Stories from the Attic: Rebecca Lodge Ledgers
Stories From The Attic:
Rebecca Lodge LedgersExhibit Dates: February-December 2007.
Note: Select Items Continue on Exhibit in the Laurel Gallery.
The Rebecca Lodge Ledgers expanded the “Struggles and Success” section of the successful 2007 Stories from the Attic exhibit. For the first time, all five early 20th Century minute and ledger books from the African-American Rebecca Lodge were on display at the Laurel Museum. This collection included the ledgers, and a number of additional documents found inside them.
Struggles and Success focused on stories of Laurel area’s African American Community, and included photos of the first Black school house, the story of Maurice “Mike” Carey, the first African-American Fireman, letters suggesting the location of an African-American cemetery, an ad from the first integrated apartment in town, and other photos and documents noting the realities segregation There was information on the local Negro League baseball team, and on Laurel’s traditional Emancipation Day Parade.
The Rebecca Lodge materials included minutes of meetings, membership lists, and accounts 1892-1920. One letter, dated June 16, 1911, to a Mr. Joseph Conway invites members of Rebecca Lodge # 6 to attend a sermon at St. Marks Church in Laurel, given by Rev. W.S. Hughes. Rev. Hughes was one of St. Mark’s founders. There is an 1892 notation of four funerals running between $33.00-$34.00. February 20, 1913 the lodge minutes record that Miss Josephine Harrison had been investigated and “found her legal to become a member of the lodge...”
The materials were given to the Museum by a couple who found them abandoned in a deteriorating building in the Muirkirk area of Laurel.
The Stories from the Attic exhibit weaved objects and stories about Laurel into seven story areas. In addition to Struggle and Success” they included “Main Street Stories”, “Mills & Workers”, “From Trolley to Tavern” “A Town Serves,” “Childhood Memories,” “A Woman’s Touch”. Together they tell the story of life in one small town: Laurel Maryland. But in the telling they also reveal important elements of America’s story for the past 195 years. Stories from the Attic originally opened in February 2006.
Rebecca Lodge LedgersExhibit Dates: February-December 2007.
Note: Select Items Continue on Exhibit in the Laurel Gallery.
The Rebecca Lodge Ledgers expanded the “Struggles and Success” section of the successful 2007 Stories from the Attic exhibit. For the first time, all five early 20th Century minute and ledger books from the African-American Rebecca Lodge were on display at the Laurel Museum. This collection included the ledgers, and a number of additional documents found inside them.
Struggles and Success focused on stories of Laurel area’s African American Community, and included photos of the first Black school house, the story of Maurice “Mike” Carey, the first African-American Fireman, letters suggesting the location of an African-American cemetery, an ad from the first integrated apartment in town, and other photos and documents noting the realities segregation There was information on the local Negro League baseball team, and on Laurel’s traditional Emancipation Day Parade.
The Rebecca Lodge materials included minutes of meetings, membership lists, and accounts 1892-1920. One letter, dated June 16, 1911, to a Mr. Joseph Conway invites members of Rebecca Lodge # 6 to attend a sermon at St. Marks Church in Laurel, given by Rev. W.S. Hughes. Rev. Hughes was one of St. Mark’s founders. There is an 1892 notation of four funerals running between $33.00-$34.00. February 20, 1913 the lodge minutes record that Miss Josephine Harrison had been investigated and “found her legal to become a member of the lodge...”
The materials were given to the Museum by a couple who found them abandoned in a deteriorating building in the Muirkirk area of Laurel.
The Stories from the Attic exhibit weaved objects and stories about Laurel into seven story areas. In addition to Struggle and Success” they included “Main Street Stories”, “Mills & Workers”, “From Trolley to Tavern” “A Town Serves,” “Childhood Memories,” “A Woman’s Touch”. Together they tell the story of life in one small town: Laurel Maryland. But in the telling they also reveal important elements of America’s story for the past 195 years. Stories from the Attic originally opened in February 2006.
