It doesn’t matter if it’s 1869 or 2015, everyone’s out of breath after climbing the Culbertson Mansion’s three flights of stairs. Little things like these are timeless truths. That’s what I relate to visitors. What makes people from history just like us? My passion is telling stories that connect people to the past with everyday things like food, laundry, or fashion.
It’s not just biographical facts or academic lectures. It’s about the reality of people who lived, worked, or even died there. I love helping guests rediscover history in the Culbertson’s colorful stories.
Someone once told me the definition of an artist is a person who sees things from a different perspective and has to share that perspective. That’s how I look at history.
I sense things in my mind’s eye and have to share them. I see the dirt on the bottom of a dress as it scrapes the ground. I smell the livestock hitched to a post. I hear the hustle and bustle of the steamboat dock.
Though the Culbertson Mansion tours are guided, they’re never the same. They are interactive and can change depending on the visitor. If they like old houses, we talk about Second Empire architecture. If they’re craftsmen, we talk about our decades-long restoration. If they’re locals, we focus on Culbertson’s legacy of benevolence. Or if they just like Downtown Abbey, we can focus on the servants’ lives. We make connections with guests to make history come alive.