Mennonite Life, 2215 Millstream Road, Lancaster, will host a behind-the-scenes event inviting the public into museum storage for a rare look at the work that goes into preserving local history. Visitors are invited to drop in at the Mennonite Life Collections Building on Friday, Aug. 22, between 10 a.m. and noon.

Guests will learn how museum professionals care for fragile textiles and artifacts. The event will highlight ongoing collections work, with a special focus on the museum's show towel and quilt collections.

Show towels are long, delicately embroidered linens. Most were made by young women in 19th-century Pennsylvania German and Mennonite communities as a way of displaying intricate needleworking skills and expressing faith and family identity.

Mennonite Life curator Emily Immel will demonstrate how these delicate objects are stored using archival materials. Attendees may watch as she physically tags and rolls show towels onto archival tubes, a preservation method that helps protect them for generations to come.

The event is open to the public. To register, visit http://www.mennonitelife.org/events.

Mennonite Life's vision is diverse communities connecting across boundaries by knowing and valuing their own and each other's stories of life, faith, cultures, and histories.