Beaver Area Heritage Foundation awarded 2023 Institutional Award of Merit
Beaver Area Heritage Foundation has won an award with PA Museums for experimenting with new ways to encourage people to learn more about the unfamiliar historyd they preserve for which they have received recognition as recipients of PA Museums 2023 Institutional Awards of Merit.
Beaver Area Heritage Foundation, which took on the challenge of re-engaging their community and volunteer base after all the pandemic shutdowns by offering a new exhibit that explored the story of a once-famous local political figure in an inventive way. “Senator Matthew Stanley Quay: Saint or Sinner?” used the Beaver Heritage Foundation’s small display space to their advantage by creating a unique double-sided exhibit experience that presented the positive and negative aspects of Senator Matthew Stanley Quay’s career, then asked visitors to vote. Did 19th-century political power broker’s achievements and contributions outweigh his transgressions, or was it the other way around?
The Matthew Stanley Quay project illustrates the Beaver Area Heritage Foundation’s commitment to helping their community recognize that “meaningful, substantive history is right in our own backyard.” The project also demonstrated the group’s collaborative relationships with other local organizations, including the Beaver County Historical Research and Landmarks Foundation, the First Presbyterian Church of Beaver, and members of the Quay family, all of whom contributed to the project.
Beaver’s Matthew Quay project was also notable for documentary film produced in conjunction with the research done for the exhibit. Segments from a detailed video interview conducted with 100-year-old Quay Scholar Dr. James A Kehl months before he passed away were transformed into a professionally produced film exploring Senator Quay and his legacy. While Dr. Kehl did not live to see the final film, the finished documentary will now serve as an educational outreach tool, preserving Dr. Kehl’s scholarship for future generations.
