News

NSCDA-VA is hosting a photo contest from April 1 - November 1, 2018, featuring the Virginia Scarf! Click here for more details!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   New France: The Other Colonial America, featuring the Bolduc House Museum in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, will temporarily close on weekdays during January through March of 2018 for a major expansion. During the first quarter of 2018, New France: The Other Colonial America and its component historic sites, including the Bolduc House Museum, will be closed on weekdays while the museum campus undergoes a major expansion with preparations for opening its new exhibits and education center in Ste. Genevieve, MO. The historic houses on the campus at Market and Main Streets in Ste. Genevieve will be open for tours by the public on Friday through Sunday during this transition. The museum campus will return to being open every day after the new facility, to be known as the Centre for French Colonial Life, opens in mid-April 2018. Museum hours during January through March 2018 will be:

• Friday, from Noon to 4:00 PM
• Saturday, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
• Sunday, from Noon to 4:00 PM

The museum campus, consisting of five late-18th and early 19th century historic structures — as well as the new exhibits and education building — tells the story of early French settlement in the upper Mississippi valley, and the survival and development of a unique French Creole culture in this region, even during the time period when it was controlled by Spain, and later by the United States after the Louisiana Purchase. Initial content at the new Centre for French Colonial Life will include exhibits about the people and processes that contributed to French Creole culture in this region, the importance of Spanish control, and the archaeology of French Creole settlements such as St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve and various sites in the Illinois country. For more information about New France: The Other Colonial America, please visit the organization’s web site at www.frenchcoloniallife.org or call 573-883-3105. Contact: Robbie Pratte, Director of Museum Operations // New France: The Other Colonial America // 125 S. Main St. // Ste. Genevieve MO 63670 // phone: 573-883-3105 // email: robbie.pratte@bolduchouse.org    

Did you know that the NSCDA played a major role in building momentum to establish Flag Day as a nationally recognized day of remembrance? [caption id="attachment_12538" align="aligncenter" width="450"] [Two young girls hold American flags next to a plaque honoring Bernard J. Cigrand in Waubeka, Wisconsin, around 1949 as part of a Flag Day commemoration.
UW Digital Collections][/caption]On June 14th, 1885, a 19 year old school teacher in Wisconsin named Bernard Cigrand displayed a 10-inch, 38-star flag in a bottle on his desk and asked his students to compose an essay on the significance of the flag. He chose this particular day because on June 14, 1777 Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the United States flag. And thus began Cigrand's life-long devotion to making Flag Day a national day of observance. In 1889, New York City kindergarten teacher, George Balch, held a Flag Day ceremony for his students, and his idea was later adopted by the New York State Board of Education. Two years later, in 1891, the idea of Flag Day had spread to Philadelphia, where the Betsy Ross House held a ceremony. In 1893, at the urging of the Sons of the Revolution, the Pennsylvania Society of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America adopted a resolution requesting the mayor of Philadelphia and all private citizens to display the Flag on June 14th. The Public Schools of Philadelphia joined the movement and hosted a large rally of students in Independence Square. The following year, the governor of New York followed suite and directed that on June 14th the Flag be displayed on all public buildings. However, it wasn't until May of 1916, that President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation calling for a nation-wide observance of Flag Day and not until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th as National Flag Day. Bernard Cigrand lived to see President Wilson's proclamation; his life-long quest fulfilled. Unfortunately he died in 1932, a full 17 years before President Truman's Act of Congress. Today many of our properties across the United States host Flag Day ceremonies and celebrations and we encourage all Americans to fly their flags in commemoration of the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777.