Sunday, February 27, 2000
Museum Center exhibits prizes
'Prized Possessions' combines scientific, historic and bizarre artifacts that help tell Cincinnati's story
BY OWEN FINDSEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A tuft of hair, some fish bones, an old radio. These are things some people collect.
This hair is from a wooly mammoth. The bones are fossils of a 12-foot-long Xiphactinus Audax, the fish that ruled the waters 80 million years ago. The radio is a Queen City-made 1940 Crosley “American Overseas” model.
“It's important research material, but it's also really cool stuff that fascinates people who are not scientists,” says Scott Gampfer, director of History Collections for Cincinnati Museum Center.
These are Prized Possessions, some 700 objects that go on view at the Museum Center on Saturday. Things historic, things scientific, things significant, odd or fascinating for all sorts of reasons, were selected from the 2.5 million objects, documents, specimens and artifacts owned by the Museum Center.
Prized Possessions is Museum Center's way of putting Cincinnati in touch with the city's historic heritage and scientific significance.
“In fact, there are few museums in the United States that could show such a broad variety of objects spanning such a broad range of study,” says staff archaeologist Paula Work. “Only the Smithsonian has such a broad collection, and it's spread out to so many different buildings and departments that it would be very hard for them to put together an exhibition like this.”
In a way it's a step back to the past, when early American museums, including the Western Museum, were odd amalgams of serious science and bizarre novelty. The Western Museum, founded in 1818, was the forerunner of Cincinnati Museum Center.
“They used to show anything that would attract the public, whether it had any real scientific value or not,” Mr. Gampfer says.
See the black executioner's hood worn by one of the killers in the famed Pearl Bryan case. Her headless body was found on a Fort Thomas farm in 1896; the convicted killer was hanged in 1880.
See a wooden “Lunatic's Cage” where patients spent nights at Cincinnati's Longview Insane Asylum. See a mortician's makeup kit from the 1930s and a Tibetan trumpet made from a human femur.
“We even included an area of phony science, such as Symmes Theory that the earth was hollow,” Mr. Gampfer says, “to illustrate the changing concepts of science.”
Serious science can be just as fascinating.
“This is a perfectly preserved beetle, and it's 20,000 years old,” says Colin Sumrall, assistant curator of Invertebrate Paleontology. “It's a significant scientific object, but it's also just beautiful to look at.”
Fossilized footprints of a salamander-like amphibian, the size of a bear, were caught in mid-stride as it emerged from some ancient lake, 300 million years ago.
“You can learn a lot about an animal's paleobiology by figuring out its stride and gait and by the way the footprints are imprinted, you can actually tell it was a side-to side mover like our amphibians are today,” Ms. Work says.
Fascinating evidence
Scientific research requires evidence, and these objects are evidence, usually waiting in storage for the scientists and scholars who need to examine them. But they have a fascination that makes them worth sharing with the public.
“We've divided the exhibition into six areas, Curiosity, Sentimental, Entertainment, Historic, Scientific and Aesthetic,” Mr. Gampfer says.
“At the start of the exhibition, we have what we call the "wow' area, where we've put the most beautiful and dramatic objects.” That includes the 12-foot prehistoric fish which is, Mr. Sumrall admits, “a small example of the species.”
Visitors to the exhibition will see a section of seats from Crosley Field, for instance, displayed with the architects' drawings for the ball park in 1909 when it was called Redland Field. A film of the 1919 World Series, the scandalous series between the Reds and the White Sox, can be watched as well.
“We have a small theater area where we will be showing some old films, including the 1919 series, some silent film from the 1920s showing Coney Island, and some kinescope from the Ruth Lyons television show,” Mr. Gampfer says.
“We also have the plastic flower bouquet that Ms. Lyons had on her microphone.”
Things of beauty, too
There are beautiful things here, too: an 1850s leaded-glass window from an Avondale mansion; carved woodwork by Henry Fry for a similar estate; and a bridal gown, worn in 1895 by Olivia Proctor, daughter of the soap manufacturer.
There are letters written by celebrities, including Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, from the 600-piece collection of Cincinnati autograph collector Albert Welply. You can view the original bill of sale for Cincinnati itself, the Symmes Purchase document issued by Congress in 1788.
An early map shows property east of the Little Miami River, including lands owned by George Washington. And you can see the two rival plans submitted in 1802 for downtown Cincinnati. If Joel Williams' plan had been adopted, rather than Israel Ludlow's, Vine Street would be named Jefferson Street, Walnut would be Cider Street and Fourth Street would be High Street.
Civil War buffs will be fascinated by the uniform of Cincinnati Gen. William H. Lytle. “He was a very small man,” Mr. Gampfer says. There is a record book kept by Cincinnati Dr. Edward Rieves, an army surgeon who treated wounded Confederate soldiers at Bream's Mill (Pa.), a field hospital near Gettysburg. The soldiers were survivors of Pickett's Charge,” he says.
The drafting table used by architect Samuel Hannaford is here, along with his T-square and drawing instruments, his plan for Music Hall and his painting of his design for City Hall.
There is even a display case filled with things found in Cincinnati privies, from broken dishes to “botanical remains.”
“By studying the seed varieties you can get an idea of people's diet in the 19th century” Ms. Work says.
Unearthed objects
Scientifically and historically, there is much that makes Cincinnati special. The exhibition includes objects unearthed in the 1882 dig at Madisonville. “These are the original Hopewell and Fort Ancient sites,” Mr. Sumrall says. “This is where it began.”
“We are showing objects from Big Bone Lick, in Northern Kentucky, because it is one of our local treasures,” Ms. Work says. “American paleontology began at Big Bone.”
The fossils found in Cincinnati are so important that a period in geological history is named the Cincinnatian period, the only period named for a city.
“A lot of species have been named for Cincinnati,” Mr. Sumrall says, including the Cincinnati Warbler, a small song bird shown in a case with fossils of species named for the city, such as Acidapsis Cincinnatiensis and Cincinnaticrinus Pentagonus.
Mr. Sumrall points out a jar containing a salamander named the Weller Salamander. “It is named for Hamilton Worth Weller, the young man who found it while climbing on the cliffs in Cincinnati in 1931. Unfortunately he fell off the cliff and died, but he does have a species named for him.”
A section of the exhibition honors the great American artist and scientist, John James Audubon, who started his famed paintings of Birds of America when he was the first paid employee of Cincinnati's Western Museum.
Casual viewers will miss much by breezing through the exhibition. Many objects will look like little more than a bit of rock unless you take the time and ask the questions to understand what it is that makes each object significant.
“Actually our museum's most prized possessions are not just the objects but the people who study these objects, who work in the field and who publish the papers that spread the name of Cincinnati to scientific circles all over the world,” Ms. Work says.
Take advantage of on-site volunteers to tell the stories that bring the objects to life. At 2 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday from March 1 to May 21 a curator or other specialist will present a program on a specific aspect of the collection.
IF YOU GO
• What: Prized Possessions.
• When: Saturday through Sept. 4.
• Where: Cincinnati Museum Center, 1301 Western Ave., West End.
• Admission: $6.50, $5.50 seniors, $4.50 for children 3-12.
• Information: 287-7000. www.cincymuseum.org.
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