Barnum Museum and a Festival

Here's an example (and there are many) of museum news that interests me intersecting with other elements of my life.

A few years back, the women in my family (there are quite a few of us) had an online book club. One of the books we read was Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. No spoilers here, but I will say that the book was pretty sad but I loved the ending. The basic plot of the book follows a young man's journeys as a vet for a traveling circus during the Depression and the book earned a soft spot in my heart because it reminded me of not one but both of my grandfathers.

The second piece of this story is that it came to my attention a couple years ago that the city of Bridgeport, CT was trying to figure out how best to make use of its Barnum heritage in terms of the Barnum Museum and the annual Barnum Festival.

Not sure what the City of Bridgeport finally decided to do, but now it seems that the Barnum Museum is participating in One Book, One Middletown's celebration of Water for Elephants. The museum will host a seminar on the life of PT Barnum tomorrow.

Side note: I like the very prominent and direct fundraising appeal on the museum's website: "You Mean A Lot To Us And We Need Your Help!" At it's most basic, that's what all nonprofits need to convey to their supporters.