The Silver City Museum will open a new interactive exhibition on Saturday, December 20, 2014 from 1 pm to 3 pm. The exhibit will allow visitors to enter into and experience the Victorian Parlor of the H. B. Ailman family.
H. B. Ailman built the home in 1881 that now houses the Silver City Museum. The parlor has been designed for guests to actually use the vintage and reproduction furniture and games, and experience what a fine home in Silver City would have been like in the 1890s. Parlors were used to express wealth and for entertaining guests.
You will be able to meet Mr. Ailman in person during the opening. Scott Green, Curator of Education at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, will be making a special appearance as H. B. Ailman.
Trained and employed at various local sites and museums, Scott Green brings the past alive and elevates an understanding of the natural environment through engaging interpretation, storytelling and dynamic living history performances. He graduated from New Mexico State University with an MA in History and has worked at the Maryland Science Center, the New Mexico Museum of Space History, and is currently employed as Senior Educator at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.
Scott's living history characters cover a multitude of eras and personalities. His first and longest running living history character is famed New Mexico sheriff Pat Garrett, most famous for dispatching Billy the Kid in 1881. Scott has portrayed Garrett for twelve years, covering the lawman's life from his early days as Lincoln County Sherriff to the hours before his demise in 1908.
Scott's other historical characters include Father Silvestre Vélez de Escalante a Spanish friar and explorer, author and wildlife artist Ernest Thompson Seton, and Fort Craig scout and poet Jack Crawford. Some of his notable composite characters include 1967 hippie and innovative agriculturist Forest Green, 1882 snake oil salesman Doctor William Wilikins, and cattle drover Jeremiah Douglas.
Scott performs with the goal of audience involvement and historical immersion. He has roamed the state in character, appearing at El Rancho de Las Golondrinas, the New Mexico History Museum, the Silver City Museum, Deming's Rockhound State Park, the McKeen Ranch in Glenwood and Eastern New Mexico Fair in Roswell.
Funding in part for all exhibits and programs at the museum is made possible by the generous support of the members and volunteers of the Silver City Museum Society.
The Silver City Museum creates opportunities for residents and visitors to explore, understand, and celebrate the rich and diverse cultural heritage of Southwestern New Mexico by collecting, preserving, researching and interpreting the regions unique history. For more information about the museum and its programs please contact Museum staff at (575) 538-5921 or info@silvercitymuseum.org .