Thomas T. Taber Museum Tour (w/talk on artist Woodward)

Thomas T. Taber Museum Tour (w/talk on artist Woodward)

Event | FULL (Membership Required)

Wednesday, June 5, 2024 (one day)

1:00 PM-4:00 PM on Wed

$20.00

$15.00

BILL MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED TO REGISTER MAY 10 THROUGH MAY 23

Join the Bucknell Institute for Lifelong Learning for a special guided tour of the Thomas T. Taber Museum in Williamsport at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, June 5, followed by a talk on the artist Dewing Woodward by historian Mary Sieminski. The talk will be held at the Backhouse Café across the street from the museum, beginning at 2:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.

Lycoming County Historical Society’s Taber Museum in Williamsport chronicles the history of north central Pennsylvania, from its earliest native American inhabitants through 21st century industry and life. Exhibits include the James Bressler American Indian Gallery, Fine & Decorative Arts Gallery, LaRue Shempp Model Train Exhibit with over 300 toy trains, period rooms depicting life from the 1700s through the 1900s, and much more. [Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pvv8ITIpWU&t=8s to preview some of the collections.]

After the tour, participants will visit the historic Backhouse Café, across the street from the museum, for light refreshments and a talk by BILL instructor and retired university librarian Mary Sieminski. She will discuss painter, author, and instructor Dewing Woodward who for years taught as the sole art professor for the Female Institute of the University of Lewisburg (later a part of Bucknell University). Born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1856, Martha Dewing Woodward was the youngest of eight children of John Vanderbilt Woodward, who is said to have been a cousin of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and wealthy Ann York Woodward. In 1907, Woodward and her partner, Louise Johnson, founded the Blue Dome Fellowship in Woodstock, New York, which Woodward continued in Florida after her move there. In her 1950 obituary, the somewhat controversial Woodward was described as “one of the nation’s leading painters.”

Participants must arrange their own transportation.

The Taber Museum is located at 858 West 4th Street, Williamsport, PA.
Backhouse Café is located across the street at 901 West 4th St., Williamsport, PA

  • Current BILL members will receive priority registration until May 24, 2024. 

    If you are not a BILL member and hope to register for this program, please check back on May 24, when the membership requirement will be dropped.

    If you are not a current BILL member but would like to renew your membership, you may do so. 2024 Calendar Year memberships are available to purchase for $65 and are good through December 31, 2024.

    If you have never been a BILL member and would like a free trial membership, good through June 30, 2024, please contact the office:  lifelonglearning@bucknell.edu or (570) 522-0105.

    BILL reserves the right to accommodate BILL members over non-members who register before May 24. Any registrations that must be changed on or before May 24 will be notified by the BILL office.

MARY SIEMINSKI, a Bucknell alumna, is a retired librarian and co-founder of the Lycoming County Women’s History Project, an online archive of primary source material on local women.  She has a passion for women’s history and making women’s lives visible.  For over 10 years, she has edited a monthly column in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette on Lycoming County women.  These articles have been reproduced in two issues of West Branch Magazine called “Women of Distinction.”