'Dolls' Day Out' Returns to Mercer in March

The annual event is a popular program at Doylestown's Mercer Museum.

A popular event will return to Doylestown's Mercer Museum, and tickets already are selling out. The museum will hold its annual Dolls' Day Out event on Saturday, March 9. Children can dress up and bring their favorite dolls to the Mercer Museum for a day of fun and fashion. Guests will enjoy a special tea and doll fashion show in the Mercer’s Elkins Gallery and a meet-and-greet with the "Doll Fairy."   Other activities include storytelling, learning about Victorian tea etiquette, shopping for the latest in doll fashions and a make-and-take craft. Participants can also visit the Mercer’s latest exhibit, Linedrives and Lipstick: The Untold Story of Women’s Baseball. This is the museum's 18th annual Dolls' Day Out, and tickets are required. …

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Sarah Larson

4:58 pm on Sunday, February 24, 2013

Bonnie, thank you so much. It is the 9th, and I corrected it in the post.   more ›

Still Time to see Holiday Toy Exhibit

The Mercer Museum's display of classic toys continues into January.

The Mercer Museum kicked off the holiday season recently with its 2nd annual holiday exhibit, Under the Tree: A Century of Holiday Trees and Toys.   Under the Tree captures the excitement of Christmas from a child’s point of view and features trees decorated to the tastes of earlier eras, and toys and games that delighted children on Christmas mornings’ past.  The exhibit, which opened on Dec. 1, will run until Jan. 13. Under the Tree: A Century of Holiday Trees and Toys will feature trees decorated with period ornaments and quality reproductions that show the evolution of this Christmas tradition from the 1860's through the 1960's. The exhibit draws from major private collections, and includes some of the most popular playthings of the …

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Museums Hold Annual Open Houses

Annual open houses at the Mercer and Michener museums on Tuesday night helped usher in the holiday season.

An annual community tradition returned to Doylestown Tuesday, as the Mercer and Michener Museums partnered to offer an evening of free holiday fun to the local community.  Guests could tour all seven levels of the Mercer Museum and enjoy entertainment by the Bucks County Women's Chorus, Central Bucks High School East Instrumental Chamber Ensembles and Symphonic Band, Bucks County Country Gentlemen, Delaware Valley College Chorale, The Love Notes, One Voice Hand Bell Choir and Tamanend Middle School Gold'n'Blue.   Children visited Santa in the Museum's Log House; guests also could participate in the Burning of the Greens bonfire, sing along with the Mercer Carolers and visit the museum's exhibitions: Apron Chronicles: A Patchwork of …

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This Was Doylestown

This Was Doylestown, 1962

Bucks County dedicates a new courthouse in Doylestown, James A. Michener campaigns for Congress, and a movie is made at the Mercer Museum, 50 years ago this week.

Bucks County Commissioners Edward B. Boyer, John J. Bodley and Adolph A. Andrews on Saturday morning formally dedicated the Bucks County Courthouse. The ceremony, held outdoors in the courthouse square under a cloudless sky, began at 10:30 a.m. with a musical program by the United States Steel Chorus and the Quakertown Band. The Rev. Oswald Ebert, pastor of Christ Lutheran Church, Tinicum Township, gave the invocation, and the Rev. Raymond J. Hinsworth of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Doylestown, offered the benediction. President Judge Edward G. Biester, giving the principal address of the day, cited court statistics showing how the mushrooming population growth of Bucks in the last decade made larger court accommodations a necessity. "…

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Jeff Lugar

9:04 am on Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Great photo. I'd seen pictures of that old court house, but not one of it next to the start of our current one.   more ›

Museums, Theater Win Tourism Grants

Several Doylestown area institutions were among those receiving money as Visit Bucks County marked National Tourism Day.

  The Mercer Museum, the James A Michener Art Museum, and Town and Country Players are just three Doylestown area destinations that have benefitted from grants from the county's tourism promotion agency. Visit Bucks County celebrated National Tourism Day on May 8 by giving away awards and money. Tourism officials and business partners met at the Bucks County Visitor Center in Bensalem. The event was one of 75 similar ones nationwide celebrating the industry for Tourism Day. Visit Bucks Executive Director Jerry Lepping noted that “tourism in Bucks County supports 11,000 jobs and generates $814 million in the local economy.” In honor of National Tourism Day, Lepping spoke of the group’s participation in a national tourism effort and its …

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Living With the Bomb

"Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow" examines American life in the shadow of the A-bomb.

On August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. On August 9, the United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. For most Americans, the immediate reaction to the atomic bomb was relief; it had ended the war. But as the United States celebrated, it braced itself for the uncertain future of the Atomic Age. For the next two decades, the looming threat of Atomic war dominated American society. The traveling exhibition, "Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow: Living with the Atomic Bomb, 1945-1965" examines the way in which Americans experienced the Atomic threat as part of their daily lives. The exhibit makes its East Coast debut at the Mercer Museum on Friday, April 6, and will run …

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Mercer Museum Receives Grant From William Penn Foundation

The money will help the Mercer pay for a staff member to shepherd new exhibits at the 96-year-old museum.

The Mercer Museum has received a multi-year grant from the William Penn Foundation in the amount of $183,810 to establish the position of Curator of Exhibitions. Funds also provide general support for the Museum Exhibition Program. "We are extremely grateful to the William Penn Foundation for funding the position of Curator of Exhibitions at the Mercer Museum," said Mercer Museum Executive Director, Doug Dolan. "This newly created position will play a pivotal role in developing the new changing exhibits program to attract and engage new audiences as we move to transform the Mercer Museum. Further, the Foundation’s support is an important component of building organizational capacity for the Mercer Museum.” The Mercer will mount six or more…

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Registration Open for Dolls Day Out

Kids, dolls, and tea make for an entertaining day at the Mercer Museum.

Children are invited to escape the winter doldrums by dressing up and bringing their favorite dolls to the Mercer Museum for a day on the town. One of the museum’s most popular community events, Dolls’ Day Out includes a host of doll-related activities and takes place on Saturday, March 10 from 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Guests to Dolls’ Day Out will enjoy a special tea and doll fashion show in the Mercer’s elegant Elkins Gallery featuring distinctive pastries by The Sweet Side, of Warminster.  Doll lovers can also shop for the latest in doll fashions, enjoy a make-a-doll craft station, listen to stories of dolls from other cultures with storyteller, Jane King and help prepare a 1700s meal in the Mercer Museum’s Log House.  As an added bonus …

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Museum Offers Family Fun on Day Off

The Mercer Museum will have plenty for the small set to do in honor of Presidents Day.

On Presidents’ Day Weekend, the Mercer Museum will be hosting family-friendly activities for visitors. On Monday, Feb. 20, food historian Susan Plaisted will entertain and educate visitors with her program. Plaisted will prepare, cook, and interpret “The Foodways of Washington’s Time” in the Mercer Museum’s Log House from noon-4 p.m.  Plaisted will cook Washington’s favorite breakfast – mush cakes with butter and honey - and discuss the Washington family, the seasonality of foods and the presentation of the meal. Guests can help prepare the breakfast by grinding corn in a quern. “The Foodways of Washington’s Time”  is included with museum admission. In addition, visitors can see "ToyTime," the Mercer's latest exhibit featuring giant-sized …

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Doylestown Museums Celebrate the Season

Both Mercer and Michener museums held their annual open houses Tuesday night.

It seemed half of Doylestown turned out for the annual Holiday Open House sponsored jointly by both Mercer and Michener museums Tuesday night. If you weren’t in a festive mood before, you surely must have been by the time you left. With seasonal entertainment provided by local talents, the soft lights of flickering luminarias lining walkways, the scents of hot cider mingling with embers created by a nicely-stoked bonfire all point toward a perfect December night. Mercer’s executive director Doug Dolan was stationed outside at the bonfire where the annual “burning of the greens” takes place. Visitors toss evergreen branches onto the hot fire and the symbolic gesture allows you to “wish your troubles away” in hopes of a better new year to …

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