Events
Programs and Events
Did you miss any of our live programs?
Some recordings are available to the general public at no cost, while some are only available to members. Now is a great time to join, as we’re constantly releasing new and exclusive material. Call 303-278-3557 if you have any questions or if you want to join by phone. You can also reach us electronically.
Golden Folks: Photography by Povy Kendal Atchison
February 9 – September 2, 2023 
I told my soon-to-be husband that I would give Golden two years. If I didn’t like it after that, we would move back to my fourth-generation home of Denver. Twenty-three years later, I am proud to call Golden my home. I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I love that Golden is a politically diverse town. One has to tread lightly with new-acquaintances until you know where you stand. Just when I think I have gotten to know every sort of person in town, I meet someone who is completely unexpected.
People have always been my favorite subject to photograph. My mother gave me her 1959 medium format Rolleiflex camera and the keys to her darkroom when I was 12. Forty-four years, seven books, a few hundred publications later, I am still following my passion, which is also my profession.
To most photographers, it’s all about the light and composition, but to me, it’s also about the connection. Trying to get that person I’m photographing to open up to me and let me in. I hope that shows in my work. Combining my love for history and my need to connect with people, I have been documenting people of Golden since I moved here; well-known folks and not-so well-known folks, but people who, in my left shooting eye, are worth notice. They are Golden Folks.
Top image: Steve Kurtz, City of Golden Street Superintendent, © Povy Kendal Atchison
Bottom image: Dr. Julia Atkins of Golden © Povy Kendal Atchison
Pricing
Free
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Brands in Colorado
Register on eventbrite or purchase tickets in-person at the museum.
The Old West is right beneath the surface of today’s ranching and rodeo culture. Come join us for an evening of brands, the larceny of livestock (aka rustling), shady characters, range and stock detectives and a host of other typically western notions.
The Old West still lives on today in Colorado, proving the more things change, the more they stay the same.
About Randi Samuelson-Brown
Randi Samuelson-Brown is originally from Golden, Colorado, but now lives in Denver. A passion for Colorado history was instilled by her father from early on, and she certainly latched on to the more notorious aspects of live in Colorado and the West. She was a finalist in the 2021 Colorado Book Awards for the Bad Old Days of Colorado.
Her newest book is Brand Chaser – Book #1 of the Dark Range Series.
When not writing in her free time, Randi is often riding horses and traveling around Colorado and the West, finding inspiration from people, places, and open spaces. She loves speaking at museums and organizations, and especially loves to meet readers.
Books: Brand Chaser, The Bad Old Days of Colorado: Untold Stories of the Wild West, Market Street Madam and The Beaten Territory.
Pricing
Free for museum members, $10 non-members
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Can political cartoons fight corruption? Masculinity and women’s activism in 20th century Colorado.
In-person event on Wednesday, March 29.
Register on eventbrite or purchase tickets in-person at the museum.
Early 20th century Colorado witnessed some divisive battles over political life and economic conditions. After men voted to enfranchise Colorado women in 1893, the state offered exciting opportunities for women activists to promote reform. Yet party machines limited their influence. In this presentation, Laugen explores the visual representations of gender and politics created by Denver Post cartoonist Wilbur Steele. These editorial cartoons highlight the emotional and gendered style of Progressive reformers and their partisan adversaries. We explore whether political cartoons can fight corruption and promote democratic change in public life.
About Todd Laugen
A faculty member at Metropolitan State University of Denver since 2005, Todd Laugen teaches American History and supports K-12 History Education. His published work includes: The Gospel of Progressivism: Moral Reform and Labor War in Colorado, 1900-1930 and Colorado History Detectives: Teaching Historical Literacy to School-Aged Readers, which is available online.
Pricing
Free for museum members, $10 non-members
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Homesteading the West – The Tale of Lavinia Morgan Anderson
Register on eventbrite or purchase tickets in-person at the museum.
Lavinia Morgan Anderson is a composite character of a pioneer woman living on a ranch in Colorado in the late 1880s as she remembers how she emigrated west in a covered wagon in the 1860s as a child and grew up in Kansas before settling in Colorado with her husband after staking a claim under the Homestead Act. While Lavinia did not actually exist, her life did exist as well as that of thousands of other women who made similar journeys. This story is drawn from snippets of many diaries the women kept telling of their challenges, privations, fears and triumphs. They record the woman’s side of pioneer life. Come and learn about these adventures and more through this thrilling living history program.
About Linda Batlin
Linda Batlin is a storyteller and author from Boulder, Colorado, where she has lived for over half of her life. She enjoys sharing her love of the mountains and of Colorado with audiences. She tells stories filled with wisdom and mirth for all ages in schools, libraries, festivals, museums, senior centers, campfires and other events. Her entertaining and educational living history presentations of important women characters from Colorado history such as Isabella Bird bring them to life and are often requested. Her repertoire is also filled with multicultural folktales from around the world such as nature stories, Asian stories, animal stories, ghost stories, Jewish folktales, puppets, etc. She is a member of the National Storytelling Network.
Batlin’s recent performance of Isabella Bird’s 1873 travels is available for viewing on the Members Only portion of the website.
Pricing
$5 for museum members, $10 non-members
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Join the Friends of the Museum for free coffee, tea, and refreshments. Stephanie Gilmore, the museum curator, will speak about new artifact installations and upcoming exhibits.
Friends of Golden History Museum is a support and advocacy board for Golden History Museum & Park. They help GHM&P reach their education mission, financial sustainability goals, and preservation and capital needs.
The Friends help plan and carry out programs like the Black and White Night Fundraiser. They give financial support to educational initiatives such as field trips, Hands-on History camp scholarships, and in-classroom outreach.
They also provide support for preservation and capital projects like digitization of GHM’s historic photography collection, construction of a new buck rail fence at Golden History Park, and underwriting for Golden History Museum exhibits. If you are interested in more information on the Friends or becoming a member, please contact us.
The Friends is supported in part by your donations to Community First Foundation. Thank you.
Borderlands Curanderos
Register on eventbrite or purchase tickets in-person at the museum.
Join Metro State University professor Jennifer Koshatka Seman, author of Borderlands Curanderos: The Worlds of Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo, as she discusses U.S.-Mexico Borderlands during the turn of the twentieth century.
Pricing
Free for museum members, $10 non-members
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
History, Legacy, and Policymaking in Territorial Colorado, 1861-1876
Register on eventbrite or purchase tickets in-person at the museum.
This presentation discusses policymaking, political obstacles, cultural conflicts, and institutional racism experienced by Hispano legislators in the wake of the legal establishment of the Territory of Colorado in 1861. These Hispano territorial legislators are introduced as a forgotten piece of Colorado’s early history. The new territorial laws put in place had effects on the lives of the 7,000 Hispano settlers from New Mexico Territory, who were displaced into the newly formed Colorado Territory.
About Virginia Sanchez
Virginia Sanchez is a historian, author, and independent scholar living in Denver. She has deep roots going back 16 generations in northern New Mexico as her ancestors settled there in 1598 with explorer Juan de Oñate. Her research about early Hispano and Indio history in southern Colorado appears in several published books and articles.
Pricing
$5 for museum members, $10 non-members
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Autumn Fest 2023
Autumn Fest is a free celebration of Golden featuring hands-on activities for the whole family, including crafts, big trucks, and even farm animals. Join us to welcome the fall season at Golden History Museum (923 10th St.), proudly sponsored by:
O’Sullivan Personal Injury Law Firm
Golden Downtown Development Authority
Free and Low-Cost Family Activities
- make-your-own thaumatrope station and lawn games (hoop toss, ladder ball, and cornhole)
- 4-H petting zoo
- craft stations
- BIG TRUCKS (Streets, Fire, and Police Departments)
- costumed Civil War interpretation
- karate demonstration
- hands-on paper-making station
2023 Partners
- Colorado Volunteer Infantry Group
- 4-H
- Boulder Apple Tree Project
- Mines Museum of Earth Science
- Golden Library
- Foothills Art Center
- Golden Street, Police, and Fire Departments
- Golden Public Art Commission
- Lane Academy of Martial Arts
2022 Sponsors
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Autumn Fest Gallery
Location and Pricing
Golden History Museum and Golden History Park
Free
Registration
Unlike most GHM&P programs, there is no registration for Autumn Fest.
Membership
Membership pays for itself with just a few programs for your family. Join us.
More Golden history
Check out the Golden History Museum & Park blog for the latest behind the scenes videos and stories, personal memoirs, and history tidbits about Golden.
Join the Friends of the Museum for free coffee, tea, and refreshments.
Friends of Golden History Museum is a support and advocacy board for Golden History Museum & Park. They help GHM&P reach their education mission, financial sustainability goals, and preservation and capital needs.
The Friends help plan and carry out programs like the Black and White Night Fundraiser. They give financial support to educational initiatives such as field trips, Hands-on History camp scholarships, and in-classroom outreach.
They also provide support for preservation and capital projects like digitization of GHM’s historic photography collection, construction of a new buck rail fence at Golden History Park, and underwriting for Golden History Museum exhibits. If you are interested in more information on the Friends or becoming a member, please contact us.
The Friends is supported in part by your donations to Community First Foundation. Thank you.
How to register
Click the green ticket button in the upper left of each event to buy tickets online. 
Click “read more” in the lower right of each event for details. 
Event and Program Ticketing Policies at Golden History Museum & Park
(updated 11-20-18).
Please note: Tickets will only be available at the door if the program reaches its preregistration minimum.
Weather: All events are rain or shine. Tickets will not be refunded for any inclement weather including but not limited to snow, wind, rain or extreme temperatures.
Cancellation: GHM&P reserves the right to cancel a program for any reason. A full refund will occur automatically and notification sent if GHM&P cancels a program for any reason.
Refunds: Participants will not receive a refund except in the event that GHM&P cancels the program.
Facilities: Restrooms are not available on-site at the Golden History Park or Golden Cemetery. If at the Golden History Park, participants may use public restrooms located on 12th Street. Please call ahead to ask about accessibility concerns and mobility recommendations.
Additional details: Please note the minimum age requirements of some of our programs. Excessive disruptive behavior and any safety risks may result in a participant being asked to leave a program at the instructor’s discretion. Pets are not permitted at programs; service animals are permitted.
To purchase tickets, cancel your registration, or learn more about our events and ticketing policy, please call the Golden History Museum front desk during business hours at 303-278-3557.