Manassas Museum to host several new exhibits this summer

The Manassas Museum in Downtown Manassas is getting ready for the spring and summer with several upcoming exhibits.

According to Doug Horhota, Museum Programs Coordinator for the City of Manassas, it’s important to remember that the museum is not just for Civil War exhibits – and that the Manassas Museum looks at life in Manassas as a whole.

“We are the Manassas Museum – not the Manassas Civil War Museum. And that is one of our challenges here. But we try to focus on the history of Manassas – and that can be anything that deals with pre-contact, like the Native Americans…or it can include anything up to the current day,” said Horhota.

The museum is currently hosting an exhibit called ‘Impressions’ until April 12, which features artwork from students at Osbourn High School in Manassas. 

As it gets closer to summer, the museum tries to plan for more interactive and exciting exhibits.

“Each exhibit has its own subset of attendees that we’re looking for. We try to make it as family-friendly as possible, and we try to plan our more major visits in the summer months, when visitation is traditionally up,” Horhota said.

In early May the museum will feature an exhibit on the first responders of Virginia including both the professional fire company and the volunteer fire company – which has been in the community for 100 years.

Another exhibit coming this summer is going to include a partnership with the county, as they try to display the long history of the Carter family in Virginia.

“There’s a lot of history that transcends with the county, and so we’re doing a joint county exhibit on some of the more prominent land owners that date back to the years to before and during the Civil War – specifically the Carter family,” said Horhota, continuing, “Essentially everyone in Virginia is [part of] the Carter family – if you’ve lived here long enough…there’s a couple of presidents, generals on both sides of the Civil War, Washington’s a Carter, Jefferson’s a Carter – they are the first family of Virginia.” 

Horhota noted that the current admission into the museum is $5, but it will be free for all visitors during the summer.