QHC to Hold Birthday Party Sept. 24
As Ruth Brindle selected pieces to feature in the Meriam R. Hare Quaker Heritage Center’s 10-year retrospective exhibit, she saw faces of students with each artifact and museum piece she pulled from storage.
The QHC’s curator recalled the students that researched this or that piece, wrote the description for these displayed items or designed the presentation for a particular exhibit. It was a telling moment that brought to life the Quaker Heritage Center’s first decade in a way she hadn’t expected when first planning the exhibit that runs through Dec. 11.
Normal gallery hours are weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
(ABOVE) Quaker Heritage Center curator Ruth Brindle stands in front of pieces of the "Quakers in Advertising" exhibit in which advertisers tended to associate "Quaker" in the name of products with integrity, honestly and quality workmanship.
The QHC is holding a “birthday party” Thursday (Sept. 24), at 7:30 p.m., complete with cake and party hats, in addition to games in the gallery and behind-the-scenes tours of collections storage. Then, on Sept. 26, from noon to 5 p.m., the QHC will participate in Smithsonian magazine’s 11th annual Museum Day Live! event with family games and tours.
“I can’t believe it’s been 10 years!” she said. “The thing that comes back to me the most is the number of students that have been touched by this place and the hands-on learning opportunities it’s provided.”
Brindle spoke about students working with collection management and inventory details, as well as internships involving design, writing, research and actually producing visible pieces.
That says a lot about why I feel this place is important,” she said. “This is a museum on a college campus, but it really is a teaching and learning facility. It’s not just for history students, but also those in such areas as education, English, fine arts and graphic design.”
Brindle said the QHC’s greatest “fan club” is comprised of area Quakers. Those Friends revel in a center whose broader mission is sharing the story of Quakers in Ohio, America and the world.
“As we’ve built the center and built a solid reputation in the Quaker community, the trust that families and individuals have placed in the center is inspiring,” she said, noting that their interest far exceeds merely attending events at the QHC, but also how willing they are to loan artifacts of their family history.
“The community trusts this place with their valuable items — these are powerful objects that tell amazing stories.”
Also, the center has developed strong relationships with regional and national organizations such as Friends United Meeting, which had its triennial gathering on campus in 2011, and Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Quaker lobbying organization that regularly features the QHC’s traveling exhibits in its Washington DC offices.
The center’s reputation exceeds well beyond the Friends community as evidenced by recognition from the “greater museum world” and the support it’s received from such entities as the Ohio Humanities Council and Ohio Local History Alliance.
Brindle said the retrospective in the gallery features pieces from some of her favorite exhibits of the past decade, including items from the “visually cool” Quaker advertising display, the “Quaker Involvement in the Civil Rights Movement,” the “Bridges of Friendship” exhibit that brought the famous Ellen C doll from Japan and last year’s World War I exhibit with spin-off programs highlighting music, poetry and local Quaker and non-Quaker perspectives of the Great War.
“For a place that’s only 10 years old, we’ve told a lot of amazing stories, built a solid reputation and made a lot of progress.”
