Some Murfreesboro youngsters will learn proper manners from an accomplished MTSU professor during the “Autumn in the Oaks” educational field day at Oaklands Mansion Thursday, Sept. 20.

Professor Deborah Belcher

Department of Human Sciences chair Deborah Belcher will teach etiquette lessons and table setting during the event, which will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 20 at Oaklands Mansion, located at 901 N. Maney Ave. in Murfreesboro.

Belcher has been trained by the Burlington, Vermont-based, family-owned Emily Post Institute, which was designed to continue and modernize the work of author and social-conduct expert Emily Post. Her 1922 book “Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home” is considered a seminal work on the subject of good manners, and her syndicated newspaper column spread her guidance to even more readers.

The event, which is expected to draw an estimated 470 K-6 students from public, private and home-school settings in Middle Tennessee, will focus on chores of the mid-1800s. Participants will learn how people washed clothing, churned butter, wrote with quill pens and cleaned rugs, among many tasks.

Artisans and living demonstrators will be on hand to share their talents. Other activities for the youngsters will include sack races, hoops-and-sticks games, a scavenger hunt, dough kneading and dressing up in 1860s-style fashions.

Oaklands is an historic plantation home and museum located in Murfreesboro not far from the city’s public square. The site is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a local landmark known for its unique Italianate design.

For more information, contact Belcher at 615-898-2302 or deborah.belcher@mtsu.edu.

— Gina K. Logue (gina.logue@mtsu.edu)

Professor Deborah Belcher, center left, chair of the MTSU Department of Human Sciences, shows youngsters the art of properly setting a table during the 2017 “Day of Washing, Churning and Learning” at Oaklands Mansion in Murfreesboro. (Photo submitted)