Curatorial team monthly report for June 2004

Cleaning our exhibit areas continues. With the help of our summer intern and the continuing help from Americorps, Marge has been able to move faster and clean some areas in more detail than ever before. The Americorps workers and our intern Bob have been shifting back and forth between Marge and Janna. Janna and her crew have been cataloging the objects stored in the Methodist Church. They have created records for hundreds of music rolls, stereoscope cards, magazines, and of course, arcade and music machines. The cataloging of this material will continue for some time. The building will continue to be used as a storage site after the material has been cleaned and better organized. Pat continues work on the Long-term Preservation Plan, proofreading and updating our catalog records, and other office duties.

Our volunteers have contributed to the above projects, as well as completing data entry and conducting historic research for the Fairweather Parlor exhibit. Several members of the Montana Historical Society Friends group came down from Helena and made curtains to replace the ragged ones in the upper floor windows in Nevada City. A special thank you to all of our volunteers—we couldn't do it without you!

Bob Foreman stopped by our office to share aerial photographs taken of Virginia City and Nevada City in 1963. It was interesting to see how much has changed. Several other visitors stopped to find out more about the Curatorial Center and the work we do here. Mary Murphy, a professor at Montana State University, brought her weekend workshop class here to learn a little more about object-based research—that is, what we can learn from objects. One of her students is conducting research on Sarah Bickford, who owned the Virginia City water works in the late 19th-early 20th century. We look forward to reading the results of this research.

Speaking of Sarah Bickford…The "Most Interesting Object" of the month is part of a donation from Neil Kent of Ennis. Neil gave us three things that he'd saved for many years: a checkbook, checkbook cover, and a cancelled check, all originally used by Morgan L. Morgan of Virginia City, and dating from 1914 through 1917. The checkbook and cover are embossed with "Elling State Bank, Virginia City, Montana". The checkbook contains stubs for checks written to some familiar people and businesses, including C.W. Rank and Frank McKean (McKean ran the Fairweather Inn.) The check, our MIO for June, was written to Sarah Bickford on September 28, 1914 for the amount of $25.00, and is endorsed on the back by Mrs. Bickford. Interestingly, the check is not in payment of a water bill; rather, the endorsement notes that it is "for one calf". Thank you Neil, for this significant contribution to our collection.