Carver 4-County Museum

Dear Friends:

     We are proud to be a new participant in the annual Give Local Piedmont program sponsored by the Northern Piedmont Community Foundation.  We have named our campaign, Think 4 for Carver, in honor of our four years of programming to the community (details below).  

     Officially opened in February, 2019, with the exhibit, "Origins," the Carver 4-County Museum is a program of the George Washington Carver Regional High School Alumni Association, Inc. (GWCRHSAA).   Our mission is to document, celebrate and share the educational, social, cultural and military history and accomplishments of students, faculty and administrators of George Washington Carver Regional High School, the only institution of higher education that served minority children in the four-county region of Culpeper, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock counties from 1948-1968.          

     Our museum is located in the original library of the school, now called The Carver Center.  We are administered by the all-volunteer History Committee of the GWCRHSAA (members listed below) who meet monthly to plan and implement the activities of the Museum.  The Committee engaged the services of a curator who helps to execute our mission.

    We began presenting original research in the form of displays to the public in 2017 with a series of traveling exhibits throughout the region we serve.  Those exhibits were:  "Locally-born African American Union Civil War Soldiers" (an exhibit specific to each county); "They Came to Teach" (the first teachers hired at Carver for the 1948-49 academic year); "The Local Impact of Brown v. Board of Education;"  "Our Carver Family's D-Day Recognition;" and "Journey: The Class of 1949."  Some of those exhibits were generously supported financially by the Northern Piedmont Community Foundation.

     In addition to our inaugural exhibit, we produced "Athlos" (about Carver's sports programs) and "Firsts as Citizens" which presents names, registrations and biographies of the first African American male residents in Culpeper, Rappahannock, Orange and Madison to register to vote in 1867 and 1869.  Also included in the exhibit are the first women of color from Culpeper who registered to vote in 1920.  "Firsts as Citizens" is still on view in the museum, with highlights on our website until we resume full operations post-COVID restrictions.

     In 2021, we embarked on an ambitious 10-month virtual exhibit entitled, "When Women Use Their Power."  Each month from March through December, our museum is producing a video presentation of one outstanding woman of color, historical or contemporary, who contributed to the life of our targeted region. The presentation is featured on our website, www.carver4cm.org. Our first, in March, was about the extraordinary educator and public servant, the late Murcelle A. Coleman (Orange resident). Our second feature is the outstanding researcher and public historian of Culpeper history, Angela J. Chapman (photo far left).  Coming in May will be the late Minnie Howard Butler (photo near left), proprietor of the Horseshoe Inn in the town of Sperryville in Rappahannock County.

     The members of the History Committee/governing board of our museum are:  Dr. Hortense Hinton-Jackson (President); Alan Johnson (Vice President); Jane C. Pollard (Secretary); Charlotte B. Carpenter (Treasurer); Marlene G. Ware (Social Media Coordinator); J. Hubert Jackson; Charles C. Jameson; William H. Lewis; Myra Williams; Rev. Frank D. Lewis (Chair, GWCRHSAA, ex officio); and Terry Miller (Curator, ex officio).

     We invite you to visit us on our website at www.carver4cm.org (click image below to enter the site), email us at carver4cm@gmail.com, and like us on Facebook at Carver4cm.