roject promotes history of Dover’s Reeves family
The history of the Reeves family was made accessible by telling a story from the perspective of Jeeves, the family’s horse.
Author Tamara Benson and illustrator Anastasia Merritt will present a program on Tuesday, May 18 on Zoom at 6:30 p.m. They will discuss their collaborative project, “The New Carriage,” a children’s book written to promote the history of the Reeves family and the Reeves Museum in Dover. They will discuss the project from both the writing and illustration perspective and how the project moved from concept to finished book. They want to share the way this sort of project is easily modified to become a family project for many generations to share and enjoy.
In 1898 Jeremiah E. Reeves bought the farmhouse Valentine Wills built for his family in 1870. The mansion underwent extensive remodeling in 1901, and it was occupied by members of the Reeves family until the last daughter of Jeremiah and Jane Reeves passed away. The Dover Historical Society now owns the mansion, its contents and the carriage house, which served as a storage area for many original furnishings.
Like many museums, the mission of the Reeves Victorian Home and Carriage House Museum is three-fold: to preserve, educate and inspire. The administrators of the museum realize the museum is more than a place to display a collection of objects that have historical value. In addition to guided tours of the mansion, there are many programs scheduled at the museum: the annual Christmas Open House, the Vintage Fashion Show, Victorian Tea and History Camp. The educational programs and activities hosted by the museum are designed to appeal to people of all ages.
Members of the museum staff are constantly thinking of ways to make history come alive for the public, especially children. After brainstorming several ideas, it was decided a children’s book could be an effective way to engage children. This idea was not the brainchild of one person, but rather a collaboration of several people that came to fruition in 2018. As a result of this effort, the history of the Reeves family was made accessible by telling a story from the perspective of Jeeves, the family’s horse.
On one level the book stimulates the imagination of children to recreate what life was like for the Reeves children. On another level it demonstrates to both children and adults that everyone’s history is valuable and that history can be recorded through storytelling.
The collaboration that resulted in “The New Carriage” may inspire others to work with friends and family members to write and illustrate their own story.
Go to www.doverlibrary.org/register or email Sherrel Rieger at srieger@doverlibrary.org to receive a Zoom invitation. For more information call the Dover Public Library at 330-343-6123.