Jenna Bacon, Campus Carrier arts and living editor
Ali Luciani, Campus Carrier asst. arts and living editor
On Monday, Oak Hill and the Martha Berry Museum opened a new exhibit titled “Martha Berry’s ‘Begging Trips’.” The exhibit centers on Martha Berry’s tireless fundraising efforts on behalf of the Berry Schools and her commitment to providing quality education to the young men and women who attended them. According to a press release issued by the Oak Hill and Martha Berry Museum, the exhibit is the result of a collaborative partnership with Kennesaw State University (KSU) and supported by the Daughters of Berry. The Daughters of Berry is a non-profit organization run by Berry alumnae with the mission of preserving the history and traditions of Berry College.
The exhibit was curated by Jennifer Dickey (80C), professor of history and coordinator of museums, history program, and Public History at Kennesaw State University with the help of students from her Museum Exhibitions class.
According to Rachel McLucas, director of Oak Hill and Martha Berry Museum, Dickey’s idea of curating an exhibit around Martha Berry’s fundraising efforts was discussed for a few years before the time was right to execute it.
“It was probably sometime last year that we were able to formalize it, and it actually was in the president’s office,” McLucas said. “Casee Gilbert, who’s our chief of staff here at Berry and works closely with Dr. Dickey, they had a conversation about it and realized that it was really a good time for the show to be here.”
According to Dickey, the exhibit will highlight the pivotal role Martha Berry played in establishing the Berry College we know today and the challenges she overcame to do it.
“Telling the story of Martha Berry’s efforts to raise money for her school, what she called her ‘begging trips’, has long been a dream for me. This story reveals so much about her character and personality. She must have been terrified when she embarked on her first begging trip, but she overcame that fear and became relentless in her advocacy and fundraising efforts.”
The KSU students enrolled in Dickey’s class played a significant role in the curation of the exhibit. According to McLucas, she and Allison Moore, Oak Hill and the Martha Berry Museum’s director of community engagement and education, were able to video conference with the class to hear what they had been working on.
“They were doing the research behind different topics and putting together write-ups that would eventually result in the panels that you see here on display,” McLucas said. “So, a lot of their research is very present in the exhibit.”
Since both of her parents were once professors at Berry, Dickey grew up on the campus before eventually going on to attend the school herself. Dickey also previously served as a campus preservationist for Berry, and she currently serves as a preservation consultant. The partnership between the Martha Berry Museum and KSU provided Dickey with the opportunity to work with her current students on a project for her alma mater.
“We were really excited, particularly because of the fact that it was not only going to be a chance for Jennifer to bring the story to life, but to get to bring it to life with her students at Kennesaw as part of her last year of teaching there,” McLucas said.
As the Berry Schools continued to grow, Martha Berry knew that fundraising would be necessary to guarantee the schools’ continued success. Dedicated to her cause, she traveled all over the United States and internationally to garner donations. One panel displayed at the exhibit shows the various connections that she made during her travels, many of which would prove to be very valuable.
Freshman history major Marisa Aguilar works as a docent at the museum. Aguilar described how Martha’s networking skills are partly responsible for the school we know today.
“Thanks to the Daughters of the American Revolution, she was able to meet Thomas Edison, and then because of him, she was able to meet Clara and Henry Ford,” Aguilar said. “I think that’s just showing how the personal relationships she had with people kind of built the school because now we have the Ford buildings that were named after people she met.”
Admission to the exhibit is open to all at no cost. Visitors can enjoy additional public programs related to the exhibition throughout its run. Further details regarding the programs can be found by visiting the Oak Hill and Martha Berry Museum’s event calendar at https://cal.berry.edu/oakhill_events.