Museum News

Kendall from Kromatic Photography sent us these images he made after last Saturday’s Poe Birthday Bash.

The Museum will be open from 10am – Midnight with events starting at NOON. Admission is $5 for the whole day, and you may come and go as you please so you can check out all the events you want to see!!! Events are still being added to the schedule, but see the current line-up below:

POE BIRTHDAY BASH SCHEDULE:

10:00am- 1:00pm: Gift shop sale! ( Take 15% off your entire purchase of $10 or more!)

12:00pm: Exhibit Opening (Stormier, Wilder and More Weird: James Carling and “The Raven” | and Curator talk.) *A MUST SEE*

1:00pm -1:15pm: Lucretia and Lavinia (belly dance duo )

1:15pm – 1:30pm: Aeon Yahweh (musician)

4:00pm – 5:00pm: Lucretia and Lavinia (belly dance duo)/ Sadira (dancer) and DragonSong (band)

5:00pm- on: Mulled Wine, Butter Beer and non-alcoholic beverage cash bar with free snacks.

5:30pm: Poe Birthday Cake

7:00pm – 8:00pm: Lucretia and Lavinia (belly dance duo)/ The Muse (dancer)/ Madame Onça (dancer)

8:00pm: Theatrical Victorian Seance. (See a Victorian Seance combining 19th century tricks and modern day effects)

9:00pm: Theatrical Victorian Seance. (See a Victorian Seance combining 19th century tricks and modern day effects)

11:30pm: Champagne Toast to Poe

*Additional events are still being finalized. Call the Museum at 804-648-5523 for more information (or) e-mail: info@poemuseum.org

Lucretia and Lavinia

Aeon Yahweh

Madame Onça

We had nearly 200 people attend our Poe Museum Illumination event on December 2nd 2011.

Guests enjoyed music by Beggars of Life and enjoyed a living history appearance from Eliza Poe (as portrayed by the lovely Debbie Phillips), who favored us with some Christmas carols that would have been familiar in her time. Guests also were introduced to Miss Emmeline Edens, a lady from the mid-19th century who shared about Christmas traditions from that era. (Emmeline was portrayed by Poe Museum docent Amber Edens.)

While they enjoyed thousands of sparkling lights and ornaments which rendered our Enchanted Garden even more enchanted than usual, our guests got to sample tasty gingerbread and hot beverages courtesy of the Dirty Apron Catering Company.

Here is some video from the festivities:

And here are a few photos:

As always, more photos can be found in the Poe Museum’s flickr group.

It was a magical evening and we at the Poe Museum were delighted to share it with so many enthusiastic folks!

Thursday, December 8, 2011 is the bicentennial of the death of Edgar Allan Poe’s mother, Eliza Poe. Though Edgar was only two years old when he lost his mother, his “mournful and neverending remembrance” of her cast a shadow over his life and work. Although Eliza Poe’s fame has long been overshadowed by her famous son, she was actually a talented and popular actress in the early days of American theater.

In observance of the bicentennial, the Poe Museum hosted a lecture by renowned Poe scholar Richard Kopley, a performance by Eliza Poe interpreter Debbie Phillips, and an exhibit of rare artifacts related to her life and career. The weekend began with the Poe Illumination, in which the Poe Museum’s Enchanted Garden came to life with thousands of lights and holiday decorations. Below is some video of the Poe Foundation’s President, Dr. Harry Lee Poe, speaking at Eliza Poe’s grave after having laid a wreath on her monument.

The exhibit devoted to Poe’s mother continues until April 1, 2012, so be sure not to miss it. In case you can’t attend in person, some of the artifacts from the exhibit can now be seen in our online collections database.

The Poe Museum is helping to usher in the holiday season with a special event of our own on Friday, December 2nd.

Our Enchanted Garden will be looking extra-enchanted with thousands of Christmas lights and assorted decorations.

There will be hot cider as well as tea, coffee and gingerbread for sale, and we’ll also have some free food.

Live music with a holiday twist will be provided by Beggars of Life.

We’ll also be visited by Poe’s mother, Eliza Poe (as portrayed by the lovely Debbie Phillips) and will be debuting a new exhibit in honor of the 200th anniversary of Mrs. Poe’s demise.

Miss Emmeline Edens, a lovely 19th century lady will also be on hand to assist with trimming our Christmas tree and to tell people a little about Christmas in her time.

So come on out to this event and pick up some presents for the Poe fan in your life in our shop while you’re at it – we have everything from ornaments and parasols to busts of Poe and a wonderful assortment of books.

Admission is free and holiday cheer is guaranteed! (We’ve even gotten a mention in RVANews!)

(We’ve even gotten a mention in RVANews – how exciting!)

Etching of Eliza Poe by Alexander Von Jost

Edgar Allan Poe was not the first member of his family to bring fame to the Poe name. His mother, Eliza Poe, who died at the age of twenty-four when Edgar was only two, was a gifted actress and singer who performed throughout the country. Just in time for the bicentennial of her death, the Poe Museum is bringing together some of the few remaining artifacts associated with her life for the exhibit Poe’s Mother: The Untold Story, opening December 2, 2011 and running until April 1, 2012. The exhibit will pay tribute to the talented performer who blazed the trail for future American actresses in a day when acting was still considered immoral and an unsuitable profession for women. Among the artifacts on view will be original scripts from plays in which she performed and a copy of her marriage bond and her only known signature.

Watercolor of Eliza Poe from Collection of the Poe Museum

The exhibit opening on December 2 from 6-9 P.M. will feature a performance by Eliza Poe as performed by Debbie Phillips. The performance will include original songs Eliza Poe is known to have performed. Admission to the opening reception event is free, and warm drinks and live music will be available.

Rare script for play featuring Eliza Poe in the Cast

Photo of Eliza Poe's Marriage Bond Courtesy of the Library of Virginia

Rare Engraving of the Richmond Theater Fire from the Collection of the Poe Museum

Copy of Only Known Letter Written by Eliza Poe Courtesy of the Lilly Library, Indiana

On December 3, 2011 at 1:00 P.M. at the Parish Hall at St. John’s Church, the Poe Museum will present a lecture by distinguished Poe scholar Richard Kopley on his thirty years of focused research into the hidden meanings of Edgar Allan Poe’s works. Kopley’s forty-five minute talk, “My Adventures with Poe,” will change the way you see Poe and his best-known stories and poems. Kopley’s original perspectives on Poe’s timeless works will provide fresh insights into Poe’s inspirations and creative process.

Richard Kopley is Associate Professor of English at Penn State DuBois and Head of the Division of English for Penn State’s Commonwealth College. He is the author of a forthcoming volume on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, as well as of numerous scholarly articles on Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville. He is the editor of Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations (Duke UP, 1992), Prospects for the Study of American Literature (New York UP, 1997), and the Penguin edition of Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1999). He is also co-editor of the journal Resources for American Literary Study, past president of the Poe Studies Association, and a trustee of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum.

Kopley’s scrutiny of Poe’s works and comprehensive understanding of Poe’s life has allowed him to see Poe in new ways. One of Kopley’s theories is that Poe’s detective stories could have been a response to an unsolved mystery in his own life. According to Kopley, “Poe’s biological father abandoned the family 12 months before his sister, Rosalie, was born, and that was a very big deal at the time. I’m inferring that Poe created the detective story and the character of Dupin [hero of Poe’s stories “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Purloined Letter,” and “The Mystery of Marie Roget”] to solve mysteries in place of the mystery he can’t solve: who is Rosalie’s father?”

The lecture is free to the public, and copies of Kopley’s limited edition booklet The Very Profound Under-Current in Arthur Gordon Pym will be available for signing and purchase.

It’s that time of year again. Kids are wearing costumes, decorating pumpkins, and hunting for candy. On October 29, they can do all those things and more while getting an introduction to great literature at the same time by coming to Poe’s Pumpkin Patch at the Poe Museum. The event runs from noon until 5 P.M. and is included in the price of Poe Museum admission. The Poe-themed games include a mummy wrapping contest inspired by “Some Words with a Mummy,” a black cat pinata inspired by “The Black Cat,” a treasure hunt inspired by “The Gold Bug” and “The Purloined Letter,” and more. A costume contest will allow guests to show off their costumes, and pumpkin decorating will be available for them to exercise their creativity. So make sure your kids grow up weird by bringing them to Poe’s Pumpkin Patch on October 29.

Get into the Halloween spirit and help raise money for the Poe Museum by shopping at the Chesterfield Towne Center Barnes & Noble on October 23rd!

All you have to do is come to the store (located at 11500 Midlothian Turnpike) on October 23rd, 2011 and buy books. When you get to the register mention you are with the Poe Museum and a percentage of the money you spend will go to support the Poe Museum in Richmond. Anything you buy, from books to Nooks to muffins in the coffee shop helps.

We’ll have a host of fun and activities throughout the day including Black Cat & Raven puppet making, readings of Poe’s works and readings from the new Richmond Macabre horror anthology as well as a special appearance by Unhappy Hour favorite Beggars of Life.

Here is a schedule of the activities planned for the day:

10 A.M.-Noon Make your own black cat and raven puppets
Noon “The Pit and the Pendulum” read by Scott Bergman of Haunts of Richmond
1 P.M. Reading from the new horror anthology Richmond Macabre
2 P.M. Horror makeup demonstration by actor Keith Kaufelt
3 P.M. “Do You Know Poe?” Talk by Poe Museum Curator Chris Semtner
4 P.M. Another reading from Richmond Macabre
5:30 P.M. “The Tell-Tale Heart” Performed by Jamie Ebersole
6 P.M.-7:30 P.M. Live Music by Beggars of Life

So come out and do some shopping for All Hallow’s Read (What is “All Hallow’s Read”, you ask? Learn more here: http://www.allhallowsread.com) or get an early start on your Holiday shopping and feel good about helping the Poe Museum out at the same time!

Can’t make it out to Chesterfield Towne Center on the 23rd?
You can still help the Poe Museum by participating in our ONLINE BOOKFAIR from October 23rd through October 28th. Just visit bn.com/bookfairs and enter the Bookfair ID # 10564045 before you check out.

Buying books and helping out the Poe Museum, what could be better?

Are you the next Edgar Allan Poe? Find out June 17-23, 2012 at the next Edgar Allan Poe Young Writers’ Conference sponsored by the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. More information is available here.

The application for this year’s conference is now available at the link below.
Poe_Writers_Conf_App