Tag Archives: Museum

British Transportation Museum

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I am about to start a string of canned posts during some travel and wanted to put that off a little by making one more “current” post. Remnants of Hurricane Helene have caused many outdoor activities to be canceled or at least made them uninviting. Visiting a new-to-me museum in Dayton was just the sort of indoor activity I was looking for. The British Transportation Museum was founded in 1998 but I first learned of it less than a year ago. Apparently, it was an “appointment only” operation until fairly recently when regular hours, 10:00 to 4:00, were established for Saturdays and Mondays.

The museum is home to sixty-some British cars, a number of bicycles, and a couple of motorcycles and boats. It is an all-volunteer operation, and a round-table discussion was in progress among several of those volunteers when I entered. A fellow named Dave broke away from the group, gave me a brief overview of the museum, then provided a personal guided tour of the whole place.

We started with some small “family” cars that were the heart of the British car industry for many years. The yellow car is a 1961 Morris Minor Sedan. The red one is a 1964 Mini Cooper. About 1.6 million Minors were built between 1948 and 1970. Nearly 5.5 million Minis were built between 1959 and 2000.

I have included the red 1951 MG-TD out of sequence relative to the tour. It and its MG-TC predecessor introduced the sports car concept to the United States. The Lotus Elan was a major influence on the design of the Mazda Miata. A 1972 model is shown here. The Sunbeam Alpine has been repainted to match the one James Bond drove in Doctor No.

This 1979 Triumph Spitfire has just a few thousand miles on the odometer. It was won as a prize in Las Vegas and spent most of its life in a garage.

Following a visit to the museum, members of the British Embassy enquired about supplying cars for an event in Washington, DC. The museum was unable to meet the request but this beautiful 1959 MG-A did make an appearance. The photo propped against the windshield shows dignitaries admiring the car at the ambassador’s home.

Of course, not all British autos were two-seat sports cars or tiny sedans. Several Rolls Royce limousines and big Jaguar saloons are on display and not even all MGs were as small as we Americans tend to think. I believe Dave said the light-colored 1939 MG WA was the largest MG ever built. The darker-colored 1950 MG YA isn’t much smaller.

As mentioned, the museum’s collection includes bicycles, motorcycles, and boats. At present, there are no experts on any of these vehicles involved so no organized displays exist excepting this boat. Donald Healey was quite the collaborator in building cars. Think Austin-Healey, Nash-Healey, and Jensen-Healey. At one point he made boats and collaborated there as well. This time it was with Stirling Moss. That sign is readable here.

There are many more cars on display than I’ve shown here and Dave supplied much more information than I’ve relayed (or remembered). This place is definitely worth a visit.

Dulcimers Galore

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A couple of weeks ago, I didn’t even know that a dulcimer museum existed let alone that it was within a dozen miles of my home. On the last Sunday of August, I visited the American Folk Music School/The National Dulcimer Museum and learned that the museum has been in operation for about two years and that the school it shares space with has been there for about five years.

US-42 (a.k.a., Reading Road) splits into separate north and southbound sections in Sharonville, OH, where the museum is located. The windows in the opening photo face the northbound lanes. The entrance and a parking lot are at the rear of the building. When I entered, Vickey Sasser, the knowledgeable and energetic lady behind the operation, had just started a museum tour with a group of people who knew much more about dulcimers than I did. Some were wearing shirts with the logos of assorted area dulcimer clubs and Vickie knew several by name.

There are, of course, factory-made dulcimers but most of the more interesting ones, which means most of those in the museum, are made by individuals. The wide variations in design, materials, and craftsmanship are part of what makes them interesting.

Some well-known builders or performers have multiple instruments in the museum. By far the largest collection of this sort is associated with performer Kevin Roth. That’s Vickey Sasser in the third picture holding a dulcimer that, if I understood her correctly, Kevin had made specifically for a single performance of the national anthem at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

The museum is preparing a space for a collection of instruments from performer Bing Futch. Bing has performed and conducted workshops at the museum in the past and will be doing both again next June. Available right now is his video of a recent visit to the museum in which he and Vickie provide a much better overview than my few photos and uninformed commentary.

Although the bulk of the instruments displayed at the museum are mountain dulcimers, there are others including hammer dulcimers, autoharps, and flutes. Here Vickey is holding a hurdy-gurdy that I believe was made specifically for the museum. I have seen a few hurdy-gurdys in the past so already had some of my early misconceptions corrected but this one is small and simple and even opens for an up-close view of the internal workings. I think I finally understand how these things work.

Being open just two hours a month is clearly not a lot. Plus, due to another commitment, Vickey will not be opening the museum for its “last Sunday” showing in September. On the other hand, she is often on-site giving lessons and such so, if the scheduled monthly window can’t be made to work for you, there’s a pretty good chance it could be arranged for her to let you in that back door at some other time.

Trip Peek #136 Trip #142 Common Ground on the Hill

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This picture is from my 2017 Common Ground on the Hill trip. I had wanted to attend the Common Ground on the Hill Roots Music & Arts Festival for several years and this was the year that I finally made it. The photo shows the all-musicians-on-deck finale of the showcase concert that took place on the day I reached the festival in Westminster, MD. This was the ninth day of the trip because once I decided to attend Common Ground, I started adding items from my “someday” list to the agenda. Before I reached the pictured concert, I had been pulled to the top of West Virginia’s Bald Knob by a Shay steam-powered locomotive, toured James Madison’s Montpelier, treated to a tour of Richmond, VA, by a friend, celebrated Independence Day in Williamsburg, VA, got rear-ended at a stop light, and sideswiped in a parking lot. Those last two events led to replacing my Subaru once I got home but, despite taking a beating, the 2011 Forester took care of me on what was a very enjoyable trip.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full-sized photo and the associated trip journal.

Mound Cold War Discovery Center

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I don’t know that rainy days were actually made for museums but the two do fit together nicely. A visit to the Mound Cold War Discovery Center was a very nice fit for this week’s rainy Friday. Before stumbling upon a reference to the Miamisburg, Ohio, museum, I had no idea of the area’s role in both the Cold War and the “hot war” that preceded it.

When I first read — or possibly heard — that there was a museum nearby dedicated to nuclear research and development, I pictured a musty warehouse-type place with some old lab equipment on display. What I found was an excellent presentation of history and science put together by Dayton History. The complex may have once contained some unattractive buildings but the museum is housed in an inviting former administration building built in the 1980s.

The Manhattan Project started in New York, but it soon involved locations throughout the entire country.

As noted in one of the photos above, the Dayton Project was responsible for the separation and purification of the plutonium used in “Gadget” and “Fat Man”. “Gadget” was the bomb exploded in the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945. “Fat Man” was the bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. “Little Boy”, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, used enriched uranium rather than plutonium. That’s “Fat Man” in the photo at left. “Bockscar”, the plane that dropped “Fat Man”, is displayed at the Air Force Museum in Dayton along with a full-size replica of the bomb.

Construction of the first seventeen buildings comprising Mound Laboratory began almost immediately after World War II ended. The facility opened in early 1948 to support atomic weapons production.

One section of the museum offers some general science information without any obvious direct ties to Mound Laboratory. Perhaps its purpose is to tamp down visitors’ concerns over strolling about an area where radioactivity was once a major feature.

Yes, it does look like letting visitors know that a little radiation never hurt anybody just might be a goal.

Due mostly to the invention of the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator which uses radioactive fuel to generate electricity, Mound Laboratory made significant contributions to a variety of ventures into space. Eventually, all of its missions were ended or moved elsewhere and the complex is now an industrial park much like those in other towns.

Anyone unfamiliar with the area and wondering where the laboratory got its name can probably figure it out with a glance out the museum’s front door. Read about that here.

Southern Ohio Museum

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Let’s make it four. With nothing planned for the week following a string of three museum visits, my thoughts naturally turned to extending the streak. Museum visit number one was the result of an online article, number two happened because of a friend’s suggestion, and number three came from a search for “Cincinnati museums”. Thinking to extend the range along with extending the streak, I searched for “southern Ohio museums” and found not only several museums in that area but one with that exact name.

A sunny day was all it took to get me to head to the Southern Ohio Museum in Portsmouth, Ohio. Without question, my willingness to make the two-hour drive was boosted by the fact that Portsmouth has a mighty fine brewery and an outstanding collection of Robert Dafford murals.

A small group of students were being given a tour of the museum’s lower gallery when I arrived and I briefly tried to eavesdrop on their guide but soon gave that up as a bad idea and headed upstairs. Here the displays are mostly semi-permanent. Many items displayed are from the museum’s permanent collection but may change from time to time. The photos are of works by Ohio artists Gretchen Stevens Cochran, Craig McDaniel, and Clarence Holbrook Carter. Everything in the museum has an Ohio connection of some sort.

“Art of the Ancients” is the only truly permanent exhibit in the museum. Thousands of artifacts from the Adena, Hopewell, and other indigenous cultures are displayed here. The museum occupies the former headquarters of the Security Central National Bank of Portsmouth and some of the bank’s coin-related trim can be seen in the third photo. In that same photo, Gretchen Stevens Cochran’s “Bounty or Burden” can be seen in the background.

When I returned to the first floor, the students were wrapping up their tour at the far end of the gallery. This space is used for temporary exhibits and is currently occupied by “The Power of the Object“. Maureen Cadogan’s collection of objects from “the journey and experience of African American people” is augmented with several quilts made by neighbor Holly Davis. The exhibit is arranged chronologically with some of the oldest items in the collection being the slave collars in this photo.

The poster on the wall in the grouping just beyond the collars really drew my interest because of some personal memories. The text beside the poster says “Though Minstrel shows gradually disappeared from professional theaters, its impact and imagery continued… well into the twentieth century.” To that, I can attest. My high school staged minstrel shows as late as 1964 or ’65. I recall two of these shows and a school yearbook indicates these were during my freshman and senior years. There is no information reported about the actual shows.  The indications I refer to are individual students listing the shows among their activities. I listed participation during my freshman year only. I recall being in the chorus and a short skit but I’m sure that by the time of that second show, it had become apparent to all that my presence in any vocal group was not helpful. I have found no photos of these shows. The closest is a small picture of a parade presumedly promoting the 1964/5 show. I believe that is me carrying the bass drum.

I also have some vague memories of seeing items similar to those in the mammy-themed display in the homes of relatives and friends. I have less vague memories of an alligator pencil holder like this one at my grandparents’ house. I do not have any personal memories of the toys in the third photo but a recent online discussion about a real-life version of the Baby Rack game that a friend encountered while researching amusement parks made this pressed steel version jump out at me. Brinkman Engineering Company is now Brinkman Tool & Die and no longer manufactures toys of any sort.

There is indeed power in these objects. They clearly can bring back memories including some that aren’t particularly welcome. It is also pretty obvious that they can make things outside our personal experience more real. Objects near the exhibit’s end provide evidence that as crappy as race relations sometimes seem, they have improved.

I’m sure I would have enjoyed visiting the Southern Ohio Museum regardless of what was in the temporary gallery but I’m very happy that I learned of the museum before “The Power of the Object” goes away. That will happen in just a few days, on March 27. Other exhibits will follow, of course, and I now have a reason on beyond murals and brews to visit Portsmouth.

Greater Cincinnati Police Museum

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For the third week in a row, I’m posting about visiting a new-to-me museum. The first of the three (Small Wonders (And More)) was triggered by an online reference and the second (Miami Valley Veterans Museum) by a friend’s spontaneous suggestion but this one is completely on me. I say that I use canned posts here when my life is either too busy or too boring. My life was not too busy this week but, without some purposeful action on my part, it would have been too boring and I’d have posted something from the warehouse. That purposeful action was little more than typing “Cincinnati museums” into a search engine and scanning the results.

Quite a few lists turned up, and there were several museums that appeared on nearly all of them. One came from TripAdvisor, one of my favorite providers of crowd-sourced lists. The Greater Cincinnati Police Museum is currently number one on their list of Cincinnati Museums when sorted by “traveler ranking” and sixth when sorted by “traveler favorites”. More importantly for my purposes, it was the only top twelve entry by either sorting method that I had not visited.

I soon corrected that and soon learned that those high marks at TripAdvisor were well deserved. The museum is on the second floor and, while things are well-marked outside, figuring that out took a little doing once inside. A sign that stood in the lobby had recently been stolen and there was universal agreement when I commented, “That sure was ballsy.” Potential issues with the free on-street parking in front of the museum are avoided by displaying a dated tag provided with admission. When I started toward the elevator with my tag, a fellow whose name I failed to get volunteered to take it down for me. I was impressed before I even looked at the first exhibit.

“This is why the museum exists,” Ed, my guide, told me when we did reach that first exhibit. I had seen several pictures of Handsome over the years so had some idea of what he meant. Cincinnati’s first “police dog” was rescued from the city’s rough and tumble riverfront in the last years of the nineteenth century and served the department until his death in 1911. Handsome’s story, including numerous captures, is told here.

The word “Greater” in the museum’s name is significant. The museum honors not only the City of Cincinnati Police Department but many other law enforcement agencies in southern Ohio, southeast Indiana, and northern Kentucky. It first opened in 2002 on 8th Street on the west side of downtown then moved to its current Reading Road location in 2015. At the time of the move, bricks paving a walkway and inscribed with donor names were rescued and now line this hallway beneath rows of historic photos and certificates.

Most if not all of the people working at the museum are retired police officers. Both Ed and Rick, who split guiding me on what was essentially a personal tour, were. Ed mentioned that he had spent a few years on a SWAT team as we looked over the associated display. Rick may have also spent time with SWAT but I don’t know that. I do know that both of these guys were pretty familiar with much of the gear on display.

All police gear displayed in the museum is obsolete but some things are more obsolete than others. When the Civil War ended, Cincinnati was able to pick up plenty of surplus uniforms at a great price with only a change of buttons required to outfit the police. Alexander Bell patented the telephone in March of 1876. In September 1879, the first police telephone exchange in the world went live in Cincinnati.

Of course, there are lots of guns (all disabled) displayed in the museum along with other tools of the trade such as breathalizers, radar guns, and fingerprinting equipment. That communication console is a little more modern than the one my cousins frequently staffed when their dad was a police chief in Indiana but looks pretty crude when compared to the multi-screened internet-connected rig that my son operates as a police dispatcher in California.

There is one notable exception to the claim that everything in the museum is obsolete. Posters for the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” are kept current. Seeing them here reminded me of the days when reading these was what you did while waiting in line to buy stamps or get a package weighed. One of several reasons that they are no longer displayed is that the wall space is better used to promote the purchase of commemorative stamps and the like. The posters are still there but they are now kept in a binder behind the counter available for “on demand” viewing. Just like on the FBI website.

The pictured magazine is kept in protective custody but there is another copy nearby where the story of “Cincinnati’s Model Police Force” of 1957 can be accessed. The Greater Cincinnati Police Museum is open from 10:00 to 4:00 on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Miami Valley Veterans Museum

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It was during September’s Waco Aircraft Company centennial that I first became aware of the Miami Valley Veterans Museum sitting about a hundred yards south of Historic WACO Field. My friend Terry and I attended the centennial and have talked ever since about visiting the museum. We finally got it done on Thursday. I was surprised to see a dozen or so cars in the lot when I arrived a little ahead of Terry and a little ahead of the museum’s 10:00 opening. I initially thought I might have the opening time wrong but soon realized that the cars that beat me there belonged to volunteers taking care of things inside. This place clearly has a dedicated and energetic crew. During my brief wait, I snapped the picture at right and noted that the building’s signage included the first USSF insignia I had seen in the wild.

The museum was established in 2009 and spent its early years in the Masonic Building in downtown Troy. It moved here in 2021. One of the first things encountered on entering the museum is the History in a Box series. These are portable displays that are used in presentations at schools and such. Each box represents a different period beginning with pioneer days and currently ending with the Vietnam War. Assembling a box for the Middle East conflicts is in progress.

There are several other exhibits in the lobby area but the bulk of the displays are in a huge room behind it. Women are well represented throughout the museum but because March is Women’s History Month some items related to women in the military are displayed just outside the entrance to the main exhibit area. The 42-foot “Veterans Marching Through Time” mural is just inside the entrance. 

Exhibits in the big room are arranged chronologically beginning with the pioneer period. Marine uniforms from 1776 and 1863 can be seen in the first picture. The drum visible in both pictures is from the War of 1812.

These two photos are of more or less random items that caught my eye. The genuine “bolt action” long gun was handmade by the Viet Cong but doesn’t appear all that crude until you get close. The “ITALY SURRENDERS!” headline stood out because it is a lot more common to see headlines announcing the Japanese or German surrender. That’s quite understandable since those surrenders actually ended campaigns whereas defeating Italy was just a step on the way to victory in Europe.

Terry and  I had heard good things about the museum but it exceeded our high expectations in both the number and range of artifacts displayed. The friendliness and energy of the volunteers we met were also quite impressive. Open 10:00-2:00 Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. There is no admission charge but donations are welcomed.

Small Wonders (And More)

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It was several years ago that I first heard about a collection of miniatures in Maysville, Kentucky. I made a half-hearted attempt to find it one day but that was before smartphones, or at least before I learned how to use one, and I failed completely. A recent online mention again brought the collection to mind and this time there was enough information to easily locate it. I filled a wet and idle Wednesday, perfect for being inside a museum, with a visit. Those trip-triggering miniatures are housed at the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center along with two other major permanent exhibits and a research library.

One of those permanent exhibits is the Old Pogue Experience which provides a look at the area’s bourbon history. That’s where I began my visit. The photo at the top of the page is of the museum’s main entrance. Old Pogue has its own entrance although the two buildings are connected by a second-floor walkway. Production has not quite been continuous (Remember that Volstead Act thing?) but fifth and sixth generations of the family operate Old Pogue Distillery today with tastings available at the museum. The model of the 1910 Pogue Distillery could be considered a preview of coming attractions.

The Wormald Gallery is the other section of the museum I was thinking of when I spoke of two major permanent exhibits in addition to the miniatures. It is a mixture of truly permanent and rotating displays of regional history.  Among the many displays are two devoted to major exports of the past: tobacco and Rosemary Clooney.

Backstage Hollywood – The Photographs of Bob Willoughby is on display in the museum’s Calvert Gallery through March 16. Willoughby is the first still photographer to be invited by movie studios to work behind the scenes. The exhibit features unstaged glimpses of the likes of Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and others from the 1950s and ’60s.

My decision to save the Kathleen Savage Browning Miniatures Collection for last was indirectly validated when a docent I was chatting with remarked that this is where people spend the most time. This model of the Catherine Palace is currently displayed in what might be considered the museum’s lobby area as a bit of a tease. I passed it on the way to the Backstage Hollywood exhibit then studied it closer on my return. The palace and all items in the miniature collection are said to be 1/12 scale.

Spenser House stands just inside the entrance of the main gallery of miniatures.

Local landmarks also get space in the collection. The Russell Theater, where The Stars Are Singing, with Rosemary Clooney, premiered in 1953, and the 1886 Cox Building are both still standing in downtown Maysville. After leaving the museum, I grabbed pictures (here and here) of both.

The whole world of Mother Goose doesn’t take up a lot of space here. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod are quite small and so is that contrary Mary. The pretty maids in a row, and in her arms, are even smaller.

The tinyness of displayed items is not always apparent in photos so I propped a real U.S. quarter up in front of some musical instruments. The diameter of the quarter is 0.955 inches or 24.26 millimeters.  I can only guess at the diameter of the valves on that trumpet.

The First Day of Pompeii:
The Exhibition

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Pompeii: The Exhibition opened at the Cincinnati Museum Center on Friday. I would have been in the first group admitted and possibly even the first person admitted if a guard had not blocked the stairs and escalators until precisely 10:00 AM. That was the official exhibit opening time but an unguarded elevator a few feet from the stairs meant that a group of patrons were receiving their pre-entry briefing when I and the rest of the walkers arrived. It’s always good to begin the day with something funny.

Following our own briefing, we entered, received another short briefing beneath the screen in the opening picture, and were then treated to an introductory video on that screen. At the video’s end, doors opened on a life-size marble statue of the goddess Aphrodite. Much like the moon, this is the view of the goddess that we most often see although there is another.

Pompeii was a prosperous port city and art was plentiful. Public spaces and private homes contained decorative mosaics, frescoes, fountains, and more statues.

There were plenty of practical items too. Examples are scales used in the market, fishing hooks, and cooking utensils. I know I’m not the only one with a cast iron skillet that looks almost exactly like this bronze one from Pompeii.

I suppose these items are also practical in their own way. Gladiatorial contests were primarily held for entertainment but staying alive was definitely a practical concern for the participants. Next to the displays of weapons and armor, a holographic video about the various types of combat got its share of attention.

Also getting attention was a small room offset from the primary flow. Both entry briefings had described the special markings for this adult-oriented display in case parents wanted to make sure their charges avoided it. If any did, it wasn’t obvious. A sign begins with the astute observation that “Ancient Roman sexual customs were different from those of our contemporary society.” Back then arriving with bells on really meant something.

Theatrical entertainment was quite popular in all of Rome including Pompeii. Actors wore masks to establish their characters. Here is a fresco depicting a pair of masks and a full-size marble mask. Both of these were purely decorative as masks actually worn on stage were made of lighter materials such as linen.

Another set of warnings in those entry briefings concerned loud noises and bright lights in the “4D eruption theater”. I do not doubt that these could be disturbing for some but most will find them underwhelming. Same with the slightly moving floor which I assume is the fourth dimension. If you enter expecting a high-definition video of the eruption shown on a large flat screen you will see an extremely good one. Expect more and you might be disappointed.

Images of the casts of the victims of the eruption are the most familiar and also the most disturbing. These are not human bodies but shapes formed within the volcanic ask where bodies once were. The quote on the wall in the first picture is from Pliny the Younger who watched the eruption from a little more than a dozen miles away and then documented it. In this exhibit, many of the casts are displayed in front of large photographs which I assume depict the situation in which they were found.

Exit is, of course, through the gift shop where we are reminded that striking a good final pose will greatly increase your chances of appearing on a shot glass or refrigerator magnet in a couple of millennia.

Aphrodite’s butt and iffy shot glasses aside, this is an impressive exhibit that provides a detailed and accurate look at a real Roman city of two thousand years ago. Pompeii: The Exhibition runs through July 28.

Trip Peek #126
Trip #163
PA Cars

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This picture is from my 2021 PA Cars trip. PA, or Pennsylvania, is where I went and cars is what I went for. The first big car exposure was in Allentown, PA, where my friend Dave Reese gave me another personal tour of the America on Wheels museum. From Allentown, my farthest point east, I headed west to Hershey and the AACA Museum. The trip was more or less organized around the museum’s Model T Driving Experience and that’s what the photo is from. Of course, I worked in a stroll through all of the AACA exhibits and a stop at The Hershey Story Museum too. I got in some miles on both the Lincoln Highway and the National Road and enjoyed a night of historic lodging on each. The National Road miles were eastbound and I spent the first night of the trip at the Headley Inn near Zanesville, OH. The last night of the trip was spent at the Lincoln Motor Court beside the Lincoln Highway near Bedford, PA.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full-sized photo and the associated trip journal.