Press Release

 

For further information contact Mary Chrastil, 260-982-0672, or nmhistory@cinergymetro.net

 

 

FunFest Activities at Center for History

 

The North Manchester Center for History is open to the public with free admission during North Manchester’s FunFest by the River.  Free admission is available Friday, August 8, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday, August 9, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

 

Stop by to see the regular exhibits of the award-winning Center for History and the new façade on the first floor.  New window exhibits are on display, along with a special display of photographs celebrating Timbercrest’s 125th anniversary.  A newly restored painting by Logansport artist Wilson Beery is also on display.  It depicts a raft on the Wabash River, near the spot where the Eel empties into the Wabash. 

 

The Center for History hosts travelling exhibits from the Indiana Historical Society three times each year.  During FunFest and weekdays through August 28, the exhibit Auto Indiana will be on display.  It covers inventors and innovators like Elwood Haynes and Ralph Teetor, automakers like Studebaker and Duesenberg, and the ties between automobiles and the development of many other related industries such as the iron, steel and glass businesses. It also explores how the automobile became part of American Dream and popular culture, from movies to making personal memories.

 

On Saturday, August 9, Carol Miller will read her new children’s book, Tuffy and His Funny Farm Animal Stories, about the farm pets Miller had as a child, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.  Miller will autograph any books sold during FunFest.  Miller grew up on a farm north of North Manchester where four generations of her family collected farm equipment and artifacts.  They gave their collection of over 1,200 items to the Center for History in 2009.  The collection is on display at the Center for History.

 

The Center for History will also host the continuous showing of three videos, The Building of the Peabody Mansion, the perennially popular See Yourself in the Movies 1938, and the Moving of the Thomas Marshall House.

 

On Saturday, August 9, the Thomas Marshall House will also be open to the public with free admission.  The Marshall House, located on Market Street next to the library, is the birthplace of Thomas R. Marshall, Indiana Governor and Vice President of the United States.  It has been restored to its original 1854 condition, and is furnished with artifacts of that period.  Docents will provide tours and answer questions about the Marshall family.