Wistariahurst Museum

Victorian Era Days

Explore the Victorian Era through hands on activities, primary source documents and artifacts from the Wistariahurst Museum collection. Scouts will have the opportunity to explore Victorian Era past-times including needlepoint and parlor games, Victorian dining and etiquette, Victorian clothing, education in the Victorian Era, writing with a dip pen, the roll of calling cards and more. Visitors travel in groups of up to ten in six, twenty-minute segments.

Architecture

Wistariahurst Museum evolved to its current state over two generations of the Skinner family. Overtime the architecture was influenced by many new ideas and one can see evidence of many architectural styles. Girls will tour the house looking for architectural details and create a notebook filled with their favorite architectural ideas. Then they will work with the original blueprints to see how architects design homes. Each girl will create a blueprint, design a garden and assist in a restoration project at Wistariahurst.

Textile Arts

Wistariahurst Museum was home to silk manufacturer William Skinner.  Come tour the home and explore the textile arts and silk production.  Girls will create a book of fabric samples, learn hand and loom weaving techniques, complete a small quilting project, and create activity cards of the projects to share with others.  In addition, scouts will meet a local artisan and make their own crafts.  Finally, we will discuss how historians and preservationists approach textiles and the skills and education required to work in that field.

My Heritage

Learn about your heritage! Scouts will learn ways to trace their family history, find out what characteristics make up one’s identity, play fun new games, and take part in activities that relate to what their ancestors experienced.

Music

Wistariahurst Museum features a music room designed to hold the antique instrument collection of Belle Skinner.  What a fabulous and beautiful space to come and explore music with your junior girl scouts.  After touring the house, scouts will meet to complete five activities to fulfill the requirements for the Music Badge.  Activities include listening to and learning about different types of music and making your own simple rhythm instrument. 

We are continually providing our local educators with professional development workshops, curriculum resources and primary source documents.

Lectures In an effort to provide engaging and exciting ways to connect the museum with your classroom, we offer alternatives to the basic field trip.  One such alternative is a lecture where a museum representative will come directly to your classroom to speak about a particular subject utilizing photos and artifacts.  If you can’t come to the museum, bring the museum to you!

• The Skinner Family:  This lecture discusses the history of the Skinner family, who built Wistariahurst, and their place and standing within Holyoke. In covering the history of the family, the lecture also discusses the history of Holyoke, of its industrial growth, of the silk manufacturing business, and trends in social and cultural history.  Such broad themes become more relevant as they are related to the story behind this particular house and family.
• Immigration and Migration to Holyoke: This lecture focuses on the immigrant and migrant history of Holyoke, a city shaped by its immigrant population.  The lecture covers many different populations, from the Irish laborers who dug the canal system by hand, to the young men & women from all throughout Europe, French Canada (and later Puerto Rico and elsewhere) who worked in the mills.  Students will learn about the immigrants’ long journey to America , their experience here, and the ways in which they affected Holyoke’s History.  This local story is a great way to learn about general themes of immigration and migration.
• Industrial History of Holyoke: This lecture not only discusses the rise of industrial Holyoke and the products produced therein, but also the cultural and social climate that helped stimulate this growth.  It covers the part that immigrants and migrants played in the rise of factories and industries, and their experiences as part of these institutions.  It also discusses the change of products produced in Holyoke over time, including such items as paper and textiles.  This lecture gives a local perspective on the industrial revolution, while also touching upon immigration and migration.   
• Women Through Time: This lecture discusses the development of women’s place in society from the early 19th century through World War II.  Several types of women are covered, from agricultural women, to domestics, to factory workers, to leisured women, to liberated women.  A closer look at Belle Skinner, the daughter of the founder of Skinner & Sons Silk Manufacturing, William Skinner, reveals an archetype of a woman torn between Victorian ideals and progressive ideas about the New Woman.  This provides an excellent overview of women’s history from the 19th century through the mid 20th century.
• Lectures usually last about 45 minutes to an hour and cost $75.  We also ask that you contact us at least two weeks in advance.  However, we would like to be as accommodating as possible, so please feel free to discuss other options with us.  Please call us at 413-322-5660.

Classroom Kits  As part of its effort to provide engaging and effective educational programs for students, Wistariahurst Museum offers Classroom Kits so that educators may bring pieces of the museum to the classroom.  Kits include Industrial Revolution, Silk and Using Primary Sources in the Classroom. Download the guidelines here. For more information, please call 413-322-5660.

Preserving your Documents and Photographs
Photographs are wonderful, mysterious things. Yet we have become so accustomed to them that we take them for granted. With every picture you take, you are freezing a moment in time. If we want to be able to enjoy those moments far into the future, we need to take some care in the handling and storage of those images. If we have family photos handed down from earlier generations, we have a responsibility to future generations to pass them on in as good condition as possible. Proper preservation of papers and other documents that make up a family history collection are equally as important as photos. They just tell us different information. These papers could be printouts from your computer, newspaper clippings, birth/death/marriage certificates, old report cards, mom's love letters, etc. A little bit of care is all that is needed and you'll greatly increase a document's longevity. After all, we want them to last so our descendants can enjoy them. Cost is $10.

Preserving your Heirlooms
There are several types of objects that need to be treated in different ways, depending on what material they are made of, to best preserve them. Though objects may not directly relate to our heritage, they do often have sentimental value that we wish to pass down to future generations. Cost is $10.

Preserving your Textiles
Textiles can be simple in structure and composition, or they can be composite objects incorporating materials like quills, beads, paints, bones, feathers and leather. Caring for textiles can be equally simple, if you know some basic facts. The deterioration of textiles is largely chemical: light, temperature, humidity, dust and pests have extreme affects on textiles. Cost is $10.