Exhibit – Page 3 – Local History Collections

2012-05-04

New Exhibit: “Historical relics”

Beginning in 1912, the U.S. Treasury decided to get rid of all of the Confederate currency that had been hanging around for 50 years or so. They didn’t just shred it: they sent sample sets to libraries, museums and other collecting institutions.

As Franklin MacVeagh, Secretary of the Treasury (and creator of the buffalo nickel) wrote to “Librarian” at the Frederic C. Adams Public Library on February 8, 1913,

“As your Library will no doubt be interested in receiving specimens of notes issued by the Confederate States of America, for exhibition purposes, I take pleasure in sending you an assortment of the same.

“These notes came into the possession of the Union Army about the close of the Civil War, and were turned over by the War Department to the Treasury of the United States in the year 1867.

“The Treasury Department has no complete series of the notes, and in presenting such specimens as are now in its custody the Department feels assured that proper disposition will be made for their safe-keeping so as to render them of permanent value to your Library as historical relics.”

Added to the historical collection by Kingston’s first public librarian Jennie McLauthlen and kept safe by her successors in the Local History Room, they are now on exhibit as items of permanent value for your viewing pleasure.

2012-03-06

New Exhibit: “On my honor, I will try…”

Memorial Day exercises on the Training Green, circa 1943

March 12 marks the 100 year anniversary of the first meeting of the Girl Scouts and to help the local troops celebrate, the Local History Room’s monthly exhibit shows a number of 1940s and 1960s Girl Scout artifacts, including badge sashes, pen knives and a collapsible camping cup. Stop by and take a look.

2012-01-11

New exhibit: Hooked!

This month’s exhibit features a dozen or so hooks made by C. Drew and Company of Kingston. Stop by and take a look.

2011-12-06

New exhibit: Laddie, A Christmas Story

In 1928, the first and second graders in one of the Kingston schools wrote a short book about Laddie, the dog who saved Christmas. As Elspeth Hardy, their teacher and editor, wrote in the preface, “The children worked collectively; one child started with an opening sentence, the others took the thought and followed on until the tale was finished.” Illustrations by Kingstonian Marion Cobb Dries complete the work.

Stop by the Library and read this Kingston Christmas classic.

2011-11-09

New Exhibit: The Margaret Warnsman Collection

To mark the passing of Margaret Warnsman, a former Library Trustee and Local History Room donor, this month’s exhibit features a small selection from the papers, photographs and other materials Margaret collected and gave to the Town of Kingston, in care of the Library.

One of my favorite things is finding something completely unexpected, and Margaret’s collection did not disappoint. In browsing for items to display, I opened a folder titled “Scholarship donations, 1924” to find several pages of names and figures in pencil.

Pretty standard, until I turned the page.

2011-09-28

New Exhibit: The Elm Street Bridge

The Elm Street dam and bridge over the Jones River, before 1920

Sometime before 1920, Emily Drew photographed the wooden dam at Elm Street before it was replaced by a concrete structure. She also captured the old iron bridge constructed in 1889 to carry Elm Street over the Jones River. Stop by the library to learn more about the bridge.

2011-08-11

New Exhibit: Summertime

This month’s exhibit celebrates summer in Kingston with picnics and parades, fresh sweet corn from the farmer’s market, swimming, fishing, and just lounging on the grass eating ice cream.

Horse-drawn float in the 200th Anniversary Parade, 1926

Here’s the front of a float in Kingston’s 200th Anniversary Parade, which rolled on August 20, 1926. The four boys behind the float seem very interested in whatever’s going on behind that shack…

Bathing beauties on 200th Anniversary Parade float, 1926

Well, yeah, that’s why!

2011-07-02

New Exhibit: A Safe and Sane Fourth

Kingston’s first Fourth of July parade rolled in 1910. Stop by the Library to see photographs of the festivities, or check out this earlier post.

2011-04-01

New exhibit: Taxes

Tax bill for Judah Washburn's two-person, one-horse chaise with a top, 1799

New (and very timely) exhibit on taxes in the Library.

2011-01-21

New exhibit: Bills, Bills, Bills!

January is not only cold and snowy, but usually swamped with bills from the previous month’s holiday extravagances. For example, in December of 1893, the Town of Kingston spent $2.50 at John C. Dawe’s establishment. Eschewing groceries and grains, bypassing sails and spars, avoiding coffee and varnish, the Town settled on a single item: a new feather duster for the hearse house.

Stop by the Library to see a selection of Kingston bills in the exhibit case.