July 21, 2023

A Lasting Legacy

Last month, one of our Musings from Main focused on the contributions and achievements of long time educational coordinator for the Friends Jean Klein, who had recently passed away.  

Calling hours and a service for Jean are being held tomorrow, July 22, 2023, at
Samsel and Carmon Funeral Home, 419 Buckland Rd, South Windsor ,
from 2pm to 4pm, with a service at 3pm.

Jean leaves a lasting legacy of scholarly research for our community, and for the Friends and their programming specifically.  This week's Musings from Main highlights more of her many contributions to the organization.

Jean Klein
1930-2023
A Lasting Legacy

Jean Klein was involved with the Friends for over a quarter of a century, and over that time she touched every corner of the institution.

Jean was hired as the Friends’ part-time Education Coordinator but that job title doesn't come close to covering all of the contributions she made to the Friends.  For instance, it is widely considered that the Wood Memorial Library & Museum plays host to the largest collection of mounted birds on public display in Connecticut, outside of the Yale Peabody Museum.  It was Jean that organized the mounted bird displays in the Albert Morgan Room of the Wood, colloquially referred to as "The Bird Room."  

The Mounted Bird Display

The largest of the three mounted bird collections is the Dwight E. Newberry Bird Collection. The Newberry Collection consists of some 117 specimens includes a four-foot Great Blue Heron, bitterns, rails, warblers, owls, ducks, hawks, eagles and song birds, among others. It is an assortment of Woodland, Meadow and Marsh preserved birds. In designing the bird exhibits, Jean took the time and care to thoroughly research the many different species of birds in the collection and then organize them for display by their different habitats.

Jean went on to create several different ID cards for the display so that visitors could easily match the birds to their names. Each card mirrored the display with the silhouettes of the birds and then identified the birds species to aid patrons in further research. 

The Barney Daley Collection

Jean oversaw the creation of a database that describes and categorizes the thousands of artifacts in the Barney Daley Native American Artifact Collection.

Research and Program Development

As part of her work with the Friends, Jean researched and complied informational and self-guided tour pamphlets for visitors.  These pamphlets provided educational details for many of the objects on display and collections housed at Wood. 

Through all of her meticulous research and program development Jean laid the ground work for the Friends' latest achievement, the national History in Progress Award winning Nowashe Village.

But perhaps Jean's most far-reaching contribution, was the countless young lives she touched through the development of field trip programs for elementary grade students.

The Jean Klein Scholastic Award
It was with this achievement in mind that she was honored by the Friends in 2014 at her retirement, with the creation of The Jean Klein Scholastic Award named for her. The award offers financial assistance for schools outside of South Windsor to experience the Native American field trips now offered in Nowashe Village.