2012 In Review

Ashleigh's Note: December 2012 marks 7 months for me at Marble Springs, and I wanted to highlight everything that happened during 2012, since we didn't post that many entries since my hire! Here they are, in no particular order.

• CAP: We completed the Collections Assessment Program in the fall of 2012, which brought in 2 assessors to evaluate the buildings and collections here at Marble Springs. We will be utilizing their report this year to improve the state of our collections.
• Arboretum: As noted in the last post, we are now officially a TUFC Level 1 Arboretum!
• Successful Programming: One reason that we had fewer posts was because of all of the programming! We had our annual events, such as the Storytelling Festival, Statehood Days, John Sevier Days, Halloween Haunts & Haints, Candlelight Tours, and a wide variety of workshops. We want to thank EVERYONE who helped out or attended any of these events and helped us make them a success.
• Farmer's Market: We had our second successful season and look forward to a third. We brought on an intern, Jessie, to serve as the manager of the market, and are very pleased with her enthusiasm and ideas for making the 2013 season even better.
• Transit of Venus: Over 300 people came out to see this once-in-a-lifetime event!
• HHK Founder's Day Luncheon: Collaborating with the other Historic Homes of Knoxville, we enjoyed the 2nd year for this event, which celebrated the 211th birthday of Knoxville. Senator Lamar Alexander was the guest speaker, and reminded us why the historic homes are important to the city. He said, "If you really want to understand the history of our country, you've got to know about Knoxville and these homes here are a celebration of that time. One of the reasons Knoxville is important is there's no city in the eastern United States that was a more important gateway to the west than Knoxville, Tennessee at the time the United States became a country."
• Video Grant:  We received a $2500 grant from the United States Federation of Friends of Museums to produce a video tour that will be accessible through QR Codes. We should be completing production some time in 2013.
• Eagle Scout Projects: Eagle Scouts installed bluebird houses, made recycling bins for events and rentals, and created a compost bin and fire pits to protect the ground from being scorched.
• Twitter: Our cats found their way into social media, thinking that it was about birds. We are learning so much about them and how they see the site through their account. It seems that John Sevier is now interested in learning more about his namesake, Cinnamon loves the vet but doesn't like going there, and Boots likes to take pictures of himself (or for us to take pictures of him).

Thanks for a great 2012, and I look forward to seeing everyone out here in 2013!

Arboretum Certification

As some of you may have noticed on our social media pages, we were recently designated as a Level 1 Arboretum by the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council.

Groundskeeper John Gammon with Jim Cortese, receiving our official sign.

"Guidelines define an arboretum as an area with a significant amount of woody vegetation in tree form that is cultivated for educational, scientific or aesthetic purposes. To be certified, an arboretum must be open to the public, the trees must be properly labeled for educational purposes, and they must be properly protected and maintained during the period of certification." -TUFC guidelines 

To become an official Level 1 Arboretum, our Groundskeeper, John Gammon, had to identify at least 30 different types of trees (note: we now have over 40!).

We are also on our way to Level 2 (though it may be a few years before we try for that certification). We created a map and numbering system for the trees, which will soon be available to visitors.

Look for these labels around our property and on our trails!

We plan to offer future programming based around the arboretum, including something for Arbor Day in April.