Painesville Railroad Museum hosts new NE Ohio Historical Day event - The News-Herald
Published by: The News-Herald
By Marah Morrison
Original Article found here
When the Painesville Railroad Museum no longer had its ham radio operator, the museum looked into replacing Ham Radio Operator Day with a new event.
As a result, NE Ohio Historical Day was born. The inaugural event took place on Aug. 23 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 475 Railroad St.
George Anderson, museum secretary and director of tours, is among the three coordinators for the new event.
“I was thinking about what if we had a historical day in which it wouldn’t just be us putting on the event, but that we could reach out to some of the smaller museums in the area and have them join in, and maybe we could help one another,” he said.
Places such as the Lake County Historical Society, the Fairport Harbor Marine and Lighthouse Museum and the Indian Museum of Lake County all participated in the event.
“This is the first of we hope many,” Anderson said. “From the Railroad Museum, there’s probably 30 volunteers working the event. That’s an addition to all the museums here. We also have three authors here to meet and greet people, and to sell their books. A couple of them will be speaking.”
Additionally, for the first time and courtesy of the Indian Museum, Indian dancing took place as part of the event.
Anderson finds importance in teaching people history. Otherwise, much would be lost, he said.
“We’re in the business of preserving history and telling its story,” Anderson said. “It’s challenging to teach the younger generation who are more glued to their screens. We have to change.”
Through a Tour Lake County grant, an interactive display will be installed in the engine barn at the museum.
“We’re going to have a thing that’s going to look like an old locomotive,” Anderson said. “There’s going to be a TV screen and it’s going to play different videos on it. Down below, there’s going to be — for kids — things where they can touch and have different train sounds.”
Other future plans include installing a mini movie theater in the back of the museum where families can sit and watch different train videos.
“We have to have things for the younger generation because we need to connect them,” Anderson said.
As far as hosting the new event, it’s always a learning situation in that the best is done for the event and will hopefully be expanded upon in the future, Anderson said.
“We could have more museums come out here,” he said. “I encourage people to come on down here. There’s no reason to think it’s going to cost you a lot of money. It’s free.”