Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994 TAG: 9401200388
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hill, who recently became director of the museum, wants to make the museum bigger - not necessarily bigger in size, but in influence.
"There are a lot of top-notch small museums that work on small budgets," she said. "We just need to get the right kind of energy."
The museum is on Salem's East Main Street in the southeast corner of Longwood Park.
One of the high-priority goals she's working toward is to build a communitywide education program.
"I would like to see an ongoing education program that would use special programs to take the museum into schools and to other community groups," she said.
And she is reaching out to more-experienced people for help with the project.
"I've been talking to a lot of museum directors for advice on how to start an educational program," she said.
Hill also would like to further develop the museum's docent program.
Docents are volunteers who staff the front desk and gift shop and help keep the museum open on a regular schedule. Most of them are members of the Salem Historical Society, which owns and operates the museum.
Hill points out that more volunteers are needed, because the museum does not have the money to hire enough people to fill all of the available jobs.
Aside from getting more docents, Hill would like to devise a way to use the historical memories that many of the volunteers have of Salem.
"I would like to see them bring their histories to the museum," she said.
Hill said she also envisions a time when the museum will have a set schedule of annual special programs, such as a fall program that would go to all Salem schools and a spring program that would be given somewhere in the community.
One program along that line is the current "Christmas Through The Ages," an exhibit enhanced by decorations provided by members of the Lake Spring Garden Club. The exhibit runs through December.
It opened Dec. 4 as part of a larger communitywide program including the Salem Christmas parade, in which the museum made its first appearance in a 1925 school bus, the Olde Fashioned Christmas celebration and the Salem Community Christmas Store, a holiday shopping place for disadvantaged families.
Hill is a native of Salem and a granddaughter of Sam Crockett Sr., longtime civic leader in Southwest Virginia.
Name: Mary Crockett Hill.
Age: 24.
Residence: Blacksburg, where her husband, Stewart, is studying toward a doctorate in biology at Virginia Tech.
Education: West Salem and Carver elementary schools in Salem; Andrew Lewis, when it was a junior high school; Salem High; Roanoke College; and the University of Virginia, where she earned a master's degree in fine arts and creative writing.
Family: Her husband is the son of Bill Hill, a professor at Roanoke College. Her father is Bob Crockett Jr.; her mother is Nedra Wade Crockett. Mary is the youngest in a family of four daughters and three sons.
Other jobs: This is her first formal job. While a student at UVa, she taught a few creative-writing classes. She has done free-lance writing in the public relations field.
Hobbies: Reading and writing poetry. This interest led her to become a member of the board of Artemis, a local arts magazine.
Favorite type of literature: Poetry, but she also enjoys old letters written by people known and unknown. Her favorite letters are those that reflect the daily lives of people in times past. Since joining the museum, she has been deep into old letters written by Salem residents of former times.
Favorite historical period: History was never her college major, but Hill said she has always had an interest in it. There is no period she would call favorite, except perhaps for studying the daily lives of people in the 1800s and early 1900s.
However, she is interested in why so many people are drawn to the American Civil War.
There are many books, programs and organizations devoted to the Civil War, she said, and many people have a passionate interest in that period. She is curious about why.
Sports: Walking and, with her husband, baseball. Favorite team is New York Yankees.
Favorite type of recreation: Socializing with friends.
Church affiliation: College Lutheran in Salem, where her family and her husband's family are longtime members.
by CNB