Mary D. Doering, a faculty member in the Smithsonian Institution’s Masters Program in the History of Decorative Arts will be giving an illustrated lecture on Saturday May 3 at 2pm at Centre Hill Museum titled, “All in the Family: Dress and Domestic Life, 1825-1915.” The lecture will focus on examples of historical clothing included in Centre Hill’s current exhibition, “Fashionably Dressed at Centre Hill Mansion: Attire from the 1820s to the Early 1900s.”

Admission to the lecture is free thanks to a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Guided tours of the museum and the special exhibition are available daily every hour on the half hour from 10:30 A.M. until 4:30.P.M. The guided tour fee is $5.00 for adults, $4.00 for seniors, children, and members of the military. Petersburg residents are admitted at no cost. The fashion exhibition closes on July 6, 2008.

Built in 1823 by the Bolling family, one of the wealthiest and most socially prominent Petersburg families in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Centre Hill provides examples of federal, Greek revival and colonial revival architectural styles. The house was the site of two Presidential visits. Abraham Lincoln met with Union troops occupying the house in April 1865. A reception was held at the residence for President Taft in May 1909. Today, Centre Hill is a historic house museum operated by the City of Petersburg.

Centre Hill Museum is located at 1 Centre Hill Ave. in Petersburg. For more information call (804) 733-2401.