Whitehead Museum: Educators' 'common ground'

August 5, 2006By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

To understand life, you have to construct it. And you construct it out of the lumber of the past.

-- Lewis Lapham, editor, Harpers Magazine

Among the numerous and diverse educational systems in Val Verde County and the City of Del Rio, one landmark stands out as a kids’ magnet.

The Whitehead Memorial Museum, 1308 S. Main St., is the common ground, the classroom-beyond-the-walls, visited by every school in the county and the surrounding region.

Museum Director Lee Lincoln is also proud of her international audience. “Just since last October, we’ve had visitors from Canada, Mexico, Holland, France, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Australia, England and Ireland, and from 46 states in this country,” Lincoln said.

The museum was established in 1962 with a donation of the historic Perry Store from the Whitehead ranching family. The old limestone building is now a prominent centerpiece on the corner of the museum’s two acres of tree-shaded grounds.

Students swarm the museum from the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District, the Comstock Independent School District, Saint James Episcopal School, Sacred Heart Catholic School, homeschooling families, and numerous day care centers in the area.

"Children learn here by touching, feeling, seeing and doing," Lincoln said, introducing the agenda of hands-on events hosted by the museum each year. She estimates her total visitation at 10,000 a year, but it’s the school kids, her foreign visitors and youth groups that get her going in the morning.

"Yes, sir, they’re what keeps me so young and debonair," Lincoln laughed.

Though school groups arrive at the museum’s gates, frequently unannounced, Lincoln focused on two major annual events: Dinosaur Days and the Archeology Fair.

The weekend Fair, hosted by the museum and coordinated by the National Park Service, begins on October 27 this year, a Friday reserved for school groups only, and continues through Saturday when everyone is invited.

Last year 1,000 students, divided into four sessions, were transported from area schools to the event that nearly covers the grounds of the Whitehead Memorial Museum. The next day, about 850 kids, families and curious visitors strolled from exhibits to demonstrations all day.

"We had storytellers, a Kiowa dance family, flute making, spear throwing with an atl atl, cordage bracelet making, pebble painting with lechugilla fibers, flint knapping, soap making and demonstrations by a troop of Buffalo Soldiers," Lincoln recalled.

"There’s just so much," Lincoln enthused, "that you really have to get here at 10 a.m., just to be ready to leave when it closes at 3 p.m." Smiling broadly, Taylor Mullins, 10, Lincoln’s granddaughter, said, "I think the best thing was getting to dance with the Indians."

"It’s really a wonderful partnership with the National Park Service, Shumla School, Seminole Canyon State Park and Casa De La Cultura," said Lincoln.

Dinosaur Days in May (firm date not yet set for 2007) brings about 900 children to the museum, another collaboration with the National Park Service since 2002, according to Lincoln. “Dinosaur George” Blasing, San Antonio, former owner of Dinosaur World, appears on Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel, coming to Del Rio to wow kids with his knowledge of the very popular topic of prehistoric life.

Lincoln relishes opportunities to provide tours and hands-on programs for kids when school buses or tour buses show up on very little notice. She conducts a tour of the museum grounds, giving seasoned, rapid-fire interpretations of exhibits, collections, and the historic figures they represent.

In addition, Lincoln guides kids through hands-activities such as carding wool for spinning and weaving, laundry and ironing with frontier technologies, and churning butter. And then there’s Lincoln’s "Indian Trunk."

An antique steamer trunk loaded with props and objects of interest, representing Sioux, Seminole, Apache and Cree Indians, is always ready to be open with the arrival of schoolchildren. Bones, hides, a ceremonial feather “speakers fan,” buffalo chips, trade beads, and an ornately decorated Catlinite peacepipe all provide Lincoln opportunities to talk about Native American traditions.

Finally, many youth groups, scouts and church retreats participate in Lincoln’s overnight campouts on the museum grounds. From 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. the following day, participants hear legends and yarns from “a mysterious story teller,” Lincoln said.

Mike Parker has more personae and costumes for his living history presentations than most people have fashions in their closets. Parker also plays flutes he’s made around a campfire built on the museum’s plaza.

More information on Whitehead Memorial Museum activities for children and students may be obtained by calling the museum, 774-7568.