In the Home of Sliced Bread, Chillicothe, Missouri, the Grand River Historical Society & Museum received a generous grant from Missouri Humanities entitled, “Our History: Exhibits From the Archives.” This has allowed our small town museum a multitude of avenues with The Story of Us including: six exhibits featuring decade-archived artifacts including advertising tchotchkes from now-defunct businesses. Additionally, we’ve interviewed one dozen residents through our oral history series, “Chillicothe Chats,” and we are hosting an informational dinner program dedicated to 1976, America’s Bicentennial, and local politician Jerry Litton whose life was cut short that same year.
Most notably this grant allowed us the opportunity to focus on the less flashy, behind-the-scenes style project of digitally archiving our town’s history. Our campus features more than 100,000 photos and pieces of paper ephemera. We act as host of archives from our local newspaper, town photographers, a former business college, and family genealogies. Many treasures have sat in the silence of seldom-opened filing cabinets, or at the backs of shelves, waiting their time to shine again. In this digital world, we receive regular requests for details from those searching from afar about family dwellings, photos, or directory listings relating to their research.
We love this part of our work, but it is daunting. With this grant funding, we’ve been able to purchase a general purpose scanner and a high resolution scanner, and have been able to update our website to include a searchable database of our scans. Additionally, all items are being archived in acid-free sleeves. Want a photo of “horse drawn carriages” driving down “Main Street”? You can find a handful with the click of a button. This archiving may take the better part of the next decade to “finish” what we have so far, but through youthful interns and museum docents, we’ve already scanned more than 20,000 photos. We hope to even be able to scan more ephemera, and return the originals back to the families so they can still enjoy them. This is how we’ve been able to contribute to The Story of US in a very meaningful way.
The information above was provided courtesy of Dustin Todd Rennells, Curator, Grand River Historical Society & Museum
The Story of Us is a part of By the People: Conversations Beyond 250, a series of community-driven programs created by humanities councils in collaboration with local partners. The initiative was developed by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
To learn more of what we’re doing with The Story of US, visit mohumanities.org/signature-series
