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EIU Student Historical Exhibit at Tarble Arts Center

The 2008 students in EIU’s Historical Administration Program unveiled their spring exhibit at the Tarble Arts Center on April 20. This year’s theme was “The View From Here to There: The Aesthetics of Travel in the Rural Midwest.” Ten students along with Dr. Nora Pat Small of the history department and Kitt Morice, curator of education at Tarble, created the exhibit during the spring semester. Rick Riccio of the history department helped design and fabricate the exhibit. The exhibit was held in the Brainard and eGalleries at Tarble and ran through June 22. Dr. Small approached Phil Lewis at the 2007 spring HA symposium to see if he would lend postcard images to the exhibit. In February 2008 Alisha Goode and Alyson Mazzone came to Phil’s house and selected 83 images for possible future use. Phil scanned the postcard images, burned them onto a CD, and sent them to Alisha. The entire class could then select appropriate images from fourteen donors to tell the story of travel in the Midwest 1820-1960. Funding for the exhibit came from the Illinois Humanities Council, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Illinois General Assembly.

The exhibition opened on April 19 with a lecture by Dr. Susan Rugh, professor of history at Brigham Young University. She presented “Pilgrimage: Heritage Travel in Cold War America.” Dr. Rugh discussed her travels to Lincoln sites in the Midwest. A reception followed the lecture. On Monday April 21, Dr. Richard Longstreth, professor of American civilization and director of the historic preservation graduate program at George Washington University, delivered a lecture titled “Moving On: The Evolving Landscape of the Central United States.”

This year’s exhibition featured paintings, drawings, watercolors, and carvings by central Illinois artists. Postcard images with supporting captions guided visitors through the development of transportation corridors in Illinois. Historically, transportation corridors exist wherever people journey from place to place. These include rivers, roads, and railroads. Corridors also include the surrounding landscapes, both natural and man-made. Historian D.W. Meinig asserted: “The man-made landscape- the ordinary run-of-the-mill things that humans have created and put upon the earth- provides strong evidence of the kind of people we are and were, and are in the process of becoming.” The exhibit also included period maps of Illinois showing the major transportation corridors in Illinois including the National Road and Route 66.

The Historical Administration class began working on the exhibit in August 2007. The stages of development included: (1) front-end analysis, (2) design brief, (3) floor- plans, (4) front elevation, and (5) the final exhibit binder for all exhibit plans handed to Dr. Small in December 2007.

One major benefit of the exhibition was to provide teachers with exercises to teach their students about transportation corridors. Students research topics on-line and in books to answer questions on the exercises. The activities include: (1) driving tour map of Central Illinois, (2) build your own classroom landscape, (3) landscape comparison, (4) the National Road, (5) landscape drawing, (6) moving from place to place, and (7) transportation choices.

Regional artists included Paul T. Sargent of Coles County and folk artist Ferd Metten of Teutopolis, among others. Ferd carved rural scenes of oxen and wagon and Pennsylvania Railroad Depot, carriages, horses, etc. These were from a personal collection of a person who purchased Ferd’s carvings at the auction following his death.

Other examples of Ferd’s carvings are in the collections of the Monastery Museum in Teutopolis.

Alisha Goode and Alyson Mazzone also met with John Goldsmith, executive director of the National Road Association of Illinois; Lyle Kruger, retire IDOT surveyor; Gary Kruger, retired IDOT engineer; and Gary Roll, retired engineer tech, to learn more about the history of the National Road.

At the exit, there was a computer for visitors to tour the exhibition and Tarble Arts Center. The website is www.eiu.edu/~history/TheViewFromHereToThere/. Next to the computer were four historic images: (1) downtown Vandalia during the 1940s, (2) a drawing of a covered bridge, (3) a modern color aerial view of Vandalia from the State House, and (4) a watercolor of an historic building in winter. Visitors could vote for their favorite view. The downtown view of Vandalia in the 1940s was winning by over a thousand votes. The view was provided from the collections of Phil Lewis.

Phil Lewis
342-6280

Local Historians Attend Museum Day in Springfield

Dan Wormhoudt and Phil Lewis of Effingham attended Museum Day sponsored by the Illinois Association of Museums on March 13 in Springfield. The annual event was held in the Illinois State Capitol. There were about 45 museums from all over the State of Illinois who participated in this year’s rally. Dan and Phil represented the Effingham County and National Road Museum Association. They set up a table display consisting of two tri-fold displays, artifacts, a laptop computer showing historic images of the National Road and Effingham County, and contents from one of their educational loan kits titled “Pioneer Life in Effingham County.” They also passed out flyers on the Association’s web site, how to create educational loan kits, architecture of the Effingham County Courthouse, business cards, etc. scan0001

Senators Frank Watson of Greenville and John O. Jones of Mt. Vernon took time out of their busy schedules to visit with Dan and Phil. They enjoyed seeing some of the pioneer artifacts such as a hog scraper. They also expressed support for the new museum in Effingham. Representatives David Reis and Dale Righter sent greetings from the State House, but couldn’t leave the floor because of voting on pieces of legislation.

Dan and Phil took time to network with other museum representatives and gain new ideas for the proposed museum in the old Effingham County courthouse. Some of the museum displays were very professional with outstanding graphics, lighting, artifacts, etc. Dan and Phil knew several of the museum professionals from their university programs in historical administration. They collected lots of museum literature for future use and reference.

The purpose of Museum Day is to attract attention to the hundreds of museums in Illinois and lobby for restoration of funding for such organizations as the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Illinois Association of Museums, and the Illinois State Historical Society. Representatives from museums like the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Presidential Library, Chicago History Museum, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Museum of Science and Industry, etc. spoke to the enthusiastic crowd. Museums are a $2 billion business in Illinois. Chicago area museums boasted over 7 million visitors in 2007. Historical sites and museums are leading destinations for thousands of Illinois tourists. Museums employ thousands of people, have thousands of volunteers, enrich the lives of thousands of children and other museum visitors, and are the collectors, curators, and conservators of artifacts and community histories. Museum funding is an investment that returns many times their funding in tourism dollars. Members of the Effingham County and National Road Museum Association plan to tell the stories of Effingham County and National Road and interpret why their histories are important to almost everyone. Knowledge of local history can be fun as well as informative through interactive displays, outstanding graphics, and interesting artifacts.

Phil Lewis
342-6280

Museum Group Displays at Effingham Artisans’ Fair

The third annual Artisans’ Fair was held on Saturday April 19 on the courthouse square in Effingham. It was a rainy morning setting up the tents and displays. The yard became muddy and somewhat slick. After two morning showers, people began to arrive and see what the artisans had created this year.

Phil Lewis, LoElla Baker, Dan Wormhoudt and Kate Bourland set up two tents right in front of the main doors to the courthouse. They placed six tri-fold displays of historic postcard photos, educational loan kits, historic prints, flyers, business cards, membership applications, etc., on three tables to showcase the Effingham County and National Road Museum Association. Dozens of people stopped by the tent to view the displays and chat with museum representatives about plans for the proposed museum. When the rain showers star DSCF0314 ted again, the tents were filled with people seeking shelter. The National Road Association of Illinois had pieces of an original 1830s road timber for sale with certificates of authenticity at $10 each. There were maps, brochures, and membership applications available from the Association.

Mary Ellen Eversman was also in the booth selling copies of her new booklet detailing downtown Effingham in 1946. It also includes vintage photos of Effingham. She would personally sign copies of her booklet for purchasers. Money raised from the sales of the booklet support the museum’s efforts.

In addition to pottery, woodworking, metalworking, and painting dealers, this year’s event featured a wine tasting area with ten southern Illinois wineries represented. Towards the end of the day, the tasting area filled up.

There were musical performances on Banker Street between the courthouse and Joe Sippers Café and Coffee Shop. This continued until 10 pm Saturday evening.

Vendors, visitors, and museum officials are looking forward to next year’s celebration with even more vendors and displays. They all wish for better weather next year.

Phil Lewis
342-6280

Museum Historians Attend Conference at EIU in Charleston

The Historical Administration Program at Eastern Illinois University sponsored its annual symposium on March 29 in Buzzard Hall on campus. This year’s theme was “Ambassadors of History: A New Voice for Marketing Museums”. Phil Lewis and Dan Wormhoudt of the Effingham County and National Road Museum Association attended the day-long symposium. Over one hundred museum professionals attended from all over the U.S.

The keynote speaker was Ellsworth H. Brown, director of the Wisconsin Historical Society. He had also served as the director of the Chicago Historical Society and the president of the Carneige Museums of Pittsburgh. In his address “The Voices of Change within Museums”, Mr. Brown addressed issues such as the search for authenticity, rate of change in America, community and institutional values and traditions, and the overwhelming influence of technology. Museums must learn to adapt to such changes and come up with marketing plans to address these changes.

The first workshop session was titled “New Ways to Reinvent the Classics: Why go crazy dreaming up new marketing schemes, when tweaking old standards can do the trick.” Stephanie-Johnson Katanskas and Sharie Mooney delivered the presentation. They work at museums and historic sites in Texas and Wyoming. They suggested that museums be on such venues as My Space and Face Book, since many younger people use these formats to network.

Nathan Kemler conducted the second workshop session titled “Marketing Your Virtual Identity.” Nathan is a curator at The Holland Museum in Holland, Michigan. He had previously worked for the Public Museum of Grand Rapids. Nathan has designed over twenty-five web sites for various museums and organizations. The Internet can be a powerful marketing tool to attract visitors to museums. He stressed the necessity of making sure the web site reflects the museums’ mission statement, educational programs, and exhibitions. Nathan also presented many resources for creating a useful, complete, and attractive virtual identity. The Effingham County and National Road Museum Association has such a web site at www.effinghammuseum.com.

Stephanie Gaub, collections manager at the Orange County Regional History Center in Orlando, Florida, presented a session titled “Using Photographic Collections to Market Your Museum.” Photographic collections can be one of the best assets and promote a museum through many venues. Museums can sell copies of their photos, license images used by corporations, use in exhibits, and advertising with local media. Her museum generated over $25,000 in revenue last year from its photographic collections through a fee schedule and sales. She emphasized that museums should have a “credit line” for each photo to show where the image came from.

Dr. Debra Reid, associate professor at Eastern, delivered a session on “Open Air Museums: Does the Visionary Idea Have a Future?” Her presentation was based on a 2007 book titled Open Air Museums: The History and Future of a Visionary Idea by Sten Herzog, former director of the Jamtli and Nordiska Museums in Stockholm, Sweden. The session examined such questions as how open air museums that collect buildings and landscapes that document rural and small town life, remain relevant in today’s high tech world.

Members of the 2008 Historical Administration class invited all conference attendees to return to EIU and the Tarble Arts Center to view the new spring exhibit titled “The View From Here to There: The Aesthetics of Travel in the Rural Midwest”. The exhibit uses vintage photos to identify historical landscapes and architectural structures in Illinois along various corridors of travel, including the National Road and Route 66. It runs from April 19 through June 22 at Tarble Arts Center. Dr. Nora Pat Small, head of the Historical Administration department, and Kit Morice are the co-curators of the exhibit.

The final session of the day was a question and answer session with all presenters. Many of the museum professionals in the audience posed good questions about what they had seen and heard during the day. It was a very informative day with Dan and Phil doing lots of networking with other museum professionals from around the United States.

Phil Lewis
342-6280