By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current
The Geneseo Historical Museum and the Carriage House will be open to visitors of all ages during the annual Trains, Planes and Automobiles celebration on Saturday, Sept. 6, in Geneseo.
Both the museum, at 205 South State St., and the carriage house and lawn, located to the rear of the museum, will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 6.
Melanie Rice, Museum Curator/Director, is shown in her 1950’s attire at the display inside the museum that depicts memories of Geneseo from the 1950’s. Photo by Claudia Loucks
Volunteers inside the museum will be dressed in 1950’s attire, and a special exhibit for the TPA weekend is the 1950’s display which showcases Geneseo items in that era, including an “Orsi & Green” sign, which was a popular “soda fountain” shop on State St., in downtown Geneseo, well-known for the crowds of young people who frequented the establishment for the “famous” Green River and Chocolate Coke drinks.
Melanie Rice, Museum Director/Curator, said the current military exhibit at the Geneseo Historical Museum, will remain on display through Sept. 6 so that anyone who may have missed seeing it before will have an opportunity on Sept. 6.
She said the exhibit, “In Service and Sacrifice,” is a tribute to the men and women who have served in the armed forces - highlighting some personal stories behind the uniforms.
The displays on both the first and second floors of the museum showcase military uniforms with explanations of what they represent.
Rice said “Every uniform tells a story, not just of the conflicts, but of courage, sacrifice and service!”
INSIDE THE CARRIAGE HOUSE AND ON THE MUSEUM LAWN
The Paper Airplane Game will be on the lawn between the Geneseo Museum and the Carriage House on Saturday, Sept. 6, during the Trains, Planes and Automobiles celebration in Geneseo.
The events inside the Carriage House and lawn connecting the Carriage House to the Museum, will feature activities and games relating to airplanes connected to the Harold Neumann Project display in the Carriage House.
The activities and games include airplane ball pit, making balsa wood airplanes, rubber duck matching game, constructing and racing paper airplanes, card board plane races, a scavenger hunt, photos booth and much more.
Information received from Paula Neumann Chapa, chairman of the Harold Neumann Project, states, “During Harold Neumann’s flying career of 70 years, he accomplished much more than that farm boy from Geneseo, ever imagined he could. In 1935, Harold Neumann won the Greve Trophy, the Thompson Trophy along with the award of America’s #1 Pilot by the National Aeronautical Association. He is acknowledged in the Smithsonian; he was a barnstormer, skywriter, and a Captain for TWA for 30 years. From Jenny’s to Jets, this man was not just a pilot, he was a genius.”
Neumann shared, “Collecting memorabilia of Harold’s from museums and family members across the country has been nothing less than thrilling for us. We have his Greve Trophy and his Thompson Trophies, and they were just the tip of the iceberg. On loan from Special Collections & University Archives, University of Illinois Chicago, we will have the original Eiffel Tower that Harold presented to Mayor Daley after his celebrated flight from Paris to Chicago in 1958. That flight made O’Hare Airport an International Airport that day.”
The Harold Neumann Project also now includes the fuselage, tail and wing skin from Neumann’s aerobatic Mon coupe, “Little Mulligan.”
