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Event

Beaver Island Museum Week, 1985

Also Museum Week 1985 · 6th Annual Museum Week

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypeEvent
Dates1985-07-15 – 1985-07-20
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Event
Dates
1985-07-15 – 1985-07-20
Kind
Celebration
Where
Mormon Print Shop
Carried out by
Beaver Island Historical Society
Followed by
Beaver Island Museum Week, 1986
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
celebrationcommunityheritageexhibition
Within
Beaver Island

Summary

The Beaver Island Historical Society called its 1985 Museum Week (July 15-20) the “6th annual,” making 1985 the earliest year in the held record where the Society itself gives an explicit, contemporary annual count – one of three inconsistent annual counts recorded across the corpus (see the hub article’s Origins section). The August recap calls it a success, netting over $1,100, and names a committee chair, Ann Broder, for the first time in the held record.

Program

A house tour of five pre-World-War-I St. James residences on Tuesday, July 16 (the McCann house, the Bride’s Cottage/“Nonie’s House,” Hoffman Cottage, the King Strang Hotel, and the apartment above McDonough’s store); quilt lectures and a clinic by Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham on Monday and Tuesday; a Great Lakes history lecture on the “Manistique Connection” by Steve Harold of Manistee; Protar’s Home open Wednesday and Friday, hosted as usual by the Society; Dr. Jim Gillingham’s snake lecture with live specimens, Thursday evening at Beaver Haven Marina; Music on the Porch, featuring island musician Claudia Schmidt among others; a Pet Show; an Island Gallery art show; and a closing Museum Dance for which the Ed Palmer group donated its performance.

Evidence limits

The recap does not name every performer at Music on the Porch, only Claudia Schmidt specifically among “the many Island musicians.” No day-by-day attendance figures survive; only the season’s net total ($1,100+) is recorded.

Open questions

  • If 1985 was the “6th annual,” the implied first year is roughly 1980, consistent with the Society’s own 1980 Curator-Director’s Report calling that year’s program “an experimental Museum Week” (see the 1980 edition). No single source reconciles this count with the “9th annual” (1988) and “24th consecutive”/“26th” counts recorded in later years; see the hub’s Origins section for the full discrepancy.

See also

Sources

  1. Advance notice for "MUSEUM WEEK, July 15 through 20 1985": an Art Show at the Island Gallery, the annual book sale, Music on the Porch at the Print Shop, a new "House Tour," a Quilt Show and Exhibit with Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham, and a natural-history evening with Dr. Jim Gillingham of CMU. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1985-06_Beaver-Beacon
  2. The held nineteen-page June issue PDF is paired with the canonical OCR source and confirms the Museum Week advance notice.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1985-06_Beaver-Beacon
  3. Calls it the Society's "6th annual Museum Week" and gives the July 15-20 program: a house tour of five pre-World-War-I St. James residences (the McCann house, the Bride's Cottage/"Nonie's House", Hoffman Cottage, the King Strang Hotel, and the apartment above McDonough's store) on Tuesday, July 16, 11-4; Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham's quilt lectures Monday and Tuesday; a Steve Harold lecture on the "Manistique Connection"; Protar's Home open Wednesday and Friday; and Dr. Jim Gillingham's snake lecture with live specimens, Thursday, July 18, 8 p.m., at Beaver Haven Marina. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1985-07_Beaver-Beacon
  4. The held twenty-six-page July/August combined issue PDF, filed canonically as July 1985, is paired with the remote OCR and confirms the Museum Week advance notice.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1985-07_Beaver-Beacon
  5. Reports "Our 6th Annual Museum Week from July 15-20 was a great success," netting over $1,100. Names committee chair Ann Broder; house-tour hosts the Runbergs, Damstras, Helen Collar, Skip McDonough, and the King Strang Hotel group; Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham; Jim Gillingham; Ginny Macken and the Island Gallery; musician Claudia Schmidt among "the many Island musicians" on the Print Shop porch; and the Ed Palmer group, which played the dance for free. Announces the 1986 Museum Week theme (maritime heritage) and dates, July 14-19. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1985-08_Beaver-Beacon
  6. The held eighteen-page August–September combined issue PDF, filed canonically as August 1985, is paired with the remote OCR and confirms the Museum Week recap and 1986 advance notice.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1985-08_Beaver-Beacon

Added 3 August 2026 · revised 4 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island Museum Week, 1985”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-museum-week-1985/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Island Historical Society notice, Beaver Beacon, June 1985. (and 5 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-04. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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