Rooted in the past C’ville hires new museum director
On the job for less than a month, the new director for the Morton Museum of Collierville History is focusing on making the museum a place for school field trips, Saturday programming for children and a wonderful afterhours backdrop for weddings, receptions and other events.
Since it has only been a museum for less than a year, most area residents may be more familiar with its past lives as a church and a tea shop/antique store.
In 1873, it started out as a two-story white brick Collierville Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) at the corner of Main and Poplar. The church, which has Frank Lloyd Wright-like stained glass windows. stood vacant for years. It later became a tea shop and antique store.
Morgan Morton and his family bought the building at 196 Main Street and gave it to the town in 2008. After almost four years of fundraising it opened as a museum last June.
“The focus is to provide quality programming over quantity,” said new director Ashley Carver. Carver succeeds the museum’s first director, Erin Narloch.
“My passion is for local history and visitor engagement,” Carver said. “I think museums are very powerful places for reflection.”
Before starting in Collierville, Carver worked as the director of the Women’s History and Resource Center in Washington, D.C. which is a historic house and museum and serves as the national
headquarters for the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.
“I was excited that Collierville has this place. I think that’s rare,” she said. While she worked in Washington, which has a museum on almost every corner, she said there is something special about local history museums: “It is a powerful place to explore family connections.”
Carver, 29, of Drummonds, Tenn., has a master’s degree in museum studies from George Washington University and received her bachelor’s degree from Rhodes College.
Already, she is gearing up for the April 13 Family Fun: Art in Nature programming and planning events for the Battle of Collierville’s 150th anniversary for Oct. 4- 6 with storyteller Judith Black and a daylong symposium and teacher workshop.
With a population of about 46,000, Collierville can boast of having not one but two museums. In addition to Morton Museum, there is the privately owned Museum of Biblical History on Town Square.
State coordinator Debbie Shaw with the Tennessee Association of Museums said having two museums is and isn’t unusual for a town. “Sometimes, when you have a smaller community, people focus more on their history,” she said. “They can really pull it together.”
For an example, Shaw points to the East Tennessee town of Greeneville with a population of 15,000 and five or six museums.
Admission to the Collierville museum is free. Renting out the museum, such as the bridal fashion show on Sunday, will help fund museum operations.
For more information about the museum, go to colliervillemuseum.org