Column: Preserving the Past, by Pat Mulso

We hope you enjoyed Eddie Cochran Weekend. A special thank you to Terry Perkins and Jerry Monson for their endless hours of work to organize the car show, cruise and concert, along with the Eddie Cochran committee and all the volunteers who helped to make the weekend a success.

We move on to our next event of the month, which is our “Fashion through the Years” style show and brunch, which will be at 9:30 a.m. June 23 in Bethany Hall at First Lutheran Church, located at 301 West Clark St., Albert Lea. Tickets are $15 and must be purchased by Friday. Tickets may be purchased at the museum, Albert Lea Convention and Visitors Bureau, Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce, Addie’s Floral and the Mary Go Round Shoppe. Brunch will be served at 9:30 a.m. and the style show is from 10 to 11 a.m. Proceeds will go to the museum’s building expansion fund. Vintage attire is optional. Please join us for a delightful journey back in time as we see styles from the 1930s to 1970s. A special thank you to the museum’s program committee for all their dedication to this project.

Then at 2 p.m. on June 24 in the lower level of the museum, the Freeborn County Historical Museum, Library & Village is excited to offer a public sampling of photos that are being scanned as the second phase of our project, “Preserving Freeborn County Photos.”

This project was funded in part or in whole with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. The museum collection of more than 25,000 photos, slides and negatives are fragile and many are one of a kind. This project will make it possible for people to view photos without actually touching them and help us to preserve and protect them for future generations. Please join us for a peek into the past of Freeborn County photos! Museum doors will open at 1:45 p.m. Please use our front entrance only due to construction.

The Freeborn County Historical Museum, Library & Village will be closed July 3 and 4 and will re-open on July 5 at 10 a.m. We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

We will be hosting a four-hour refresher, Defensive Driving Class from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. July 17. You must pre-register for the class, and the cost is $19 per person.

As you may have noticed, our museum expansion project has begun! Our fence has been moved and an orange construction fence put around the area that will house the addition. Many behind the scenes items are being done now, materials have been ordered and other details being completed and soon you will see the digging begin! Please consider making a donation to the museum’s building expansion fund so that we can not only get the building up, elevator in, but also complete the interior of our new space. You may send your donation to us at FCHM building fund, 1031 Bridge Ave., Albert Lea or stop by with your donation during our regular business hours, Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

We have now set the dates for our Salt Lake City Research Trip, they are: Oct. 7-13. Details are included in our newsletter, but if you are not a member of the museum and are interested in the trip, please call or stop by for more details. Registration closes June 28.

Save the dates! We are planning another bus trip to Overland Park in Kansas to see Marion Ross in the play “The Game’s Afoot or Holmes for the Holidays” by Ken Ludwig. It is a murder mystery/comedy. The date for the trip is Nov. 9-11. Call or stop by the museum for details.

The summer is going to fly by with all the events that are happening, please join us for an exciting summer!

 

Pat Mulso is the executive director of the Freeborn County Historical Museum in Albert Lea.