Feb 21, 2013 3 min read

Sometimes even historical societies need to paint themselves in new hues.

So a celebration Saturday night marking the 200th anniversary of the pathbreaking LeMoyne family moving into their abode on Maiden Street will not only be a look back at a landmark Washington event, but also an opportunity for the Washington County Historical Society to unveil its new branding campaign.

“We’ve been dormant for a couple of years,” said Clay Kilgore, the historical society’s interim director. “But we want to let people know that we’re back.”

In the midst of the festivities Saturday, which will start at 6 p.m., the historical society will be unveiling a new logo and a new tagline. He wants to keep the new logo under wraps until Saturday, but Kilgore said it will have a “retro-looking” design and replace a logo that featured half a LeMoyne star that had been part of a family quilt – and left many people scratching their heads.

“No one knew what it meant,” Kilgore said.

The rebranding campaign will, among other things, try to show the historical society in a light that isn’t so LeMoyne-centric. Kilgore admits that “a lot of people don’t think of the historical society, they think of the LeMoyne House. We’ve allowed ourselves to be pigeonholed.”

To take half-a-step away from the long shadow of the LeMoynes, the historical society is raising funds to move some of its holdings into a two-story house, also a couple of centuries old, that’s immediately across from the LeMoyne House on Maiden Street and was also built by Francis LeMoyne. It will function as a research center where residents of Washington County or scholars from further afield can scrutinize the 175,000 documents and other items in the historical society’s collection, which also includes textiles, furniture and military memorabilia.

The event Saturday, described as a housewarming party, also will recognize the LeMoyne family’s role as leading abolitionists in the 1820s, 1830s and 1840s. The house was a key stop on the Underground Railroad and, unlike many of his fellow abolitionists, Francis LeMoyne advocated for full equality between the races and not merely an end to slavery. In 1870, he gave $20,000 to the American Missionary Society for a school in Memphis, Tenn. to educate freed slaves. It would later bear the name LeMoyne College.

Costumed docents will lead tours Saturday, a caricaturist will be at the LeMoyne House and a Chinese auction and horse-drawn carriage rides are planned.