Liberty Hall Museum Announces Upcoming Events

On the heels of November's successful food drive benefiting the Food Bank of Ocean and Monmouth Counties and victims of Hurricane Sandy, Liberty Hall's season of giving continued with the joyful delivery of over three hundred toys to the Picatinny Visitors Center in Dover, New Jersey on December 18th. With the help of Kean University students, faculty and staff, Liberty Hall Museum was able to collect 367 toys on behalf of Toys for Tots.

With its breathtaking Victorian Christmas celebration and popular holiday programming now concluded, Liberty Hall Museum looks to 2013 and invites the community to celebrate the New Year in historic fashion. While the Museum will be closed to the general public throughout the winter season (January-March), visitors can still enjoy a variety of scheduled seasonal activities and special events at the Museum during that time. Liberty Hall will also be available for reserved group tours and private events; those interested in making arrangements may call 908-527-0400 for more information. Public tours will resume April 2, 2013, allowing all guests the opportunity to take in the Museum's impressive collection of artifacts in the historic Victorian mansion of New Jersey's first elected governor, William Livingston.

On Saturday, January 19, Liberty Hall Museum will host a Downton Abbey New Year's Brunch. Timed to coincide with the beginning of the much-anticipated third season of the smash hit Downton Abbey, visitors can celebrate this momentous occasion by stepping back in time and experiencing a New Year's brunch at Liberty Hall, where they will dine like the Crawley family themselves. A buffet brunch will be served from Noon - 3 p.m., and include party favors and a champagne toast. Admission is $60.00 per couple, and reservations are required.

From now until August 24, those Downton Abbey fans interested in a more immersive experience may attend Liberty Hall Museum's fascinating ongoing exhibit, Ring for Service: TheRole of Servants in a Country House. In the 1900s, the Kean family lived in a world where their every whim was met by the simple ringing of the servant's bell. With the museum masterfully reinterpreted to highlight the places where servants worked, slept and spent their leisure time, tours of the museum now offer an entertaining and enlightening peek behind the scenes, enabling visitors to follow in the footsteps of a servant moving through a typical day in his or her life. The wine cellar has been reopened for this exhibit, as well as two servants' rooms in the attic. This exhibit marks the first time any portion of the attic has been open to the public.

Liberty Hall Museum at Kean University chronicles more than 240 years of American history. The museum also houses extensive collections of furniture, ceramics, textiles, toys and tools owned by seven generations of the Livingston and Kean families. The Firehouse Museum, built in 2004, houses three antique fire engines, including a rare 1911 American LaFrance Metropolitan Steam Engine.

Liberty Hall is located at 1003 Morris Avenue in Union, New Jersey. General admission to the museum for regular visits is $10 for adults, $8 for Kean alumni, $6 for students and seniors, and free for children under three, Liberty Hall Museum members, and Kean University students, faculty and staff. For reservations and further information, call 908-527-0400, e-mail libertyhall@kean.edu or visit www.kean.edu/libertyhall. Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/libertyhallmuseum.

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