You're Invited: Women in Baseball Season Opener

Summer Time Travelers are free interactive programs for kids

The North Berrien Historical Museum again looks forward to Summer Time Travelers, a series of free interactive programs especially designed for ages 6-12. With our two main goals of learning and fun, every session features hands-on activities and crafts focused on a fascinating theme, as well as real historic artifacts and exhibits. Summer Time Travelers aims to inspire a lifelong interest in history and historical museums. These programs are free but to ensure space, advance registration is required. To register or for more information, call the museum at (269) 468-3330 or download a registration form and return.

Highlights of Time Travelers this summer include a visit by award-winning Michigan historian and Storyteller Larry Massie on June 29. Time Travelers will be held from 10am – Noon (registration required), followed at 1pm with a free Storytelling show open to all ages called “Adventures in Michigan’s Past” (no registration). Other programs will make use of the museum’s traveling trunks and exhibits throughout our grounds, including the Women in Baseball exhibit this summer. The dates and themes for Summer Time Travelers 2011 include: Lumberjacks (June 29), Old Time Sports (July 13), Pioneers (July 27), Paw Paw Lake Fun (August 10) and Native Americans (August 24).

Volunteers make it possible for us to offer these free programs to the community. If you would like to help with Summer Time Travelers in 2011, please call the museum to sign up.

Popular Michigan historian and Storyteller comes to Coloma June 29

The North Berrien Historical Museum is honored to host Historian and Storyteller Larry Massie at two free public programs on Wednesday, June 29, 2011. Massie is the author of twenty books and hundreds of articles on Michigan history, and was recently awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Historical Society of Michigan. He has shared his enthusiasm for Michigan’s heritage at hundreds of Storytelling performances, and has proven to be a fun and popular guest who gets citizens excited about the history of their state and community.

The first program on June 29, from 10:00am – 12:00pm, is “Summer Time Travelers: Lumberjacks” and is part of a public program series designed for children ages 6-12. Through hands-on activities and demonstrations, attendees will learn about the history of logging and lumber industries in Michigan in the 1800s. Attendees will receive a historical coloring book by the Michigan Forest Association, create a ‘log marking’ craft, and play a game inspired by our local history of shingle-making on the Paw Paw River. The highlight of this interactive program will be Larry Massie’s dramatic Storytelling as a “rough-hewn lumberjack” from Michigan’s lumber era. Advance registration is required to ensure space; download a form or call the museum at 269-468-3330.

The second program on June 29, from 1:00 – 2:30pm, is “Adventures in Michigan’s Past” and will be a free, all-ages performance held in the Nichols Building at the North Berrien Historical Museum. (No registration is required). In this program, Larry Massie’s dynamic Storytelling will bring to life a range of true historical vignettes featuring Indian chiefs, French voyageurs, black-robed Jesuit priests, intrepid pioneers, salty Great Lakes ship captains, and Underground Railroad conductors who risked their lives guiding slaves to freedom. Visitors are encouraged to tour the museum’s exhibits before or after the program, including the new local history exhibit Women in Baseball: Bloomer Girls of Berrien County & Beyond.

Coming Soon - Women in Baseball: Bloomer Girls of Berrien County & Beyond

A new exhibit at the North Berrien Historical Museum will highlight the history of women’s baseball from its origins to the present day. “Women in Baseball: Bloomer Girls of Berrien County and Beyond” is will be on display at the North Berrien Historical Museum from June 17 through November 11, 2011. An opening reception is planned for Friday, June 24 from 5-8pm.

The exhibit discusses why after more than 150 years as ‘America’s pastime,’ baseball remains a predominately male sport, despite the fact that women have played the game since its invention in the mid-19th century.

The highlight of the exhibit is the story of renowned pitcher Maud Nelson who lived in Watervliet from 1905 to 1917. Maud was one of the most influential female baseball players in American history with a career spanning over forty years. In 1901 Maud Nelson married her manager John B Olson Jr. In 1905 the couple moved into a farm in Watervliet on what is now the Paw Paw Lake Golf Course. Nelson managed the Cherokee Indian Baseball Team which traveled around the country in a custom Pullman railcar. Newspapers reported that Miss Maud Nelson, the famous lady pitcher, pitched two or three innings for the Indian team starting in 1908. In 1910 Maud became owner-manager of the Western Bloomer Girls who traveled the country competing against male teams in front of huge crowds.

In addition to the story of Maud Nelson the exhibit will tell the story of women in baseball from the origins of the game through the present day. This includes the story of Jackie Mitchell who played for the House of David, the All American Girls Baseball League (made famous by the movie a League of Their Own) that existed from 1943-1954, and Carolyn King of Ypsilanti, the first girl to play in Little League in 1973.

To compliment the exhibit there will be several speakers and programs planned during the summer and fall. On June 25 & 26 the City of Watervliet is hosting the first ever Maud Nelson Girls Baseball Invitational. This tournament will feature teenage girls from across the United States and Canada who will compete on all-female teams.

For more information call Executive Director, Alexander Gates at 269-468-3330 or visit www.northberrienhistory.org.

First Annual Museum Ornament Available for Pre-Order

The first-ever North Berrien Historical Museum ornament was unveiled at Volunteer Appreciation Night on Thursday, April 28. The ornament is a new fundraiser, which will be followed by a new piece annually. As the first in a series the museum choose its logo for the initial design. Future designs may include the Watervliet Paper Mill, Paw Paw Lake, and the dunes of Lake Michigan.

The ornaments are produced by ChemArt and are solid brass with gold plating. They measure 3.375" long by 2" tall. Each piece is marked on the back with "Made in the USA" and "First in a Series"

Pre-orders will be accepted through Saturday, June 18th with pickup starting on Tuesday, June 21. The pre-order cost is $15 plus tax. Ornaments will then be for sale at the North Berrien Historical Museum and the Cottage of the Four Seasons in Coloma for $18 plus tax throughout the year.

Click here for an order form.

For more information call the North Berrien Historical Museum at 269-468-3330.

Spring Break A Great Success

Rainy weather couldn't keep away our World War Two soldiers for a day. A record 185 people visited the museum on Wednesday afternoon for Spring Break. New "recruits" took part in free crafts and activities at the North Berrien Historical Museum.


Visitors started by making dog tags to wear throughout the day.


Youth Intern Taylor shows a visitor how to make a hat out of brown paper.


Army caps are a must for any new army recruit. Over 100 were made during the afternoon.


Youth intern Alexis shows a visitor how to make a parachute craft in the Nichols "Flight Training" Building.

Visitors take part in the coloring contest located in the Carter House parlor.

Volunteer Pauline Morris shows off her V for Victory craft in the Carter Gallery.

Women in the Second World War Exhibit Now On View

A Few Good Women: Women in the Military During the Second World War is on view at the North Berrien Historical Museum through May 27, 2011. The exhibit panels are on loan from the Michigan Women's Historical Center in Lansing and the uniforms come from the North Berrien Historical Museum's collection as well as other local institutions.

Six female uniforms are on display: three Army Nurses, two Women's Marine Reserve Corps, one Navy WAVES. Each uniform is unique in look as well as the story of the former owner. Several programs are scheduled during the exhibition. For more info please visit northberrienhistory.org.