Museum

THE RESTAURANTS and merchants of Rittenhouse Row are gathering again on Walnut Street this Saturday, and that means about 50,000 area residents and guests will be joining them for one of Center City's largest street fairs. The Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival will close Walnut from Broad to 19th streets (from noon until 5 p.m.) and feature food, fashion, entertainment and fun for children. It's big. It's crowded. It's fun. And this year there's a lot of new stuff. * Dunkin' Donuts will be giving out free iced coffee on the 1400 block of Walnut.

Location: Media Armory (beneath Trader Joe's), 12 East State St., Media Hours: Thursday through Sunday, 12 to 5 p.m. Admission: Free Call 610-566-0788 to schedule a group or school tour. Visit for more information or to make a donation to the museum.

The Please Touch Museum's Traveling Trunk Show came to the Willow Grove Park mall Tuesday morning as part of the mall's "Make the Most of Your Morning" program, which runs every Tuesday from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

The Business Partners Program at the James A. Michener Art Museum is 43 members strong and growing as it enters its second year. Most of the members are small businesses that have donated $250, $500 or $1,500. "In the wake of cutbacks in government funding, it's very important to acknowledge and be grateful to the private sector," said Linda Milanesi, public-relations director for the Doylestown Borough museum. "Businesses are providing for the arts a lifeline for survival.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is temporarily closing its Museum of American Art on North Broad Street to spiff up and modernize the 1871 structure. The Annual Student Exhibition, opening tomorrow, will be the last public show. Renovation is due to begin May 28, the day after the student show closes, with the public reopening tentatively set for Nov. 11. The grand structure will be made more user-friendly, both in its public spaces and behind the scenes. Plans include a new museum cafe, as well as entrance lobby and orientation center, plus expansion of the museum's popular gift shop.

Volunteers inside the distinctive two-story Georgian Revival building at 11 Veterans Square in Media are working feverishly these days at "accessioning. " In the language of museums, the term means writing descriptions, assigning numbers and cataloguing exhibit materials, of which the Delaware County Institute of Science, the building's owner and occupant, has thousands, maybe millions. The institute was founded in 1833, according to its bylaws, "to promote the study and diffusion of general knowledge and the establishment of a museum, and to serve as a nonprofit organization for the people of Delaware County and adjoining areas.

The Oneida Nation of New York was an early ally of George Washington's Continental Army, so it's entirely fitting that the nation now comes to the aid of raising a Philadelphia museum exploring the struggle for American independence.   Two centuries ago, the Oneida brought bushels of corn to starving troops at Valley Forge. Today, they're bringing millions of dollars — in the form of a $10 million grant announced last week at an event in Washington, cheered by officials of the American Revolution Center, the group that is developing the Museum of the American Revolution at Third and Chestnut Streets.

If only the canteen could talk. Although the dark oak container looks inconsequential next to the original Declaration of Independence, it carries the inscription, "Carried at the Battle of the Brandywine. " The date: Sept. 11 - of the year 1777. In other words, it's a big deal. So are thousands of other artifacts - including a fowling firearm carved from curly maple; Washington's tents at Valley Forge; a list of soldiers from Massachusetts, some barely old enough to shave - destined for display at the Museum of the American Revolution, slated to open in Old City in 2015.

The Rosenbach Museum and Library has accused its former director of misappropriating more than $250,000 worth of rare letters and manuscripts, and of selling them to a Massachusetts autograph dealer. In a civil complaint filed Wednesday, the museum alleged that Clive E. Driver, former director of the Rosenbach and now an art consultant living in Massachusetts, had for two years systematically purloined at least 30 letters written by Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and other famous Americans.

LOS ANGELES - It was supposed to be a slow but smooth journey to retirement, a parade through city streets for a shuttle that logged millions of miles in space. But Endeavour's final mission turned out to be a logistical headache that delayed its arrival to its museum resting place by about 17 hours. After a 12-mile weave past trees and utility poles that included thousands of adoring onlookers, flashing cameras, and even the filming of a TV commercial, Endeavour arrived at the California Science Center Sunday to a greeting party of city leaders and other dignitaries that had expected it many hours earlier.

The Please Touch Museum was evacuated Friday afternoon because of a fire that started in a storage area near the kitchen. No one was hurt in the fire, which was discovered at 2:30 p.m., and the museum in Fairmount Park is scheduled to open Saturday as usual at 9 a.m., spokeswoman Tory Harris said. It was not clear yet what caused the blaze, she said. She said city firefighters arrived promptly and the blaze was brought under control before causing significant damage. Fire Department officials did not immediately return a request for comment.

The exhibit runs fromJune 16 through 2015 at the Gettysburg Military Park Museum and Visitor Center, 1195 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg. The fee is included in the standard museum/film/Cyclorama painting admission, which is $12.50 for adults and $8.50 for youths ages 6 through 12. A ticket for only the exhibit can be purchased for $8 for adults and $6 for youths.

Art Museums & Institutions African American Heritage Museum 661 Jackson Rd., Newtonville; 609-704-5495. www.aahmsnj.org . Tue.-Fri. 10 am-3 pm. The Barnes Foundation - Philadelphia 2025 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.; 215-278-7000. www.barnesfoundation.org . Ellsworth Kelly: Sculpture on the Wall. $18; $15 seniors 65 and over; $10 students and children 17 and under. Sat.-Mon., Wed.-Thu. 9:30 am-6 pm; Fri. 9:30 am-10 pm. Brandywine River Museum Rte. 1 & Rte. 100, Chadds Ford; 610-388-2700.

Please Touch Museum president and CEO Laura Foster is stepping down. Foster, leader of the museum for five years, said Tuesday that it was a good time for her to move on. "I want to do some new things," she said. "I want to spend time with my new grandchild. Twenty-two years is a long time," she said, referring to her tenure at the museum, where she initially served as director of development and marketing. Foster said she was not sure what her next career move would be. Her contract is up in November.

In the majestic halls of a grand stone mansion that rises from verdant fields off Pattison Avenue, the American Swedish Historical Museum's small but dedicated staff has been preparing to welcome the king and queen. Calmly. Very calmly. "We're excited," said Tracey Rae Beck, the museum's executive director. The fervor, however, was mostly internal. The only sound floating through the high-ceilinged galleries Thursday morning - only 28 hours before the royals' scheduled arrival - was the mellifluent Swedish conversation that Birgitta Davis was having on the phone.

DALLAS - The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum opened to the public Wednesday, with the 43d president greeting 43 area schoolchildren who were its first visitors. "I was like, 'I can't believe he's here,' " said Eduardo Borrego, a sixth grader at Mark Twain Elementary in Richardson. The library and museum, along with Bush's policy institute, are housed in the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The center was dedicated last week during a ceremony that featured Bush, President Obama, and former Presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush.

WASHINGTON - At an event centered on one of the darkest times in human history, more than 1,000 Holocaust survivors, World War II veterans and other dignitaries crowded into a tent to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and filled it with the joyous sounds of laughter, some tears and Yiddish. Lots of Yiddish. It was an emotional ceremony, but also celebratory for all that the museum has accomplished over the last two decades. Former President Bill Clinton and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, who were at the dedication of the museum in 1993, returned Monday and reiterated the reason for its existence: that such genocide might "never again" occur.