Seward House employees have found it takes more than snow and sub-freezing temperatures to deter eager history buffs from visiting the museum during what other institutions might consider their tourism off-season.

Jennifer Haines, the curator of education and outreach at the Seward House museum, said that with the recent publicity from two books and even a pending Hollywood movie, which portrayed the Seward family's involvement in American history, tourists have been coming year-round.

“For the first time ever, we will be open in January because we have been so busy this year,” Haines said. “We have seen a huge raise in attendance over the past couple of years, and this year especially.”

So far this year, the museum has seen nearly 10,000 visitors, while the past two years' attendance has been at nearly 12,000, Haines said.

Haines said she also believes the house offers a unique display of history that makes it stand out from similar museums because it still has all of the original everyday items the family used.

“It's a collection from that time period,” Haines said. “These are the chairs the family sat in, these are the dishes the family ate with and those are the cigars (Seward) really smoked.”

Playing off William Seward's role as the Secretary of State for presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, the house will even be implementing a lecture series on the diplomatic gallery, Haines said. All 132 images in the gallery were collected from foreign dignitaries and people of historical influence during the Civil War time period.

“It's just wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor paintings,” Haines said. “Visitors are always astonished by the pictures, faces and names that they never heard of, in addition to those they have. We have paintings of Napoleon Bonaparte, Queen Victoria, Lincoln, the king of Siam, various South American rulers and so on.”

For the lecture, Haines said visitors could just pull up a seat and listen to Karen Bove talk about the paintings of abolitionist John Brown, Emma, the queen of the Sandwich Islands, which later became known as Hawaii, and Prince Gortchakov, the Russian foreign minister during the Civil War.

“Karen use to work for the Seward House, and she has done several lectures for us over the years,” Haines said. “She loves doing research, and she has such a passion for local history. When we talked about doing a series on the paintings, she got really excited and just took off.”

This fall's lecture will be on the same three people as a similar lecture last spring, but Haines said plans were in development to do different people each year.

“There are so many people and interesting stories on that wall that we will never run out of material,” Haines said. “Each painting tells a story and they are all exciting.”

And part of the excitement for the museum was the stories, Haines said.

One popular story tied into a bloody bed sheet that the museum had on display, Haines said. As John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln, Lewis Powell was also attempting to kill Seward. As Powell attacked his target in his sleep, he was thwarted by a neck brace that Seward was wearing because of a carriage accident.

“People always leave here with amazing family stories; it's part of the appeal,” Haines said.

Though the summer tourism season has come to an end, Haines said those stories will ensure that local foot traffic and school tour groups keep coming.

“It's amazing how broad (Seward's) influence was,” Haines said. “People seem to love learning about his diplomatic ties and how influential he was in the Civil War, the underground railroad and the purchase of Alaska.”

Nate Robson

253-5311 ext. 248

nathan.robson@lee.net