“Lovely”- A Tribute to Women through the Ages
What used to be the nursery in the May Stringer House back in the late 1800’s is now dedicated to the Bill Rosst Special Exhibit Gallery.
“We change out what we had (previously displayed) and we are pertaining to more of the home itself. Our exhibits are going to be, hopefully more around the home interest and things of that nature,” Sharon Balser said. Sharon has been a Docent for the museum for about four years.
From July to the end of August the museum is exhibiting, “Lovely”- A Tribute to Women through the Ages. The room has two showcases and items displayed on the wall focusing on women clothing accessories as far back as the 1800’s. These are items that would have been used and or worn during that time.
“This is an example of what the “Lady” of the plantation or “Lady” of the home looked like. She was not a laborer; she would have the nice pretty clothes, ” Sharon said as she points to the dress on display.
If you could imagine what it was like living in the May-Stringer house or even back in the late 1800’s with no air conditioning and other amenities, wearing layers of clothing in the Florida heat, it would be unbearable, but our grandmothers and great grandmothers did it.
“A lot young people probably don’t remember their great grandparents and how they looked, our young people know… us modern grandmothers,” Sharon said.
And wearing those tightly laced up corsets as well as metal hoop skirts; it would have been exhausting for women…hence the fainting posts, fainting chairs and smelling salts!
Clothing and fashion accessories are trends as well as hair styles. They come and go throughout generations, however there were some beautiful styles that are now used as period dress for events.
“I think we need to go back in time, to see what our forefathers have done for us. And to clock the progress and to have respect and find out where the ingenuity has come from. It didn’t happen today, this ingenuity in this jewelry here came back a long time ago. And what we have done with everything we did know or do have, we have been able to embellish. It’s nice to know where those thoughts have stemmed from. You would not have been able to advance not knowing that back history,” Sharon explained.
Items that are showcased in the “Lovely”- A Tribute to Women through the Ages were items from the museum collection and haven’t been on display for years. Now the items have been dusted off and are available for the public to view.
“The dresses are very, very old and they can’t be on display for long but they are beautiful and need to be seen. The photographs, I was cleaning out some things and organizing in the office and I found all those beautiful portraits. That was the inspiration for the room,” Museum curator Morgan Trapnell said.
The museum exhibit changes quarterly through the year. Bill Rosst’s Mayan Exhibit will is a permanent display January through April. There is a Summer exhibit every year and the most interesting exhibit to say the least is the Victorian Oddities.
“Starting September 1st we will be running a Victorian Oddities exhibit, different Victorian mourning clothing, jewelry, some of the customs, some of the darker creepier side of the Victorian era. That is to gear up for our biggest fundraiser of the year, which is our annual haunted house in October,” Morgan said.
The museum is also tailoring the tours to peek the interest of our youth. “The younger generation is interested, if we are providing that information for them, if you give them a way that it is interesting. With the teenage girl’s tours during the week, I talk about some of the customs in courting and dating because it is so different,” Morgan said.
This exhibit and the upcoming events are building a new connection for Brooksville, with newer volunteers as young as 12 years old.
“The reason that we are doing the exhibits is to have an area of special focus to help market the different aspects of the museum, to try to appeal to a different population of the community across the board, different collectors,” Morgan said.
Morgan Trapnell has been involved with the museum since 2013 and moved her family just to be a part of May-Stringer house. She stated once she stepped into the house she fell in love.
“There are so many great things that are changes and new things coming up. We just want to make sure people are aware of what we are and who we are. It’s constantly changing,” Morgan said. “I think the more community involvement we get the longer that house is going to stand.”
Do you have an interesting collection or item to add for the “Lovely”- A Tribute to Women through the Ages” exhibit? The museum welcomes donations to their museum collection from the public. Any item gifted to the museum is researched, catalogued and put on display. For privately owned collections that are loaned to the museum, a special exhibit will be reviewed on a case by case basis.
The Museum admission is $5 per adult and $2 for children. Guided tours of the museum are provided Tuesday through Saturday, beginning at 12 noon, with the last tour at 2:30.
Hernando Historical Museum | 601 Museum Ct., Brooksville, FL 34601 | Phone: 352-799-0129