IN THIS ISSUE

From the Director

Events

• Dia De Los Meurtos Celebration
• Holiday Gingerbread Village
• Museum Express
• 2024 Jimmie Dyess Symposium

News from Collections

• So Much More to Discover
• Wilkinson Collection
• Fitz-Symms Collection
• Exhibit Update
• New Acquisitions
• Collection Care Tip
• County Corner
• NAGPRA Update

Welcome New Staff

Education Programs

• Primary Source Workshop
• 2023 Brown Bag History Lecture Series
• 2024 Brown Bag History Lecture Series
• Time Detectives
• Voices of the Past
• Schedule A Tour

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Brown Bag History Series

October 11, 2023

Augusta & Public Art

Pax Bobrow

Dia De Los Meurtos Celebration

October 25-29, 2023

Movies At The Museum

October 29, 2023 2:00pm

Disney Pixar’s Coco

Brown Bag History Series

November 8, 2023

From the AMH Collection

Alena Rensch, AMH Registrar

Holiday Gingerbread Village

Open Every Day (except Thanksgiving)

November 16-26, 2023

AMH & EHH Closed

Thursday, November 23, 2023

Thanksgiving Day

Museum Express

December 3rd & 10th

(11am, 1pm & 3pm Each Sunday)

AMH & EHH Closed

Sunday, December 24, 2023

& Sunday, December 31, 2023

For the Holidays

Voices of the Past

1st Saturday: The Other Tubmans

2nd Saturday: Petersburg Boat Pilot

3rd Saturday: Civil Rights Activist

Our Voices Matter:

Deciding What Goes Into Textbooks

From Executive Director: Nancy Glaser

Recently a large committee of teachers, administrators and some stakeholders gathered to begin the process of selecting Social Studies/History textbooks that will be used in Richmond County Schools fourth through high school. The Augusta Museum of History staff is proud and honored to be part of this committee and the process.

Based on state of Georgia standards we will hear presentations from the leading publishers of textbooks in the United States. Each will be evaluated and eventually the committee will make recommendations to the Richmond County Board of Education.

It is critical in clarifying what is, and what is not being taught. On the one hand, teachers at all levels have the daunting task of covering more than 200 years of American history, World history, civics, and regional, and local events. On the other hand, they must balance these subjects with all the other subjects (math, science, languages, literature) and standards that must be presented to school systems searching for possible solutions.

Museums have a message for classroom educators: You do not have to face this struggle alone. When museum and classroom educators work in tandem, students undertake a sophisticated investigation into both the breadth and depth of history. Teachers provide the historical context, secondary sources and some primary texts needed to understand the material. Supported by this wide-ranging backdrop, museum educators can focus on individual figures’ personal narratives, specific oral histories and artistic creations. Classroom educators set the stage, and museums use artifacts to bring history to life.

Having been a teacher and now working in museums for over thirty years, I have witnessed these kinds of partnerships, working partnerships, with schools that have the capability to open an abundance of possibilities for each other and have a profound impact on students.

All Aboard The Museum Express!

Sundays, December 3rd & 10th

11:00am, 1:00pm & 3:00pm

Tickets Go Live On Monday October 2 at 12:00pm

Join us for a magical ride to the North Pole on the Museum Express! This is event is appropriate for children ages 2-12. There are three performances per date at 11:00am, 1:00pm and 3:00pm on the passenger car in the Museum’s Transportation exhibit area.

We are only selling 25 tickets per session to allow for social distancing. All passengers must have a “Golden Ticket” to board the train. Golden tickets will be distributed on the day of the event during check in. We recommend arriving a little early (10-15 minutes), the 302 Train and Conductor are always on time!

Golden tickets can be purchased ($10) at the Augusta Museum of History administrative offices via cash, check or credit card Monday through Friday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. We also have an online booking & payment for Museum Express that will be listed on our Website and Facebook Page. ***You must pay for the tickets in advance to reserve your spots.*** Limit (3) tickets per adult.

Hot chocolate, cookies, and a special visitor from the North Pole will be waiting at the end of the journey, and children are encouraged to wear their pajamas!

2024 Distinguished American Honorees

Mrs. Nancy Hussey

Mr. Clint Bryant

Medal of Honor recipient, James C. McCloughlan

Microscope. ca. 1940’s

Donated by Dr. Jon Phinizy

Take a close look at our medical exhibit to find this microscope owned by Dr. John Phinizy. Microscopes first enabled doctors to identify the germs and bacteria that cause illness. This microscope was made by Spencer of Buffalo, New York. It has five different lens settings to adjust how much a sample is magnified.

Springfield Baptist Church Sconce ca. 19th Century

On Loan From Springfield Baptist Church

This beautiful glass, metal, and lacquer gas wall sconce once helped to light the original Springfield Baptist Church. The church, located in Augusta, GA was founded by African Americans in 1787 and is the oldest Black church in the United States. The church also played an important role in the organization of the Civil Rights Movement, the Morehouse College, and the Georgia Republican Party.

Wilkinson Photography Collection

The Wilkinson Photography Studio collection has over 250,000 negatives documenting the CSRA’s past. Robert Wilkinson Jr. was a prominent photographer in the Augusta area active from the 1940s-1980s. Donated by Wilkinson family members Linda Askey and Charles M. Askey, Jr., the collection is digitized and cared for through the Photography Collections Internship Program. The following are a few interesting discoveries made during the collection care process.

The Augusta Museum of History wishes to thank the Community Foundation of the CSRA for the generous grant to support the Wilkinson intern for 2023.

Loved ones and guests bid farewell to newlyweds Larry & Sylvia Alexander, née Bartlett. The couple shared their vows on March 14, 1964 at Second Baptist Church. 

This storefront photo of Simkins Seed Company was taken in 1950. At the time, the store was located at 987 Broad Street in Augusta, GA. The company would eventually move to 1129 Broad Street in 1963.

Fitz-Symms Collection

Donated by Kirk and Lora Baxley in memory of Robert Symms, the photographic collection of Fitz-Symms Photography captures the history of the Augusta region between the 1940’s and the 1980’s. To preserve this history, the Photography Collections Internship Program at the Augusta Museum of History processes this collection by scanning and rehousing its 800,000 photographic negatives. The following images represent just a fraction of the negatives which thus far have been processed.

Knox Terrace Motel, 1961

Located in Thomson, GA, The Knox Terrace Motel was owned and managed by relatives of Peter Seymour Knox, Sr. The Motel was an extension of the original Knox Hotel which was founded as a place of reprieve for soldiers and their horses during the civil war.

Knox Brothers Lumber Company, 1962

A man and woman stand outside a model home created by the Knox Brothers Lumber company. The company began in 1932 and was one of the first in the area to build prefabricated homes.

Knox Brothers Lumber Company, 1962

This interior photograph was taken inside the structural home seen in the previous image. The living room is decorated with mid-century modern furniture and accents that popular at the time.

Wells Fargo Textile Case, 2023

Seasons: A Year in Augusta’s Fashions

The Wells Fargo Textile Case now features Summer fashions, installed on July 13th. The second installment in the 2023 Seasons series highlights baseball, sundresses, and swimwear. The exhibit will be on view through October 1st, after which the case will be celebrating Autumn!

New Acquisitions Case

This silk and wool evening cape that belonged to Bessie Grace Whitney Shipe (1899-1975) of Augusta is embellished with intricate goldwork embroidery. Goldwork is a style of embroidery that uses metal threads and produces a ‘glittering’ effect under light. The style of the cape is similar to pieces made in France in the early 1900s.

Women’s Evening Cape

ca. early 1900s

Donated in Memory of Ruth Whitney Shipe Monk, by Her Children

2023.013.001 

Photographs are one of the best ways to preserve the memory of and connect with our ancestors. 19^th century photographs, especially those with the image on metal or glass (daguerreotypes, tintypes, and ambrotypes) are extremely susceptible to damage and deterioration. The materials used to produce these images are prone to tarnishing, but the surface of such photographs should never be cleaned. Even touching with bare hands can cause permanent damage to the image.

To prevent this, museums take extra care when handling and storing historical photographs. If an image is still in the original case provided by the photographer, it is always stored in the case and laid flat in a drawer. Very delicate photographs are stored so that nothing touches the image surface, and tintypes are stored in acid-free or polyester folders.

*Tintype pictured above is part of the AMH Permanent Collection

Object ID: 8893.069 Donated By: Martha L. Sturman

With school back in session across the region, we look back to the Eustis Park School Cafeteria as photographed by Fitz-Symms Distinctive Photography in September of 1952.

In this photograph a cafeteria employee stands at a large stove, and trays are stacked waiting for students on the lunch counter. Eustis Park School was among several public schools in Aiken County, SC that helped to serve the needs of the many families brought to the area by the Savannah River Site in the 1950s.