The Church Basement Ladies at the Honeywell Center
Performances of this musical comedy will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Honeywell Center in Wabash.

The Church Basement Ladies is full of wacky acting and charming tunes that will have you rolling with laughter. Inspired by the books of Janet Letnes Martin and Suzanne Nelson, the performance features four distinct characters and their relationships as they organize the food and the problems of a rural Minnesota church in 1965. The characters stave off potential disasters, share and debate recipes, instruct the young, keep the Pastor on due course and thoroughly enjoy (while tolerating) each other. Any woman who has worked at a wedding reception, fund raiser, funeral or holiday dinner will identify with this mixture of happenings!

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.

Huckleberry Queen Performance in Starke County
The Starke County Historical Society’s Annual Meeting will be held on Nov. 20 at the Knox High School Cafeteria in Knox.

The carry-in meal begins at 6 p.m. (CST). Bring a covered dish and your table service; we will furnish beverages.

If you can't come for the meal, come at 6:45 for the short business meeting and see the Huckleberry Queen. The Huckleberry Queen, the legendary ruler of the huckleberry marshes around the Koontz Lake area in the late 1800s, will be portrayed by Anna Liechty of Plymouth. Rave reviews have been reported from her many performances in Northern Indiana.

Shortly after the Civil War in the 1870s it was reported that as many as 5000 people would come to the Koontz Lake area during the huckleberry season and pick berries. The huckleberry marsh was about 2000 acres in size and extended into the counties of Starke, St. Joseph and Marshall. The stories and legends of the Huckleberry Queen can be viewed at http://www.scpl.lib.in.us/historical/scpl_files/Page470.htm.

For more information call (574) 772-5393.

A Copshaholm Christmas Carol at the Center for History in South Bend
This event will be held on Sunday, Nov. 23, and Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Oliver Mansion in South Bend.

"Charles Dickens" will greet guests at the front door of the Oliver Mansion at the Center for History’s annual holiday specialty tours. This year, over 20 performers will bring the 38-room mansion to life, portraying Oliver family members in three Christmases: past, present and future.

It is Christmas Past–1897–in the rooms on Copshaholm’s second floor. Here, visitors can hear conversations of "James Oliver" and his son, "J.D.," along with J.D.’s young son, "James II," as they talk of traveling into Chicago over the holiday. They also meet the Oliver daughters as young children. On the next floor, the year becomes 1917 for Christmas Present, and visitors find the Oliver daughters as young adults, preparing to leave for a holiday concert at the Oliver Opera House. Traveling to yet another floor, the year is 1937–Christmas Yet-To-Come–and visitors see J.D.’s wife, "Anna," and their two daughters as they reflect upon their lives and talk of things to come.

The specialty tours add a colorful component to Copshaholm, beautifully decorated for the winter holidays. A ten-foot silver Christmas tree in the ball room is festooned with ornaments. Mistletoe, holly and garlands of greenery drape fireplace mantels and stairways, and Victorian-style trees in other areas of the house complete the holiday decorations.

Tours leave every five minutes, with the first tour leaving at 12:30 p.m. Doors open at noon.

Tickets are limited, and the museum encourages guests to arrive early. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for youth ages six to 17 and $5 for Center for History members.

From Nov. 24 through Jan. 4, 2009, the decorated Copshaholm can also be seen on regular guided tours, which are offered at 11 a.m., 1 and 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 1 and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Performers are not part of these tours.

For information, contact the Center for History at (574) 235-9664 or visit http://www.centerforhistory.org/.

Annual Christmas Home Tour in Greentown
The Greentown Historical Society will sponsor this annual tour on Sunday, Dec. 7, from 2 to 7 p.m. in Greentown.

The cost is $8 for adults in advance or $10 at the door, $5 for youth ages 12 to 18 and free for children under 12.

Tickets are available at the History Center in the Greentown Antique Mall located at 115 E. Main in Greentown.

Homes on the tour include:

• The home of Larry and Barbara Hensler at 3828 N. County Rd. 700 E.
• The home of Kent and Bev Evans at 7557 E. County Rd. 500 N.
• The home of Rebecca Jarrett at 302 S. Meridian St.
• The home of Colleen Ladd at 219 S. Meridian St.
• The home of Lamoine and Sue Clouser at 10012 E. County Rd. 400 S.
• The Greentown History Center at 103 E. Main St.

For more information contact Sally Imbler at (765) 628-7174 or Jean Simpson at (765) 628-7674.

Live: Family Christmas at the President’s Home at the President Benjamin Harrison Home
This event will be held on Saturday, Dec. 13, every half hour from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the President Benjamin Harrison Home in Indianapolis.

The cost is $9 for adults and $4 for children ages five to 17.

Bring the family for a unique Christmas tour of the President Benjamin Harrison Home.  The year is 1888. President Harrison, some of the family from Ohio and the household staff will be "home for the holidays" talking about the excitement of Christmas Day and personally offering their good wishes to you and yours for the holidays.

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

Tea with Mrs. Claus at the Scott County Heritage Center and Museum
Mrs. Claus will be hosting an afternoon tea at the Scott County Heritage Center and Museum on Saturday, Dec. 13, from 1 to 3 p.m. 

In addition to serving tea and cookies, Mrs. Claus will share holiday stories and provide some pointers on tea etiquette. She has requested that those in attendance wear their holiday best and that ladies and girls wear their prettiest hats. Hot chocolate or fruit punch will be available for those who prefer something other than tea.

Tickets are $5.00 per person and are available at the museum through Dec. 5. 

Seating is limited, so please call for availability. Children should be accompanied by an adult. For additional information about the event, please contact Executive Director Jeremy Risen or Assistant Director Jeannie Abbot at (812) 752-1050.

Upcoming Events at the Decatur County Historical Society Museum
The following events will be held at the Decatur County Historical Society Museum located at 222 N. Franklin St. in Greensburg unless otherwise noted.

• Christmas Open House
  This event will be held on Dec. 14, 2008, at 1 p.m.
  
• Annual Business Meeting
  This event will be held on Feb. 5, 2009, at 4:30 p.m.
  
• 5th Sundays in the Sesquicentennial Year Concerts
  Each of the following concerts will be held at the Presbyterian Church at 2:30 p.m.
  
  • March 29, 2009: Greensburg Junior High School Music Ensemble, Clabbergirls Kitchen Band            
  • May 31, 2009: The Mossburg Strings, featuring five children from one family on violins
  • Aug. 30, 2009: Carolyn H. Cleland on the harp                           
  • Nov. 29, 2009: The Murrays with slow waltz music on trumpet and piano               
    

For more information contact the Decatur County Historical Society at (812) 663-2764 or dechissoc@etczone.com.

If you have not already applied for the Bookshelf, mark your calendars and prepare your answers to the twelve easy questions on the application. You do not want to miss out on this opportunity to receive these conservation and preservation publications. The publications that make up the Bookshelf were recommended by a committee of the best in our field as the reference material all of us, as our nation's collection custodians, need to have at our fingertips.

The application will be on the AASLH Web site at www.aaslh.org/Bookshelf. Also on this Web page is a bibliography for the Bookshelf, the user's guide and the application questions. Print these out and have your answers ready to enter on the morning of Jan. 5. This may be the last opportunity to receive these free publications.

If you have any questions, please contact Terry Jackson, project coordinator, at jackson@aaslh.org.

Attack of the Moth Larvae: Preserving Family Textiles Conservation Clinic
This event will be held on Friday, Nov. 21, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center.

The clinic is free to the public, but seating is limited to the first 15 participants.

Join the IHS Conservation team on the third Friday of each month this fall as they conduct 30-minute lessons on how to preserve family treasures in the History Lab.

For more information on these events visit http://www.indianahistory.org/ or call (800) 447-1830.

DNR 2008 Indiana Historic Preservation Awards
The presentations of these awards were made by the DNR Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology at the Cornelius O’Brien Conference on Historic Preservation-Indiana Main Street annual meeting in Bloomington on Oct. 17.

• U.S. Postal Service Stewardship Award
  On Oct. 13, 1934, the U. S. Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and Sculpture was established. The mission of “the Section" was to “secure suitable art of the best quality for the embellishment of public buildings.”  Renamed the Section of Fine Arts in 1939, the Section existed until June 1943. During its nine-year life, the Section employed nearly 850 artists and commissioned 1,371 murals and more than 300 pieces of sculpture around the country for federal buildings, most of which were installed in post offices.
  
  Funding for the art was established by allocating up to 1 percent of a new building’s cost to artistic development. That formula resulted in an average budget of $600 for art.
  In Indiana, 37 post office murals were commissioned between 1936 and 1942, as a result of this program; 36 still exist. During the past 10 years, at least 17 of the murals have been restored to their original condition under stewardship administered by the USPS's federal preservation officer. Working with PARMA Conservation, headquartered in Chicago, the postal service has given new life to these parts of Indiana’s cultural legacy.
  
  
• Grants Award for Outstanding Rehabilitation and Stewardship
  The Queen Anne-style Jay House in Marion was built in 1888 by Abijah C. Jay, who was a prominent local citizen, serving two terms as a Grant County Commissioner, as well as serving on the city council and school board. As president of the school board, he was instrumental in obtaining Carnegie funding to build a permanent home for the Marion Public Library, a fact that makes it fitting that the Marion Public Library would be responsible for saving and preserving his home.
  
  When the house was acquired by the library in 1990, the initial intention was demolition to create parking. But after learning more about the house and its history, the library pursued a reuse option. The house was listed in the National Register in January 2003. The library has received three grants from the DHPA to rehabilitate major portions of the exterior.
  
  
• Stewardship of Archaeological Resources Award
  This award was given for the preservation of land containing the Collier Lodge Site (Porter County) and for the continued support of, and community involvement in, archaeological research and investigations at this important site on privately owned property in the northwest portion of Indiana. The landowners, John and Mary Hodson, as well as the Kankakee Valley Historical Society, were recognized for an important public archaeology project that has brought together professionals, students, volunteers and many others.
  
  These few acres in Porter County have been used for thousands of years. The site served as a gathering place for prehistoric natives, pioneer ferry crossings, mills, hunting lodges and now as an educational setting for archaeological research and outreach. The project is a public archaeology project that brings together professionals, students and volunteers from the Kankakee Valley Historical Society. The landowners have offered their private property for investigations, interpretation and preservation.
  
  
• Historic Rehabilitation Achievement Award
  Each year, the DHPA administers more than 30 Certified Historic Preservation Investment Tax Credit projects. These projects help bring vitality back to historic buildings. This year's award went recognized the work of Indiana LaCasa of Goshen, Inc., for restorations of the Lincoln Hotel (ca. 1890) and Shoots Building (ca. 1880), located in the National Register of Historic Places Goshen Historic District. Both buildings will become housing units and will help to revitalize historic downtown Goshen.
  
  
• Section 106 Achievement Award
  The Indiana Department of Transportation excavated and relocated, in its entirety, the Wright-Whitesell-Gentry Cemetery. The cemetery was originally located just feet from the I-69/I-465 interchange on the northeast side of Indianapolis. Cemetery relocations for road projects are extremely rare and not undertaken lightly; however, this cemetery’s close proximity to one of the state’s most heavily traveled interchanges made relocation unavoidable.
  
  In June, the WWG Cemetery was completely restored and recreated in the tranquil Pioneer Section of Indianapolis’ Crown Hill Cemetery—complete with a monument listing the cemetery’s history and the names of the interred.  INDOT recreated the cemetery so that individuals originally buried together were re-interred together, within the same relative distance and orientation. The cemetery restoration experts also restored the gravestones to prolong the life of the stones and make the inscriptions easier to read.
  
  
• 2008 Hoosier Preservationist Award - Amos Schwartz
  Started in 1999, this award recognizes local Hoosier advocates of historic preservation. This is the highest honor given by the Indiana State Historic Preservation Office.
  For decades, Amos Schwartz of Geneva (Adams County) has been Indiana's go-to individual for restoration contracting involving timber and log construction. Beginning at least as far back as the 1960s, he has worked on many state properties and private projects, including the Laurel Feeder dam, Whitewater Canal lock gates and Aqueduct at Duck Creek, the Harmonist Cemetery Wall, the Leavenworth Hay Press, and many log cabins and covered bridges.
  
  In the recent past he has been contracted to work on several Historic Preservation Fund grants (a federal grant program administered by the DHPA) and Hometown Indiana grants (a state grant program administered by the DHPA) and assisted with other projects, including restoration of the entire Lincoln Pioneer Village at Rockport and the Boxley Cabin in Sheridan.
  

Upcoming Exhibits at the Decatur County Historical Society Museum
These exhibits will be held at the Decatur County Historical Society Museum located at 222 N. Franklin St. in Greensburg.

2008 Exhibits:

• Mingle with Kringle will be on display Dec. 6 through 28, featuring historic Christmas decorations in the museum.
• Lionel Christmas Trains will be on display Dec. 13 through 21 in the gallery.

2009 Exhibits:

• Tip of the Hat will be on display January through May in the textile exhibit room.
• Greensburg History in Photographs, Artifacts and Documents: Sesquicentennial Exhibit will be on display January through June in the gallery.
• Weddings will be featured June through October in the museum and in the textile exhibit room.
• Lincoln in Greensburg and the Civil War in Decatur County will be featured July through November in the gallery.

For more information contact the Decatur County Historical Society at (812) 663-2764 or dechissoc@etczone.com.

2008 Annual Meeting Plenary and Select Sessions Available Online
Were you unable to attend the annual meeting in Rochester? Did you attend the meeting but miss a session or want to hear a speaker again? AASLH has posted the plenary address by Lynn Sherr along with select sessions from the conference for you to download.

To download the audio files, go to www.aaslh.org/2008-annualmeeting.htm. You can also access the annual meeting blog which will let you read what your colleagues were thinking as the meeting took place. Make plans now to attend the 2009 annual meeting scheduled for Aug. 26 through 29 in Indianapolis, and learn about Making History a 21st-Century Enterprise!