A Little Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the Marin History Museum's blog! My name is Marissa Friedman, and I am a new member of the blogging team for Marin History Museum, serving as an intern in the education and marketing department. This past summer I worked as an intern in the curatorial department, where I helped MHM curator Holly Gallagher with the research and artifact collection needed for the museum's upcoming Justice and Judgment exhibition, premiering this fall. I am currently a junior at the University of Puget Sound in Washington, where I am majoring in history (and maybe double-minoring in comparative sociology and politics and government). I am so excited to share my passion for history with you all, and I hope that you have the opportunity to visit the new Justice and Judgment exhibition at the Marin History Museum later this fall. Feel free to send me any comments, questions, or concerns you may have....I'll be happy to respond to your inquiries!
That's all for now!
Marissa

Trivia Night

This post was created by our 8th grade MHM volunteer, Tyler. Thank you, Tyler!

              Last night, August 18, at 7 pm there was an amazing trivia night. Hosted by the Elks Lodge, our trivia night was a huge success. Over 40 people attended. There were enormous banquets and all around fun. There were 4 rounds of trivia and through the muck and the mire, the images and music, the Cambodian dictators, the team known as Mental gymnastics came out on top.
              Marin native and rivia master extraordinaire Howard Rachelson gave the trivia. There were 4 rounds, Round 1, 10 questions was classic trivia covering many a subject. Round 2, Geographical music consisted of 10 tunes being played and competitors attempted to name each tune. Each tune was thematically invalid by name, as the title of each tune contained a geographical location. Round 3, the image round contained 10 images with questions asked about each, such as, who is this. Round 4 was the bonus round and was similarly themed to round 1.

Howard Rachelson

              Durring the night a raffle took place as well, where the winner took a prize of $91. Other prizes that night included tickets to a paranormal lecture, books, membership to the museum and more. If you made it I hope you had a good time, otherwise I hope you can attend our next event, a tour of the dominican neighborhood.    

Louise Boyd

This post was created by our 8th grade MHM volunteer, Tyler. Thank you, Tyler!         

 Louise Boyd was an american explorer of the arctic, born right here in San Rafael CA. She extensively noted her expeditions to Greenland and became and important asset in WWII.
           She was born on September 16, 1887. In her childhood she enjoyed playing with her older brothers Seth and John. They rode horses, explored Mt.Diablo, hunted, fished and led pretty adventurous lives. When Louise was a teenager both her brothers died of a heart disease during the same year. As a memorial, the Boyd family donated their gate house to San Rafael, where it is now serves as our Museum. Both her parents died between 1919 and 1920, leaving her with an amazing estate worth an enormous amount of money. It was that fortune that funded her explorations.

Louise Boyd on her first trip to Norway

           In 1924 she took her first trip to Norway. Legend has it that on said trip she saw a polar bear on the ice, which inspired her to explore the arctic. Her first pleasure trip was taken aboard the "Hobby" in 1926.  This was simply a pleasure trip to hunt and film. Her second voyage, in 1928 ended up being a rescue mission after Roald Amundsen had gone missing during his rescue mission of Umberto Nobile. Although she was unable to find them, her efforts were highly rewarded.
           Boyd's most famous voyages, however, were her scientific expeditions in 1931, 1933, 1937, and 1938. During these expeditions, she explored the North Eastern side of Greenland and wrote a book called The Fiord Region of Eastern Greenland. Her favorite area of Greenland, near the De Geer Glacier is still called Louise Boyd Land.
            After the start of WWII, Boyd's knowledge became an important resource to the US. She was directed not to publish her book and instead explore the strange magnetic and radio phenomena. In 1941 she organized an expedition for the National Bureau of Standards.  She had to charter the ship Effie M. Morrissey swell as pay for food, supplies and a crew. The findings of said expedition were important in the war and our victory.              
           After the war, Louise took part in many academics around the bay area such as the Academy of science, SF symphony and even an Honorary Law degree. She invested and lost the remainder of her money and had to sell her property to San Rafael. She died in San Francisco on September 14, 1972, 2 days before her 85th birthday.

New Blogger!

Hi guys my name is Tyler and I am the new blogger for the Marin History Museum. I am super exited to be doing this and I hope you will be ready to read and read and then procced to read some more because I will be cranking out these posts like gangbusters. There will be a new post weekly featuring an exhibit, artifact or person and a bonus for each new exhibit and event. I look forward to writing for you.
The first story will be on Louise Boyd. It will be posted sunday the 12th. The next event is trivia night Sat. 18th. More info on the calendar.