frequently asked questions
september 19, 2026
The Alderfield Historical Society Museum
Revised September 2026 by Diana Prentice, Curator and Sole Employee.
Q: What are your hours?
A: We are open Saturdays from ten to two. We are closed for the winter, which for our purposes begins the last weekend of October and ends the first weekend of May. Weather closures are announced in the Alderfield Weekly under “Community Notices” and never on the door itself, because I do not drive out in weather to update the door.
Q: Is there a fee?
A: There is no fee to enter the museum. Donations are welcomed and are deposited in the tin box on the entry table. The tin box is not a charitable enterprise separate from the Society; it is the Society, and any bill placed in it goes toward the electric bill and, in June, the annual bat exclusion service. The tin box is not a game. The tin box does not owe change.
Q: Do you sell any of the items on display?
A: No.
Q: What about the small wooden pipe on the second shelf of the third-room case?
A: The pipe is one of eleven items donated by the Feldrup family in 1949, and its label reads Pipe carved by Alderfield resident, mid-nineteenth century. It is not for sale. The three wooden pipes on that same shelf were all donated by the Feldrups, and I do not know which was the specific pipe of Otto Feldrup, though the middle one appears to be smaller and, in my opinion, older. This is speculation, and no reproduction, sketch, or rubbing will be provided.
Q: Can I take a photograph?
A: You may take a photograph. You may not take a photograph with flash, because flash damages nineteenth-century paper. If you wish to know whether a specific item is paper, please ask, and I will tell you. The rocking chair on the porch is not paper. The photograph you took of me sitting on the rocking chair, without asking, has been requested for deletion. Please do not photograph the curator.
Q: Do you know the story behind the Bergstrom hat?
A: I know as much of the story as we have documented. Please do not read to me from Wikipedia. The Society is aware that the Wikipedia entry on William Bergstrom asserts he was buried in his second-best hat. Our records do not corroborate this claim. The hat on display was donated by his granddaughter in 1968 as the Bergstrom hat, without further specification. We are content with what we have.
Q: Can you play the phonograph?
A: The phonograph is on display. It is not a listening station. I have played it three times in seventeen years, all for descendants of the donor, and each time it took approximately forty minutes to correctly set the needle, during which the descendants stood politely and I sweated. The phonograph will not be played today.
Q: What is in the small locked drawer beneath the map case?
A: The small locked drawer beneath the map case contains supplies for the museum: pencils, receipt books, three unopened boxes of raffle tickets from a 1972 fundraiser, and my thermos. The lock is because the drawer sticks, and turning the key is easier than pulling. It is not a mystery drawer. If it were a mystery drawer we would advertise the mystery.
Q: Would the Society consider hiring a second staff member?
A: The Society does not have the budget for a second staff member. If the questioner is offering to volunteer, please note that the volunteer application has been available in the tin box since 2019. If the questioner is offering to volunteer in a form other than filling out the volunteer application, the Society is not interested. Please stop asking.
Q: Is there a bathroom?
A: There is a bathroom. It is on the ground floor, past the schoolhouse-desk display, on the left. The bathroom is for adults only during museum hours; children under twelve are asked to use the bathroom before or after their visit. This is because the bathroom door does not close properly and because I have replaced the mirror twice.
Q: Do you host events?
A: The Society does not host events. The Society is not a venue. If you are inquiring about the possibility of proposing to a specific person in the phonograph room, that is not an event we will host, and I have said so once in writing and once in person, and this is the third occasion, and the answer is still no.
Q: What is your policy on service dogs?
A: Service dogs are welcome. Emotional support dogs are welcome at the discretion of the curator. The Society is aware that the ADA does not require the disclosure of a service dog’s specific task, and I will not ask. I will, however, note that a service dog performs a task and does not, as a general rule, sit in a visitor’s tote bag with only its head out, being fed pieces of cheese. Please do not describe the cheese to me as its task.
Q: If I want to make a donation, either monetary or of an item, what is the process?
A: Monetary donations should be placed in the tin box or mailed to the Society at 12 Rectory Lane, Alderfield. Item donations require an intake form, an approval process by the acquisitions committee (myself), a period of research to determine whether the item has provenance in Alderfield or was purchased at a shop in Alderfield’s general vicinity by someone born elsewhere, and a final decision. Items purchased at a shop in Alderfield’s general vicinity by someone born elsewhere are not accepted for permanent collection. Items that were once owned by the donor’s aunt who visited Alderfield in the summer of 1954 are not accepted for permanent collection.
Q: What if my aunt was born in Alderfield?
A: Then the process moves forward, and I look forward to receiving your intake form, which you may find in the tin box.