Published: May 10, 2008 06:08 pm            

Howard Steamboat Chautauqua to celebrate the 1950s

Jeffersonville’s Howard Steamboat Museum will be celebrating its 50th anniversary by taking residents back to the 1950s with this year’s Victorian Chautauqua.

Hula hoop contests, an Elvis impersonator with “a voice like velvet” and speakers and plays devoted to the era are on tap for the event, said Yvonne Knight, museum director.

The Victorian Chautauqua takes place May 17 and May 18. It’s the outdoor festival’s 16th year.

On May 18, 1958, Loretta Howard — the widow of Capt. Jim Howard — opened the doors of the family’s home as a museum where people could learn about the history of the steamboat era and the part the Howard family and their shipyards played in that story.

“We’re looking at what else was going on in the 50s,” Knight said.

Speaker Steve Wiser will have a presentation relating to how buildings, streets and neighborhoods in Louisville have changed since the 1950s. And an original play, called “Spring Street,” will give Chautauqua-goers a glimpse of life in downtown Jeffersonville during the era. For the philatelists in the area, the U.S. Postal Service officials will be on hand for a special stamp cancellation.

The usual arts, crafts and antique vendor booths and book signings will be a part of the goings-on as well, Knight said.

The steamboat museum is teaming up with the Clark County Youth Shelter this year to offer something more for kids. The youth shelter is having a Family Fun Festival fundraiser at the Port Fulton Park, immediately behind the museum, on May 17.

“They’ll have dunking booths and kids’ activities that we normally wouldn’t have at chautauqua,” she said. “We’re going to see how it works, we’re going to try it.”

The steamboat museum is a nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization. It receives no regular government funding, Knight said. It has a budget of about $90,000 annually. The chautauqua typically brings in about $10,000.

“It helps us with operating funds, which is something you rarely get from a grant,” Knight said.

Additionally, the festival brings in a lot of people who wouldn’t normally visit the institution.

“Our numbers change according to the weather — and every year new people come through.

“At least 60 percent — 600 to 800 — of those people say ‘I’ve never been here before,’” Knight said.

        

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