Strapped N.J. Historical Society criticized for selling prized holdings

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – The New Jersey Historical Society has sold one of its prized possessions – an incredibly rare, hand-colored map of the United States from 1784 – because the Newark institution is hard up for cash.

But in the museum world, some experts are calling the sale unethical because museums are not supposed to sell their treasures to raise money.

The Abel Buell map, which brought in almost $2.1 million at the Christie’s auction, was described by a cartography expert as “one of the most coveted of all American maps.”

It is the first map of the United States published in America, the first that features an American flag and the first map copyrighted in America, according to the Christie’s catalog. Even so, the society sold this piece of history last month, one of several dozen items from its collection it has sold or plans to sell. It will use the proceeds to pay off its $2.6 million debt.

Some critics say the sale of the map, held by the society since 1862 and described by Christie’s as pristine, is a violation of the code of ethics by which museums live. That code says pieces of a museum, library or historical society’s collections may only be sold to purchase additional items, not to pay for ordinary expenses like heat or debt service.

“It’s horrifying,” said Stanley Katz, director of the Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies.

“They are not violating any law, but they are violating the moral duty of a public institution to preserve its collection,” Katz said. “There is no argument for selling this map. It’s a major map, for a society whose strength is in the early period. It’s indefensible.”

At two Christie’s auctions set for next week in Manhattan, another 20 items from the historical society’s collection will be on the block, including a 120-piece dinner service used by a New Jersey governor to entertain President Martin Van Buren and a portrait of George Washington attributed to New Jersey artist Charles B. Lawrence.

These lots, expected to fetch several thousand dollars each, are not in the same range as the Buell map, which one Christie official described as “spectacular.”

According to the catalog, the historical society can expect to reap anywhere from $86,000 to $146,000 from the upcoming three sales.

The historical society board determined the items to be auctioned are not critical to the evolving mission of the society, which will focus more on educational and research and library services and less on producing “large scale museum exhibitions,” board president John Zinn said.

“All of these things were acquired many years ago and have limited connection to New Jersey history,” Zinn said.

Zinn said the society must retire its debt in order to continue operating.

The historical society has been hurt by recent state budget cuts. It received $290,900 and $293,310 in state funds last year and 2009, but it received no grant for this fiscal year.

But selling pieces of a permanent collection – or de-accessioning, in the parlance of the museum world – to pay for operations violates the ethics code of the American Association of Museums. A museum is permitted to de-accession only to provide funds for the acquisition of other items or for the direct care of collections, according to that accrediting body.

There is sympathy for the historical society and other institutions that have been harmed by the ongoing economic turmoil. Marc Mappen, retired executive director of the New Jersey Historical Commission, compared the situation to medical triage.

“You have to establish priorities, and you have to consider the survival of your institution,” Mappen said. “Things are so bad for museums right now, funds are low and fund-raising so difficult,” he said. “I think there is some understanding that they have to do this to survive.”

Mappen conceded that selling off items that have been donated to the institution could hurt future donations. “But if you go under, nobody’s going to give you anything either.”

___

Information from: The Star-Ledger, http://www.nj.com/starledger

 

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-01-13-11 1131EST

 

 

 

Negro Leagues baseball barnstorms at Muskegon Museum of Art

‘Josh Gibson,’ 2006 oil on canvas original painting by Kadir Nelson for ‘We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.’ Image courtesy of Muskegon Museum of Art.

‘Josh Gibson,’ 2006 oil on canvas original painting by Kadir Nelson for ‘We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.’ Image courtesy of Muskegon Museum of Art.
‘Josh Gibson,’ 2006 oil on canvas original painting by Kadir Nelson for ‘We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.’ Image courtesy of Muskegon Museum of Art.
MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) – Artist and author Kadir Nelson’s paintings of Negro Leagues baseball players are going on display at the Muskegon Museum of Art.

A nationally touring exhibition We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball opened Thursday and runs through March 13. Nelson’s paintings were compiled in his book with the same title.

Nelson spent over a decade researching, writing and illustrating the history of Negro League baseball, from its beginnings in the 1920s through its decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947.

We Are the Ship tells the story of gifted athletes and determined owners; of racial discrimination and international sportsmanship; of fortunes won and lost; of triumphs and defeats on and off the field. It is a mirror for the social and political history of black America in the first half of the 20th century. Most of all, it is a story of the hundreds of unsung heroes of the Negro Leagues who overcame segregation, hatred, terrible conditions and low pay to do the one thing they loved most: play ball.

The exhibition features 33 paintings from Nelson’s book and 13 preliminary sketches. Negro Leagues memorabilia from Muskegon-area collections also will be on display.

Special events are planned in conjunction with the exhibition. Details are on the Muskegon Museum of Art’s website.

___

Online:

Muskegon Museum of Art: http://www.muskegonartmuseum.org

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-01-13-11 0401EST

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

‘Josh Gibson,’ 2006 oil on canvas original painting by Kadir Nelson for ‘We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.’ Image courtesy of Muskegon Museum of Art.
‘Josh Gibson,’ 2006 oil on canvas original painting by Kadir Nelson for ‘We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.’ Image courtesy of Muskegon Museum of Art.
‘Safe at Home,’ 2005 oil on canvas Collection of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum original painting by Kadir Nelson for ‘We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.’ Image courtesy of Muskegon Museum of Art.
‘Safe at Home,’ 2005 oil on canvas Collection of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum original painting by Kadir Nelson for ‘We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.’ Image courtesy of Muskegon Museum of Art.
Artist Kadir Nelson at work in his studio. Image courtesy of Muskegon Museum of Art.
Artist Kadir Nelson at work in his studio. Image courtesy of Muskegon Museum of Art.

$10M gift will create fashion exhibit space at Metropolitan Museum

Entrance to Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. May 11, 2007 photo by Arad. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Entrance to Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. May 11, 2007 photo by Arad. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Entrance to Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. May 11, 2007 photo by Arad. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
NEW YORK – A gift of $10 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch will support the creation of a major exhibition space within its Costume Institute. This gift will allow the museum to proceed, beginning in 2012, with the complete renovation of its costume-related exhibition galleries, study collection and conservation center, it was announced Tuesday by museum director Thomas P. Campbell.

The new 4,200-square-foot gallery—to be named the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery—represents a fundamental change in the museum’s approach to its costume collection as visitors will now be able to view some aspect of these holdings at least 10 months of the year. These rotating installations will examine fashion through conceptual approaches and connoisseurship and will bring visitors into a close dialogue with the works on display.

“This gift is truly transformative,” said Campbell. “The Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery is designed as a distinctly flexible space, so the possibilities for creative interpretations of the collection are unlimited. We thank and applaud Lizzie and Jon Tisch for their generosity and for taking a leadership role to launch this project.”

“We are so pleased to help the Met, one of New York City’s great cultural institutions, make their unique and historic collection more accessible to its millions of visitors each year,” said Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch. “In today’s world, fashion, art and culture are becoming more intertwined, and the renovation of the Costume Institute will give this inter-relationship the proper focus it deserves at the museum. The new gallery will allow young designers and students to see and learn while advancing both art history and the art of fashion design.”

The renovation will also include a new costume conservation center and an expanded and updated study/storage facility that will house the combined holdings of the Met and the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection, which was transferred to the Metropolitan Museum in 2009. Adjacent to the new Tisch Gallery, the Carl and Iris Barrel Apfel Gallery will be refreshed and function as critical introductory space to the Costume Institute holdings.

Harold Koda, curator in charge of the Costume Institute, said, “This project makes possible the museum’s dramatic rethinking of the display of historic costume and contemporary fashion. The current galleries with their fixed vitrines and established flow will be transformed into a space that maximizes the ability of the museum to present its costume holdings in new and varied ways. A range of visual effects will also be employed to underscore the conceptual and narrative intentions of the changing exhibitions installed in this space.”

Founded in 1937, the Museum of Costume Art, after its incorporation and renaming as the Costume Institute, became a part of the Metropolitan Museum in 1946. Currently it contains a collection dating from the 17th century to the present, including fashionable dress and regional costumes from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. In 2009 the Brooklyn Museum transferred its important costume collection, amassed during more than a century of collecting, to the Costume Institute, where it is known as the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The combined collections of more than 35,000 pieces—supported by the Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library, among the world’s foremost fashion libraries—now constitute one of the largest and most comprehensive costume collections in the world, offering an unrivaled timeline of Western fashion history.

 

 

Spanish royalty helps open new $36M Salvador Dali Museum in Fla.

S.A.R. la Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, cuts the ribbon to officially open the new Dali Museum. Photo by Michael Dupre, courtesy of The Dali Museum.

S.A.R. la Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, cuts the ribbon to officially open the new Dali Museum. Photo by Michael Dupre, courtesy of The Dali Museum.
S.A.R. la Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, cuts the ribbon to officially open the new Dali Museum. Photo by Michael Dupre, courtesy of The Dali Museum.
ST. PETERSBURG (AP) – For a few hours Tuesday, this Florida city was transformed into a Surrealist canvas in honor of Salvador Dali, the genre’s master.

A man wearing a large snail hat led a parade of drummers, who were followed by a phalanx of pirates past shimmering water and vibrant palm trees. Wild green parakeets fluttered in the air. Spanish royalty was on hand, as were several mayors, dozens of reporters and hundreds of art lovers.

A number of people had attached pencil-thin Dali mustaches to their upper lips.

Everyone gathered beneath a glass-and-concrete building — the new, $36-million museum that features a priceless collection of Dali’s works.

It replaces the old Dali Museum, more than doubling the exhibition space and improving hurricane protection. It is considered the world’s most comprehensive collection of Dali’s work.

Princess Cristina of Spain, who is the duchess of Palma de Mallorca and the youngest daughter of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia, called the museum a “superb setting, a state of the art building” that evokes the waves, magic and light of Dali’s native Mediterranean Sea.

The museum’s signature architectural detail is a wave of glass paneling that undulates around the building — a striking feature that was designed by architect Yann Weymouth, who had a hand in creating the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris.

“The city of St. Petersburg gains a landmark and outstanding beacon of cultural beauty,” the princess said.

Floridians believe the museum will be the centerpiece of an arts renaissance in the Tampa Bay area, which recently saw the renovation of a new museum of art in nearby Tampa and the opening of a gallery devoted to popular glassmaker Dale Chihuly in St. Petersburg. Officials said the Dali museum took 14 years from conception to ribbon-cutting. Because much of the fund raising and building happened in tough economic times, local officials say the community is clearly committed to the arts and the tourism it brings to the area.

“We overcame the difficulty of the economic times,” said former St. Petersburg Mayor Bob Ullrich. “What you see before you today is the symbol of a resolute will of this community to create world class art museum for a world class art collection.”

Dali, who was born and raised in Figueres, Spain, is best known for his surrealist paintings of melting clocks. Yet he was a classically trained painter whose art ranged from Old Master-style still lifes to religious iconography. A full range of his work can be seen at the St. Petersburg museum, including seven of his 18 masterwork paintings.

Jorge Dezcallar, the Spanish ambassador to the U.S., said the new museum will inspire a legacy of research and collaboration between the two countries.

“This is very befitting, in a land so closely linked to Spain,” he said. “Dali’s legend and legacy continue to live on. He would feel also at home in this building.”

Much of the Dali Museum’s art was collected by an Ohio couple — A. Reynolds and Eleanor Morse — who bought their first Dali painting in 1942 and then amassed nearly 100 of his works. The couple became so enamored with his creations that they eventually befriended Dali and his wife, Gala, who moved to the United States in the 1940s.

Decades later, the Morse collection took an improbable path to St. Petersburg.

In 1980, a young St. Petersburg lawyer named Jim Martin read an article in the Wall Street Journal titled “U.S. Art World Dillydallies Over Dali;” about how Mr. Morse wanted to find a home for his collection — and how he was willing to donate it for free as long as the venue would keep the artworks together.

Martin called Morse and urged him to consider St. Petersburg. The Morse family did, and the first museum was eventually built in 1980.

“Sun and sand and Dali sounded pretty good,” Martin told a crowd of several hundred on Tuesday.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewriteen, or redistributed.

 

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

The newly opened Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Photo by Michael Dupre, image courtesy of The Dali Museum.
The newly opened Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Photo by Michael Dupre, image courtesy of The Dali Museum.
The newly opened Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Photo by Michael Dupre, image courtesy of The Dali Museum.
The newly opened Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Photo by Michael Dupre, image courtesy of The Dali Museum.
The newly opened Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Photo by Michael Dupre, image courtesy of The Dali Museum.
The newly opened Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Photo by Michael Dupre, image courtesy of The Dali Museum.
Dali Museum Director Dr. Hank Hine thanks guest of honor S.A.R. la Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, for cutting the ribbon and officially opening the new Dali Museum. To Princess Cristina's right is her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, Duke of Palms de Mallorca. Photo by Michael Dupre, courtesy of The Dali Museum.
Dali Museum Director Dr. Hank Hine thanks guest of honor S.A.R. la Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, for cutting the ribbon and officially opening the new Dali Museum. To Princess Cristina’s right is her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, Duke of Palma de Mallorca. Photo by Michael Dupre, courtesy of The Dali Museum.

Fort Worth groups prep for flight’s 100th anniversary

This vintage Bleriot monoplane is similar to the one French aviator Roland Garros flew over Fort Worth, Texas, a century ago. Image by Kogo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

This vintage Bleriot monoplane is similar to the one French aviator Roland Garros flew over Fort Worth, Texas, a century ago. Image by Kogo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
This vintage Bleriot monoplane is similar to the one French aviator Roland Garros flew over Fort Worth, Texas, a century ago. Image by Kogo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Somewhere between the Office Depot and the Ross Dress for Less store off West Seventh Street, a Frenchman named Roland G. Garros lifted off in his Bleriot monoplane a century ago.

Every other pilot at the Great Aviation Meet, a traveling troupe brought to Fort Worth by several of its leading businessmen, refused to fly. The winds were up, and the aircraft were only eight years removed from Orville and Wilbur Wright going airborne for the first time.

But Garros, determined to please the 15,000 people who had paid 50 cents to watch a plane fly, pulled back on his stick and went airborne into 25 mph gusts, a dangerous decision because his plane couldn’t fly a whole lot faster than that.

At 1,500 feet, he leveled off and took a “seven-mile, cross-country jaunt” and landed perfectly a few minutes later, according to news accounts.

Few, if any, people that day, Jan. 12, 1911, had ever seen it done before.

A machine flew.

From an area that gave the world the F-16, Ormer Locklear, Horace Carswell, Jeana Yeager and the Huey helicopter, it would seem that the actual birthday of aviation in Tarrant County, Texas, has been largely forgotten.

“Ninety percent of the people who come to our museum have no idea what went on here,” said Tom Kemp, a retired Air Force colonel who volunteers at the Veterans Memorial Air Park near Meacham Airport.

But three groups of aviation enthusiasts, the Fort Worth Air & Space Museum Foundation, the OV-10 Bronco Association and the B-36 Peacemaker Museum, decided to mark the centennial of flight in Tarrant County with a yearlong campaign designed to remind people that there’s more to local history than cattle and railroads.

Their first event is scheduled for Saturday near the site of Garros’ first flight.

“I think that aviation is so much a part of the fabric here that people don’t think about it,” said Jim Hodgson, president of the Veterans Memorial Air Park and a founder of the OV-10 Bronco Association. “It’s always been here. They don’t think about that initial spark that got everything going. But aviation really did change the complexion of this area.”

Thousands of people saw that initial spark on Jan. 12 and Jan. 13, 1911, during the Great Aviation Meet held at the Fort Worth Driving Park, a race track on the site of what is now Montgomery Plaza off West Seventh Street.

The International Aviators had just performed before 20,000 people in Dallas, and several prominent leaders of Fort Worth hastily arranged a stop in Fort Worth before the aviators headed to Oklahoma City.

The aviation exhibit was part of a yearlong tour across America organized by wealthy brothers A.J. and John Moisant and featuring well-known pilots of the day. The pilots earned a princely sum of $500 to $2,000 a week, according to a story in The New York Times in 1910.

“It cannot be predicted from what obscure village the inventor shall arise to solve the problem still confronting those who are wrestling with the gigantic task of making aerial navigation as practical and safe as other means of transportation,” the Times quoted A.J. Moisant as saying.

Just a few weeks later, his brother, John, died in an airplane crash in New Orleans. The airport there carried his name for many years.

In addition to flying for the crowds, one pilot would race a man driving a powerful Fiat race car around the track. But the gusty winds and concern about the large crowds getting too close to the track on Jan. 12 led to a shortened aviation meet with only Garros going airborne the first day.

The Dallas Morning News called him “reckless” for doing it, though Garros was quoted in newspapers of the day saying he did it to appease the largest assembly of people ever in Fort Worth.

Similarly, the yearlong tribute to aerospace milestones in North Texas is being put together on the fly.

“It should have been done a year ago,” Hodgson acknowledged.

But because no one else appeared to be organizing anything, Hodgson and friends started throwing together a plan less than two months ago. Each month, the group intends to have a program to commemorate either a historic event, unit, aircraft or person with North Texas ties.

In February, they will mark the 62nd anniversary of the first nonstop flight around the world, which originated and ended at Carswell Air Force Base.

Later in the year, they plan to push programs on aircraft such as the B-36 Peacemaker built in Fort Worth, the British and Canadian pilots who trained in Tarrant County in World War I and the arrival in Ryan Place of “Daredevil Cal” Rodgers on the first transcontinental flight.

The air show at Naval Air Station Fort Worth in April comes coincidentally on the centennial of naval aviation, bringing in many of the Navy’s heavy hitters such as the Blue Angels.

In May, the Fort Worth Air & Space Museum Foundation will unveil a major exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, which officials hope will whet the public’s appetite for a major aviation-only museum.

“It will be a preview of our ultimate air and space museum we will build at Alliance Airport in 2016,” said Bill Morris, a researcher for the foundation. “It will help us focus the structure of the big museum.”

The groups have also enlisted the help of Tarrant County College, which has an aviation program, to reach out to middle-school students to get more young people interested in the field.

They hope that more groups, schools and cities will get into the act by having their own programs.

___

Information from: Fort Worth Star-Telegram,

http://www.star-telegram.com

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WS-01-11-11 0846EST

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

This vintage Bleriot monoplane is similar to the one French aviator Roland Garros flew over Fort Worth, Texas, a century ago. Image by Kogo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
This vintage Bleriot monoplane is similar to the one French aviator Roland Garros flew over Fort Worth, Texas, a century ago. Image by Kogo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Salem’s ‘questionable’ Lizzie Borden museum shuts its doors

Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the Aug. 4, 1892 hatchet murders of her father and stepmother. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the Aug. 4, 1892 hatchet murders of her father and stepmother. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the Aug. 4, 1892 hatchet murders of her father and stepmother. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
SALEM, Mass. (AP) – A Lizzie Borden museum in Salem that sparked a lawsuit and questions over its location has closed after about 2 1/2 years in business.

Owner Leonard Pickel told The Salem News that his 40 Whacks Museum faced steep rent and high utility costs at a time of year when tourist traffic slows. He says he was never able to attract key school groups.

His museum that opened in the summer of 2008 was originally called The True Story of Lizzie Borden. But he was sued by the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Fall River, where Borden was accused of using an ax to murder her father and stepmother. The Salem museum changed its name.

Others questioned why a museum about something that happened in Fall River was located in Salem, famous for its witch trials.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-01-10-11 0958EST

 

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the Aug. 4, 1892 hatchet murders of her father and stepmother. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the Aug. 4, 1892 hatchet murders of her father and stepmother. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Trenton, N.J., museum honors its ceramics heritage with exhibit

TRENTON, N.J. – The Trenton Museum Society will hold a reception Jan. 29 for the opening of the new exhibit at Ellarslie Mansion: Artists and Decorators of the Trenton Pottery Industry.

Members are welcome beginning at 6 p.m. The public is invited from 7-9 p.m. The museum is located in Cadwalader Park.

This exhibit, which runs Jan. 29 to May 8, features the best of Trenton’s world-class pottery made from 1882 through the 1920s. On display will be one-of-a-kind, hand-painted pieces from, among others, Ott and Brewer, Willets Manufacturing Co. and the Ceramic Art Co., which later became Lenox. Creations from most of the known factory artists like Bruno Geyer, George and William Morley, and Walter Marsh will be displayed, as well as signed work from a few unknown artists.

Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. and Sunday 1- 4 p.m. Visit www.ellarslie.org for details. For more information and directions contact Museum Director Brian O. Hill at 609-989-3632.

 

 

 

Tenn. archivists seeking Civil War memorabilia to document

With a solemn look of determination, this Confederate soldier serves as the poster boy for the Tennessee State Library and Archives project. Image courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives and the Tennessee State Museum.

With a solemn look of determination, this Confederate soldier serves as the poster boy for the Tennessee State Library and Archives project. Image courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives and the Tennessee State Museum.
With a solemn look of determination, this Confederate soldier serves as the poster boy for the Tennessee State Library and Archives project. Image courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives and the Tennessee State Museum.
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – Representatives from the Tennessee State Library and Archives and the Tennessee State Museum will be at Greeneville High School, 210 Tusculum Blvd., on Feb. 18 to record and digitize Civil War memorabilia owned by local residents for a new exhibit.

Archivists will be at the school, from 9 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. that day. They invite area residents to bring in photographs, documents and other artifacts related to the Civil War.

Individuals may call 615-253-3470 or e-mail civilwar.tsla@tn.gov to schedule a reservation with the archivists. Reservation forms and available times may be found on the State Library and Archives’ section of the Department of State web site at http://tn.gov/tsla/cwtn/events.htm.

The archivists will scan or take digital photographs of the materials, some of which will be featured in an upcoming exhibit titled, “Looking Back: The Civil War in Tennessee.” The archivists will not actually take possession of the items from their owners.

“This is an important project for the Tennessee State Library and Archives,” Secretary of State Tre Hargett said. “The Civil War was a major event in our state’s history, so we need to take appropriate steps to make sure these treasures are properly preserved for future generations.”Attendees at the event will receive copies of the digital photographs and tips on how to preserve their Civil War memorabilia.

Archivists plan to visit all 95 of Tennessee’s counties in search of material for the exhibit, which will commemorate the Civil War’s 150th anniversary.

Contact: 615-253-3470 or e-mail civilwar.tsla@tn.gov.

 

Exhibit marks 50th anniversary of JFK inauguration

President John F. Kennedy, photo taken in the Oval Office on July 11, 1963 by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton.

President John F. Kennedy, photo taken in the Oval Office on July 11, 1963 by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton.
President John F. Kennedy, photo taken in the Oval Office on July 11, 1963 by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton.
BOSTON (AP) — Fifty years later, Richard Donahue still remembers the bitter cold and the crowds at the U.S Capitol stamping their feet to stay warm as they waited for John F. Kennedy to deliver his inaugural address on the day the torch was passed to a new generation.

The speech would quickly warm up the partisan crowd, Donahue recalled. Neither he nor anyone there that day could have imagined how ingrained in the American consciousness JFK’s words and phrases would become and how easily they still come to mind a half-century later.

“It just gave us a sense that the future is now, you’re a part of it, and away we go,” said Donahue, now 83, a friend of the Kennedy family who earned a prized ticket to the inauguration on Jan. 20, 1961, after campaigning in the primaries and general election. He had, of course, heard Jack speak countless times. But never with such conviction.

“He seemed to give everyone the confidence that we could do whatever we wanted as a country,” said Donahue, a retired Boston attorney and trustee of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.

The library has added a special exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the inauguration, including some rare and never-before-displayed artifacts such as the black top hat and brown suede gloves that Kennedy wore that day along with the ivory-colored Oleg Cassini gown that Jacqueline Kennedy wore to an Inauguration Eve gala.

As he prepared to take office, Kennedy was concerned with not only what he would say, but how he would look, said Stacey Bredhoff, the museum’s curator.

“He was very aware that this was his first appearance on the world stage as president of the United States and he had very deliberately decided on the kind of image he wanted to project,” she said.

Other memorabilia include an invitation to the inaugural luncheon at the Capitol, autographed not only by JFK and Jackie but the rest of the head table, including Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson, then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, former President Harry Truman and Bess Truman, and Edith Bolling Wilson, widow of President Woodrow Wilson.

The luncheon menu featured New England boiled stuffed lobster and prime Texas rib of beef, in deference to the new president and vice president, respectively.

Also on display: an autographed copy of composer Leonard Bernstein’s “Fanfare for the Inauguration;” a congratulatory letter to Kennedy penned by Eleanor Roosevelt; and a draft of a congratulatory letter from Ernest Hemingway, who watched the inauguration on TV and later wrote, “It is a good thing to have a brave man as our president in times as tough as these are for our country and the world.”

From the days leading up to inauguration is a typewritten copy of the famed “city upon a hill” speech JFK delivered 50 years ago Sunday to the Massachusetts Legislature as a sort of farewell to his home state. A keen student of history, Kennedy saw a parallel between that speech and an address Abraham Lincoln gave in Illinois before assuming the presidency a century earlier.

In the Boston speech, Kennedy compared the challenges he would face as president to those facing the first Puritan settlers of Massachusetts in the 1600s. Quoting from John Winthrop, an early governor of the colony, Kennedy said: “We must always consider … that we shall be as a city upon a hill — the eyes of all people are upon us.”

Touring the museum with her daughter on a recent day brought memories flooding back for Muriel Barnes, 63, of Boston.

“It was a real time of change in our community … I think people were looking forward to that change,” said Barnes, who grew up in Johnstown, Pa., and recalls watching the election and Kennedy’s inauguration on television.

“He was young and there were a lot of interesting things happening to him and the campaign was well-run enough that a 13-year-old kid noticed,” said Barnes, who believed her parents were Republican, though they rarely spoke about politics.

Barnes’ daughter, Randi Cox, 44, a history teacher at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, includes discussion of the 1960 election in her classes. Last semester, she had her students analyze campaign commercials that were run by Kennedy and his GOP opponent, Richard M. Nixon.

“They could tell that Kennedy was good with people and Nixon wasn’t,” Cox said.

As a historian, Cox worries that much of what Kennedy preached in his inaugural address and presidency has been forgotten, including his insistence that America strive for the morally correct position, not just the politically or militarily correct one.

“I worry that when I look at our economic policies, when I look at our military policies, our foreign policies, I don’t think we’ve remembered that lesson as well as we should have,” she said.

The exhibit, “Passing the Torch — the Inauguration of John F. Kennedy,” will run through the summer.

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Photo taken during the Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. Washington, D. C., Jan. 20, 1961. U. S. Army Signal Corps photo taken by Chief Warrant Officer Donald Mingfield. The photo is held in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.
Photo taken during the Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. Washington, D. C., Jan. 20, 1961. U. S. Army Signal Corps photo taken by Chief Warrant Officer Donald Mingfield. The photo is held in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

Louvre tallies 8.5 million visits in 2010

Richelieu wing of the Louvre museum, Paris. Image taken in 2005 by Gloumouth1. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Richelieu wing of the Louvre museum, Paris. Image taken in 2005 by Gloumouth1. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Richelieu wing of the Louvre museum, Paris. Image taken in 2005 by Gloumouth1. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

PARIS (AP) – The Louvre Museum says it had a record 8.5 million visitors for a third straight year in 2010.

Temporary exhibits – including shows about Russian art and the archaeology and history of Saudi Arabia – were among those that kept the crowds coming. A total of 7.8 million people visited the Louvre’s permanent collections last year.

The Louvre released its annual figures on visitors Thursday. The Paris museum is home to famed pieces such as the sculpture The Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Mona Lisa.

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AP-CS-01-06-11 1445EST

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Richelieu wing of the Louvre museum, Paris. Image taken in 2005 by Gloumouth1. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Richelieu wing of the Louvre museum, Paris. Image taken in 2005 by Gloumouth1. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.