materials, planning summer camps, and even speaking at a state historic commission meeting. Kate is an April flight and three-day ferry ride away from beginning a new interpretive job at Jewell Gardens and Garden City Glassworks in Skagway, Alaska. Kate is excited to host a busy tour season and develop new craft skills including glass blowing. Congratulations Tynan and Kate! We’re so proud of you!

We’re so proud of Tynan, Chelsea, and Corrinne who graduated from the museum studies program in December 2014. We can’t believe how the time has flown, just yesterday we were meeting them all as freshmen and now their time with us is done. These three have all done so well in our program, we know bright futures await!

 

 

 

 

Museum studies students hard at work in 2014.
When we say this is a hands-on degree program, we mean it! Our undergraduates have experiences that most museum professionals only get in graduate school.