10th Annual Quilt Show

10^th ANNUAL QUILT SHOW, CHALLENGE, & SCAVENGER HUNT
Friday, July 18, 2014, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, July 19, 2014, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Location: Ward L. Myers Elementary School, 125 New Street, Muncy
Expanded Hours, Air-conditioned facility, convenient parking

This year we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of our annual quilt show so we have chosen “anniversary” as our 2014 challenge theme. Tin, aluminum and diamonds are the perfect gifts for a 10^th wedding anniversary and challenge entrants might have chosen one, two or all three of these for their “challenge” inspiration.

To celebrate our anniversary we will accessorize the show with wedding gowns from the Muncy Historical Society’s extensive collection. The gowns will be highlighted and exhibited throughout the Show, making this a very unique opportunity to view antique, vintage and contemporary gowns alongside our always very diverse quilt exhibition.

In keeping with our 2014 focus on the UGRR, quilters will have the opportunity to participate in a Scavenger Hunt that will take them to several locations in the Muncy community for answers and to be rewarded with a free quilt block or two. For those who complete the Hunt, their completed passport will be entered into the Grand Prize drawing.

Under the Night Sky: North Star to Freedom

UNDER THE NIGHT SKY – HALF THE PARK IS AFTER DARK
Saturday, July 5, 2014, 9 p.m.
Night Sky Location: Muncy Heritage Park & Nature Trail, 601 Pepper Street, Muncy
Free Admission (Rain or Shine); Pre-registration required by calling 570-546-5917

Life for a runaway was full of hazards. A journey to freedom meant traveling  by night, using the North Star as a guide and trying to avoid search parties. In addition to the North Star, aka the “drinking gourd,” the night sky is filled with stars and constellations that were very important to the conductors and voyagers along the UGRR.

Since most travelling was done under the cover of night, stars and other celestial objects were used as guides to direct slaves north. The park is the ideal location to explore the night sky outdoors while imagining how to navigate by recognizing these astronomical guides.

Muncy Historical Society will host its second “Under the Night Sky” event at 9 p.m. Saturday, July 5. Chris Della Piazza, an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer, will lead the night-sky viewing program at the society’s Heritage Park and Nature Trail location, 601 Pepper St., Muncy.

Pre-registration required by calling 570-546-5917

Searching for Harriet Hemings

SEARCHING FOR THE LIFE OF HARRIET HEMINGS
Catherine Kerrison, PA Humanities Council, Commonwealth Speaker
Saturday, August 2, 2014, 1 p.m.
Location: Lycoming County Historical Society, 858 W. 4^th Street, Williamsport
Co-Sponsored by the Lycoming County Genealogical Society & Lycoming County Historical Society
Free Admission 

Catherine Kerrison, PA Humanities Council, Commonwealth Speaker

Sometime in 1822 Harriet Hemings (the second of Sally Hemings’ children) left Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, boarded a stagecoach to Philadelphia and all but disappeared. Fifty years later, her brother Madison Hemings talked of Harriet passing as white. Her identity as a fugitive slave was never discovered in her lifetime. This presentation follows her childhood, weighs her apparent choices and documents the detective work to locate a woman determined to disappear from the historical record. It uses images to imagine her life at Monticello and later in Philadelphia and Washington. This exploration of Jefferson’s families—both white and black—tells a larger story of gender, race and citizenship.

Quilters Rummage Sale & Workshop

QUILTER’S RUMMAGE SALE
Saturday, July 19, 2014, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
Location: Muncy Historical Society, 40 N. Main Street, Muncy

Our third annual Quilter’s Rummage Sale will feature a wide variety of material (being sold by the pound) plus books, kits, quilter tools and other quilt-related paraphernalia. Judith Cole Youngman’s two books, the Amadeus notecards and the Society’s historic patterns will also be available.

LYCOMING LILY WORKSHOP
Saturday, July 19, 2014, 9 a.m.-Noon
Location: Muncy Historical Society, 40 N. Main Street, Muncy

This year’s workshop will be both educational and hands-on. For this workshop, Judith Cole Youngman will introduce a pattern of her own design, the Lycoming Lily, and she will help attendees plan their own quilt. The workshop fee is $20. Class size is limited and pre-registration is required. Registration forms are available by calling 570-546-5917.

Passage to Freedom: Secrets of the UGRR

“PASSAGE TO FREEDOM: SECRETS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD”
A Traveling Exhibit from the Welland Historical Museum, Welland, Ontario, Canada
September 1 – 30, 2014, Mondays through Saturdays, noon to 8 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m.
(Special appointments for student/tour groups…contact Linda Poulton, 570-546-5502)
UGRR Exhibit Location: Lycoming Mall Storefront, 300 Lycoming Mall Circle, Pennsdale/Muncy
Free Admission

“Passage to Freedom” is an exhibit that provides an opportunity to travel back to the 1800s to learn about slavery, the escape route called the Underground Railroad, and the challenges freedom seekers faced if they finally reached the “Promised Land” of Canada. In the 1850s approximately 40,000 Black refugees entered Canada from the United States, helped by such famous “conductors” as Harriet Tubman. The traveling exhibit features slave narratives; models of a slave cabin, a plantation, a safe house and transport slave bunks; interactive components; and clues to the secrets about fleeing to freedom. The exhibit is divided into three parts: 1) Slavery: stories of capture and life as a slave; 2) Escape: illustrations and narratives about the dangers of escape; signs, codes and symbols used; the messages in spiritual songs; the importance of the stars; the inventive escape methods including a box like the one used by Henry “Box” Brown to mail himself to freedom; and 3) Freedom: stories from former slaves and their descendants who found both freedom and prosperity in Canada, and those who found discrimination, racism, and even lynching in Canada.

The Exhibit consists of 22 exhibit panels, exhibit cases, a cabin diorama, games, audio and interactive components, reproduction artifacts, props, world and star maps, and a ship slave bunk exhibit.

Under the Night Sky: Astronomy 101

UNDER THE NIGHT SKY – HALF THE PARK IS AFTER DARK
Saturday, April 12, 2014, 8 p.m.
Night Sky Location: Muncy Heritage Park & Nature Trail, 601 Pepper Street, Muncy
Free Admission (Rain or Shine); Pre-registration required by calling 570-546-5917 

Life for a runaway was full of hazards. A journey to freedom meant traveling by night, using the North Star as a guide and trying to avoid search parties. In addition to the North Star, aka the “drinking gourd,” the night sky is filled with stars and constellations that were very important to the conductors and voyagers along the UGRR. Since most travelling was done under the cover of night, stars and other celestial objects were used as guides to direct slaves north. The park is the ideal location to explore the night sky outdoors while imagining how to navigate by recognizing these astronomical guides.

Underground Railroad in Quilts

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IN QUILTS
Cassandra Stancil Gunkel, PA Humanities Council, Commonwealth Speaker
Sunday, May 18, 2014, 2:00 p.m.
Location: Community Room, First United Methodist Church, 602 S. Market Street, Muncy
Free Admission

The Underground Railroad, the secret paths traveled by African Americans who escaped slavery in the South, is well documented by historians. Far more elusive is evidence that slaves used quilts as signals to guide their way to freedom. This hands-on talk and demonstration engages in the ongoing debate between historians and the public —did quilts guide escapes? Authentic 19th century quilts and modern reproductions are used to explore some of the ways in which women may have stitched their politics, history and mythology into quilt designs.

A folklorist who specializes in fiber arts, Cassandra Gunkel has studied African American quilts and textiles to document the lives of women who captured their histories and stories in their creative work.