Protecting Family Heirlooms and How It Relates to Museums

The words Family Heirloom bring to mind many of our family treasures, which can be found in numerous museums all around the world or as close to home as in the closet or attic never on display. One of the most priceless family heirlooms are family photograph collections. Photographs are very important not only to museums, institutions, but also family researchers. A photograph opens up a new world to explore for a researcher or a writer. I have really enjoyed my course this semester Your Family in History at Pittsburg State University. Our instructor builds his curriculum for the course to get you out of normal habits of viewing family history and pushing you to think deeper and pursue more than just the bare minimum details of writing and organizing your family history.

Family Histories are an excellent additions to any museum. They open up so much possibilities for exhibitions and research. I have been working on my family history since 2007. It has been an excellent experience for me to step back and organize who I am and where I come from?

We have been learning how to compile stories this semester and collecting the information to build those stories into family treasures that future generations will treasure for years to come. I have had great inspiration and resources to build my stories. I was fortunate to know my great-great grandmother, Rosa Ann (HULL) Logue, five great-grandparents: Ezra Everett and Nella Lorean (Moppin) Boyd, Jay Edison and Loraine Lucille (NEAL) Logue, and Marjorie Ernestine (ENGLAND) Brock, and my grandparents: Howard Lee and Joyce Ann (LOGUE) Boyd and Arthur A. and M. Fayrene (BROCK) Morgan. I have had my parents: Stephen Howard and Susan Elaine (MORGAN) Boyd and sister and brother-in-law: Antonio and Holly L. (BOYD) Martinez My great-grandparents: Frank Edgar and Alma America (WRIGHT) Morgan and John Herman "Pete" Brock passed away before I was born, but have been a great inspiration for me in my writing and compiling of my family history.

I have a few of my family photographs included in this blog:

My great-grandparents: Ezra Everett and Nella Lorean (Moppin) Boyd at their home in Wesley, Ark. Taken around 2002. We were visiting them from Oklahoma. 

My great-grandparents: John Herman "Pete" and Marjorie E. (England) Brock at their home in Afton, OK. Taken around 1977. 

My grandparents: Arthur A. and M. Fayrene (Brock) Morgan on their wedding day at First Baptist Church in Afton, OK. on January 24, 1954. They just celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary in January 2014. 

My great-grandmother: Loraine Lucille (Neal) Logue. This was her Senior Portrait Picture. She graduated with the Huntsville (Ark.) High School Class of 1942. 

My great-great-great grandparents: David and Martha Susan (ELKINS) McCarver at their home in Wesley, Ark. Taken c. 1920s. 

Afton Poultry Swap at Afton, OK. My family has owned and operated the Poultry Swap with three generations of my family. We opened the swap on May 20, 1987 and has grown immensely since that day. Shoppers, Buyers, and Sellers from all around the OK-MO-KS-AR Four State Area enjoy traveling to the swap on Third Weekends and Holiday Weekends. 

Family Holiday picture taken last year with my parents Stephen and Susan (Morgan) Boyd and my sister and brother-in-law: Antonio and Holly (Boyd) Martinez and Jordan Boyd. From Left to Right: Stephen, Susan, Holly, Jordan, and Antonio. We were at the Phoenix Zoo for the Zoo Lights Display the night of Thanksgiving. 

My great-great grandparents Grover Cleveland and Bessie Ottie (Nash) England at a Gilpin Family Reunion that was Grandma Bessie's mother's family, Annie Elizabeth (Gilpin) Nash. The photo was taken at my great-grandparent's home at Afton ,Ok in 1980. 

Jordan Boyd, Betty (Claypool) Logue, Derrel Beard and Ruth (Logue) Beard. Taken at Derrel and Ruth's home at Springdale, Arkansas in May 2011. Betty was visiting from California. Betty was married to Dewey Logue who was  a brother to my great-grandpa Jay Logue and Ruth is Uncle Dewey and Papaw Jay's sister. They also had three other brothers: Nolan, Ray, and Kenneth. 

My great-grandparents: Frank Edgar and Alma America (Wright) Morgan at their home. 

My great-grandparents: Jay Edison and Loraine Lucille (Neal) Logue with their son Loy C. Logue. This picture was taken in 1973 for the 100th Anniversary of the Drakes Creek Baptist Church at Drakestown, Ark. 

These are just an assortment of some of the pictures that make up my collection. I have thousands of photographs. It is important to scan and protect all photographs in some type of archival sleeve or book, that does not omit gasses or acid residue. Polypropylene or Polyethylene are preferable products to use. A great measure is to always have different sets of back up for your collections. An important step to work towards scanning your collections and preserving the originals. 

My next blog will cover more on how to preserve and care for artifacts. 

This Blog Post is in Memory of My Great-Grandparents: 

Ezra Everett Boyd (1918-2011) 

Nella Lorean (MOPPIN) Boyd (1924-2007) 

Jay Edison Logue (1923-1994) 

Loraine Lucille (NEAL) Logue (1923-2009) 

Frank Edgar Morgan (1909-1983) 

Alma America (WRIGHT) Morgan (1912-1983) 

John Herman "Pete" Brock (1911-1979) 

Marjorie Ernestine (ENGLAND) Brock (1915-2003) 

My Great-Great Grandparents: 

Howard Douglas Boyd (1890-1960) 

Delphia Mae (WORLEY) Boyd (1892-1955) 

Charles Wilmoth Moppin (1885-1945) 

Bertha Maheley (WHITE) Moppin (1891-1975) 

Elliott Oliver Logue (1892-1977) 

Rosa Ann (HULL) Logue (1900-1994) 

Rosco Floyd Neal (1888-1971) 

Beulah Lee (McCarver) Neal (1892-1972) 

Arthur Edgar Morgan (1874-1938) 

Elsie Agnus (Wilcox) Morgan (1893-1971) 

Albert Sidney Wright (1870-1955) 

Laura Lee (POE) Wright (1879-1950) 

William Franklin "Bill" Brock (1873-1940) 

Cassie Ann (TANNER) Brock (1874-1950) 

Grover Cleveland England (1893-1981) 

Bessie Ottie (NASH) England (1894-1983) 

They have given me great inspiration to collect their stories and preserve our family history to share with future generations. 

Developing a Museum Exhibit

Many long hours go into developing a museum exhibit. A museum exhibit can be thought of just like any research paper or project. You have to complete a lot of background research depending on how familiar you are with your topic or theme of your exhibit. There will be numerous steps needed to make it to your finished product, which is your opening day of the exhibit. The first job would be to create a small group or committee to work on the museum exhibit and deciding upon what you are doing for an exhibit. There are endless possibilities of what can be done for a museum exhibit. Once, you have your idea of what your exhibit will be the exhibit chair needs to assign the duties of how the committee will work together to create the finished project. Many decisions have to be made within the initials meetings of setting up the committee. A deadline needs to be decided on when the exhibit will open and how long that will take to prepare. Many exhibits take close to eight months to a year to get everything organized and ready to start putting together. It honestly depends on the size of the exhibit as well. Some exhibits could be endless of the amount of information and artifacts to provide the audience, while some exhibits may have less material to present based on your overall focus. An outline and work schedule needs to be constructed to see how the members will contribute and when sections need to be completed to move forward to the next phase of the project.

Another reason why it may take a long time to put an exhibit together is artifacts or information needs to be sent or loaned to the museum from other institutions or private lenders on a temporary contract for the length of the exhibit. The committee also needs to maintain a focus of how they will tell the story and who the main audience will be for the exhibit.  Many exhibits can be displayed for wide audiences, but do many people know of the story you are telling with your display. Sometimes you may have to provide more background to let the audience have a greater appreciation and understanding to what is the significance and message of the exhibit. The next phase of the exhibit is to conduct the research of what information is known and possibly ask some questions that need to be answered for the committee to have a better understanding themselves of why the exhibit is important and to clarify how the story is being told to the audience. Once all research has been collected it is time to start building blueprints or sketched drawings of what the exhibit might look in the space provided to house the exhibit based on what artifacts the museum may already own or have been loaned for the exhibit. Many exhibits have items which fit in glass cases or to be hung up on walls. There may be some items which are much larger and need to assess the area to make sure all artifacts may be accommodated to truly make the story come to life for the audience. The next phase to move into is the writing, editing, and revisions phase. Many of the artifacts may be unrecognizable to patrons, so it is always good to have excellent signage in and around display cases or artifacts in the gallery. You will also need an introduction panel to introduce the title and story for the audience. It also great to include a timeline or exhibit map to layout the flow of the exhibit. There may be tour pamphlets or other signage to be written and produced for the exhibit. All of this information needs to be written up and sent off to printers well in advance to provide plenty of time for the overall construction of the exhibit.

The committee will begin to construct the exhibit if panels need to be built or cases moved into the gallery. It is always a good idea to continue to consult the outline and work schedule for the exhibit to make a simplified checklist just to create some organization to what has been done and what needs to be done to make this exhibit a success. The final step is making sure everything is has been put into place and ready to present to the audience. I suggest finishing an exhibit at least two weeks before an exhibit is set to open to make any necessary changes or adjustments to allow time to correct or reprint materials. It also good to have a final meeting, which is an overall evaluation of the work the group has put into the exhibit. You want to make sure your group feels the story is being told they way they originally felt and to make sure their are no errors in the flow or signage within the exhibit. It never hurts to double or triple check signage, because it is so easy to make the simplest mistakes in a large project.

This is the tire brought in by an Ottawa County Historical Society member who loaned the tire to display a sign for the B.F. Goodrich display, which opened in February 2012. 

A final thought about developing an exhibit, which may need to be covered sooner rather than later is how will you publicize the exhibit and will you have an open house and invite certain guests to a reception in honor of the exhibit. It may be appropriate to invitations to printed a list collected of potential guests. The Dobson Museum had an open house reception for all the B.F. Goodrich employees and their families, when the opened the exhibit back in 2012. It was an opportunity for some of the employees to catch up and revisit old friends. Many of the employees had not seen each other since the plant had shut down over 25 years ago. The tire plant was in operation in Miami, OK from 1945-1986. 

 Ottawa County Historical Society Board and Volunteers on opening day of B.F. Goodrich Exhibit at Dobson Museum on February 26, 2012.  

 B.F. Goodrich guests viewing the display in the main gallery. 

 More guests enjoying visiting while at the B.F. Goodrich Open House. 

 This picture shows the west side of the gallery where scrapbooks were placed on tables for guests to view. There was old newsletters, pictures, etc. throughout the books. 

Another view from the west side of the gallery showing the crowd enjoying the exhibit with the B.F. Goodrich Miami Plant sign in the background. 

*All pictures displayed in this blog were taken by OCHS Board Member and photographer Gary Crow. 

Training in Museums: How do Museums work?

The ability to work in a museum is just like any other field or profession. It varies on the museum you work with to see what areas you need to focus on and what background you have going into the position. I just attended the Oklahoma Museum Association (OMA) Conference last week. They had a great turnout and excellent presenters for the sessions, workshops, and programs for the three day conference. Berkeley Young was the guest speaker and he definitely informed and entertained the conference delegates about how to focus and connect with museum visitors throughout the year.

I definitely learned a lot from attending the conference and this was my first conference to attend with OMA. I have been to some district meetings prior to this conference. The sessions covered a wide variety of materials and tasks throughout working in museums. One of the sessions I enjoyed the most was a peer to peer breakout session for emerging professionals in the museum field. The speakers shared experiences from working in museums and interviews they have completed to get to where they are now working in the Oklahoma History Center. I was also able to visit with some of them afterwards to get more information about one of the museums I work in and how better to handle preserving research materials for the future. It is always a crucial part of any field to continue to learn and grow in being offered training opportunities like these to network with individuals who have been in the field for many years and those who are emerging into the field with less than 3-5 years experience. I always think you gain a better understanding when you step back and look at both sides of the situation at how someone with thirty plus years says about a situation and someone with less than five years.

The methods are always constantly changing and new techniques and technologies are being presented all the time for more efficient ways to perform tasks. I also had the opportunity to listen to some graduate students from the University of Central Oklahoma Museum Studies Program present about their research and what internships, they had participated in this past summer. The theme for this year's conference was "Connecting to Museums". I have a few pictures below taken from this summer when we hosted the traveling exhibit "The Way We Worked" at the Miners Hall Museum at Franklin, Kansas. There are many ways to connect your museums and reach out to you communities by hosting different events and reaching multiple groups at the same time. It was a worth while conference and I am looking forward to next year's conference in Idabel, Oklahoma.

 Antonio and Holly Martinez at unveiling of artwork at Smithsonian Preview Evening on May 10, 2013. 

 Crowd beginning to gather for Smithsonian Exhibit Grand Opening at Miners Hall Museum on May 11, 2013. 

Visitors inside the museum during the opening day of "The Way We Worked" at Miners Hall Museum.

Understanding Museums

Museums give us a connection to arts, culture, and history through the vast collections and exhibitions in their facilities. The reason why I posted some blogs about some of my favorite museums is to show the diverse types of museums and collections that are out there. There are so many types of museums and ways they have displayed their collections. Every collection offers varied experiences for its patrons and having creative ways to tell the stories behind their collections.

 Employee at B.F. Goodrich Tire Company in Miami, Oklahoma (Photo from Ottawa County Historical Society Collection- Dobson Museum in Miami, Oklahoma) 

Photographs are able to tell great deal about stories of the exhibits within museums. The above picture is from the B.F. Goodrich exhibit, which went on display in February 2012 at the Dobson Museum. There is so much more to building exhibits, than just artifacts or original materials. Many great exhibitions include videos and other secondary materials that evoke a message just as powerful as primary source materials and artifacts. My plan for future blogs is to go into greater detail about the processes of being an intern in a museum and working with exhibits just like the B.F. Goodrich exhibit and many others. 

Dobson Museum at Miami, Oklahoma

The Dobson Family came from Kentucky to Ottawa County, Oklahoma in the 1890s. The Dobson family had a couple of mines in the Picher area. They also ran the Ice Company in Miami back in the early years. The Dobson Family had three children who never married Wayman, Solomon, and Nellie. They all lived together in the Dobson Home on A Street SW in Miami until their deaths. Wayman passed away in 1945, Solomon in 1960, and Nellie in 1968.

Dobson Home in Background with Dobson Memorial Center Sign

Dobson Home at 106 A SW, Miami, Oklahoma 

Memorial to Ms. Nellie Dobson at Entrance 

Main Gallery looking West. 

East Side of Lower Level Gallery

 West Side of Lower Level Gallery with Mining Pictures on Wall. 

Boy Scout Jamboree Tepee on display at Dobson Museum. 

Museum Entrance with B.F. Goodrich Tire Sign

Gardens in Dobson Courtyard 

Gardens on Northside of Dobson Property 

It was stated in Ms. Nellie Dobson's Will, that her home and property to be left as a home for the collections of the Ottawa County Historical Society. In 2011, the Dobson home was placed on the State and National Register of Historic Places. The museum has vast collections,which observe the rich history of Ottawa County, Oklahoma. The collection includes exhibits in but not limited to: Mickey Mantle, Charles Banks Wilson, Native American Tribes of Ottawa County, Mining, B.F. Goodrich, British Flyers, Orrick Sparlin Photographs and Negatives, County Pioneers, Route 66, Sunbeam Farms, etc. The gardens which look amazing all year round are kept up by a strong group of volunteers, that dedicate time to keep the Dobson Memorial Center looking great. You will see throughout different times of the year people taking Graduation, Engagement, Wedding,and  Family pictures at the Dobson Museum and Home.

The museum has two levels of galleries for patrons to enjoy with temporary exhibits every year. In 2012, "B.F. Goodrich Full-Circle in Miami" was opened and an exhibit area of the museum is still dedicated to the B.F. Goodrich Tire Company. In 2013, "Sunbeam Farms: A Black Angus Dynasty" and "Route 66: The Mother Road of Ottawa County" opened are both currently on view for patrons to enjoy along with the numerous permanent collections housed within the museum. The Orrick Sparlin Collection has thousands of pictures and over 43,000 negatives housed at the Dobson Museum. The main task I work on is scanning the negatives and preparing them to be used in exhibits and to file them for future research and use. It has been a 2 1/2 year project already and only about 5% of the collection is actually scanned as of today.

The museum is open Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday Afternoons from 1:00-4:00 p.m. and closed on holidays. You can also check out more by visiting their website at www.dobsonmuseum.com or checking them out on Facebook. Every Sunday the Ottawa County Historical Society has a unidentified picture in the Miami News-Record from the collection along with the thousands of other unidentified pictures. Submissions of names on the "Can You Identify History?" pictures can be submitted via website, email, or calling 918-542-5388. There is a Calendar of Events on our website so you can always stay up to date on what is happening at the Dobson Museum.

Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma

A breathtaking residence that was gifted in the late 1930s by Waite and Genevieve Phillips. This 23-acre property was not only a home, but for the past seventy years or more has been an art museum, which also has amazing landscaping and gardens on the property. The Phillips' families main objective was that the property be utilized as an art or cultural purpose within the city of Tulsa. This museum has a vast collection of artwork from a variety of artists including but not limited to Fritz Scholder, Rachel Whiteread, Leonardo Drew, Pablo Picasso, Maria Martinez, Thomas Moran, Giovanni Bellini and many more.

Gardens of Philbrook Museum in Tulsa. 

The galleries of this museum are fascinating the ability to walk through this museum and experience the talents of the artists exhibited throughout the museum. I remember when I was in high school our art teacher always took his classes on art trips every Spring. This was the first time I had ever visited the Philbrook Museum. I remember I was astounded that a museum like the Philbrook existed in Oklahoma. Art allows us to have a connection to the past through ideas, events, or people who are portrayed within the images of artwork. There are so many stories to tell with art and gives us insight into the ideas of the artist through certain events of their life and the period of the times it was created, which connects us back to history. The works within their collections allow patrons to experience a new admiration and appreciation for the art world. This is definitely a must see attraction in the Tulsa area. 

Chickasaw Cultural Center at Sulphur, Oklahoma

The Chickasaw Tribe is a strong tribe that migrated to Oklahoma from the region today known as Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, and Tennessee regions. They came to the southern region of Oklahoma in the mid-1800s. The Chickasaws came to Indian Territory among the Choctaws after the signing of the Treaty of Doaksville in 1837 forced the resettlement on the "Trail of Tears" to Indian Territory. The Chickasaws officially separated from the Choctaws to form their own government and gain their own authority in 1856. This just a little background on the tribe and now that the tribe has been in Oklahoma almost two hundred years, they have so much history of this area, but also their entire culture to share with the world. The Chickasaw Culture Center opened in Sulphur, Oklahoma in the Summer of 2010. My family went to the Culture Center shortly after it opened in 2010. 

Sign when you enter the Chickasaw Cultural Center. 

This facility truly is amazing to see what all it has to offer from a museum, research center, sky pavilion, amphitheater, restaurant, gardens, an honor garden,  Chikasha Inchokka Traditional Village, and Anoli Theater. You could spend hours touring and enjoying all the Chickasaw Nation has offered through this facility. I know when we were there the research center was not quite completed, so I am looking forward to making another trip in the near future to the cultural center. They really bring their culture and their history to life for all patrons. My favorite part was getting to walk through the village and the introduction to the museum was very cool and they should a introductory clip on the tribe before you enter the museum to help give you a little more knowledge of where they come from and how they have survived as a tribe all these years in Indian Territory and now Oklahoma. This is a definite stop anytime I am in Southern Oklahoma. 

Panel from inside an exhibit area in the museum.