Happy 4th of July!

Just a quick reminder that the Museum will be closed on Saturday, July 4.

Just this morning I was reading about when the first July 4th was celebrated. From Live Science:

The following year [after independence was declared], no member of Congress thought about commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence until July 3 - one day too late. So the first organized elaborate celebration of independence occurred the following day: July 4, 1777, in Philadelphia.

Learning new things

We've been working on writing captions for the photographs for the pictorial county history book that's due next month. Doing a bit of research on agriculture, here are a few facts I discovered.

In 1920, there were only 225 tractors in the United States.

Rubber tires for tractors were introduced in 1932.

The John Deere company started out when Deere developed the steel walking plow. It wasn't until they bought a company called Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company in 1918 that they started producing tractors.

In 1930s and 1940s, Williamson County was one of the top three corn producing counties in Texas.

What we're doing

It seems like it should be quiet, and really it kind of is. School tours are over now that school's out. Pioneer Days are over. Summer is usually our planning time.

Here's a little of what's going on:

Mickie is starting to plan Up the Chisholm Trail and Archeology Day. She's marketing the Williamson County Courthouse for weddings and receptions. And, the really big thing, she's planning Summer History Explorers' Camp: two weeks of history and fun.

Celina's been working to get our Up the Chisholm Trail brochure printed and approved for distribution at Texas Travel Centers. She's dutifully keeping up with our Twitter and Facebook pages. Celina and Mickie continue to plan First Friday celebrations, getting food, drinks and special guests.

Chris and I are working on writing a pictorial history of Williamson County to be published by Arcadia Publishing. We're using images from our permanent collection, and doing all of the research and writing ourselves. No small task, lemme tell you.

Me? I'm working with the volunteers to keep up with cataloging artifacts. Planning for our quarterly acquisitions committee meeting. Meeting with potential artifact donors. I've taken down the map exhibit, and I'm trying to see if we can be an additional venue for an art show later this year.

I've been meeting with the chuckwagon committee since February, and I think that we're farther ahead of schedule than we were last year at this time. We even have 6 confirmed wagons! And Books for Texans book club and The Salon are trucking along with monthly meetings.

So, even though is *seems* like it's quiet around here. It's really not. We're working hard...very, very hard. We just make it look easy.

Don't forget-- Second Wednesday = The Salon

Gloves- a short history

Whenever you see a museum artifact handled by anyone, they're wearing white gloves. We've got about a hundred pairs of white cotton gloves all over the Museum. And, on occasion, we still use them. Especially with certain types of artifacts (like negatives).



Back in 1999 or 2000, I can't remember which, I attended a workshop that was about handling different types of artifacts. It was held at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin and put on by the Texas Association of Museums. So, these people knew what they were talking about. At that workshop, they weren't using the cotton gloves to handle the artifacts. NO. They were using nitrile gloves. They explained that sometimes the cotton of the white gloves could snag on loose elements of various artifacts. And, really, you lose a lot of feeling when you're wearing the white gloves...they can be pretty thick. I, of course, switched immediately to the blue nitrile gloves. I've been using them for years at various institutions.



Last year, I started to notice that when we were handling metal artifacts with the blue nitrile gloves, that the gloves would turn a reddish-rust color. Weird. At first, I thought it was rust from the metal transferring to the gloves. But, it happened a lot and worried me enough that I started using the white gloves again for handling metal. Then one day while reading an email thread from a listserve, I saw something that confirmed what I had noticed. There WAS a reaction between the blue nitrile gloves and the metal. Conservators had done some testing, and they found that using the accelorater-free GREEN nitrile gloves was better. Not the same reaction.



So a few months ago following this advice, we switched to the green nitrile gloves. Very green, and fun, which never hurts. And, they're working wonderfully!

New books selected for book club readings

We've picked our reading selections for the next two Books for Texans Book Club meetings.

For June, we've chosen: Harder than Hardscrabble: Oral Recollections of the Farming Life from the Edge of the Texas Hill Country by Thad Sitton. June's meeting is on the 16th.

For July, we chose: The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier by Scott Zesch. We'll meet on July 21 to discuss this book.

We hope to see you at our next meeting!

Books for Texans Meeting- Tuesday, May 19

Join us as we discuss Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town by Nate Blakeslee.

We'll meet at 7:00 pm in the Hewlett Room on the second floor of the Georgetown Public Library.

See you there!