The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk has won an award from the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH) for its exhibit “The Stairs Below: The Mansion”™s Domestic Servants, 1868-1938.” It was a museum-wide exhibition and guided tour, with focus on documents, artifacts, images, costumes and uniforms ”” and the mansion plan itself ”” displayed throughout the period rooms of the museum.
The exhibition was made possible with support from the museum”™s Chairman of the Board Patsy Brescia and the board of trustees, the city of Norwalk and the state of Connecticut. There was funding from Connecticut Humanities and The Maurice Goodman Foundation, Klaffs and The Xerox Foundation. Among the personnel credited with the exhibition”™s success were museum Executive Director Susan Gilgore, Raechel Guest, Jennifer Pustz and Kathleen Motes Bennewitz.
Brescia said, “We are proud and honored to have received this prestigious award, which highlights, locally and nationally, the significance of the mansion”™s history, its legacy and important relationship to the American experience.”
The award will be presented at a banquet during the 2017 AASLH Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 8. The awards program was begun in 1945 to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation and interpretation of state and local history throughout the U. S.
