This afternoon, Mom and I went to the Tioga County Historical Society Museum, just a few blocks away from her house. The current display was called "O, Tannenbaum", and featured scores of small Christmas trees and a couple of dozen wreaths, all decorated by local clubs and businesses. It was a museum fundraiser, as all the trees had bid sheets attached, with the high bidders receiving the trees on December. So some of them were decorated to be artsy and beautiful, and some were decorated by attaching gifts and gift cards and whatnot. I confess I was interested in the one from the local tool shop, but the bidding was already rather high on that one.

When we arrived, there was a violin recital going on, featuring players that looked to be from about nine to twelve. They were... enthusiastic. Not that I was a virtuoso either, and they did seem to be having fun.

The museum was not bad, with some interesting stuff. There was a nicely-preserved surrey from the city's old carriage and wagon works, which was founded in the mid-eighteenth century. The owners retired and sold the works to some new young investors in 1901. That wasn't exactly a good time to be investing in the carriage-manufacturing business, and they apparently went under not long after. Ah well.

There also were a fair number of old portraits from town residents. Interestingly, the best-executed paining they had was the portrait of a local farm-wife, painted by the farmer. It was a much better painting than those done of the local fat cats. But then, farmers had some free time in winter, and painting was a reasonable hobby. Plus he didn't have to finish quickly and take on a new commission to make money.

There also was some memorabilia of old fire halls in one room, including an elaborately carved and gilded chandelier from company number five, which no longer exists. (The town is still served by hose company #1 and ladder company #4). The chandelier couldn't have been cheap, and Mom wondered pointedly whether whoever was paying for the firemen's upkeep approved of such ostentation in the fire hall. Maybe it was a private gift from a grateful rich guy.

Sadly, I have no pictures of any of it, as I left my camera at home. Flash photography was forbidden, so I'd have also needed a tripod anyway. Or maybe a monopod, since some museums don't like people blocking traffic with tripods either.

Posted by: Boviate at 05:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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