Stories from the Attic: 10 Years of Collecting
Exhibit Dates: February-December 2006
Stories From the Attic: 10 Years of Collectingwas exactly that: a town’s attic. Hundreds of objects, many never before on view, were woven into story areas focused on mill workers, African-Americans, buildings, businessmen and women, housewives, children, and soldiers. Together they tell one town’s stories—and America’s story.
Traveling through the seven story areas, visitors met interesting people, learned something about life in Laurel, and made connections to events in their own lives:
“There is to be no bad language…Do Not Talk at the same time.” In awkward, boyish handwriting a crumbling notebook brought back the strict rules some young boys living at 817 Main Street hid in a wall of the Laurel Museum.
Struggle and Success told stories of Laurel’s African American community–including an ad of the area’s first integrated apartment building. There was also the story of the struggle – and triumph of Maurice “Mike” Carey to become the first African American firefighter in Laurel.
While it’s called “A Woman’s Touch” visitors should not only think that Stories from the Attic focuses on woman as homemaker. That role, with embroidery books, hair nets and curling irons, and local women’s clubs programs donated by residents is certainly there. However, the stories of Gertrude Poe, editor of the News Leader for 40 years, and shop owners Bertha Disney, Eva McKnight and Mrs. M.B. Frotheringham remind us that working women made important contributions outside the home.
Main Street Tours explores the stores and shop owners that populated Laurel’s vibrant Main Street through the years. Visitors meet Cooks, Bealls, Gavriles, Phelps, a Shaeffer and a Lazerow, and others whose personalities populated Main Street while their stores provided its commercial heart.
Recycled buildings are not a new concept and From Trolley to Tavern told the story of the structure at 6th & Main Street that began as a small trolley station connecting Laurel to downtown Washington—and reminds us of a time when public transportation, not highways, dominated our lives. Photos documented the transition of the station into a restaurant and bar that is now Oliver’s Old Town Tavern.
Laurel’s roots are as a working class factory town, and in Mills and Workers photos, letters, diaries reminds us that factories were more than buildings – they were people’s lives and livelihood. A newspaper article about an 1855 strike reveals workers who wanted to keep a 10 hour day – when the bosses wanted to increase it to 11! A simple spindle, fire-tinged joist, pulley and reference letter connected visitors with strikes, fires and closed mills–and the devastating impact they had the jobs and wages people who worked in the community.
Veterans have donated their items to the Laurel Museum. From the Civil War through WWI and WII to the current Iraq conflict these objects, including ration books, A Desert Storm Shield, a Civil War letter, a WWII draft notice and separation from service paper tell stories of the men and women who struggled during different wartimes in A Town Serves.
Stories From the Attic: 10 Years of Collectingwas exactly that: a town’s attic. Hundreds of objects, many never before on view, were woven into story areas focused on mill workers, African-Americans, buildings, businessmen and women, housewives, children, and soldiers. Together they tell one town’s stories—and America’s story.
Traveling through the seven story areas, visitors met interesting people, learned something about life in Laurel, and made connections to events in their own lives:
“There is to be no bad language…Do Not Talk at the same time.” In awkward, boyish handwriting a crumbling notebook brought back the strict rules some young boys living at 817 Main Street hid in a wall of the Laurel Museum.
Struggle and Success told stories of Laurel’s African American community–including an ad of the area’s first integrated apartment building. There was also the story of the struggle – and triumph of Maurice “Mike” Carey to become the first African American firefighter in Laurel.
While it’s called “A Woman’s Touch” visitors should not only think that Stories from the Attic focuses on woman as homemaker. That role, with embroidery books, hair nets and curling irons, and local women’s clubs programs donated by residents is certainly there. However, the stories of Gertrude Poe, editor of the News Leader for 40 years, and shop owners Bertha Disney, Eva McKnight and Mrs. M.B. Frotheringham remind us that working women made important contributions outside the home.
Main Street Tours explores the stores and shop owners that populated Laurel’s vibrant Main Street through the years. Visitors meet Cooks, Bealls, Gavriles, Phelps, a Shaeffer and a Lazerow, and others whose personalities populated Main Street while their stores provided its commercial heart.
Recycled buildings are not a new concept and From Trolley to Tavern told the story of the structure at 6th & Main Street that began as a small trolley station connecting Laurel to downtown Washington—and reminds us of a time when public transportation, not highways, dominated our lives. Photos documented the transition of the station into a restaurant and bar that is now Oliver’s Old Town Tavern.
Laurel’s roots are as a working class factory town, and in Mills and Workers photos, letters, diaries reminds us that factories were more than buildings – they were people’s lives and livelihood. A newspaper article about an 1855 strike reveals workers who wanted to keep a 10 hour day – when the bosses wanted to increase it to 11! A simple spindle, fire-tinged joist, pulley and reference letter connected visitors with strikes, fires and closed mills–and the devastating impact they had the jobs and wages people who worked in the community.
Veterans have donated their items to the Laurel Museum. From the Civil War through WWI and WII to the current Iraq conflict these objects, including ration books, A Desert Storm Shield, a Civil War letter, a WWII draft notice and separation from service paper tell stories of the men and women who struggled during different wartimes in A Town Serves.
