Monday, May 30, 2016
COLUMBUS (AP) — The living-history museum in Ohio’s capital that previously showed what life was like in the 1860s is jumping ahead three decades after its first makeover in decades.
The Columbus Dispatch reports Ohio Village visitors this season will find that life depicted there has advanced to the 1890s.
Megan Wood, director of museum and library services for the Ohio History Connection, says the organization recently completed commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, marking a perfect time for a new era at the museum. She says they’re looking to keep the experience fresh for visitors.
The change was in the works for more than a year, and the 1890s were chosen because of its parallels with modern debates about immigration, labor and civil liberties. The decade also played host to great technological advancement.
“We think today about our technological boom and how widespread communication is,” said Andrew Hall, program coordinator for the History Connection. “In a very similar vein, that’s how the people in the 1890s viewed their world. Older folks could not keep up.”
The conversion cost the History Connection about $75,000, Wood said. The village opened in 1974 and was converted into a living-history museum in 2002. It was closed except for special events from April 2003 until June 2012 as a result of budget cuts.