Lafayette History Museum

2025 brought a variety of new opportunities to the museum. 

We made major progress on completing an inventory of our collection, which will allow us to take better care of our artifacts, create higher-quality exhibits, and share more of Lafayette’s history. We received funding to improve storage of our framed artworks, preserve the history of the Schofield farm, and continue working on rehousing and digitizing mining maps. We partnered with more local organizations to create community events like Know Your Antiques, Artifact Show-and-Tell programs, walking tours of Waneka Lake, and more. In total, we've welcomed nearly 3,400 visitors and attendees to museum exhibits, walking tours, and educational programs, including over 400 students from local schools. None of this would have been possible without your support.

Still, it was not an easy year. 

We've relied on federal funding to complete many of our major projects, and now those programs are in jeopardy. The biggest hit to our future plans was the cancellation of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Preservation Assistance Grant program. Our staff spent numerous hours putting together an application for this program to receive continued funding for our inventory project, but then we were notified in April the program had been cut. Now, we are hoping to fundraise the $10,000 the program could have provided so that we can keep our collections manager on staff and finish the inventory project.

Despite uncertainty in funding, we have big plans for 2026. We will be updating our permanent exhibits for the first time since the museum opened, to tell more stories from Lafayette's history, including those of farming families, coal miners, immigrants to the area, women's roles, and more. We will continue to increase partnerships with arts and cultural organizations around Lafayette, care for our collection, host programs, and welcome visitors into the museum space. 

Will you consider supporting our mission? Donations from individuals like you are critical to allowing the museum to remain open and serve the community, and any amount helps.