For Immediate Release
April 16, 2001

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – The Joseph Allen Skinner Museum will celebrate its spring opening with an afternoon of Colonial games and demonstrations on Sunday, April 29, from 1 to 4 PM. All events are free and will be held rain or shine.

The Skinner Museum, located at 33 Woodbridge St., is home to Joseph Skinner’s eclectic collection of native American artifacts, musical instruments, American decorative arts, armor and weapons, lighting devices, and Greek, Roman, and Egyptian objects. The museum was donated to the College in 1946 and is administered by the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum.

Colonial games for everyone and a scavenger hunt for children will be ongoing through the afternoon. Scheduled events are "Arms and Armour in the Skinner Collection: Fake or Real?" at 1:20 PM; "A Doll’s Life: 19^th-Century Girls and Their Dolls" at 1:40 PM; "Miss Elizabeth Skinner and a Skinner Family Restored Carriage," at 2 PM; "Joseph Skinner and his "Curiosity Cabinet" Collection" at 2:20 PM; "Cooking and the Colonial Fireplace" at 2:40 PM; "A Woodworking Demonstration and 19^th-Century Tools" at 3 PM; and "A Norwegian Violin in the Skinner Collection" at 3:20 PM. Presenting the demonstrations will be Mount Holyoke students, faculty, and alumnae. Light refreshments will be served.

The Skinner Museum is housed in a group of buildings, including a mid-19^th-century Congregational church that was moved by Joseph Skinner to its current site from the town of Prescott. The former church houses a collection of early American furnishings and decorative arts, shells, and minerals.

The museum is open to the public without charge on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons from May through October.