Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on December 18, 1965
Makes Unique Exhibit
By ROLLIE BERNHART
HEBRON ー It would be sad to say that Mrs. Mae Donohue is one of Porter county’s happiest citizens.
The 77-year-old Hebron-area resident has a perfect right to this distinction, for she has achieved happiness through an unusual and unique hobby.
All of the items she has collected in her travels have been utilized to depict memorable historic and religious eventsーincluding the land rush at the opening of the State of Oklahoma in 1889 in which her father participated, to Santa Claus and his reindeer as they come out of the snow-filled sky. Set up in a 10 by 24 foot room in her modest home two miles southeast of Hebron on County Road 1000S, the entire hand-made series of displays has taken her years to completely assemble. She began gathering materials when the idea was born in 1940.
On tables around the room she has depicted scenes which cover her own life, from the time memory came to her as a small child in Oklahoma, where her father, Frank Folsom, popped the gun which started the rush for land in 1889, to later years of trapping, hunting and fishing along the Kankakee river.
Collections not used in table displays, are set up on tiered shelving along three sides of the room.
The illuminated scenes contain more than 500 dolls, farms, homes, churches, Indian tepees dogs and other animals . . . everything in attire, harnesses and building materials handmade by Mrs. Donohue.
Fur used on many of the forms came from her own trapping experiences; leather harnesses cut from animal hide, and even dried and treated fish scales comprised a roadbed in one of the scenes.
Mrs. Donohue is her own tour guide using a thin cane to point out the historical and religious import of each display and each item, which she identifies explicitly to visitors to the exhibit.
The exhibit, containing a scene of the Three Wise Men enroute to Bethlehem and birth of the Christ child in the manger, is open to the public.
It is a product of the extreme happiness of a woman who can still smile after experiencing nine operations and knowing convalescence in a wheelchair.
With her usual disarming smile, she proudly points out to visitors her original slogan for her unique 25-year effort: “From Canada Across The U.S.A. To Nome, In One Evening At Home.”
UNIQUE HOME EXHIBITーMrs. Mae Donohue uses thin cane to point out interesting parts of a unique exhibit covering memorable historical and religious events which she has set up in her home two miles southeast of Hebron on County Road 1000S. Top, Christmas scene depicting Santa Claus and his tiny reindeer emerging from Icelandic home at North Pole; bottom, Three Wide Men crossing desert enroute to Bethlehem.
