Photograph courtesy Behringer-Crawford Museum
The Behringer-Crawford Museum had its 75th anniversary last weekend, and is celebrating the occasion all summer long.
The Covington museum will keep up its annual summer traditions while adding some new celebratory events to the calendar.
Music@BCM Summer Concerts are reawakening its amphitheater with tunes. New performers bring music to the park every Thursday night through August 14, and the event offers food from Taste on Elm and Skyline, a cash bar, and split the pot.
In new events, Chippie’s Sensational Kids’ Club—which plans programming every month for young kids to play, learn, and create—features a special BCM 75th Anniversary Birthday Bash on July 8.
The Behringer-Crawford will have its official anniversary celebration outside the museum on July 12 from 4 to 6 p.m. The event will include a petting zoo from Hillview Farm Animal Experience, a sing-along with the May Festival MiNiS, and a time capsule booth to record a message for future birthday celebrations. The museum will also partner with the Devou Park Golf Course, Devou Park Trails, and more to offer games for the community.
In addition, Behringer-Crawford will grant free admission to guests to visit its celebratory exhibition of the museum’s milestone anniversary: The Legacy of Behringer-Crawford Museum: 75 Years of Art, Culture, and Community.
The Covington museum first opened its doors on July 5, 1950. It was known then as the William Behringer Memorial Museum, named after a local traveler whose collection was donated to the City of Covington. The museum showcased his treasures, which included stuffed animals (not the cuddly kind), American Indian artifacts, and more.
Shortly after, the museum’s first curator, Ellis Crawford, started to expand its artifact collection by sponsoring digs in the area.
After closing for restoration, the museum reopened in 1980 as the Behringer-Crawford Museum, honoring the original collector and its first curator. Since then, the museum has created educational and fascinating exhibits that celebrate the history of Northern Kentucky.
The Legacy of Behringer-Crawford Museum opened on February 18 and will remain on display through the year.
The exhibition features some of the community’s favorite displays from exhibitions past, such as a cabinet of glowing minerals from Dimitridon Studios in Covington. “It’s cool to see some of the groups of people come in and say, ‘I remember when I used to come into the museum and see the glowing rocks. Do you have the glowing rocks?’” Communications Manager Mary Jane Calderon says.
Photograph courtesy Behringer-Crawford Museum
An entire section of the exhibition honors the museum’s roots by showcasing artifacts from when it first opened, displaying the taxidermy and geology collections of William Behringer.
Other major displays returning for the anniversary include artifacts from the Grand Army of the Republic, and a display about alcohol production in Northern Kentucky.
To give its patrons a visual of the museum’s history, Behringer-Crawford has created a timeline of the past 75 years. Complete with photos, newspaper clippings, and advertisements, this collage highlights major exhibits, programs, and news from the museum since its opening, including the infamous 1950 alligator escape, in which two alligators kept in a museum tank escaped early in the morning and made their way to Prisoner’s Lake in Devou Park.
“You see generations of people coming in, you know, grandparents with their grandkids,” Calderon says. “And that’s what we’re really all about here at the museum.”
The Legacy of Behringer-Crawford Museum: 75 Years of Art, Culture, and Community will remain on display throughout the year.
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