Celebrating February with Valentines and Lincoln Memorabilia

The Kibbe Museum is closed in February, but we’ve updated our public exhibit on the west side of the square with a selection of antique valentines and a small tribute to President Lincoln, including a torch that was carried at a campaign rally in LaHarpe.  Stop by and enjoy the sentiments!

Kibbe opens Madonna exhibit on the Carthage square

The Kibbe opened an exhibit of Madonna figurines from the the personal collection of Mrs. Elva Thompson Holbrook of Carthage, Illinois.  The exhibit is in a new display space on the west side of the square in the old Royalty’s Department Store window.  This exhibit marks the first time in over 20 years that the bulk of the collection has been publicly displayed.

Madonna from Ecuador

The Kibbe Museum is pleased to share this unusual collection through the generosity of Dennis and Ruth Royalty and the hard work of students from the Hancock County Academy who assisted with construction of the exhibit.

Veteran’s Day

Phillippines
9 April 1945

Mr. Dale Myers
Hamilton, Il

Dear Mr. Myers:

….In regard to the death of your brother Lawrence W. Myers, 36303536, S/Sgt. who died of gun shot wounds on 16th March: the men said of him “he always played the game” and was a good organizer to get teamwork in whatever he did. They think of him as “one who did more than his share” at all times. He is buried in USAF Cemetery Zamboanga, which is carefully tended by the Phillippinoes for the United States government…..

Very sincerely,
Vincent B. Appleton
Chaplain, AUS

If it’s October, it must be harvest season

Fortunately, the equipment has been updated.

Billing disputes are as old as mankind, and women have been trying to help out their menfolk for just as long.  The disputed amount, $8.50, is equivalent to about $111 in 2009 dollars.

Text:

Nauvoo, Illinois –  April 22, 1931

Dear Mr. Seigfried:-

  Leonard Pagers and you are having trouble over $8.50 which at first you claimed he still owed on the Ford Roadster.  Now it is on a garage bill or labor.  Leonard says he has paid it and you say not.  I don’t know any thing about it, but I try to be fair and I want to see that this bill is paid, so there will be no trouble at all.  I am Leonard Pager’s girl, so I am hoping this leaves me a good name.  It is not my place to pay this bill, but if Leonard really owes it or not I am paying his bill anyway.  Mr. Weeks was out to see Leonard Pagers the other day, he also gave him a slip of paper which told him to appear at Burnside the twenthy-fifth day of this month.  I hope this trouble will all be over with.  I am Tom Mapes’ daughter.  Please let me hear if you get the money.

Sincerely yours,

Rosalie Mapes

Nauvoo, IL

Current exhibits at the Kibbe — what’s new and updated.

Several entirely new exhibits were launched for 2009: barns, railroads, education, churches, the general store, and agriculture. 

The barn exhibit includes a set of delightful and informative photographs of barns located throughout Hancock County.  Form follows function and all barns are not the same.  The exhibit also includes recovered siding and timbers and barn yard artifacts.

 

 

 

 The railroad exhibit was made possible by the generosity of a private collector and was supplemented by photographs and emphemera from the Kibbe. 

Rail transportation was once extensive throughout the state and was relied upon both for transporting agricultural products and for regional commuting.

The exhibit includes maps, station photographs, timetables, and tools of the railroading trade.

 

 

The new education exhibit includes artifacts from county schoolrooms and includes evidence that children once indeed had to walk uphill to school both ways. 

 

 

 

 

  The church section includes photographs and artifacts from county churches, including history on several that have sinced closed or merged with other congregations.

 

 

 

 

 Mabel’s General Store includes a beautiful (and heavy!) cast iron stove for heating, signs, and a trip down memory lane of food, sundries, and cure-alls.

 

 

 

 

In addition to the new exhibits, several other areas have been re-designed to include new information and artifacts: 

 The textile collection was cleaned and re-hung.

 

 

 

 

 The medical exhibit contains both local history and documentation of the evolution of medicine. 

 

 

 

  

 
The geode collection was signifcantly expanded through the donation of a private estate.

 

 

 

 
The fashion history area was updated with an examination of the reformation movement in women’s clothing.

 

 

 

 

The Lincoln exhibit was exapded with artifcats relating to his visits to Hancock County.

 

 

 

 
The military section has also undergone significant updating and expansion.  Hancock County residents have served in conflicts dating back to the Spanish-American War and there is a surprising amount of military history connected to the area.  One of our most prized acquisitions this year is the working uniform of a Union officer who served from Tennessee through Sherman’s March to the Sea.

Some last minute hustle at the Kibbe

The pace picked up during the last week of February as we cleared the aisles for opening on March 1st.   Fortunately, we can always rely on some help from volunteers at the Hancock County Academy:

Despite our best efforts to contain the dust from construction, all of the exhibits required a thorough cleaning.

The new exhibits are well under way.  It’s one thing to have a vision — quite another to execute it.  We’re excited about the barn exhibit.  We’ve installed donated barn boards on the walls and have amassed a nice collection of barn photographs for display.  We’ll also be adding some interesting and unusual barnyard items from Hancock County.

   

Grand Opening is set for April 19th.  The race is on to get everything done in time!

Call for artifacts

With construction of the new wing completed, the Kibbe Museum is a hive of activity with new exhibits under development and older exhibits undergoing update and expansion. Plans include new sections on religious history, barns, agriculture, schools, and banking. The Lincoln, military, textile, and natural history sections are also growing, with new items (plus others long hidden in storage due to lack of space) making a debut.

You can help the museum by considering the gift of artifacts to help round out the exhibits. In particular, we are in search of:

· Church pew, stained glass window, and memorabilia (for example, photographs, programs, fans). Vestments and other religious clothing are also needed.

· LDS (Mormon)-related artifacts of all kinds.

· Barn siding (to side an exhibit wall)

· Schools (photographs, textbooks, classroom objects)

· Banking (photographs, ledgers, tools of the trade)

· Lincoln-related artifacts of all kinds.

The Kibbe Museum is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the history of Hancock County and its citizens. Donations to the museum are tax-deductible. To discuss making a donation, please call any of the following people: Howard Perry (357-2065), Dick Reed (357-3355), Jackie Adkins (357-2012) or send an email to Kim Nettles at knettles@frontiernet.net.

 

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Mystery Solved!

I always wondered how women sat down in their hoop skirts. And now we all know:

Women’s fashions often required supporting garments underneath in order to achieve the desired shape:

 

See what else we found as we dismantled the fashion exhibit at the Museum photo pool.

Technorati Tags: historical dress,fashion,kibbe

Moving into new digs

Construction of the new wing is complete and now the fun begins — many exhibits are being moved (and updated and expanded in the process) and several new exhibits are in varying stages of development.  We are excited to be pulling major portions of our collection out of storage.

Here are just a few photos of the work in progress to whet your appetite:

The post office exhibit is among those under expansion and updating; to the rear, the dollhouse collection has more space so that visitors can examine these small figures in greater detail.

The medical and dental section is also being expanded.  To the far wall, you can see that the quilts and weaving exhibit is also moving.

 

An important component of our expansion was the addition of a handicapped-accessible entrance to the newer parts of the building.

We have a tremendous amount of religious history in our collection, and now we have a dedicated space in which to display it.  This pulpit is from the Methodist church in Augusta, IL and was originally installed in the Pulaski Methodist Church.  The mount you see to the right of the pulpit was added to the base at some point in order to accommodate the increasing height of ministers over time.

The military section — already chock full of history dating back to the Civil War — is gaining a second section.  The shy gentleman in the red shirt is our military historian and a retired history professor.  He devotes many, many hours to the military collection.

The museum re-opens March 1st.  Be sure to come see what’s new!