Mütter Museum
Historical Happy Hour: Inside a Vampire Killing Kit
Virtual Event
Grab yourself a quarantini and join us for a VIRTUAL Historical Happy Hour!
About this Event:
Peer inside the Mercer Museum's Vampire Killing Kit with Meredith Sellers, co-curator of Dracula and the Incorruptible Body, and Cory Amsler, Vice President for Collections and Interpretation at the Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle. Learn about the cultural impact of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, the kit's murky origins, and how to separate fact from fiction.
About the Speakers:
Meredith Sellers is an artist, writer, and educator living and working in Philadelphia. She is the Arts and Accessibility Programs Coordinator at the Mütter Museum and College of Physicians of Philadelphia, where she develops cross-disciplinary arts curricula and accessible programs. She has co-curated several exhibits at the Mütter, including Dracula and the Incorruptible Body, Can a Vaccine Turn You Into a Cow?, and Marie Curie at the Mütter. She has lectured at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Moore College of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. An editor for Title Magazine, a Fellow of the Flaherty Film Seminar, and a participant in the Art Writers' Workshop through the Andy Warhol Foundation, her writing has appeared in publications including Hyperallergic, The Philadelphia Inquirer, American Craft Magazine, ArtsJournal, Pelican Bomb, The Artblog, and ICA Philadelphia’s Notes. She received her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. What tools would one need at hand to vanquish a vampire?
Cory Amsler is Vice President for Collections and Interpretation at the Bucks County Historical Society’s Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Mr. Amsler joined the Historical Society staff in 1988, and has held a series of positions, including assistant curator and curator. He received undergraduate degrees in History and Secondary Education from the University of South Florida in 1983, and his Master's Degree in 1988 from the Cooperstown Graduate Program in History Museum Studies in Cooperstown, New York.
At the Mercer Museum, Mr. Amsler has overall responsibility for the care, management, curation and exhibition of the museum's extensive collection of tools and other artifacts of pre-industrial America, as well as a diverse array of materials related to Bucks County history, including those housed in the Mercer Museum Library. He is pleased to have influenced and contributed to the Historical Society’s significant growth and expansion over the past 35 years.