Back to the Future...

Claude was asked to serve on the Scott County/Georgetown Museum Board by Sue Toncray. He accepted and has attended a couple of meetings. One of the things the board members are doing is visiting other museums in the area to see what they have done, are doing, etc. This week they visited the museum in Maysville, Kentucky and I was invited to tag along.

What a beautiful drive you always have no matter where in Kentucky you may roam. You just about have to go some back roads to get to Maysville from Georgetown. It was just a beautiful day for a beautiful drive. Even if we did nothing else, that drive was worth the day.

We met another member of the board in Maysville at a restaurant named Caproni's. It is right on the Ohio River. It is actually built on the river side of the flood wall for Maysville. The railroad tracks are the only thing that separate you from the Ohio River. The river was flowing fast with NO traffic. Only when we got ready to leave was there one lone boat trying its best to go against the current and up the river.

This was a delightful restaurant and I would go back in a heartbeat. I'm not sure what it is about eating in a restaurant along the river when you can look out big windows watching that river while you dine. It just is very relaxing and that food always seems to taste a mite better.

After lunch we headed to the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center.

This was a fun museum to browse through.  There is a $10 fee to tour the museum. Claude and the other three guys headed to the history section. I turned my attention to the art section.

Along the wall going to the art display room, there is a large glass cabinet with a display of pencil carvings. This artist has actually taken the lead of pencils and carved it into miniature things. I looked for a post card of some of these and didn't find one. There was a hammer, a giraffe, a cemetary, a chain, and the list goes on. No picture taking was allowed so I just have to keep my mental pictures.

The art display has paintings, mosaics and some wood work. I enjoyed this room all to myself.

Then I headed for the miniature room. Oh My!! What a treat.

The lady at the desk explained to me this is the 3rd best collection of miniature in the country. The Browning family (a family with a manufacturing background and not the guns) is the big supporter and benefactor for Maysville's museum. Kathleen "Kaye" Browning is the collector of these rooms of miniature homes, buildings, rooms, clothing, etc.

The crown jewel of her collection, literally, is a 1/12 scale model of Spencer House which is Princess Diana's ancestral home. Kaye Browning commissioned miniature artists in 2001 to create this amazing miniature reproduction. The rugs are handmade. The silver is real silver crafted in detail as it would be in the real Spencer home. There was even a room complete with family portraits hanging on the walls. Diana was one of the portraits. The two photos above I scanned and saved from the brochures of the museum. The first one is of Kaye Browning beside the exterior view of the center of Spencer House. The second picture is one of the rooms inside the house. Note those chandeliers with individual crystals. The columns and moldings are perfect.

Another of the miniatures that caught my eye was of a hobbit home. I love the Lord of the Rings books and movies.

I made my way over to the history of the county and state portion of the museum. By this time the boys were visiting with Dawn Browning the director of the museum today. She obviously loves her work. Andrew was with us. He is the full-time employee of our museum. She offered to give him the 'behind the scenes' tour and invited all of us to join them.

We went to the basement and toured the room where they store their inventory. This is all very new and they have worked hard to use their money very effectively and efficiently to preserve the pieces they have for the museum. I particularly loved the sliding wall storage. On some of these walls were bars to hold flags that are carefully rolled around the bar and covered with special linen looking fabric. Then there were walls that had mesh stretched across them. On these were hung extra pictures in their frames.

In the basement were also the security computer room, a lab area with tables and a kitchen to hold classes with kids, the offices of the director and others, a holding room for new items collected. These have to be labeled and cataloged before they can be displayed or saved in the storage room we viewed first.

We took the elevator up to the 2nd floor. The geneology library is located here with shelves of books and readers, etc. Behind these was a room where volunteers were scanning and saving digitally all the paper files that were saved in file cabinets. In the back of this room were storage shelves that you could turn, with great ease, a handle on the end of the cabinet and it would move it forward or backward. Beyond this was a room with the file cabinet storage and some map storage cabinets.

Obviously, it takes a lot more to run a museum that just putting things out for display for the tourists. I marveled at the research they did to find the best way to store and to set up their museum 'behind the scenes' needs. It was amazing.

Then it was time to head back to Georgetown. Claude treated me to ice cream before we pointed the Jeep toward Sadieville.

I told Claude as we left in the morning to go to Georgetown for this little trip that the Museum Board was one of the things I have seen him express an interest in that I feel would be great fun to work with once he completes his time being the Mayor. I've very much enjoyed the dinners we have attended with the people that support our little museum. It just feels like it might be a fun place to contribute time and effort that is very worthwhile. Learning from our past, remembering all that was a part of that past, and appreciating the work it takes to build the future.