Maitland's Legacies exhibit showcases city's family history

Maitland’s most influential residents are showcased in a new permanent exhibit that opened June 22 at Art & History Museums – Maitland.

“Maitland’s Legacies: Creativity & Innovation” features the Waterhouse, Galloway, Dommerich, Hill and Parker families, as well as individual residents including artist André Smith. The exhibition, in the Maitland Historical Museum, displays a collection of photos and artifacts, telling the story of what life was like in the late 18th and early 19th century.

“We wanted to tell Maitland’s history in a little bit of a different way,” A&H Executive Director Andrea Bailey Cox said.

Cox hopes the exhibit will leave viewers with a real sense of civic pride. “I hope our viewers will be inspired and think about the legacy that they want to leave,” she said.

The objects that were selected to represent the legacies are all part of A&H’s permanent collection, with the exception of the items from the Parker Lumber Company, which closed its doors a few months ago to make way for the city’s SunRail station.

“As the mill was closing down, we asked the family for some items we could borrow to represent them with,” said Bethany Gray, A&H’s assistant coordinator.

Mayor Howard Schieferdecker, other Maitland elected officials and a few descendants of the Parker family attended the opening reception on June 22.

Steven Parker, whose great-grandfather started the Parker Lumber Company, admired the collection of his family’s historical items on display for the city to see. There are photos, documents and even the lumber company’s saw mill blade — all encased and attached to the exhibit’s wall.

“These are things I grew up with,” said Parker, as he pointed to a black-and-white photo of the lumber company’s truck. “Who can say that?”

Visit “Maitland’s Legacies: Creativity & Innovation” in the A&H’s Maitland Historical Museum, 221 W. Packwood Ave. in Maitland. Gallery hours are Thursdays to Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, and $2 for seniors (55 & older) and for children (4-18 years). A&H members and children younger than 3 are free. For more information, call 407-539-2181 or visit ArtandHistory.org

Other items in the exhibit include a selection of women’s personal items such as gloves, fans and a brush. A handmade Victorian wedding dress sits next to a game table built by William Waterhouse. There is also a selection of Galloway’s telephones and glass telephone wire insulators. At the entrance, tools from the Carpentry Shop Museum are on display in the exhibit’s “collection spotlight.” Among these items include early bullet-making equipment, a gun powder horn and a late 19th century compass.

In December, Gray expects this collection spotlight will be replaced for a spotlight on telephony with additional items borrowed from A&H’s Telephone Museum.

“I wish I was born a generation earlier,” said Parker, after viewing the rest of the exhibit. “It was neat back then — just look at it.”