Issue 2

May 2013

Special points of interest:

Curator’s Corner

Brooke County Historical Museum

Central Glass Company presentation

AmeriCorps in Buckhannon

West

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annual dinner held Friday night at the McLure Hotel.

A special thanks goes out to the Wheeling CVB and the Wheeling National Heritage Area for being sponsors, as well as the Friends of Wheeling group who assisted with Friday’s trolley tour!

2013 WVAM Annual Meeting & Conference

The WVAM 2013 confer-ence, "150 Years: Celebrating Statehood", was held March 14-16, 2013 in Wheeling at West Virginia Independence Hall. More than 50 museum profes-sionals and volunteers from around the state attended work-shops on a variety of topics including the AmeriCorps program in West Virginia, Profes-sional Handling of Artifacts, Identifying Weapons Used During the Civil War, the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, IMLS Grant Writing, Applying Numbers to Collection Objects, and Dinosaurs in a Digital World: Keeping Museums Relevant in a Technologically Advanced World! Conference participants visited Oglebay Mansion Museum, the Eckhart House, the Capitol Theatre, and the First State Capitol building. David Javersak was the keynote speaker at the

WVIH Upcoming Statehood Events Thursday, June 13, 7pm: “The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln: Emancipation and West Virginia Statehood” A presentation by legal and historical scholar Forest “Jack” Bowman as part of the 150th com-memoration of WV statehood. Free and open to the public. A recep-tion will follow the program.

Thursday, June 20, All day: “150 Years: West Virginia Sesquicenten-nial Celebration!” Commemorative ceremonies and historical reenact-ments to celebrate the 150th anniversary of WV statehood. Historical speeches, WV birthday cake, and much more.

2pm– The Wildcat Regiment Band will perform a concert of Civil War era music in the historic courtroom.

Friday, June 21, 7pm: The Blue-Grey Choir will perform a concert of choral music featuring Civil War period music, American folk songs, spirituals and patriotic music as part of WV’s 150th celebration! Free and open to the public, a reception will follow the program.

First WVAM Workshop of 2013: A Day in the Life of a Curator

This year's "A Day in the Life of a Curator" workshop with State Museum Jim Mitchell will be held on June 26, 2013 at the State Museum in Charleston. Jim will be expanding upon the session he presented at the Conference, "How To Identify Objects By Sight." In the morning Jim will concentrate on West Virginia pottery (excluding porcelain since very little was made in our state). In the afternoon, he will focus on West Virginia glass. Since the workshop will be held in the State Museum, participants will be able to view and study objects in the Collections Room as well as objects which are on display in the museum's exhibits. Books in the library will be available for identifica-tion exercises. The morning session will be held from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Lunch will not be provided for workshop participants but is available at the nearby Capitol Cafeteria. Following lunch, the workshop will continue for most of the afternoon. To register for this free membership workshop (lunch is your expense), call Jim at 304-558-0220, Extension 727, or email him at Jim.R.Mitchell@wv.gov.

Six months ago, I moved to Buckhannon, West Virginia to join an AmeriCorps team working with the Appalachian Forest Heritage Area, a program designed to integrate central Appalachian forest history, culture, natural history, products, and forest management into a heritage tourism initiative to promote rural community development. Since September, I have been working for the Buckhannon Historic Landmark Commission and the Upshur County Historical Society on various projects intended to promote the history of Buckhannon and Upshur County.

My project with the Buckhannon Historic Landmark Commission involves conducting research on all the historic buildings downtown. Businesses have come and gone through the years but the buildings remain and these structures embody the past of the community and the changes that have occurred through-out the years. Our goal is to create a plaque for each historic building that will tell the history of Buckhan-non by retelling the story of each building.

As well as this research, I have been assisting with various projects at the Upshur County Historical Society including preparing the Civil War diary of Marcia Sumner Phillips for publication this year. Marcia Phillips was a resident of French Creek at the outbreak of the Civil War but moved to Buckhannon in January of 1862. Her husband became the captain of a Union volunteer company from Upshur County in 1861. The diary, written from May 1861 to June 1863, gives great insight into how the Civil War affected the Phillips family and the individual lives of the citizens of Upshur County.

This spring the Upshur County Historical Society will be publishing its annual newsletter and journal where you will find articles about both of these projects as well as many other interesting items. We will also be opening our annual seasonal exhibit on June 9 which will run through September, open 1-4 on Sunday afternoons. For more information, please email us at info@upshurcountyhistoricalsociety.com or visit us on Tuesday nights at 29 West Main Street, across from the Court House, from 6-8 pm.

AmeriCorps in

Buckhannon

By Julie Stoner

Page 2 WEST VIRGINIA ASSOCI ATION OF MUSEUMS

On June 14-18, 2013, Hale Farm & Village, an outdoor living history site and a premier collection and museum of the Western Reserve Historical Society, will host the 2013 ALHFAM Annual Meeting and Conference. Nestled in the picturesque Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Hale Farm & Village depicts mid-19th century rural life in Northeastern Ohio through dozens of historic structures, farm animals, heritage gardens and artisan demonstrations. The University of Akron will provide meeting, dining and lodging facilities for the conference and is located within 50 minutes of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and 20 minutes of the Akron-Canton Regional Airport.

Guided by the theme; Bringing It All to the Table: Feed Your Body, Feed Your Mind, museum professionals everywhere are encouraged to gather with colleagues around a common table. Here conference attendees will acquaint themselves with old friends and new associates, while enjoying good company, good food, and rousing conversation. And what better place to gather than the time-honored table that is familiar to everyone and is oftentimes described as a positive and productive setting for stimulating discourse, high spirits, instruction, respite and shared aims. Appropriately the table serves as a special place that is witness to life's most im-portant things.

The 2013 conference will address issues and concerns currently facing living history and agricultural museums. Presentations, sessions, papers and workshops will focus on individual, institutional and communal achievements that serve up innovative programming initiatives or organizational efforts that are creative, essential and relevant in today’s marketplace. How do museums cultivate and nurture civic engagement for greater involvement and investment in their organizations? What can we glean from new demographic shifts, technological applications and curriculum schemes? What are the current and best practices of living history interpretation and museum methodology that effect organizational richness? What are the processes for dishing-up success? How do we deliver the goods to our audiences and reap the rewards of a good yield in the face of new challenges and opportunities?

ALHFAM

Conference

June 2013:

“Bringing It All

to the

Table:

Feed Your Body,

Feed Your Mind”

The grand opening of the Brooke County Historical Museum and Culture Center (BCHM&CC) was held at its new facility at 704 Charles Street, Wellsburg, WV on Saturday, April 6, 2013. The event, which also featured a Glass Show, honored 200 years of glassmaking in WV, and drew an audience of over 100 people from the tri-state area, including several dignitaries. President Vickey Gallagher wel-comed the visitors and stated, “thanks to the efforts of the Brooke County Commissioners and WV State Commissioner of Culture and History, Randall Reid-Smith, we were able to secure a $90,000 state grant to purchase the building. “A telemarketing firm was previously housed in the building before the museum bought it” , added Phi l l ip Greathouse, Board Vice President. “We removed sections of the cubi-cles to create half-walls for dis-plays. We then set about to recre-ate an 1890 dining room, 1920s kitchen, one-room schoolhouse and many other scenes filled with items donated to the museum over the years”.

The Brooke County Museum is actually the first county museum in West Virginia. Its new Charles Street home is known in the com-munity as the original G.C. Mur-phy Store. In honor of the former five-and-dime, a special display was developed which includes signs found on the building's sec-ond floor as well as a counter filled with household items that would have been sold in the original retail store. Pews acquired from the Brooke Hills Free Methodist

Page 3 ISSUE 2

are arranged around a stage for special programming events as well as located throughout the museum so tourists can relax and appreciate a special display of interest to them.

Church and college youth groups, businesses, Brooke Hills Park volunteers, and other mem-bers of the community have assist-ed us over the past year in the relo-cation effort”, stated Ruby Greathouse. “Our facility offers 10,000 feet of space which greatly expands our capabilities for hous-ing existing artifacts, welcoming additional antiquities, as well as developing art and culture pro-grams that would be of interest to youth and adults”, added Ruby Greathouse. Recent acquisitions include photos, samples of steel and other items from the former Wheeling Corrugating Plant that were donated by Hackman Capital, the facility's new owner, through the arrangement of Pat Ford, exec-utive director of the Business De-velopment Corporation of the Northern Panhandle.

Vickey Gallagher commented, “Our first cultural event was held December 2012; we hosted a Christmas program featuring local children led by Carol Allman and the Brooke High School Madrigal Choir. On April 6, we opened Duvall Glass exhibit and Mr. Dean Six, Executive Director of the Mu-seum of American Glass of West Virginia shared an overview of 200 years of glassmaking in WV. Brent Kimball, a member of Madrigal choir, performed the national an-them and other music”.

The Brooke County Historical Mu-seum & Cultural Center, a member of the WV Association of Muse-ums, has scheduled several events this year:

Upcoming Events:

April 6 through October – Duvall Glass Exhibit and WV Glass Show

May 4, 9:30 AM – Antique Car Tour

May 18, 10 AM - an art exhibit featuring works by Brooke High School students and alumni;

June 20, WV Day – Events to be announced

July 4, Wellsburg Parade

October 4, Apple Fest – Open House of both the Charles Street log cabin and museum

October 26, 10 AM – State Anni-versary Display courtesy of WV Dept. of Culture & History

November 11, Veterans Day – Events to be announced

December – Events to be an-nounced

The museum's current hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays, with other dates available by appoint-ment. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated. For more information, about how you as an individual, school, college, university, civic group, or business, could arrange a tour or become a workforce or financial partner of the Brooke County Historical Museum and Culture Center, con-tact Ruby Greathouse at (304) 737-4060 or e-mail us at bchmcc2012@gmail.com.

Brooke County Historical Museum and Culture Center Opens New Facility

Page 4 ISSUE 2

The Pricketts Fort Memorial Foundation will be hosting a 3 day, 2 night bus tour to Historical Colonial Williamsburg on November 1-3, 2013. The tour will in-clude visits to Jamestown and Yorktown. The price for this exciting and educational tour is $495.00 per person for PFMF Members and $545.00 per person for Non-Members. In addition to transpor-tation, the price also includes: lodging for two nights with breakfast at Woodlands Hotel Suites, 1 Colonial Dinner at Kings Tavern or Shields Tavern, and admission tickets to Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown. A down payment of 50% of the tour price is required to make a reservation for the tour. Payment of the remaining 50% of the tour price is due by September 1, 2013. Any refunds for the Colonial Williamsburg Tour need to be requested by August 1, 2013.

For additional information and reservations call (304) 363-3030 or register on line www.prickettsfort.org/shop.

Emergency Response and Salvage Wheeling: Now a Mobile Application!

Heritage Preservation’s Emergency Response and Salvage Wheel is now available free of charge on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad as the “ERS: Emergency

Response and Salvage” app.

Long known as the authoritative resource for salvaging artifacts after a disaster, the Wheel has been used by museums, libraries, and archives around the world.

This new app makes the Wheel’s invaluable guidance accessible to anyone who is in need of practical advice for saving collections in the first 48 hours after disaster

strikes.

Apple users can download this free app from the App Store. Simply search for “ERS: Emergency Response and Salvage”. To download, your device must run iOS 5.1 or later. Complete technical requirements are available on the ERS page

at the App Store!

Bus Tour

to

Colonial

Williamsburg

November

1-3, 2013

Central Glass Company Marilyn Hallock has graciously agreed to come to the Oglebay Institute Glass Museum to talk about the history and products of the Central Glass Company. She will bring along representative examples of Cen-

tral's glass from her own private collection. Marilyn is a descendant of two of the original founders of Central - Peter Cassell and John Henderson. The discussion is titled "The Central Glass Connec-tion" and will be held at Oglebay Institute's Glass Museum on Thursday, May 9 at 6:30. Light re-

freshments will be served following the talk.

In addition, students from West Liberty State College will be finishing their final projects in our glassblowing studio that evening and the public is welcome to watch. There is no fee for the program but due to limited space reservations are required.

Please call the Mansion Museum at (304) 242-7272 to make reservations.

Lecture at

Oglebay

Institute

Glass

Museum

Wheeling, WV

Bradford Noyes’ Charleston Souvenir Plates By Jim Mitchell

for the center and the six spaces around the rim.

The plate is not unique, but it is not common either. I have never seen one in an antiques shop, but they have been on Ebay. We have four other identical ones and two other slightly different ones. Both varieties have been researched and are well catalogued. Four of the plates were formerly the property of Governor and Mrs. Ephraim Morgan. The plates have a flat bottom and a wide outward curving rim suitable for pictures of buildings.

The center of both plates is a picture of the West Virginia State Capitol which was built in 1885 and burned down in 1921. One of the plates also has the State seal in a shield above the Capitol. This version has church pictures around the rim: First Presbyterian Church, St. Johns Episcopal Church, The State Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Baptist T e m p l e , D i c k i n s o n Methodist Episcopal Church and Kanawha Presbyterian Church. Of these six church-

es, only St. Johns Episcopal and Kanawha Presbyterian are still standing in the same form as on the plate. Since 1907, State Street Methodist became a synagogue and was torn down. Baptist Temple was torn down and replaced with today’s Geor-gian style structure. First Presbyterian has been replaced with a classical portico and round copper roof. Dickinson Methodist was on Dickinson Street where the Post Office is. In 1912, it moved across Washington Street and is now St. Marks United Methodist.

The seal-less version also has six pictures around the rim of Charleston buildings of the day: Charleston Gen-eral Hospital, Church of the Sacred Heart, High School Building, Hotel Ruffner, Union School Building and Hotel Kanawha . Only the Basilica of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is still standing. The Ruffner Hotel was razed in 1970 and the Kanawha Hotel in 2003. The hospital has changed and the two schools are gone.

Museums often receive strange and wonderful gifts from unlikely sources. Ideally, desirable objects are available any time we want them, but truthfully it just isn’t so. We accept what is offered to us from time to time, which adheres to our Collections Policy of objects made and/or used in West Virginia, and then we exhibit them according to exhibition needs and plans. Some museum professionals say that we should not collect old souvenirs, but objects with West Virginia stories and connect ions are important to our collections.

Back in February, a man came into The Great Hall in the Culture Center and offered us an old cobalt blue transfer printed earthenware souvenir plate of Charleston, which was made in England. I accepted it for The State Museum Collection. When I asked him if it was a family piece with some history, he said, “No, I bought it in a thrift store in Indiana.”

On the bottom is printed in cobalt blue in four lines: "MADE & DESIGNED / IN ENGLAND FOR / BRADFORD NOYES /CHARLESTON W.VA.". Bradford Noyes operated a jewelry/china store in Charleston between 1901 and 1907. Apparently he ordered the plates from an unknown English pottery and supplied photographs

Page 5

Curator’s

Corner

ISSUE 2

Page 6 ISSUE 2

Scenes from the

2013 West Virginia

Association of Museums

conference in Wheeling!

Our annual auction raised a record $2200! Thank you to everyone who brought donations

to be auctioned!

This year, “Syp” (at right), raised over $300 in memory of our friend, Larry Sypolt. Thank

you WVAM for your generosity! This money will help to fund next year's conference schol-

arship recipients.

Page 7 WEST VIRGINIA

WVAM Board of Directors President

Jane Gilchrist (2014)

loomyladi@yahoo.com

Vice President

Ro Brooks (2015)

Monongalia Arts Center

ro@monartscenter.com

Secretary (2014)

Dean Hardman

The Farmstead, WVU Jackson’s Mill

dean.hardman@mail.wvu.edu

Treasurer

Jim Mitchell (2015)

WV State Museum

Jim.R.Mitchell@wv.gov

Directors at Large:

Darryl DeGripp (2014)

Beverly Heritage Center

ddegripp@gmail.com

Leslie Baker (2015)

Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine

lgbharley@beckleymine.com

Rebekah Karelis (2015)

Wheeling National Heritage Area

bkarelis@wheelingheritage.org

Toni Ogden (2014)

North House Museum

togdenweaver@yahoo.com

Anna Schein (2015)

WV & Regional History Coll., WVU Libraries

anna.schein@mail.wvu.edu

Noel W. Tenney (2014)

Frank & Jane Gabor WV Folklife Center

ntenney@fairmontstate.edu

Past President

vacant

www.museumsofwv.org

Hello Everyone ! A special thanks to all who helped make the 2013 Convention such a wonderful success. It was great to see new faces and catch up with old friends! If you did not make it, you missed some great information. Not only did we learn a lot about the history of Independ-ence Hall and the wonders of Wheeling, but more importantly we learned how to make a successful play day for children, how to affix registration numbers, and the opportunities with the AmeriCorps Program. There were many other topics covered from the history of weapons, to tabletop exhibit development, to grant opportunities. There are a lot of wonderful activities going on with our mem-bership: activities abound! Be sure to post your activities on the calendar on the website! We are pleased to welcome Leslie Baker from the Beckley Museum Complex to the board. We are looking forward to having new thoughts and ideas brought to the organiza-tion and we hope to take the 2014 Confer-ence to Beckley. The Friday night auction was a resounding success! It was a great time and everyone got involved - even the bar-tender! I do hope that her boyfriend loves “Monti” the bear! Thanks to all who made donations and purchased items. The scholar-ship fund for 2014 is very robust. Looking forward to seeing you all out and about over the summer! Sincerely, Jane

From the President

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