BRENHAM HERITAGE MUSEUM TO ADD FIVE NEW PERMANENT EXHIBITS

  

The Brenham Heritage Museum plans to significantly add to its collection of permanent exhibits this year.

According to a press release, the museum board voted this week to fund five major, state-of-the-art, interactive pieces that are described as “vital to the mission of telling the history of Brenham and Washington County.” 

The first four segments of the museum’s timeline will go in, along with a kiosk on the Reconstruction era following the Civil War.  The timeline segments cover Washington County’s role in the Texas Revolution, the Republic of Texas, early statehood and the Civil War.

The new additions are part of the long-term master plan led by Core Design Studio and historian Mike Vance, who formerly served as the museum’s executive director and continues to supply content for permanent exhibits.

The museum is actively looking to engage anyone in the Washington County community who might be willing to donate artifacts related to the time periods covered by the new exhibits.  Items connected to the Texas Revolution or Civil War as it pertains to Washington County are of particular interest, as are artifacts connected to the Republic of Texas or the early decades of Texas statehood. 

Donors of artifacts chosen for display will be acknowledged in each item’s captions, and donations may be tax-deductible.

Vance says the timeline will eventually encircle the largest space in the museum and include numerous images, artifacts, touchscreens and entries enumerating high points of Washington County history.  Meanwhile, the Reconstruction kiosk being added to the main floor will tell the stories of the great hope of Emancipation and the reintroduction of Confederates into U.S. citizenship. 

The centerpiece of the kiosk will be a copy of the Brenham Inquirer newspaper from July 1865, the first local paper printed after the Civil War and the first Washington County announcement that slavery had ended.

Fundraising continues to support the remainder of the exhibits, and a specific campaign for the Reconstruction kiosk is underway.  To learn more, or to donate, go to www.brenhamheritagemuseum.org.