To the editor:

In 2004, Lawrence will celebrate its sesquicentennial. As we entertain and educate ourselves with an array of festivities from parades to band concerts and even an old-fashioned Chautauqua, now seems a perfect time to take another look at our local history museum.

Imagine the legacy of a re-invigorated museum filled with exhibits examining the issues at the heart of the past 150 years. Galleries filled with artifacts and photographs exploring Native American influences, the Emigrant Aid Society, Quantrill’s Raid, farming, the black community, Haskell Indian Nations University, Kansas University, the war years, and the beginnings of the cultural arts community from Langston Hughes to William Burroughs (and all of the writers, artists, and musicians in between), are not hard to envision. There are countless topics for contemplation.

Imagine a place bursting with summer workshops for children, seminars for teachers, resources for our classrooms, oral history workshops for senior citizens, and field trips for adults and schoolchildren.

As our town struggles with the closing of the KU anthropology museum, a vacant historic Carnegie building downtown, and a floundering community history museum, it’s time. Take a day trip and get inspired by others around us. The Coffey County Historical Museum in Burlington, the Johnson County Museum of History in Shawnee, and the Smoky Hill Museum in Salina are all prime examples of strong community museums. If they can do it, surely we can, too.

Julie M. Smith,

Perry