News:
07/06/2010
“History Partner Days”
As you may know, the Indiana Historical Society recently launched its Indiana Experience—a set of new interactive and high-technology experiences that allow the IHS to share its tremendous archival holdings, including 1.6 million photographs, in meaningful and enjoyable ways. The Indiana Experience is available Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and cost is typically $7 for adults, $6.50 for seniors and $5 for youth (ages five to 17).
This summer, the IHS is launching a “History Partner Days” program, of which the Putnam County Museum is a part. During the weeks of Aug. 10-14 and Aug. 17-21, the Indiana Historical Society will honor Putnam County Museum membership as its own, offering PCM members complimentary admission to the Indiana Experience. This also includes free parking in the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center’s lot as well as a 15-percent discount in the Basile History Market.
To take advantage of this offer, please present your membership newsletter at the History Center’s Welcome Center. Or, if you have misplaced your newsletter, you may contact PCM for proof of membership material.
If you are not yet a Museum member, now is the perfect time to join! Memberships are available starting at the $25 level and up. New members joining between now and August 2nd will receive free admittance (one free at the $25 level, or two free at the $50 level and above) to the Museum’s Annual Meeting and Gala on August 7th as well as benefit from this great opportunity at IHS.
For more information on this promotional program, please contact The Putnam County Musem at 765-653-8419. For more information on the Indiana Experience, or other programs of the Indiana Historical Society, call (317) 232-1882 or visit the IHS’s new Web site at www.indianahistory.org.
07/01/2010
Putnam County Museum Soars to New Levels of Knowledge about Eagles
The Putnam County Museum’s Children’s Summer Program series has been a great success this year! From PCM Rocks to Fireworks Fling, participants have learned interesting new facts and then had some great fun creating some really interesting projects. The next program is open to everyone and will take us all soaring to new heights. Vicki Albietz, Interpretive Naturalist for Lieber State Recreational Area and Cataract Falls, will join us on Wednesday, July 14th from 4-5pm for a presentation of "The Reintroduction of the Bald Eagles in Indiana." This promises to be an enlightening program!
The Putnam County Museum is located at 1105 N. Jackson St., Greencastle and may be reached at 765.653.8419 or museum@county.putnam.in.us.
06/29/2010
PUTNAM COUNTY MUSEUM ANNOUNCES DATE OF ANNUAL MEETING & GALA
The Putnam County Museum’s Annual Meeting and Gala will be held at DePauw University’s Union Building Ballroom on August 7th from 4:00 – 7:00PM. The Museum is celebrating its nine years of service to Putnam County by thanking its members and the community, and sharing news of recent activities.
A social hour kicks off the event with hot and cold appetizers, a cash wine bar, and the Museum’s acclaimed Silent Auction. The evening’s guest speaker is Nicole Etcheson, a Civil War historian who will be sharing stories and insights from her upcoming book… a fitting capstone to the well-received Museum’s exhibit, “Putnam County and the Civil War.”
The Annual Meeting & Gala is open to the public and all are invited to attend. Tickets are $25.00 per person. If you are not already a member of the Museum, you can receive one free ticket to the Gala with each new annual membership (minimum of $25.00), or two free tickets with a membership at the $50.00 level or higher. As an added bonus, Museum members will receive free admittance to the Indiana Historical Society’s Indiana Experience exhibit with free parking during their History Partner Days in August.
If you wish to donate your treasures to our exciting Silent Auction, you can drop them off at the Museum between July 20 – 29, or call 765.653.8419 to arrange for pick-up. This is a wonderful way to support your museum and clear out items that need a new home. The fair market value of donations is tax deductible.
Please make your reservations by July 30. Payment may be made by cash, check, or credit card.
The Annual Gala is a great opportunity to gather with those who share a common love of Putnam County history while supporting the Museum and its mission of preservation, access and education.
The Putnam County Museum is located at 1105 N. Jackson St., Greencastle and may be reached at 765.653.8419 or museum@county.putnam.in.us.
06/16/2010
A Museum Piece
If you’ve ever watched the PBS show “Antiques Roadshow” you know how important “provenance” is to the value of an antique. Well, provenance is exactly what Stephan Jones and family have given the Putnam County Museum along with two etchings by the well-known Putnam County artist, O. L. Griffith.
Steve’s grandmother, Clara Lucy Sharp Jones, a Greencastle resident, owned a Griffith etching titled “Fall Echoes”. She wrote the artist asking if he had an etching for sale that would match hers in size and style. On November 11, 1951, Griffith answered that he would be happy to have another of his etchings on display in her “lovely home”.
February 9, 1952, Mrs. Jones received a second letter in which Griffith said he had an etching titled “The Patrician” which would go nicely with the etching she owned. And, indeed, the second Griffith etching was added to her collection.
The Joneses have made gifts to the Putnam County Museum of both etchings—in their original frames—and the letters. Included are the two envelopes in which the letters were sent. Evidence of days gone by: the envelopes are both addressed to Mrs. Clara Jones, Greencastle, Indiana (with R.R. 2 noted on the bottom) and on each a three cent stamp!
But Clara Jones was a remarkable woman in her own right: in the 1930’s she was appointed by the Republican Governor to run the Putnam County license branch; when she won the race for Putnam County Auditor in 1944, she was the first woman elected to a county-wide office in Putnam County; from 1955-1959 she was employed at DePauw University as invoice clerk in the Office of Comptroller. (Steve says she had a reputation for having “a head for numbers”; can’t be any dispute about that.)
Clara Sharp married Thad Jones in 1918 when he was home on leave from the service during WWI and Clara still had a year at DePauw University before her graduation in 1919. The Jones family were prosperous farmers in Putnam County and Thad continued in the family business when the war was over. Clara and Thad had one son, Charles, Steve’s father.
Clara was a woman determined to make her own mark in her community and was employed outside the home long before it was common for woman of means to do so.
Because of the generosity of the Jones family the story of the Jones-Griffith connection, these two etchings by O. L. Griffith, and the provenance that has accompanied them are on display at the Putnam County Museum. Don’t miss it.
03/25/2010
Free Civil War Learning Series for Children
The Putnam County Museum is conducting two programs related to its “Putnam County and the Civil War” exhibit designed specifically for children.
The first is set for Saturday, April 3 from 11-noon. “Leading the Soldiers” will be devoted to the front of the line and what importance both flags and drums played in the lives of the soldiers. After a brief introduction on regiment flags and drummers, children will get an opportunity to design their own flags and make their own drum. Attendance is limited, so reservations are necessary. There is no charge for this program. Please call 765-653-8419 to make a reservation by Thursday, April 1st.
On Saturday, April 10, the second session will be conducted, again from 11-noon. “A Day During the Civil War” will reveal something about what life during the Civil War might have been like. The children will have an opportunity to make (and eat) hardtack, a food which soldiers at the front depended upon. There will also be an opportunity to play games popular at the time, and Wii and X-Box don’t qualify! Attendance is again limited, so please call to reserve a spot by Thursday the 8th.
Museum to Hold Program on Civil War Farriers
“My Kingdom for a Horse”! The Civil War was the last major war fought by the United States in which the horse played a vital role. By WWI, mechanized vehicles did the work that our equine friends previously carried out--the important task of transporting men, equipment, food and other supplies to effectively engage in battle.
On April 1 at 7:00 P.M., Clyde Stringer will present a program at the Putnam County Museum about the role of horses and cavalry in the Civil War as well as the work of farriers in keeping horses fit for travel. Clyde Stringer was a local farrier for 45 years and learned his craft first by apprenticing and then by attending farrier schools in Wisconsin and Missouri. Clyde was trained to deal with horses with special problems and which needed to be fit with special shoes.
Clyde is a charter member of the West Central Indiana Civil War Roundtable, an organization founded 25 years ago. He was born and raised in Putnam County and the family homestead farm, where he lives, will receive a Hoosier Homestead certificate and plaque this year designating it as a farm held by his family for 100 years.
At the April 1st program you will be treated to a discussion of an aspect of early warfare you’ve probably never thought about. Join us! And here is a puzzler for you: in his research, Clyde found a Putnam County Home Guard Unit called the “Jefferson Cavalry” (Jefferson Township, presumably) but never any mention that there was a cavalry unit in Putnam County! Bring the answer to this puzzle to the Museum on April 1 (no April Fool’s jokes, please!)