• "A Prophet" nominated for six European film awards
• No holding back for Alicia Keys on "Freedom"
• Joe Jackson seeks allowance from son's estate

go

• ART INSTITUTE AND GALLERY FALL 2009 CLASSES
• AI&G Art of Architecture Exhibit
• Hear BUIKA on Radio Mundo!

Purnell Museum Begins Season with New Exhibit Snow Hill—The Julia A. Purnell Museum has reopened its doors for the 2009 season. Visitors will be able to view a new temporary exhibit, An American Childhood. The exhibit features children's toys and clothing from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Nineteenth century photographs of babies and children are also included in the exhibit.

"Parents having photos taken of their kids—and the dolls and games and toy animals children played with--these things show the continuities of childhood through the decades," says Assistant Director Ashley Ritchey.

But there have been changes, too. The textbooks on display reflect an era when Greek and Latin were common grammar school subjects.

Along with the displays of children's toys, there are many things for contemporary youngsters to enjoy at the Purnell Museum. Children can complete scavenger hunts and a matching game by exploring the exhibits, and earn a small prize. There is a children's table with artifacts that can be handled and a notebook full of activity sheets—history-themed coloring pages, word searches, and paper dolls. A shelf of stone Native American artifacts that can be touched accompanies the museum's People of the Pocomoke exhibit, and a touch box is included in the exhibit 'Before Emancipation.' 'Before Emancipation' interprets the experiences of free and enslaved African Americans on Delmarva in the early decades of the 19th century.