Perdue foundation donates $5K for ag museum poultry exhibit

The Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation recently donated $5,000 to the Delaware Agricultural Museum to support the redesign and expansion of the museum’s poultry exhibit, a project that was launched earlier this year.

Covering approximately 2,400 cubic feet, The Birth of the Broiler Industry exhibit includes Cecile Steele’s chicken house, circa 1923. The structure is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Steele is credited with launching the broiler industry which, 96 years later, remains Delaware’s most valuable agricultural product.

Because of the poultry industry’s importance to the state’s economy, Ag Museum Director Carolyn Claypoole plans to make the exhibit the highlight of the Delaware Agricultural Museum. It will provide visitors with a quality informational and educational experience focused on the past, present and future of the industry.

The poultry exhibit is also the museum’s first interactive learning center for elementary school-age children with a science, technology, engineering and mathematics-based curriculum. The Perdue gift is key to this program, and the funds will be used to develop the poultry industry vertical integration display with associated educational activities.