Former Conroe teacher’s nutcracker collection featured for the holidays at heritage museum

To celebrate the holiday season, the Heritage Museum of Montgomery has on display the Nutcracker collection of a former Conroe educator and a hand-carved collection of vintage Hitty dolls. 

Both exhibits are on display in the museum’s Mark C. Clapham Art Gallery room in the Grogan-Cochran home, which serves as the museum’s headquarters. The displays will be available through Dec. 21 when the museum closes for the holidays. 

Here’s what to know about both exhibits and holiday plans for the museum. 

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Carol Callahan’s Nutcrackers 

A portion of Carol Callahan’s nutcracker collection is on display at the museum.

Callahan was a teacher in Houston ISD before coming to Conroe and later taught at Conroe ISD’s Crockett Junior High before starting the Industrial Cooperative Training Program at McCullough High School.

After retiring from teaching, she worked as a realtor and a sales representative for White Fox Travel.

She died in 2020 and the collection is now on loan to the museum from her daughter, Kelly Callahan, of Conroe. 

Carol Callahan and former museum executive director Gertie Spencer were the best of friends for many years. 

Callahan said her mom’s collection started in the 1980s following the passing of Kelly’s father. 

She and Spencer traveled often together and she bought the nutcrackers on her travels. Soon, friends and family added to the collection as presents. 

She had a Christmas tree filled with more than 100 nutcracker ornaments, rugs and other nutcracker-themed items. The collection on display includes a Wizard of Oz group, nutcrackers from the University of Oklahoma where Callahan attended college and others from around the world and for different holidays. 

Callahan said her mom’s favorite was a schoolteacher nutcracker as she taught school her whole life. 

“We’re very proud that they asked us to do this and I know my mom would have been thrilled to death,” Callahan said. “It brings back a lot of good memories.” 

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Sheila Williamson’s Hitty Dolls 

The Hitty doll collection at the museum belongs to Sheila Williamson. 

Hitty dolls are small, wooden dolls that are based on the character in the children’s book “Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field” published in 1929. The original Hitty doll is about six-and-a-half inches tall and was carved from white mountain ash wood in the 19th century. 

The original doll is in a library in Massachusetts where the author grew up. Versions of the Hitty doll became popular in the early 1900s.

Williamson had always been fascinated by the dolls and a few years ago began carving them. The dolls start as basswood and butternut wood blanks and she carves them into the doll’s shape with special attention to the nose and face.

She also hand paints and dresses each one. The dolls at the heritage museum are arranged in various Christmas scenes. 

What’s next at the museum 

The museum will continue to welcome guests 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. The museum’s final day to be open before the holiday break is Dec. 21. 

The museum will be closed for the holidays from Dec. 22 through Jan. 1, reopening Jan. 2. New exhibits will be coming in 2025. 

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