The Marion Natural History Museum and Elizabeth Taber Library are celebrating 150 years of partnership with a celebration out of this world. Coahuila, a 700-pound meteorite, is on loan from the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
The Taber Library and the Marion Natural History Museum kicked off their Sesquicentennial Summer Activities on June 25 with an Open House.
Saturday’s event greeted children with an opportunity to enjoy rock climbing, a virtual-reality headset, science and nature up close, arts and crafts, a splash party, face painting and even ice cream.
“We worked together with the library,” said the museum’s executive director, Elizabeth Leidhold, who credits Ted Brainard for setting up the loan of the meteorite with the Harvard Museum of Natural History. “He’s responsible for our being able to borrow the meteorite.”
As envisioned by Elizabeth Taber herself, the Marion Natural History Museum is still on the second floor of the Taber Library, but the meteorite is easily accessible.
“If they want to come in just to see the meteorite, they can during regular library hours. The meteorite is in the foyer of the first floor,” said Leidhold.
Taber Library, located at 8 Spring Street next to the Town House, opens at 10:00 am Monday-Saturday and closes Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:00 pm, Tuesday and Thursday at 8:00 pm, and 3:00 pm on Saturday. (The library is also open on Sundays from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm October through May.)
The exhibition of Coahuila is a highlight of the museum’s celebration of 150 years working in concert with the Library Association in a relationship that dates back to 1872 when Taber, then 81 years old, bought 10 acres of land to house a library and a natural history museum.
In transferring the land to the Library Association and the Natural History Society, Taber set in motion twin directives that to this day serve as enduring tools of education in the town.
To this day, the partnership with the library and the town remains strong.
The museum keeps regular hours on Wednesdays from 10:00 to 4:00 pm and on Fridays from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. In addition, summer programming at the museum includes new Saturday hours from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm with free admission, along with free Senior and Community programs held on Wednesdays from 10:30 am to 11:30 am.
For more information on summer programs, visit marionmuseum.org and elizabethtaberlibrary.org.
Marion Natural History Museum/Elizabeth Taber Library
By Mick Colageo