By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current
Melanie Rice has been named curator/director of the Geneseo Historical Museum, stepping into the position held by Angie Snook, who recently retired after serving as curator/director since 1996.
Even though the title is quire new for Rice, her involvement with Geneseo’s gallery of history began years ago.
She moved to Geneseo in 1991 to work as a school social worker in the Geneseo School District…”In the early 1990’s JCTV (Jaycees) was launched and I was in the Jaycees at that time and fairly new to town,” she said. ‘There was an opportunity to cover the Geneseo Historical Museum and I volunteered to do the monthly segment that played on Channel 50. That’s when I met Angie Snook. I interviewed her once per month about something historical and highlighted the Museum. It was just fun and I learned a lot.”
Rice was asked to become a member of the Museum Board and said that allowed to learn even more about Geneseo history…”However, when our four children got busy with sports and activities, I chose to resign from the Board.”
Prior to that time, history was part of Rice’s life as she shared that her interest began as she was growing up…”Each summer, my family would take a two-week vacation in a van or station wagon, whatever we had at that time,” she said. “It seemed like we would always stop at a Museum, a historic plantation, a previous president’s house or a famous historical figure’s home or workplace. Some of my favorites include Edison and Ford’s home in Ft. Myers, FL, and Andrew Jackson’s home in Tennessee.”
“Fast forward to when I had my own family and in between travel soccer and baseball games, if there was a significant window of time, we would search out and visit anything historical in that particular area,” she said.
“I was very busy with my own family and even made them all volunteer at the Museum when they were all old enough,” she added. “We did a lot of cleaning of the front porch as well as picked weeds and cut Hosta flowers. I wanted to still be involved with the Museum in some way and this was a way to help and teach my children about volunteering in the community.”
When Angie Snook first planned her retirement in 2015, Rice was asked by a Museum Board member if she was interested in considering the position…”I responded that I intended to finish what I started and had about eight years to go until I retired from being a school social worker,” she shared. “During the winter of 2022, I heard that Angie was going to look to retire, again, and on a whim, I called a Board member and said I was interested if they could wait two years.”
Rice interviewed for the position and the Museum Board accepted the idea of her working at the Museum during summers and days off, and Snook also agreed to wait two years until Rice retired from the school district.
“It was a great way to ease into such an information-heavy job!” Rice added. “I learned many things during those two years by observing, reading, studying and being around the Museum, attending Board meetings and listening to anything I could. I have so much more to learn and am excited about all the possibilities.”
In the beginning days of assuming her position at the Museum, Rice worked on the Wedding Dress Exhibit which displayed 110 historical wedding dresses that were sprinkled throughout the Museum…”We were able to host a Victorian Garden Party in August and we were open to many visitors during Geneseo’s Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ festivities, as well as being open for the recent State Street Market in downtown Geneseo.”
Rice is currently busy working on the Christmas Open House at the Museum, always a popular event, which will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, and she added, “The Museum will sparkle and highlight an old-fashioned Victorian Christmas.”
“In the future, we plan to offer Mini-Exhibits in our Stees-Keppy Education Room every six to eight weeks,” she said. ‘Currently, our display is ‘Ladies Fashions Through the Decades.’ These exhibits are educational in nature and will highlight different historical artifacts. Tune into our new Website coming by the end of October and this will also link interested visitors to our new Face book Page that has a Historical Highlight posted on each Friday.”
The Museum also has opportunities for interested community members to become involved as a Friend of the Museum, Rice explained, and added, “We have 20 plus dedicated individuals assisting with tours, exhibits, decorating, grounds-keeping work as well as other activities. Anyone interested in joining our Friends of the Museum group, is asked to contact the Museum (309-944-3043) for more information.”
Rice commented, “The Geneseo Historical Association has been around since 1972. The Museum would not be what it is today without Angie Snook and previous, dedicated board members and volunteers working countless hours paving the way for what visitors see today. The plan is to continue the dedicated work and carry the brightly lit torch into the future for many generations to come with more school tours, educational opportunities, rotating historical exhibits and much more, all the while, carrying on the tradition of sharing our Geneseo History with local community members as well as out-of-town visitors.”
She invited visitors by adding, “Stop by the Geneso Historical Museum and see what’s new! We are open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 3 p.m., by chance or by appointment. We’d love to see you’re here!”
