Annual Haunted Woods Trail in Fulton County
This event will take place on Oct. 17, 18, 24 and 25 from 7 to 10 p.m. on the grounds of the Fulton County Historical Society, located four miles north of Rochester on U.S. 31.

The cost is $5 for adults ages 12 and up, $2 for children ages six to 11 and free for children ages five and under.

Children must be accompanied by an adult. For children there will be storytelling and games in the museum. Food will be available in the museum. Those going to the haunted woods will ride a tram pulled by a tractor to the woods at the south end of the grounds. There they will be given a guided walking tour of the haunted woods.

For more information call (574) 223-4436.

14th Annual Juried American Heritage Craft Showcase in Wabash
This event will be held on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Honeywell Center in Wabash.

The Showcase, sponsored by Gaunt and Son Asphalt, will feature high-quality handmade craftwork for sale, including baskets, jewelry, woodwork, dried floral arrangements and candles.

The cost is $1 per person and will benefit the Honeywell Center’s Educational Outreach Program.

Also on Oct. 18, the Wabash Cannonball Chili for Charity Cook-Off will be held at Paradise Spring Historical Park, just blocks away from the Center, starting at noon. For more information on the Chili Cook-Off visit http://www.chiliforcharity.com/.

For more information, visit http://www.honeywellcenter.org/ or call (260) 563-1102.

Fashionable First Lady: The Victorian Wardrobe of Mary Todd Lincoln Gallery Talk in South Bend
This event will take place on Sunday, Oct. 19, at 2 p.m. at the Center for History in South Bend.

It is the first of three gallery talks related to the exhibit, 100 Years of Design. As part of the program, attendees may visit the exhibit before and after the talk. Gallery guides will be present to answer questions. Doors open at noon.

Donna McCreary, author of Lincoln’s Table: A President’s Culinary Journey from Cabin to Cosmopolitan and Fashionable First Lady: The Victorian Wardrobe of Mary Lincoln, will give the presentation. McCreary has written numerous articles related to the Todd family and is a Mary Todd Lincoln interpreter and frequent lecturer at the Indiana Historical Society. She travels extensively researching the Lincoln and Todd families.

The lecture is free with the purchase of a museum admission, which is $8 for adults, $6.50 for seniors, $5 for youth ages six to 17 and free for members.

For more information call (574) 235-9664 or visit http://www.centerforhistory.org/.

The History of the Coroner Gallery Talk in South Bend
This event will take place on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. at the Center for History in South Bend.

It is part of a series of gallery talks related to the exhibit, R.I.P. - Victorian Mourning Customs. As part of the program, attendees may visit the exhibit before and after the talk. Gallery guides will be present to answer questions. Doors open at 6 p.m.

The practice of securing a "physician’s opinion" with deaths of a suspicious nature is centuries old. In America in the 18th and 19th centuries, coroners conducted inquests much like those done in medieval England, holding nearly as much legal power as sheriffs. By the early 20th century, the legal system mandated that coroners had to be trained physicians in good standing. New laws also gave coroners the power to begin conducting autopsies.

In his gallery talk, The History of the Coroner, John Pless, M.D. will talk about the role of coroners and changes in their purpose and power through the years.

The lecture is free with the purchase of a museum admission, which is $8 for adults, $6.50 for seniors, $5 for youth ages six to 17 and free for members.

For more information call (574) 235-9664 or visit http://www.centerforhistory.org/.

The Indianapolis Symphonic Choir in Wabash
This event will take place on Friday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Honeywell Center in Wabash, Ind.

The Symphonic Choir will celebrate their 72nd season with smooth sounds of jazz, rich drama of baroque masterworks, soaring anthems, and high-energy gospel music. 

The choir will unite with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra to perform Handel’s dramatic oratorio "Israel in Egypt". Special guest soloists include Maria Jette, Steven Rickards, Christopher Cock, Kyle Ferrill and Ryan DeRyke, with Eric Stark as the Artistic Director.

At 6:45 p.m., a Musically Speaking discussion will shed light onto the composer’s genius, and the historical, musical and interpretive makings of a masterwork.

The cost for the choral performance is $18 per person. Tickets may be purchased by visiting the box office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, by calling (260) 563-1102, visiting http://www.honeywellcenter.org/, or by dialing *tix from your Centennial Wireless phone.

Spirits of Marshall County: Spectral Voices in Plymouth
This event will be held on Saturday, Oct. 25, from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Marshall County Historical Museum located at 123 N. Michigan St. in Plymouth.

Step into the past and listen to the voices of Marshall County tell about their lives and times from 1836 to 1986.  As part of the Marshall County Historical Society's 50th Anniversary celebration, the museum is hosting this special evening event. Meet some of the men and women who shaped our community. They will talk about their careers and what it was like living in Marshall County as it grew from a wilderness to the modern community we know today.

It is estimated that it will take 90 minutes to hear all the stories so visitors are encouraged to arrive at the museum between 7 and 8:30 p.m. to start the self-guided tour through the museum.

A dozen volunteers have agreed to assume the persona of a special character from Marshall County.  Each will talk from a first person perspective.

We are featuring pioneers George Thomas (Bob Shidler) and Billy Abrams (Cory Andrzejewski); businessmen Marc Lauer (Mark Gidley) and E. E. Furry (Bill Furry); museum curator Elsie Jacoby (Linda Rippy); teacher Katie Garn (Carole Sarber); stage and screen actress Lydia Knott of Tyner(Anna Liechty); Frances Mrs. “Pickle” Smith (Judy McCollough); dressmaker Julia Thompson Harsch (Phyllis Schoonover); Bremen’s Clara Dietrich (Emilie Huffman); abstracter Julia Cressner (Sharon Dotta); and fireman Dr. R. C. Stevens (Larry Starr).

The cost is $5 per person and free for children under five. Tickets may be purchased at the museum or from any historical society board member. There are a limited number of tickets for this event. 

For more information, contact the museum at (574) 936-2306 or visit http://www.mchistoricalsociety.org/.

The Bridge-Building Kennedys in Rushville
This fall business-dinner meeting of the Rush County Historical Society is open to the public and will be held on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 6 p.m. at the Benjamin Rush Middle School in Rushville.

Following the tragedy at Moscow this summer, the Moscow bridge as well as all the Rush County covered bridges have been objects of discussion and concern by many residents. Becky Webb will present an interesting slant on these discussions in her program, The Bridge-Building Kennedys: The Men, The Model and Some Memories, as she relates family stories and information about her famous ancestors. She will talk about the three generations of Kennedy men involved in the bridge building business, the history of the model housed in the museum and the personal stories associated with the family. Her program will include many pictures and artifacts from the Gowdy House Museum, as well as her personal collection.

Dinner will be catered by Lori Hoeing. A short business meeting will be conducted by President David Northam followed by the program presented by Becky Webb.

The cost for the dinner meeting is $14 for members and $16 for non-members.

Reservations are required by Oct. 31 and can be made by calling Phyllis Fecher at (765) 932-1810.

Indiana Association of Historians 2008 Thornbrough Lecture in Indianapolis
This lecture, Unrecorded History: Dramatizing the Past, will be presented by playwright and novelist Sandra C. Seaton on Friday, Nov. 14, at 4 p.m. in the Ford Salon in Robertson Hall (enter at north end of Robertson Hall – downstairs, below the Eidson-Duckwall recital room) at Butler University.

A reception will immediately follow the lecture.

Sandra Seaton’s play, The Bridge Party, won a Theodore Ward Prize for New African-American Playwrights. Her text, From the Diary of Sally Hemings, was set to music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom and has been sung at the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center and other venues. Her most recent work, Sally, a solo play about the life of Sally Hemings, premiered at the New York State Writers Institute in Albany, New York. Sandra Seaton's other plays include Do You Like Philip Roth? and The Will, a play about a black family in Tennessee during Reconstruction. Her plays have been performed in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. At Central Michigan University, she taught playwriting, fiction writing and African American literature.

The lecture is sponsored by the Indiana Association of Historians and the Department of History and Anthropology at Butler University.

For more information contact Thomas Mason at (317) 255-3042 or masonta@iupui.edu.

AASLH Performance Management Program
The AASLH Performance Management program offers a new way to conduct audience research using a proven survey instrument and data analysis designed specifically for history museums, historic houses and other history organizations. By taking part in Performance Management, your organization implements positive change based on audience wants and needs.

Through Performance Management you also gain valuable support material for strategic planning, marketing, program development and fundraising.

Registration is now open for the following 2009 Performance Management groups:

• Museum Visitor Survey Program (begins in January)
• Historic House Visitor Survey Program (begins in January)
• Civil War Museum and Historic Site Visitor Survey Program (begins in January)
• Education Survey Program (begins in August)

The program fee for AASLH member organizations is $3,500 or $4,200 for non-members. AASLH allows many organizations to pay the fee over the course of two fiscal years.

For more information visit www.aaslh.org/perfmanagement or contact Cherie Cook at cook@aaslh.org or (573) 893-5164.

The Tiffany Touch Exhibit and Program
This exhibit will be on display from Oct. 23 through Dec. 30 at the President Benjamin Harrison Home located at 1230 N. Delaware St. in Indianapolis.

The opening program will take place on Oct. 23 at 3 p.m., with tea and repast at 4 p.m. and the presentation at 4:45 p.m. Donna Climenhage, curator at the Morse Museum, will present the life and works of Louis Comfort Tiffany and exquisite Tiffany items from the museum collection. 

Reservations are required for the opening program and can be made by calling (317) 631-1888.

Tickets for the event are $60 per person and include the event and a tour of the house and exhibit. Donor tickets are $90 and include the event and tour and a special gift from Tiffany and Co. Indianapolis. Patron tickets are $120 and include the event and tour and a copy of the softbound version of Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall and a special gift from Tiffany and Co. Indianapolis.

For more information call (317) 631-1888 or visit http://www.pbhh.org/.

Athens to Warhol: 2500 Years of Art
This exhibit will open with a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 7, at the Scott County Heritage Center and Museum located at 1050 S. Main St. in Scottsburg.

This is an art exhibit of pieces ranging from ancient Greece to modern artists, including Andy Warhol. The art comes to the museum courtesy of Rob Cathcart, who has been collecting works of art for over twenty years. His collection contains over 1,000 pieces, a small portion of which will be on display at the museum. Approximately 100 pieces from Cathcart’s collection will compose the exhibit.

The cost for the reception is $20 per person. Tickets can be purchased at the museum. Proceeds from the event will go toward funding a permanent art exhibit at the museum. 

The exhibit will be on display until Nov. 22 during regular museum operating hours.

For more information call (812) 752-1050.

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional certification in museum studies, historical administration or related discipline required.
• Three years experience in collections management, museum exhibition planning and implementation, historical research or related field preferred.
• Two years experience in program presentation and coordination.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and teach historical programs and to work and communicate well with a diversity of children, adults and groups.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications and operation of various office equipment.
• Must have a valid driver's license with acceptable driving record.
• Must pass pre-employment physical and drug testing requirements.
• Must be able to lift and carry up to 25 pounds.

Museum Curator at the DuPage History Museum in Wheaton, Ill.
The Museum Curator oversees the management of the museum collection, archival materials and objects, including acquisition, preservation and exhibition of items. Provides leadership, coordination and supervision for historical exhibition and collection of management projects, especially as it relates to preservation issues.

Essential Duties:

• Work with the museum educator and other Wheaton Park District staff to complete and implement a master plan and restoration plan.
• Work with Director of Special Facilities, education supervisor and other staff to recruit and coordinate a public support group.
• Assist in securing financial support for preservation efforts and museum services.
• Effectively use and supervise all available human resources, materials, supplies and equipment.
• Assist in hiring, training, supervising and evaluating staff.
• Assist in preparing annual budget and project cost estimates concerning the museum.
• Develop and prepare reports, plans and recommendations as assigned.
• Supervise and coordinate programs and special events with the educator and volunteers of the museum.
• Coordinate research, design, fabrication, installation and upkeep of on- and off-site exhibits, including regular updates of the exhibit schedule.
• Identify inventories and maintains records of the museum.
• Plan and implement collection management.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in museum studies or related field required,
• Master's preferred.
• Five years of experience in a senior position overseeing museum operations, collections management, or related field required.
• Experience in project management preferred.
• Ability to read, comprehend and speak in English.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office and the operation of various office equipment.
• Must have a valid driver's license with acceptable driving record.
• Must pass pre-employment physical and drug testing requirements.

The salary range is $46,480 to $49,000.

To apply contact:
Wheaton Park District
1777 S. Blanchard Rd.
Wheaton, IL 60189
Phone: (630) 665-4710
Fax: (630) 510-4951
E-mail: jobs@wheatonparks.org

For more information visit http://www.wheatonparkdistrict.com/.

Part-Time Education Coordinator at the North Berrien Historical Museum in Coloma, Mich.
The Education Coordinator will develop public programming and manage all educational functions and events of NBHM under the supervision of the Director. The Education Coordinator will recruit and train volunteer docents, develop docent scripts to match changing exhibits, implement current programs and events and give tours of the museum. The Education Coordinator will also develop school programs based on Michigan curriculum standards and work to increase school attendance for the museum.

The successful candidate will have a minimum of a Bachelor's degree in education, history, museum studies or equivalent with three or more years of experience. Knowledge and experience in the planning of educational programs and activities for groups ranging from children to seniors, excellent interpersonal skills, customer service and knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel preferred.

This position is part-time hourly, approximately 20 hours per week including some weekend and evening hours.

To apply send resume, cover letter, salary requirements and three references by Oct. 24 to:
North Berrien Historical Museum
P.O. Box 207
Coloma, MI 49038


National:

Museum Director at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines
The State Historical Society of Iowa seeks a dynamic leader for the State Historical Museum, a unit of the Society. This position will balance curatorial, exhibition and education/public programming activities to maintain and enhance the standing of the State Historical Museum as the premier history museum for the State of Iowa. The Museum Director will manage and provide effective leadership for the curatorial (research and collections), conservation, registration, exhibition and education/public programming work units within the Museum.

The salary range is $58,323 to $89,710.

For complete job description and application instructions visit http://das.hre.iowa.gov/iowa.jobs.html. Search for this position in Department 259 – Cultural Affairs.

For more information call (515) 281-3218.