An Egg-citing Display at the Schoharie Easter Egg Museum

Monday, April 15, 2019
Whoever warned us not to put all your eggs in one basket must not have known Mildred Vroman.  Mildred's eggs would never fit in one basket, in fact, they barely fit in one building!  Lucky for us, they do fit and we got to enjoy them - all 5000 of them - this weekend at the Schoharie Easter Egg Museum. 

Mildred Vroman was in her first year of employment as librarian of the Schoharie Free Library in 1950 when she and her friend, Elizabeth Warren, fell in love with the children's book, An Easter Tree, by Katherine Milhous.  In 1953, Mildred and Elizabeth spent their spare time in Vroman's basement decorating 500 Easter eggs.  The women displayed their eggs on a piece of poplar branch at the library each year until 1963, by which time the collection had grown to 1000 eggs.  Mildred retired from her position as librarian in 1984 but her passion for decorating eggs never waned. 

Mildred's Easter Egg exhibit went dormant for a time, but she brought it back in 1995.  Eventually, when Mildred turned 91, she had a museum built on her property on Covered Bridge Lane.  She ran the annual exhibit for several years until her passing in 2012 at the age of 103.  In 2013, Mr. & Mrs.  Heyman purchased the property, museum and all, and soon realized they had also acquired Mildred's collection of eggs.  The Heymans have continued Mildred's annual tradition of opening the exhibit during the Easter season, but hope to one day have the collection moved to a different location.  Proceeds from the exhibit's admission fee ($5.00 per adult and $2.00 per child) will go to the Schoharie Free Library.    To read more about the exhibit and all the work the Heyman's have done to preserve Mildred's collection, check out this fascinating article from the Daily Gazette: https://dailygazette.com/article/2019/04/11/schoharie-once-again-the-egg-capital

Among Mildred's collection, you can enjoy a variety of themes and scenes including Disney characters, religious scenes, nursery rhyme characters, circus animals and clowns, presidents and so much more.   Mildred and Elizabeth used many types of eggs including duck eggs, goose eggs, ostrich eggs but never chicken eggs because they were too fragile.  Each egg had to be pricked with a needle on the top and bottom, and the egg blown out.  Whew....I'm out of breath just thinking about that.  Then began the process of painting, dressing and arranging scene after scene, egg after egg.....

With 5000 eggs on display, you can imagine I didn't photograph them all.  However, I did capture more than I can include here.  I plan to share my entire collection of photos (still a small portion of the 5000) on my Life As I See It Facebook page later this week.  For now, enjoy a short collection from our visit.  You'll really enjoy this more on a laptop or desktop computer where you can really see all the details.




















One of my favorite quotes (and inspirations) is, "We all die.  The goal isn't to live forever.  The goal is to create something that will".   I think Mildred and her friend, Elizabeth, did just that.  In the simple, yet painstaking, process of embracing with their passion - a simple inspiration from a children's book, Mildred and Elizabeth created a collection of ornate and beautiful pieces that have (and will) bring joy to generations.  We may not be inspired to paint (or decorate) Easter eggs, but what might we create that will remain long after we're gone?  The exhibit continues this weekend, Friday and Saturday, 10:00-5:00 and Sunday, 12:00-5:00.   You won't be disappointed.  Stay tuned to my Facebook page for many more photos later Tuesday....https://www.facebook.com/GAWelter/  In case you missed my previous post, keep scrolling and check out the 60's exhibit, Wheels of Change, at the Saratoga Automobile Museum.  Thanks for stopping by!  Come back soon to Life As I See It.

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