Date: Mon 18-Jan-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Kane-Harriet-Beecher-Stowe

Full Text:

NEVER RAN, BUT GOOD FOR REFERENCE: New Director At Stowe Center

HARTFORD (December 1998) -- Katherine D. Kane has been named executive

director of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. The appointment of Ms Kane as

the center's fourth director concluded a nationwide search.

Ms Kane was previously director of the collections services and access

division of the Colorado Historical Society (CHS) in Denver, where she

supervised a staff of 20 and had principal responsibility for the society's

"public face" at 15 sites around the state.

Among Ms Kane's accomplishments at CHS, which she joined in 1982, were the

successful completion of major capital projects; the centralization of

collections and access and visitor services; the creation of a commercial

sales program which produced a revenue of more than $1 million; the

development and implementation of a strategic technology plan; and the

production of an interactive videodisc and exhibits using 15,000 still images,

film and a database on Denver's history.

The Stowe Center is celebrating its 30th anniversary as a museum. The center

is on Forest Street in Hartford; telephone 860/525-9317. It offers guided

tours of the 1871 "cottage" where Harriet Beecher Stowe lived from 1873 until

her death in 1896.

Its simple facade of painted brick with gingerbread trim contrasts with its

richly decorated, high Victorian interior. Furnishings include many pieces

owned by the Stowes, including souvenirs of their European travels and

paintings by Harriet herself.

The Center's Stowe-Day Library is one of the country's major repositories of

materials on the Stowe and Beecher families, the women's suffrage movement,

19th Century black history, and Victorian art and architecture. The collection

includes more than 15,000 volumes, 6,000 pamphlets and 160,000 manuscript

items, including letters, photographs and audio-visual materials.