historyneh22

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February 1 2024

We’re Certified

Summer is always a busy time at the Thomasville History Center, but that doesn’t mean education can take a break! In August, staff from the Thomasville History Center, alongside friends from Pebble Hill Plantation, Jack Hadley Black History Museum, and the Center for the Arts participated in the National Association of Interpreters’ training program for Certified Interpretive Guides. An internationally recognized program, the N.A.I. is a “professional organization dedicated to advancing the profession of heritage interpretation” with a decades-long reputation for leading the field of interpretation. Under the instruction of the amazing Abby Gwinn, Director of Community Engagement with the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, and an N.A.I. Certified Instructor, we learned the ins and outs of interpretation in the museum field over four days.

Defined as “a purposeful approach to communication that facilitates meaningful, relevant, and inclusive experiences that deepen understanding, broaden perspectives, and inspire engagement with the world around us,” the concept of interpretation seemed daunting at first. But with Abby’s gentle guidance, we soon saw how intuitive much of interpretation can be.

Day one of our program began with going back to basics: what is interpretation? And how did it become a thing? We learned about meeting the needs of our audience whether that means providing snacks on excursions or having enough seating in our galleries. By ensuring visitors are comfortable and pleased, we can remove obstacles to engagement and learning during programs. Simple enough, right?

By day two we put our new skills to the test. Abby’s challenge to us: create a ten-minute program on a subject of our choosing to present to the class. After fighting off nightmare-inducing flashbacks to high school projects gone by, we got to work. By day three we were racing to the finish line. Presentations took place on day four. Time was put into perspective as the once agonizingly long ten minutes we needed to fill suddenly whizzed by in a flash as each participant got up to speak. Luckily, we were in a room of friends, all wanting to support one another by asking relevant questions, participating in tasks and quizzes, and not taking the role of over-inquisitive tourist too seriously. By the end of the day, we’d all learned something new: from alternative histories of Thomas County, to a deep dive into Pebble Hill’s occupants, to lessons in art, and a trip through the life and times of The Grateful Dead. And we’re proud to say that every participant passed their test to become Certified Interpretive Guides (complete with the coveted, shiny C.I.G. Badge!) With a new lease on programming, we sent Abby home just in time to avoid the storms of Idalia.

So what did we learn from this course? We learned how to better serve our visitors – you in fact – whether its by molding our programming to better accommodate all visitors or even tiny tweaks to our visitor experience that make the museum a more comfortable place to be and explore. But what we really found out is that each one of us is a guide, a creative thinker, a problem solver, and an interpreter. Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours,
The C.I.G. Club

Published in The Hourglass, Fall 2023

February 1 2024

Re-Imagining Summer

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About two years ago, Meme and Amelia had the realization that they wanted to shake up summer camp. Yes, we know. It’s shocking, scandalous even. How could we redesign a 25 plus year tradition at the History Center? The routine of same but different and the frankly overwhelming nature of filling 7 hours a day for 5 days made us realize we were ready for a change, and if we were ready, the campers had to be too, right?

Remembering the fun of a 2021 Fall Break camp where we threw out the schedule and followed our imaginations inspired us to shift our way of thinking. We came up with a few basic principles that guide our planning: “Do” more than listen; Schedule the unscheduled; Busy does not prevent boredom; and sometimes, outside voices belong inside too. Above all, we began to prioritize experiences and activities that only the History Center could provide versus replicating school activities or filling the schedule with crafts and activities that may or may not meet the camper’s needs or interests.

From there, we restructured our camp day. Looking at this year’s Camp Dawson schedule, you’d see time designated for handling and investigating Indigenous artifacts alongside free play in the backyard; shelling peas on the porch of the Smith Homestead paired with a visit from Fun Sized Farms, a new petting zoo farm in Boston; construction of wooden toolboxes and flower arranging with Mrs. Leiann; a day-long visit to Gentian Creek Preserve with time allocated for watching birds through the big window of the observation room, and much, much more. We spent less on “stuff” and more on skills, experiences, and memory making.

In the unscheduled, we’ve found time to embrace some small joys and big learning opportunities for the campers and for us. From daily tracking of tadpole growth in the Ethel Flowers Neel fountain on the History Center’s grounds, to a daily property walk to see what’s blooming and learning more about pollinators, the campers are more engaged with our property. When they return on field trips with school through the year, they’re excited to share their knowledge with their teachers and classmates and become mini-ambassadors to the History Center for their families.

This year, we had 26 campers, an increase of 73% over last year. This growth tested our new model in terms of balancing the needs of more campers, but with the help of our amazing teen volunteers and adult volunteers, we pulled it off! So, if you visited the History Center in the first week of June and heard the cacophony of 26 young voices playing and laughing in the backyard, we hope you’ll excuse us: fun, and memories were in progress.

Published in The Hourglass, Summer 2023

February 1 2024

Restoring A.T. MacIntyre’s Portrait

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Last year, the History Center applied for the Americana Corner Grant, a grant which provides funds to museums of all sizes to preserve the history of our country, particularly the unique story of its founding extending from the early 1700s to 1865. We are proud to have received funding to aid our restoration of a portrait of Archibald Thompson MacIntyre, an early American settler and frequent legislator from Thomas County.

If you’ve been by the museum in the past two years, you may have seen this portrait hanging in our MacIntyre Gallery. You may also have noticed he’s been looking a little rough, to put it nicely. Then again, we all might look a bit haggard after 150 years.

Long before many of us were born, he proudly hung on a wall in MacIntyre Park school, receiving all the abuse you might expect anyone to receive in a place of education. In the 1960s he was restored by a local member of the public, but years of fluctuating humidity and temperature levels have left their mark on the painting. The exceedingly thin canvas has pulled away from its lining leading to tears and bubbles that are less than attractive or safe for A.T.’s future.

The portrait is currently in the hands of The Conservation Labs, a team of conservation experts located in South Carolina. After initial investigations, they determined a program of conservation that will take part in three stages: removing the ugly, stabilizing the bad, and restoring the good. We recently received an update from Jennifer Bullock, the conservator in charge of our project:

“When we got Mr. MacIntyre to the studio I wanted to give him time to adjust to the environment of the labs, which is quite a bit different to the environment he has been in for many years now. I then took several images in normal light, raking light, and transmitted light, which tells me different things about the painting and its condition. I removed the painting from its gold frame and took some additional photographs of the tacking margins and edges that were covered by the frame.
I have done some preliminary cleaning (removal of lots of spider webs and dust). And I have begun to stabilize the tears and holes in the canvas so that I can begin addressing the removal of the clear sheeting on the reverse.
I created bridges with Japanese tissue that branch over from one side of the tear to the other. Doing this makes it possible for me to move the painting and work on removing the plastic without risking making the tears worse. There will be an overall “facing” applied to the painting later but I have to work very carefully at this stage because I need to be able to remove the plastic sheeting (without causing any further damage or loss). The plastic sheeting must come off so that I can manipulate the canvas more easily and start to see how to address the severe buckling and distortions. I am in a tricky phase.
One thing I have discovered is that some of the tacking margins (the edges that go around the stretcher and hold the painting in place) are either gone or torn. Also we will have to replace the stretcher with a new one. The current stretcher is more like a strainer and cannot be keyed out which is important for the painting now and in the future.“

With special thanks to Jennifer and Mossimo at The Conservation Labs and the kind donation of Tom Hand at Americana Corner, we know that A.T. will return to us in much better shape than when he left.

Published in The Hourglass, Summer 2023

Remington Avenue - 437 - Burbank Cottage - 1906 - Hansell Watt Album - 1972.012.05 - Colorized

February 1 2024

House (History) Hunting

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When I (Meme) was in graduate school, one of the books in our required reading was THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY by David Lowenthal (which is not exactly a page turner even for the most passionate historians). He described our ways of thinking of the past as creating a place that was removed from our own experience of life. How many times do we compare the past to now and try to distance ourselves in some way? “Can you believe they dressed like that? What were they thinking? And look at what they did! I would never do that if I lived back then!” But what about the history of Thomasville and Thomas County? We live here, so surely our past can’t be that foreign? Or can it?

Back in 2009, the History Center received its first request for what we now call “House Histories.” Since then, we’ve completed 47 and counting. This year is looking to be our busiest house hunting season yet with ten requests so far. It seems everyone wants to know a little more about the places they live and work in. There’s been a lot to uncover, and I don’t just mean what’s under the vinyl siding. New research has led us to completely rewrite the stories of well-known structures in this community, dispelling or proving urban legends along the way. For those who are interested, here’s a look at how we do that.

The first step is a visit to the Thomas County Probate Court where property deeds go back to the early 1820s before we were even called Thomas County. So begins an exercise routine: pick the heaviest and largest book from the very top shelf above your head and bring it down to the table. Find that your next record is in the smaller but still heavy book across the room and crowd up your table with it. Locate your next record in the big heavy books in the next room on the bottom shelf and lift those up to the counter top – don’t hit your head on the edge of the table. Run back to the other room and balance precariously on your toes as you put the other book back on the top shelf in the other room. Repeat.

If you’re lucky, you’ll find the chain of title. If not, someone will have died without a will and another owner will change their name, or your record is contained in a lost book (the dreaded Book N that was destroyed in the late 19th century under mysterious circumstances). Once we have as complete a picture as possible of the deed records, its time to head back to the History Center. In the comfort of our own files we start to flesh out the story. We look for familiar names to see if we have any records of our own. We also head down the rabbit hole of ancestry websites and online newspaper archives to find as many delicious morsels about the home. The end product is a report, some longer than others, of every map, photo, story, and document pertaining to the property and the people who inhabited it. So are these house histories portraits of a “foreign country” like Lowenthal stated? Yes and no. We know these buildings: they’re our homes, our work spaces, our environment. But they’ve changed over the years, some more than others, in their appearance, use, and level of upkeep. As much as the stories of these past inhabitants are unfamiliar to us, the themes of their lives (birth, death, and all the in between) are familiar, just like the houses we share with those people from so long ago.

MAUDE_ANDREWS_OHL._A_woman_of_the_century_(page_555_crop)

February 1 2024

Mapping Visitors

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You may remember hearing about our ongoing project to map the hometowns of Thomasville’s winter resort vacationers. A volunteer has recently finished transcribing a hotel ledger from The Willows, a boarding house and banquet hall, which includes guest and visitor names, cities and states of origin, and the location they were staying in town.

Some entries were clear and easy to read, and others’ penmanship left much to be desired. All of the information has been compiled on a spreadsheet that Dhruket Patel is working to add to a Google Earth project.

This visual map will help us to note the patterns of visitation amongst a sample of Resort Era visitors. Additional visitors can be included in the spreadsheet in the future as we continue to add visitor information from local newspapers.

Eventually, it is our hope to conduct additional research on these visitors to learn more about their lives and what may have brought them to Thomasville just as we did with the mystery visitors profiled on the next page.

Recently, the volunteer transcribing the ledger encountered a couple of entries that were very difficult to decipher. We called in reinforcements in the form of our social media followers. We posted the tricky names to our Instagram page and within a day or so, had correct identifications for both names. They were H. H. Kohlsaat and M. Ohl. Here’s a little of what we’ve been able to learn about them:

Herman Henry Kohlsaat (1853-1924) was an Illinois business man and newspaper publisher from Chicago, Illinois. He became involved in the newspaper business in the mid-1890s and at the time of his visit to Thomasville, was the editor and publisher of the CHICAGO EVENING POST and TIMES HERALD.

He visited Thomasville in March 1895 and listed himself in the guest register of The Willows Boarding House & Banquet Hall as staying at the Hanna House, likely referring to the home on Dawson Street. He was in town as a part of future president McKinley’s campaign strategy session.

Kohlsaat was a friend and confidant of 5 sitting US Presidents including McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, and Harding. He helped draft the gold standard policy of the Republican Party’s 1896 national convention.

Maude Annulet Andrews Ohl (1862-1943) was a Georgia writer, journalist, and world traveler. Maude was the first female reporter for the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. She was born in Taliaferro County, GA and raised in Washington, GA.

She published poetry as a child and entered the larger field in 1889 when letters she sent from New York City to the Constitution were published. She married Josiah Kingsley Ohl, whom she met at the CONSTITUTION, in 1889. She was the society editor, and he was the city editor. She visited Thomasville in March 1895 with her husband who signed the register separately.

She served as a “lady manager” of the Cotton States & International Exposition in 1896 and president of the press committee. She contributed to periodicals in London and Paris and co-founded the Georgia Women’s Press Club in 1891.

Published in The Hourglass, Summer 2023

February 1 2024

It’s Not Historic…Yet

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The Thomasville History Center received its first official donation in 1955: a booklet with a transcription of the 1850 census for Thomas County from Folks Huxford, the Homerville-based preeminent historian of Southwest Georgia history during the mid-twentieth century. At the close of 2022, the History Center has received a total of 2,008 donations since 1955, which averages to be 30 donations a year. By this metric, 2022 was a well-above average year for our collections, adding 39 new donations, each contributing to the preservation of Thomasville and Thomas County in its own unique way.

Some of the donations relate directly to the county and county towns: Anita Cooper Meisen’s donation of furniture, clothing, photographs, and documents related to the White and Cooper families of Meigs and Ochlocknee significantly increases the History Center’s collection about these important county towns, as does Doris and Grady Davies’ donations of photographs from the Davies family of Boston. Bill Edwards’ donations of items from the MacIntyre and Hjort families contribute to our understanding of early county history, and those from the Edwards family enhance our original decorations of the Lapham-Patterson House. New photograph collections from Boxhall Plantation, the Steyerman family, and Neel family further advance our visual holdings.

Not all donations are considered historic, yet. But they will be, which is why we add them to the collection: “new” item donations include the Thomasville Center for the Arts’ “Thomopoly” board game and DVDs of the 2018 and 2019 Rose Queen Pageant from the Junior Service League. Sharing and preserving the history of a place requires an impossibly broad spectrum of material, visual, and written evidence, and we strive to collect things that tell all parts of the story, from families who can trace their presence here back to the founding of the county in 1825 through people who only may have been here for a short while but left an impact on this place, which in turn left an impact on them.

Do you have something relevant to the history of Thomasville and Thomas County you would like to donate, or maybe have something but you’re not sure? Please, do not hesitate to call me at the History Center at 229-226-7664 ext. 103 or email me at ephraim@thomascountyhistory.org.

And as always, thank you for your continued support of Thomasville and Thomas County history!

Published in The Hourglass, Winter 2023

The 1850 United States Census of Thomas County, Georgia Demographics Collection, donated by Folks Huxford 1955.01.01

Jinright Scrapbook Quilt, c. 1940 Jinright Collection, donated by Leiann Orr 2022.031.0001