Isle of Wight County Museum

IF YOU GO

Isle of Wight County Museum 103 Main Street Smithfield, VA 23430 Phone: (757) 356-1223 Web: historicisleofwight.com Hours Monday-Saturday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday: Noon-4 p.m. The museum is closed on New Year’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. Admission $2 admission for adults Free for ages 17 and under

A repository of history

By Nate Delesline III Staff Writer

The Isle of Wight County Museum, a place one might associate with old things, makes major use of modern technology to connect with people through video and social media.

Museum leaders plan to continue doing so yet have their fingers crossed that the pandemic will ease up, perhaps facilitating a return to being able to enjoy experiences in a way that perhaps more resembles the pre-COVID era. In 2020, “obviously there were a lot of challenges for museums everywhere and certainly for everybody in tourism here in Smithfield, but I think at least for us, I wanted to find ways where we could still connect to folks if they weren’t coming to see us,” said Jennifer England, the museum’s director. Established in 1976, the museum, which is located on Main Street in historic downtown, includes interactive exhibits, such as a turn-ofthe-century country store, interprets colonial history, the Civil War, the Cold War and the area’s connection to agriculture.

One of the museum’s marquee attractions is the world’s oldest ham. According to the museum, the ham was cured in 1902 but overlooked for 20 years. By 1924, it had become an attraction. Today, the historic ham has its own 24/7 webcam.

If there’s a silver lining to how the pandemic has reshaped tourism, travel and recreation, “it’s really given people a lot deeper understanding of what, literally, is right in their own backyard,” England said. “What’s interesting to me is that you hear all the time that people who live in New York City don’t go see the Statue of Liberty because it’s right there. But I think that COVID has allowed us — and probably everyone everywhere — to be able to say, ‘We’ve not been to this town, this city that is right nearby our home but we’re able to go there and just take a day trip.’”

“We’ve noticed a lot of our visitors that came to us, especially on weekends, were announcing that they had been traveling from not that far away,” England continued. “A lot of folks were coming to us from Norfolk and Virginia Beach and saying ‘Hey — this is a cool day trip destination.’”

England said they had been doing live social media segments before the pandemic surged. When those videos generated lots of positive feedback, she decided to lean in to that approach as a way to connect with a broader audience during a time when many people were in the midst of quarantines and social distancing.

The segments included a recently debuted video series, “Behind These Walls.” Produced by the museum and hosted by Kathy Mountjoy of the Smithfield and Isle of Wight Convention & Visitors Bureau, the series focuses on some of the county’s interesting and significant structures.

England has a positive outlook and full slate of events planned for the rest of this year. “We’ve focused a lot, especially in the early part of the year, on walking tours — things that are outside,” England said.