Warther offers free admission for students this summer

Visiting Warther Museum and Gardens in Dover has been a common childhood thread for area residents for generations, stretching back more than 80 years. Field trips, family visits and attendance at events, coupled with many family stories connected to the founder, master carver Ernest “Mooney” Warther, have made the museum and grounds a key part of the lives of many local families.

The past year, with the necessity for social distancing and remaining at home, denied many young people the experience common to their parents and grandparents. The museum is addressing the gap with free admission for students and young people from Tuscarawas County this summer.

“We want to give parents and grandparents the chance to spend time here with their families while also alleviating costs for them and local schools,” said Kristen Harmon, assistant director at the museum and among the latest generation of Warther family members to bring the museum’s collections to the public. “We know a lot of kids didn’t get the field trips to come to the museum the last couple of years. We wanted to give Tuscarawas County families the chance to bring their kids here this summer with a free admission for the students.”

Harmon said the past year has been difficult at the museum. “Just as it has been everywhere. We have had to constantly change and adjust on the fly. We’ve offered self-guided tours, and we’re now offering guided tours again. We’re very glad to be able to get back to sharing what we have. The experience is so much different than people may remember, and it’s always interesting. We’ve recently updated many of our exhibits. We’ll have the steel mill and other replicas going. We have the history of steam power, and there are a number of films to see which were all produced locally.”

Typically, the museum may see as many as 10,000 students touring the exhibits in a year, Harmon explained. The museum is hoping schools will be able to bring students to the museum later this year for field trips, and families are welcome for tours this summer.

The museum, which encompasses 8 acres of gardens, outdoor exhibits and buildings, is all part of the original home occupied by the artist Mooney Warther and his family. “He built these retaining walls, the workshop, all of it himself,” Harmon said. “We have a lot of Dover history here.”

Harmon said she anticipates a fairly normal year at the museum with a return to the many events the museum hosts throughout the year. Warther Museum also has plans to one day expand accessibility to the collections that are partly in storage.

“We have one of the largest collections of Native American artifacts in the United States here, and we are unable to display much of it. We hope to be able to share more of that. Mooney Warther collected artifacts both locally and abroad, and we have those collections,” Harmon said.

The tradition of bringing young people to the museum began generations ago. “My grandfather began offering half-priced admission for kids years ago, and that’s something we honor normally anyway. We have always welcomed as many children as possible, and we are hoping many families will take advantage of the free student and youth admission this year. We get so many comments from adults sharing their childhood memories here, and we think that tradition is important,” Harmon said.

Ernest Warther Museum and Gardens is at 31 Karl Ave. in Dover. For more information see the museum’s Facebook page or call 330-505-6003.