Most know that George Rogers Clark National Historical Park is made up of a memorial and a visitor's center, but they might be surprised to learn that the park also has an extensive collection of historic treasures in its archives, over 3,000 artifacts and countless documents.
Luckily, visitors will now have the chance to see some of those items with the addition of a new museum display case in the George Rogers Clark Visitors Center, 401 S. Second St.
“Most of this goes back to 1976 and [park superintendent Frank Doughman] really did a good job keeping this up,” said chief of interpretation Joe Herron. “But we want to go a step further.”
With the installation of the museum case, which will display exhibits on a rotating basis, staff at the park hope to encourage repeat visitors while simultaneously appealing to everyone's curiosity.
“For a lot of years, the display in here was static — i was mostly archaeological finds from the '70s,” said park ranger Jason Collins. “The goal with the new cabinet is to create interest in items that the park has and help visitors see parts of the collection that they've never seen before.”
Annually, in late July and early August, the park does an inventory of its collection to make sure everything is in order, which this year prompted staff to take note of the cool stuff in the archives that people don't get to see, Collins said.
What's currently on display in the case is the brainchild of that realization: a variety of random items appropriately titled, “Curiosities from the Collection.” It includes a 13-star Revolutionary War flag, a bicentennial RC Cola bottle, shot pouches, a compass, and brushes and palettes used by artist Ezra White to paint the enormous murals in the George Rogers Clark Memorial in the 1930s. They are still splattered with paint.
“It makes you wonder which mural he was painting when he was using that brush,” Collins said. “There are things in here now that span the ages and create connections. Even with just a static object, it does wonders. It's amazing what people can connect with.”
The new exhibit also hints at a behind-the-scenes mission the park has been pursuing in order to take its designation as a historic resource to the next level and transform it into a research facility where people can turn to for enrichment and help with their own scholarly projects.
ORGANIZATING THE COLLECTION
For many years, the park's vast assortment of artifacts and documents was haphazardly and improperly stored, simply because no one really understand how to manage a historical collection. Items were stuffed into boxes and there wasn't much rhyme or reason to the system.
And then Patricia Owens came along. Through her volunteer efforts over the past couple years, the park's collection has been painstakingly numbered and organized to form a cohesive archive. It's stored in the visitor center basement in a small closet of sorts comprising neatly labeled boxes and file cabinets.
“Through her efforts, we've been able to do a lot of work down here,” Collins said. “She's been an absolute asset to us. It's hard to find people with a passion for curatorial and archival work but arguably it's one of the more important things we do.”
Items in the park's collection are diverse. There are archeological finds like a clay pipe,, a piece of a jaw harp (an instrument from the 1770s), bricks and other items from old businesses that were in the vicinity prior to the monument's construction, and various fragments of pottery.
And the most notable document in the archives, one that's expected to go on display in the case upstairs, is a document written and signed by George Rogers Clark himself. It details a land survey he conducted — he worked as a land surveyor before he got involved with the military — and is dated 1788.
“Due to the lack of display space upstairs, we haven't been able to put it out yet,” Collins said. “But it's something that was donated with the hope that we were going to display it at some point.”
There are also hordes of park records, such as minutes from the George Rogers Clark Sesquicentennial Commission meetings, papers detailing maintenance and repairs made to the monument, and blueprints and maps going back to the construction of that monument.
The massive array of documents form the foundation of the park's effort to become a valued research resource.
“We want to create finding aids and make it as easy as possible for researchers to come and look through what we have,” Collins said. “We want to encourage people to see this as not only a national park, but a research opportunity.”
But the addition of the rotating display case and the quest to organize the archives aren't the only endeavors the park is pursuing to reinvigorate the park. Herron said staff are discussing the addition of more “wayside” exhibits — interpretive, informational plaques placed throughout the park.
“We're requesting additional funding and when our new fiscal year begins in October, we plan to start at least two of those. Right now we're just in the planning phase, but we know what we want,” Herron said. “[Later] we'll decide on which exhibits to install and where, we'll look at the way the public moves through the park and find spaces where [the plaques] don't take too much away from the views.”
If the park can get extra funding, Herron also plans to update the interior wall to the right of the entrance, where informational material is located now, to get visitors more involved in the learning and discovery process.
“We want to make this wall more tactile and interactive. It's kind of static now,” Herron said.
And all the steps park staff has taken recently can be traced back to the same goal.
“Our big push has been bringing everything up to standards, create a park museum worthy of being in the national park system and create a place where people can come and do research,” Collins said.