The following report was presented at our Annual Meeting, held on October 6, 2008 at the Towanda Country Club. I am pleased to report a long list of accomplishments made at the Bradford County Historical Society this past year. Exhibits and Displays The Natural History exhibit cell was completely changed last winter and now offers the visitor new things to see. The exhibits includes various unusual minerals discovered in the county, the Lilley Leaf Collection (which was cleaned and repaired), enlarged photographs of the Spring Lake Wooly Mammoth excavation, and several other items. Ted Kier also loaned items from the excavation at Spring Lake for a temporary display. Several other rotating exhibits or displays were created for the 2008 season. One such display in the lobby showcase was a collection of Barclay Mountain artifacts. This was replaced in July with a display celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. A display of CCC photos and other WPA projects were also set up in the Great Room during July. The Rotating Exhibit room featured a display of old toys and a series of four different voting booths used in Bradford County over the years. A display case of newspapers with headlines about presidential elections was also created. Portraits of early presidents of the Bradford County Historical Society were placed on display. Thanks to a grant from the Allen F. Pierce Foundation, the piano, reed organ, and melodeon in our museum were all restored and are capable of playing again. The piano and reed organ were made in Towanda. A Pianomation computer system was installed inside the piano in order to make the keys play by themselves. This is a wonderful new feature in our museum and will allow us to have “live” music for our events.Several of our windows received UV protective film to guard the items on display from deterioration. Also, several improvements were made throughout the museum such as stone repointing in the Great Room. These projects were done as a result of a grant received through the efforts of Vince Amoroso and Senator Roger Madigan’s office. Community Outreach and Partnerships This past year I spoke to the Foster Grandparent group at Towanda Elementary School, the Towanda Lions Club, the Wyalusing Senior Citizens Club, the Canton Senior Citizens Club and at the Bradford County Heritage Association (Farm Museum) annual meeting. Guy Abell and I went to Barclay Mountain with the Men’s Group from the Independent Baptist Church in Towanda and gave a tour of part of Laquin, identifying for them the location of the Laquin Baptist Church. BCHS also participated in the Treasures of the Past exhibit at the Blue Heron Art Gallery in Wyalusing by displaying five framed Barclay Mountain photos that told the story of lumbering on the mountain. I attended the opening reception for this month long exhibit and gave a presentation about the mountain and the new book. I also began meeting with other museums in Bradford County to get an idea of what type of collections they have and to discuss how the county historical society can work together with them. These organizations so far have included Tioga Point Museum, Wyalusing Valley Museum, Susquehanna River Archaeological Center of Native Indian Studies (SRAC), and the Troy Historical and Genealogical Society. The board also visited SRAC to see their progress and meet with theirboard. Storage and Organization Tremendous reorganization has taken place in our storage rooms to make material more easily accessible and to provide additional storage space. Our deed room had more shelving installed and 500 deed, mortgage and record books were reshelved. Our entire oversize map collection was placed into new map tubes. The remainder of the maps and large certificates were organized into flat files. A series of 85 new engraved signs were mounted throughout the museum and library. About 60 of these were room numbers to correspond with our Past Perfect inventory system.
The older paper inventory records were also reorganized and centralized in one location for easy retrieval. I compiled a binder of information extracted from the historical society minute books (1870-1960) about items in the historical society collection. All of this information will eventually be entered into our Past Perfect database so that it can be located at a moments notice. Printing and Publishing I concluded several months of design work on the Barclay Mountain history book and sent it to the printer. Several thousand dollars were saved by completing all of the book design “in-house.” The books were received early in December and were ready for 2007 Christmas sales.
I also designed a new BCHS brochure and applied for Room Tax funding in order to have it printed. We were awarded enough funding to print 3,000 brochures, half of which were distributed to state rest stops in three Pennsylvania counties. The remaining brochures were distributed throughout Bradford County. A second application has been submitted for funding to continue this promotional effort. A new quarterly newsletter, the Society Journal, was created to keep our members up-to-date on upcoming events, ongoing projects, interesting stories, and a variety of other material.
Programming We began a series of monthly programs this year known as “Thursday Night at the Museum.”
The first step in making our new programming series a success was to upgrade our audio/visual equipment. Thanks to the Hilliard Foundation and the Allen F. Pierce Foundation we now have all of the equipment necessary to present PowerPoint slideshows, videos, music, and voice.
We kicked off the season of programming with a speaker provided through a grant from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council on the life of a Civil War Officer. Other topics presented this year included Spanish Hill, the Civilian Conservation Corps, David Wilmot, Harry Davenport (Canton’s actor), and the last program in October will feature letters from Civil War. Almost 200 people have participated in these programs. Several have indicated that it was their first time visiting the museum. Museum Visitors The museum opened for the season on May 29th with our summer tour guide, Amanda Rockwood, a student at Millersville University. Besides operating the museum and gift shop, Amanda worked on data entry for us, part of which involved entering the entire BCHS membership list into Past Perfect. Her last day was August 23 and her replacement for the fall, Amy Masters, will finish out the season. The museum has hosted over 800 visitors since the last annual meeting. These visitors have come from the following states and countries: California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, New York, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Vermont, Maryland, Washington, Florida, South Dakota, Canada, France and England. Over 500 students have visited the museum during 2008. We have hosted the following group tours: Outstanding Young Woman Program; North Rome Christian School; Union Valley Christian School; St. Agnes Cub Scouts; Keystone College students; Serve, Inc.; Troy first through third grades; St. Agnes School fourth through sixth grades; Northeast Bradford fourth grade; Towanda Elementary Fourth Grade; Canton High School Library Club; Beacon Light ages 7-16; Bradford County Day Care ages 4-9; Canton Red Hatters; and Futures. Contributions to Our Collection Several deliveries of county records were received this year from the courthouse including property assessment cards from the assessment office and several other ledgers such as “inmate records” from the Bradford County Poor House (later the Bradford County Manor).
Patricia Chubbuck from Broome County, NY donated a wonderful collection of Laquin photographs and other material. Many of the photos and other items that she donated are not found in the Jim Smith collection from which we compiled the Barclay Mountain history book.
DuPont donated a collection of items pertaining to the Patterson Screen Company in Towanda. This helps to round out our collection of DuPont/Patterson Screen Company history. We also received a great collection of material pertaining to the Sylvania company in Towanda.
Peoples State Bank donated the 1889 “cannonball safe” from their New Albany bank branch. It weighs 2,400 lbs. and is a fascinating piece of history.
The following donors have given artifact and manuscript items over the past year: Roger Keagle, David Westcott, Suzanne Tebo Tearno, Ruth Bloss, Leslie Norton, Shirley Mancuso-Zettel, Fred Coolbaugh, Robert Bullard, Rowena Ward, Elma Young family, Terry Peet, Jean Lundy, Carol Rockwell, Donald L. Vanderpool, Henry Farley, Ruth Harvey, Patricia Chubbuck, Victor Hand, Chris Foard, Marland Earnest, Janice Hicks, Mrs. Robert Gauss, Fanna Proper, Marjorie Templeton, Peggy Richards, Jane Carey, Theodore & Maxine Roy, April Tvorak, Carl McMorran, Chris Shaffer, Niles Stroud, Donna Esposito,James Seeley, Vine Crandall, Millie Landis-Coyle, Jill Covenover, Mark and Delores Crane, Sylvia Race, Letha Boughton, Frances Bogaczyk, Julie Them, Joan Phelan, Dale & Kay Fulmer, Phyllis Mulcahy, Frances Clark, Matt Carl, Sue Wheeler, JoAnn Werthner, J. Kelsey Jones, Gerald & Lesley Smith, Linda Lundy, David & Carol Brubaker, James & Marie Walsh, Sylvia Wilson, Marie Parks on behalf of Northeast Bradford School, Norma Maryott on behalf of the Lt. Asa Steven’s Chapter of the NSDAR, St. Mary’s County Historical Society, Lackawanna County Historical Society, Waterloo Historical Society, Dupont, Peoples State Bank and Towanda Public Library. Loans were received from the Troy Presbyterian Church, Doris Morgan Huegal, and John Watson.
Thanks again to all those who contribute in some way to the success of the Bradford County Historical Society. Your support makes our work possible. I look forward to another eventful year ahead.
