Everhart Museum in Scranton marks 115th anniversary

May 20—SCRANTON — Hundreds of newcomers and frequent and infrequent visitors alike celebrated the 115th anniversary of the Everhart Museum on Saturday.

The "Everhart 115 Community Day" offered free museum admission with special activities from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. At a front desk, visitor relations supervisor Delmar Guziewicz used a handheld clicker to count the number of people entering the museum. By 1:53 p.m., 452 people entered the Everhart.

The region's only natural history, science and art museum, the Everhart, dating to 1908, endures as a cultural gem of Scranton, visitors and employees said.

Debbie Lanphear of Scranton, who attended the Community Day with family members, said, "It's a really nice event. I'm enjoying it."

Lanphear had visited the Everhart many times over the years since childhood.

"All through my life, at different times, for all different reasons," she said. "Some of my earliest memories are from here — school trips, Girl Scouts. And living close, we would just, if it was a rainy day, especially if it was summer, we would come up."

Andrea Ranella of Clarks Green last visited the museum about 20 years ago and returned Saturday.

"I think it's a great gift to the community," Ranella said of the Everhart. "I wish more people utilized it. I wish they had more family events, like for kids, to make kids aware of it."

Abimelec Irizarry, 10, of Scranton was one of many children who had fun soaking in all of the arts and crafts and demonstrations offered inside and outside of the museum.

His father, Jose Irizarry, said they had been to Nay Aug Park many times before to walk the trails and navigate a remote-controlled toy boat on the fish pond, but Saturday was their first time inside the museum.

"It's really nice. I like all the bird displays, all of the art — beautiful," Jose Irizarry said.

A statue exhibit on the second floor of the museum titled "Crouching Venus," a marble copy of the Roman original, had colorful note cards for visitors to write down a wish and leave in a basin surrounding the statue. Hundreds of handwritten wishes ranged from humorous and lighthearted to sad or poignant.

One wish asked to "hit the lottery big" and for a house, while another asked for "good health and life." Another card read in part: "Dear Venus, my wish is to just be happy. I'm so depressed all of the time, but I don't want to admit it."

The Community Day followed the museum's honoring of its namesake, Dr. Isaiah Fawkes Everhart, on Thursday with the opening of a "Founder's Gallery." This exhibit traces Everhart's life from childhood in Southeast Pennsylvania through his time as a Civil War medic to settling in Scranton and establishing the museum at Nay Aug Park.

As a naturalist, Everhart studied natural history and the flora and fauna around him, particularly ornithology. Establishing the museum allowed him to share with the public his taxidermized birds, natural history specimens and more, which formed the museum's original collection.

The museum's offerings include a wide variety of paintings, sculptures, rocks and minerals, to name a few.

"We take it for granted, what we have in this area," said museum gallery attendant Kendra Weber. "We're always going somewhere else (to museums and tourist attractions) and we have it right here."

For more information, see everhart-museum.org or on Facebook.

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