Museum News
COVID-19 Update: Museums open by appointment as of Jan. 28, 2021
Effective January 28, 2021, McGuffey House and Museum will resume regular visitor hours, Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons, 1-5pm. All Covid safety protocols will be followed. Facemasks are required. Stay well, and we hope you can visit us soon.
Winter Paintings
With the heavy snows and frigid temperatures Ohio has received this month, it seems fitting to highlight two winter scenes painted by Miami’s most prominent and productive 20th century artist, Marston Hodgin (1903-2003). Both paintings are on exhibit in the museum.
February Thaw
Hueston Woods
McGuffey House in 1960
Photo by Arthur F. Conrad. Courtesy of Calvin Conrad.
Joan Teckman, 1929 -2020
Miami University and the Oxford community are saddened to learn the passing of Joan McNelly Teckman (1929-2020). Joan was the daughter of Walter and Freda McNelly, Oxford, Ohio, wife of Dr. Charles Teckman, Miami Class of 1951 and sister of Nancy Koutzen. Joan was employed over her lifetime as a professor of nursing at Miami University 1969-80, Indiana University 1979-81, and the University of Cincinnati 1982-90. An avid collector of McGuffey memorabilia, Joan was for many years a loyal volunteer at McGuffey House and Museum.
Birdwatching
With students largely absent from Miami's Oxford campus, our native wildlife has been more visible. This Red Tailed Hawk was enjoying an avian meal in the cypress tree on the McGuffey House grounds. Photos by Jeff Sabo, Miami University.
Visit from McGuffey HS Grad
Richard Coombs of Collinsville, McGuffey High School Class of 1944, recently visited the museum.
McGuffey High School was Miami University's laboratory school from 1910-1956. The school newspaper was the McGuffey Mirror. This issue, printed in December 1943, when Richard Coombs was a senior, reported Wilbur "Weeb" Eubank's visit to McGuffey. Beloved by his students and players, Eubank, Miami Class of 1928, would go on to a remarkable coaching career in the NFL. The paper also noted the turning of the tide in World War II.
Images of the McGuffeys
Learn how the McGuffey House and Museum is taking steps to preserve rare daguerreotypes of the McGuffey family. Images of the McGuffeys
The BEEPS Garden welcomes visitors to the Miami campus. Established in memory of Becca Eldemire, the garden features several native plants, including St. John's Wort, Monarda, blackberry and Echinacea purpurea, along with Paw Paw and Persimmon trees. There is a bench for relaxation and reflection.
Monarda
Echinacea purpurea
Collection Curiosities
Boot Jack
Note: A fascinating aspect of everyday household objects is how they frequently incorporated contemporary fashion with function. This column shares one of McGuffey House and Museum’s many collection curiosities.
It is winter 1833. Oxford’s weather is rainy and raw. Professor McGuffey enters through the front door of his new house on Spring Street after a long day teaching and preparing class lectures in Old Main. Careful not to track in mud from the unpaved walks and street, not to mention the ire of Harriet McGuffey, William Holmes McGuffey pauses over a simple yet invaluable household object. It is a bug-like artifact by the fire place known simply as a boot jack. Produced by numerous local foundries during the 19th century, boot jacks were used to easily remove boots hands free. Read more about the boot jack »
From our collections
Unidentified Portraits
? John Insco Williams (1813-1873)
These portraits depict two unknown individuals, believed to have been residents of Richmond, Indiana, during the early 1830s. The female subject, seated in a Queen Anne chair, is distinguished by her Apollo hairstyle, diamond earrings and black dress. The male subject, presumably her husband but possibly a brother, wears a black wool coat, cravat and tie pin. Both subjects may have been painted by John Insco Williams (1813-1873) an itinerant painter in eastern Indiana from 1832-1835.
Information on the unidentified couple is welcome! Contact Steve Gordon
Bishop Sideboard
Mahogany, 1790–1815
This sideboard belonged to the first president of Miami University, Robert Hamilton Bishop. Brought to Oxford by the Bishops in 1824, it stood in the entry hall of the Bishop home until the 1930s.
In 1991, Dr. Jonathan S. Bishop donated the sideboard to Miami University and the McGuffey Museum.
Peter Bruner's top hat and hatbox
Overcoming years of slavery, voluntary service in the Union Army, and decades of manual labor, celebrated Oxford citizen Peter Bruner's life is a story worth telling and re-telling. The Museum collection includes his top hat and hat box.
Octagonal table
It is thought that McGuffey wrote the first four books in the series in this house, very possibly on this table.
1840s pie safe
Poplar with pierced tin panels, 1840–1850
Cupboards of this type were used for food storage. The pierced tin panels allowed air circulation without letting rodents and large insects foul the foodstuffs.