Marlene Wagman-Geller

“Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story.” –Homer

The word museum originated from the ancient Greek word that denoted “place of the muses.” The nine Muses were the offspring of Zeus–who wasn’t?–and Mnemosyne, the Goddess of Memory. Indeed, museums are the repositories of memories, of ancient civilization, of the apogee of artistry.

“The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.”  

              Legions of literary ladies entertain the dream of heading for New York City to become another Dorothy Parker, the rapier wit who achieved renown as the Guinevere of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of Manhattan writers and critics. Would-be Parker acolytes might reconsider walking in her pumps if they understood the pain behind Mrs. Parker’s wisecracks.

“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women their rights, and nothing less.”—Susan B. Anthony

National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House (opened 1945)

        The unwavering friendship between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony helped form the foundation of the American suffrage movement. Elizabeth supplied many of the speeches that Susan delivered. Elizabeth explained, “I forged the thunderbolts and Susan fired them!” For those desperately seeking Susan, one should make a pilgrimage to the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House.

The Quaker faith (so-called as members were said to quake in the presence of the Lord) shaped Susan’s soul and provided the courage to slay the hydra heads of injustice. Susan Brownell was born in 1820, the second oldest of seven children of Daniel and Lucy Anthony. Along with her sisters, Guelma, Hannah, and Mary, Susan shared the same educational opportunities as her brothers. From an early age, Susan suffered from a wandering eye that made reading difficult and led to her insistence to be photographed in profile. The family lived in Adams, Massachusetts; when Susan was six they moved to Battenville, New York, where Daniel managed a mill. As a child, Susan could not understand why Sally Anne Hyatt, her father’s employee, more knowledgeable about weaving than her supervisor, Elijah, was not in charge. Daniel explained a woman could not hold a position of authority.

“And if you chance to feel that the positions I occupied were rough and unseemly for a woman, I can only reply that they were rough and unseemly for men.”—Clara Barton (at Cedar Mountain)

What is red and white, carries an iconoclastic symbol, and is an inversion of the Swiss flag? The American Red Cross started with a shy New England girl, born to be a nurse. To learn about Clarissa Harlow Barton, take a tour of the Clara Barton Museum.

Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, was named after Florence, Italy, the city of her birth. Sarah and Captain Stephen Barton christened their daughter Clarissa (Clara), after the protagonist of the British novel Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson. Raised in the Universalist Church, Clara started her life on a farm in Oxford, Massachusetts, on Christmas Day, 1821, the youngest of five children. Fond memories were the times her father, a former army officer, shared stories of the Northwest Indian War.

When Clara was ten, her brother, David, fell while working on repairing a barn.  She recalled of the medical practice of using leeches to suck out his “bad blood”: “My little hands became schooled to the handling of the great, loathsome, crawling leeches which were at first so many snakes to me.” The two years she spent nursing him endowed her with a sense of purpose.

“I am not a healer. Jesus is the healer. I am only the office girl

who opens the door and says, ‘Come in.’”

–Aimee Semple McPherson  

Foursquare Heritage Center-The Parsonage of Aimee Semple McPherson (opened 2006)

Los Angeles, California

A daunting endeavor for Canadians is achieving acclaim in the United States, but a few have made their mark. One of the successful was Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy from Ingersoll, Ontario, who transformed into America’s evangelist. Her spirit resides in the Parsonage of Aimee Semple McPherson.

Ellen: “Haven’t you ever had sex dreams about people?”

Paige: “Ellen, I’m a doer, not a dreamer.”

   “Who shot JR?” In 1980, the question was on everyone’s lips, bumper stickers, and magazine covers. Television audiences were delirious to discover who had fired two .38 caliber bullets into the disreputable oil tycoon during the third season’s finale of Dallas. Seventeen years later, Ellen replicated the furor; on that occasion the question: Is she or isn’t she?

Songs have oftentimes encapsulated the spirit of protest and become synonymous with a movement. In 1772 former slave trader turned abolitionist, John Newton, penned “Amazing Grace,” an ode against slavery.  In 1969 during his ‘bed-in,” John Lennon composed “Give Peace a Chance” against the Vietnam War.  In 1972 Helen Reddy, the voice from Down Under, became the roar of Women’s Liberation.  Another paean was born during a clash between the blue and the gray.

“Sorrow lies like a heartbeat behind everything I have written.”

–P. L. Travers

The Story Bank (opened in 2019)

 Maryborough, Queensland, Australia

If the east wind blows you into the town of Maryborough, visit The Story Bank to partake of heaping spoonfuls of sugar. The museum was the birthplace of P. L. Travers, the Australian-born author of British nanny, Mary Poppins.

“Give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend.”

–Abigail Adams    

            If one listens intensely enough, the walls of Peace field do talk. They whisper of Founding Mother, Abigail Adams, who admonished the periwigs to share power with the petticoats. To discover an intriguing slice of America, explore the Old House at Peace field.

   In the 2003 episode of The Simple Life, Paris Hilton, claiming she had never heard of Walmart, asked if it was a place where “they sold wall stuff.” Although Paris does not frequent Walmart, millions do, oblivious to the fact that Samuel Walton, (the last three letters of his surname and the word ‘mart-’abbreviation for market), served as the namesake of the megastore.

“There is more done with pens than swords.” –Harriet Beecher Stowe

            Extraordinary novels have had a global impact: John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and George Orwell’s 1984. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin altered history as it helped ignite the American Civil War. To learn about the female great emancipator, follow the road to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center.

  If the Grimm brothers had championed morganatic marriages, Cinderella would still be sweeping cinders, Rapunzel would remain trapped in her tower, Snow White would yet slumber. Similarly, if the English monarchy had harkened to the matrimonial rule of yesteryear, a throne would not beckon for a coal miner’s “daughter.”

“No lapse of time, no nearness to the grave, makes any difference.”

–Eliza Hamilton on her refusal to forgive President James Monroe

            At the conclusion of the megahit musical, Hamilton, Eliza Hamilton lets out a gasp, followed by the chorus breaking into the haunting lyrics, “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” A way to discover Eliza’s story is to visit the Hamilton Grange house-museum.

“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.”

–Virginia Woolf

Monk’s House (opened 1981)

East Sussex, England

Leonard Wolf observed, “What cuts the deepest channels in our lives are the different houses in which we live.” His words apply to Monk’s House that served as a lighthouse for him and his writer-wife, Virginia.  

Chapter # Graves are Always Tidy

“One can give up many things for love, but one should not give up oneself.” -Edith Wharton

The Mount (opened 2002 )

Lennox, Massachusetts

         The writer who punctured the stereotype of the starving artist, Edith Wharton comes across as a cosseted, stiff-necked dowager, with stays firmly fastened. However, if passion had not beat under the primness, she could never have penned her passionate epics. To partake of her gilded world, grab your lorgnette and head to The Mount.

The Karen Blixen Museum (opened in 1986)

Nairobi, Kenya

“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills…” are the opening words of Karen Blixen’s memoir of her seventeen-year sojourn in Nairobi.  Visiting her former home, now the Karen Blixen Museum, is to return to a yesterday where the “The Dark Continent,” then the domain of British East Africa, was the paradise-playground of rich Europeans.

“Never relight a dead cigarette or an old passion.”

–Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield House & Garden (opened 1988)

Wellington, New Zealand

The possessors of sphinxlike personalities prove challenging subjects for their biographers who must strip off various masks. Katherine Mansfield, in her journal, paraphrased Polonius’ words from Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Hamlet, “True to oneself Which self?” To best understand the New Zealand enigma, journey to the landscape of her childhood: the Katherine Mansfield House & Garden.