Stephen Foster Carillon Tower & Museum

After lunch today we headed over to see the Carillon Tower here at the Stephen Foster State Folk Culture Center. The interior is quite impressive and houses copies of the some of Stephen Foster's original manuscripts and dioramas depicting some of his tunes.

From April 2010

There were daguerreotypes of Stephen & Jane Foster, a piano owned by Andrew Carnegie and a model of the carillon system.

From April 2010

In the camellia garden near the Tower we found a marker commemorating the organization of the 2nd Girl Scout Troop in White Springs in 1912.

From April 2010

We walked from the Tower over to the Craft Village, unfortunately many of the craft demonstrators weren't there this afternoon, but we did enjoy browsing around the Gift Shop.

After buying some postcards and some local honey at the gift shop, we drove over to the Museum. Our guide around the museum was Pat (dressed in an 1860's costume). There was only 1 other couple with us in the museum tour.

From April 2010

Pat told us about the life of Stephen Foster and the history of the song "Suwannee River" or "Old Folks at Home". He originally wrote the tune about the Pedee River and realized that it just didn't sound right. He tried the names of several different rivers before he settled on the Suwannee. We learned that Stephen Foster never

From April 2010

We learned a lot from our guide, Pat, about the life of Stephen Foster and she dispelled some of the myths about him. He was not a Southerner, he didn't die an alcoholic, and he didn't support slavery. We also learned that he never saw the Suwannee River.