The Museums of Tusculum College will soon give home-school students an opportunity to experience what it would be like to be a youngster in the 19th century.
The museums will host “Toys and Games of the 19th Century” a home-school day tour from 10 a.m. to noon on Thursday, May 28. The event for both children and their parents will take place at the Doak House Museum, the 19th century home of the Rev. Samuel Witherspoon Doak, co-founder of Tusculum College.
Children will have the opportunity to explore toys with which the Doak family’s children would have played in the 1800s. Youngsters will paint with marbles, make a marble mat, and learn what a “hooey stick” is. They will also play with checkers, Jacob’s ladders and marbles.
Admission is $5 for all children. One parent is admitted free per household with an admission of $2.50 per additional parent.
For more information or to make reservations, please call 423-636-8554. The reservation deadline is May 22.
The Doak House Museum and the President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library are administered by the Tusculum College Department of Museum Program and Studies under the direction of George Collins, director of Museum Program and Studies, and Cindy Lucas, associate director of the department and director of the Doak House Museum. The department also offers one of the few undergraduate degree programs in museum studies in the country.
The Doak House Museum hosted more than 10,000 school children from East Tennessee last year for a variety of educational programs related to the 19th century and CHARACTER COUNTS! The Andrew Johnson Museum, located in the oldest academic building on campus, houses a collection of books, papers and memorabilia of the 17th president of the United States. The museum also houses the Charles Coffin Collection from the original college library and the College archives containing documents related to the history of Tusculum. The museums are also two of the 10 structures on the Tusculum campus on the National Register of Historic Places.