Museum Newsletter - 10 Jan 2007

Friends of the Bullitt County History Museum E-Newsletter
January 10, 2007 (Volume 3, Number 1)

Dear Friends, Here we go on our third year of existence!

Announcements.

>> Bullitt County Genealogical Society does not meet in January or February. Nice new location for March.

Our parent organization, the Bullitt County History Museum, always takes a break from meeting in January. At the December meeting it was decided to not meet in January or in February. But March should bring an exciting new location for our meetings. A new public library building should be completed soon, and plans are to start meeting in a nice new meeting room there. The March meeting should feature a tour of the new building and its genealogical room.. Officers are also planning to experiment with an earlier meeting time, perhaps 4 p.m. More details on that next month.

>> Dennis Shaffner Art Exhibit.

Retired art teacher and Museum Friend Dennis Shaffner generously volunteers at the museum on Thursday afternoons. You may not know that, among his many accomplishments, Dennis is a widely recognized artist. From January 1 to January 31 there will be a solo exhibit of his work at the Morrison Gallery at Elizabethtown Community College in Elizabethtown. I have visited the exhibit and recommend a visit. The gallery is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. E-mail dkaufman0001@kctcs.edu for more information. Congratulations Dennis!

>> New Museum Pin for Sale.

A new limited-edition of our custom-made Bullitt County History Museum lapel pin is now available for sale. The pin can be used as a lapel pin or as a tie tack. Price is $10 ($11 if it needs to be mailed) and can be purchased at the museum or ordered by mail (with check made out to Bullitt County History Museum).

>> Dave's Salt-Making presentation coming to Hardin County February 2.

I am scheduled to bring my world-acclaimed (well Shepherdsville-acclaimed) talk about pioneer salt-making to the Ancestral Trails Historical Society February 2 at 7 p.m. Location is the new Hardin County Public Library on St. John's Road in Elizabethtown. Come if you can! I love company!

Museum Activity.

>> Lola Fischer donates paper shredder.

Thanks to Lola for donating a new paper shredder for the museum office. The office and visitors sometimes have mail and papers that have sensitive information such as bank security codes that should not be just thrown in the trash. Lola's kind donation provides us with a newer level of security as our museum grows. Thank you!

>> Frank and Shirley Hall Donate Native American Artifacts.

The Hall family name has been in Bullitt County since some of its earliest pioneer days, with descendents still owning a large chunk of the family land on Halls Lane. Frank Hall has found several artifacts on his farm over the years, and now has donated some of them to the museum. Items include an arrowhead, a flint knife and flint scrapping tool, a grinding stone, and a very nice hammer/axe that has been estimated to be thousands of years old that he personally found.

>> 1907 newspaper donated.

Lynn Edington recently donated a 1907 edition of the Bullitt-Pioneer newspaper. It has been placed in protective film and stored in our archives.

>> 1917 Train Wreck Follow-up.

A couple of months ago I asked our Friends around the country to check their local papers for mentions of the terrible 1917 Shepherdsville train wreck in which 51 people died. I have heard from several people. One good example is Friend Ellen Johansen of Flower Mound, Texas. She mailed copies of articles from the Dallas Morning News archives. These articles describe investigations into the wreck. One is headlined, " Man Failure Cause of Wreck on L&N", which blamed the flagman and conductor to protect the rear of the train. The engineer of the fast train was also charged for failing to have his train under control as it approached the town.

I will add the papers to the 1917 train wreck file. Thank you all for you input.

>> Looking for Home Movies that Show Towns, etc.

The museum is looking for old home movies that mighty show things like our town streets and other places from many years ago. Check with your families and think if you might have something. Simple indoor movies of families generally are not what we need, but we would like to add some old video scenes to our archives and presentations. Keep the museum in mind if you have something.

Historic Preservations

Artifacts and valuables, whether at home or at museums, are often marked with a note written on a sticky label attached to the item.

Don't do that.

Over time, sticky labels can sometimes cause acidic harm to the item, especially if the item is cloth or paper. In addition, the "sticky" eventually loses its stickiness, and the label falls off. We at the Bullitt County History Museum have seen this. We have received gift items from time to time with several items stored together in a box, but the labels all in a pile in the bottom of the box. Can this matter much? Well, for example, early in our existence we received a box of items. Of the labels that had fallen off, one said "This item came over the mountains in one of the first covered wagons". Which item was it? Another box of wonderful old books and bibles had a loose label that said, in part, "This book was used to help teach slaves to learn to read". Which book? Oh how I would love to know for sure just which book it was. But that information, though so very close, may be lost forever.

Do not use sticky paper or even inserted note cards. If at all possible, attach the note more permanently, of course keeping consideration to not damage the item. For example, I have seen notes written on cloth items with ink, resulting in a useless blurred ink spot on the item over time. Use good acid-free labels attached with string to cloth items. perhaps write a pencil code number on the back of a book with a corresponding numbered note card. If it is a stone or ceramic item, consider using a good permanent marker and writing in an inconspicuous place.

Mostly, just think long-term, very long-term. As doctors say, "First do no harm", then remember that someone literally a hundred years from now may be trying to read your label and figure out just what you were trying to say about the item.

For Your Information...

>> Kentucky Laws

Ever read somewhere a reference something like, "According to KRS 171.12.2, the law requires..."? Well, first of all, "KRS" stands for "Kentucky Revised Statutes", basically the laws of the state. Kentucky has a very good Internet web presence with a lot of good information. You can access all of the "KRS" on line and read the statutes for yourself. For example, "KRS 171" deals, in part, with museums. Check it out at www.lrc.state.ky.us/staterev/frontpage.htm. By the way, "lrc" stands for "Legislative Research Commission", which is the department charged with much of record keeping and legal research of Kentucky government.

Finally...Our "Last, First" Exhibit Case Change

Here's a land mark of sorts. Our displays at the museum continue to grow and improve every week. This month Society President Barbara Bailey reworked our display case that had been dedicated to the pioneer-days iron furnaces in the county. That display case was the "last" display that was part of our "first" set of displays when we opened the museum in October 2004. As such, it spoke better than words to how much we have grown since those first days of our museum existence. Compared to our newer, fuller, more interesting displays, the unchanged display case seemed kind of empty and plain. The renewed case kept the iron furnace material that is so important in our local history, but Barbara has rearranged it and added several pioneer-era artifacts, along with more descriptive labeling. It looks quite nice, as do all of our displays. They looked good when we started. New ones have come along as new items (and as our presentation skills) have improved. Hopefully, in a few more years we will look back at whatever remains of our current exhibits with a bit of a smile, thinking how much better "the new displays are". We are constantly growing, more and more feeling the constraints of space limitations, yet growing nevertheless. Growing not only in numbers and quality of artifacts and information, but growing in knowledge and understanding. With your support, we will continue to grow many for years to come. I look forward with excitement to the next new things we will find.

Thank you for being a Friend of Bullitt County History.

David Strange
Bullitt County History Museum
Executive Director
Museum Phone: 502-921-0161
E-Mail address: David.Strange@BullittCountyHistory.org