Library or Museum? Either way, a GREAT place to learn!

If you have ever run or walked through Wright Park, you have probably passed this stately little building without much thought, but as the Seabury Bridges class learned recently, inside the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum lies a veritable treasure chest of history.

I have always wanted to go inside, so I was excited to visit myself, but I was not sure exhibits of manuscripts would hold my students' attention for longer than about 20 minutes. Boy, I could not have been more wrong!

In what turned out to be an hour and a half-long visit, (and which could easily have gone on MUCH longer), executive director Tom Jutilla held the students rapt attention while he showed us the featured exhibits on display depicting great women in history, including notables ranging from Amelia Earhart to Queen Victoria. Joan of Arc's medieval armor (or armor from that era, at least) was a big hit, as were documents such as a letter Rosa Parks wrote about Martin Luther King Jr, and correspondence by Indira Gandhi. Jutilla also showed us documents such as a mug shot of Joseph Stalin, early revisions of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne, drawings from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery, and he even brought out a special Egyptian artifact with a "curse" written on the base - we were spellbound! Seabury students have extremely varied interests and are known for their "nichey" areas of expertise -- and yet, there was something here for everyone!

Since we are studying U.S. government and civics this year, the students were particularly interested in a copy of the Declaration of Independence, where we saw for ourselves why putting your signature on something is often called giving it your "John Hancock."

The Karpeles in Tacoma is part of a small group of museums across the U.S. that are home to a private collection of more than a million documents. It was founded, according to Jutilla, with the goal of sparking interest in learning. It definitely accomplished this goal during our visit!

The museum can be found at 407 South G Street, across from the Seymour Botanical Conservatory. It is housed in a former American Legion post built in 1931.

Many of their documents are available to view online: http://www.rain.org/~karpeles/list.php