Originally published in the Cecil Whig
For decades the Historical Society of Cecil County has boasted a museum collection of objects and artifacts original and unique to Cecil County. From time to time, some of these objects have been displayed for public scrutiny. They range from Henry Hollingsworth’s desk and one of his Quartermaster ledgers from the Revolutionary War, to the base of one of the Mason Dixon line stone markers; from Civil War diaries and letters to 19th century doll houses and wagons. And yes, the doll houses are furnished! Now, that museum is receiving a face lift, thanks to two society volunteers: Lisa Dolar and Brian McCandless. Together Lisa and Brian went through the hundreds, if not thousands of artifacts in the Society collection, dusted some of them off, repositioned others, inventoried, and organized them into what they hope will be a new approach for artifact display for the Society, and anyone who wants to see the collection.
Brian says the goal is to “try and exhibit small vignettes around persons from Cecil County who contributed to the development of the county.” “We also want to give visitors a connection to Cecil County,” Lisa added. “We gathered these items and we want folks to understand Cecil County’s role in history going back to colonial times and in some cases, beyond.”
According to Brian, those pre-colonial items, scattered in front of the society building, date back not hundreds, but thousands of years. “A lot of people probably think they’re just rocks, but they’re not. Some of those artifacts go back to pre-Colombian times. Everything from the petroglyphs, which we are going to conserve: remove them out of the elements, to the back of the society, under a lean-to, with appropriate signage, along with some Mason Dixon stones. We are going to do a good job with them, but that’s further down the line, not right away. One of them that I remember from when I was a kid has a turtle. The local Lenni Indians thought the turtle was the earth. We have some part of that continuum here that was taken from the Susquehanna River banks.”
With so many artifacts, how does one decide what to display and what to hold back? Brian says it was a lot of work!
“One room upstairs was full to the gills with stuff. We pulled each piece out and looked it up. We will put most of them in a specific location upstairs and continue with our rotating exhibit area in the Society’s front room. Once the time for the exhibit passes, we’ll move the material back upstairs.”
Last summer the Historical Society featured an exhibit on the Civil War titled “Choose Ye This Day.” That exhibit was dismantled and moved to the museum where it was rearranged, some items added, some removed, and will be resigned. Lisa, who composed the original exhibit, says the more artifacts on display, the better. “We want as much as possible out on display for people to see. We’re trying not to have so much back on the shelves. It’s a perfect example of one of our vignettes. You can make a connection to one or more of these pieces. This is Cecil County here. This isn’t just a random desk. It’s history related to this county.”
Lisa says everything in the museum will, eventually, be documented. “The goal is to work with the Past Perfect (computer) program which has or will have a photograph and a really good description of what the piece looks like so that any time you go into Past Perfect you can look up an item and learn something about it. Past Perfect is searchable on line, so that is a goal of ours too. We want as much of our material available to the public as possible. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
Brian and Lisa suspect it will take the rest of the summer and into the fall to fully organize everything in the museum. Then it will be time to tear down and replace the rotating exhibit downstairs. More on that in a few months. Check out the exhibits at the Historical Society of Cecil County, located at 135 East Main Street in Elkton, or see us on the web at www.cecilhistory.org