A Remarkable Week
I am so proud of the PCLHS museum staff. We have had an extraordinary week of preservation, visitation, and relationship building. Our digitization team (Ken, Gerard, Carolyn, Wilmar, Diane, etc. etc.) has managed to digitize the church books of Trinity (vol. I), Immanuel-Altenburg, Immanuel-New Wells, and Frohna. A special thanks to all of the listed congregations for loaning us the books to photograph. There are examples of the lovely 11"x14" portfolios that will house the digitized pages in the Zion Roots Reading Room. All of the churches received CDs of their records--which can be used instead of the fragile books. Edgar Dreyer and the Perry County Historical Society have completed wonderful finding aid books in English. They made this project possible. We could not have completed the project without these amazing tools. These finding aids will lead the researchers to the appropriate digitized images in the original books via electronic or paper resources. The original church books often have additional facts which are helpful to researchers like "death due to cholera," names of baptismal sponsers, and places of birth. The New Wells book does not have a finding aid, but it is still easy to use because all of the marriages, deaths, confirmations, births, etc. are in their own catagories in the book, and are in chronological order. Now these precious books can be placed in their archival housing, placed in a safe place in the churches, and not touched so frequently by human hands. Digital copies of the records are now located off-site at the museum, and after the storm in Joplin, Missouri (where I believe 24 churches were completely destroyed) we can all appreciate preserving records in multiple safe places. We used a "70 year" privacy rule on the records. All of the records were filmed, but at our site, researchers will only be using the records older than 70 years. This 70 year period is also used as a rule for data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.During this bustling week the "Things People Collect" exhibit expanded with our friend Darlene's miniature church collection and soft doll collection. It is delightful. Come and see it.
I reconnected with an old Historic Route 66 friend, Michael Wallis yesterday. Michael is an extraordinary historian of westward expansion, biography, etc. Please check Amazon or Google his name for a list of the titles including: David Crockett: The Lion of the West; Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthus Floyd; Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride; Route 66: The Mother Road. Michael was also integral in the development of the Disney-Pixar movie series, Cars, and he provides the voice of the character, Sheriff (who has a mustache which reflects Michael's.) Even though he has won the Steinbeck Award, has published at least 17 books, is featured on PBS, and is an in-demand public speaker--Wikipedia does not mention a very important fact about the biography of Michael Wallis. Michael is the many-great grandson of the first graduate of our Log College Seminary, "Alphabet Mueller" (so named for all the initials in front of his name.) I hope that we will be selling Michael's incredible books in our gift shop soon, and he plans a visit to Altenburg in the near future. It was great to speak with him on the phone, and I hope he can find joy in visiting his family roots--since he has given all of us such great biographical adventures with David Crockett, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Billy the Kid (to mention a few.)
We are looking forward to a large group visit in the a.m. from the Washington Missouri area. More details to come.
Take Care,
Carla
Busy, Wonderful, Museum
We are excited to have an Eagle Scout Candidate, Zach Rhodes from Troop 5, to complete our Phase 3 interpretation in the Log College Park. It will be a lovely project and I'm looking forward to the new interpretive sculpture of the sheep to represent Pastor Loeber who was a beautiful example of a shepherd for his people. Pastor Loeber never left his flock. I had a wonderful conversation with Pastor Loeber's descendants--the Lamms--in Oconomowoc. We shared our analysis of the Loeber contribution to the early colonies, and early writings in the LCMS church. They were delighted to hear about the sheep sculpture.The C.F.W. Walther bicentennial service at Historic Trinity, St. Louis, will be held on Sunday, October 23, at 3:00 p.m. Trinity historian, Dennis Rathert, told me on the phone yesterday that the service is designed as close to a service that Walther would lead as possible. It will be the "Page 5" liturgy in the old hymnal. Dennis said (except for the language) Walther should be able to walk into the service and recognize it. Our new Historical Society president, Warren Schmidt, will be doing one of the readings at the service.
Pastor Stites will be teaching a readings class here at the museum on "Luther's Writings" beginning Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 7:00pm. The only cost will be the books (approx. $15.) Give us a call if you can come and join us, and if you are out of town and would like to read along, let me know and I can order you a book and forward hand outs as they come.
Take Care,
Carla Jordan
A Fun Thing to Do (Educational Too)
An awesome thing to do in your free time is to call Old Trinity Church-in St. Louis-and make an appointment with Dennis Rathert for a tour. Dennis is a historian extraordinaire, and he is also a humorist. His stories of CFW Walther will touch your heart. CFW worked SO hard after arriving in St. Louis--it is hard to believe all of the congregations he covered, the buggy rides he had to take everyday, and all of his leadership responsibilities.We had an amazing week at the museum. People visited from all over the country. We also completed the lighthouse collection in the "Things People Collect" exhibit. Our friend, Pat Petzoldt, graciously loaned us a portion of her large collection for the exhibit. The lighthouses displayed have all been visited by Pat.
We did a little house cleaning this week (thanks Gerard) and found something interesting on the porch of the Big School Gallery. It is a post with a handle, and according to Vernon Myer's cataloging data, it was used to compress the dirt floor of the Big School before they added the wooden floor. I imagine it worked beautifully to "hold down the dust." It is a primitive looking tool, but I'm sure it was quite used.
We are working with the Lutheran school 6th grade students (our trial group) for a fun "Night at the Museum" event in the fall. We hope to open it up to the Public School 6th graders in the future. We would like to make it a tradition to have this special event every autumn with the regional 6th graders.
I would like to send a special "shout out" to our friend, Susan in Chesterfield. We hope you enjoy your new "Der Lutheraner" book, and we hope your broken leg heals soon so you can come and see us.
Pastor Stites--Immanuel Altenburg--is planning a Reformation study program to be held at the museum. He has a curriculum which includes some of the shorter Luther writings. More info. to come soon.
For those of you who participated in Kurt Mueller's "Dogwood" book discussion, we are going to have a discussion of his latest work, "Seedpod." It is wonderful, in my opinion--and focuses around his father and his silversmithing art. Let me know if you participated in the last book and want me to send you a manuscript so you can join in the discussions. We will meet Sept. 20, 27, and Oct. 4 at 4:30pm in the afternoon until 6pm. We will have you home in time for supper.
Take Care,
Carla Jordan
Great Day at the Museum
A special shout out to our friend Susan in Chesterfield. So sorry about your broken leg. We wish you a speedy recovery so that you can visit the Zion Roots Reading Room.I wish I could share on-line all of the wonderful Zion Roots additions. The "New York" group has been beautifully analyzed and researched by Ken Craft and Carolyn Schirmer. We have found the group in "Little Germany" in Manhattan, NY.
Also, the digitization project of the church books is moving forward. We will soon have very large print outs of the Trinity, Altenburg records; and the Wittenberg church records. We will also have thumb drives &/or CD's of the records. There is quite a bit of additional information in the original books than in the little soft cover translation books. The soft cover books are perfect for finding your ancestors, and then it is best to go to the original book information.
Deco the greyhound has a new brother, Jack the Grey. He is a beautiful brindle (multi-colored) greyhound who is retired from the Florida racetracks. The dogs love each other, and Deco doesn't get so lonely while we are gone.
We had a wonderful visit today with our friend Kathy, from Houston. She has helped us with the artifacts and research for the Koestering and Medical exhibits. It is always fun to spend time with her talking about the rich history in her family.
Take Care,
Carla Jordan
We can Blog!
Dear friends,I have missed blogging. The blogging application was unavailable for awhile. We have so much to tell you.
The "In the Steps of Our Ancestors" trip is full, and deposits are due Sept. 1 for those of you who are signed up. We have started a waiting list.
We have completed the digitization of the first volume (1839-1870ish) of the original Trinity, Altenburg, churchbook, and the Wittenberg church book. Both books have information that cannot be found in the finding aids. The books are quite frail and should be retired for general use. So, we can do that now. We will have digital versions and printed out portfolios of the books available soon. We hope to get te original voters book with the original constitution digitized next session (for Trinity) and will be working with the Immanuel, Frohna, and Uniontown churches to seek permission to digitize their original books in the next phase. A special thanks to museum patron, Ken Craft, for all of his support leading the way on this project.
The "Things People Collect" exhibit is superb. We have a lighthouse collection from Pat Petzoldt to add to the collection this week, and then it will be complete. I think it is one of the best exhibits we have created because so many people have had the opportunity to work on it. The cases are lovely, the collections are wonderful, and the effort to put everything together was fun.
Dolores Schmidt suggested a historic Bible exibit in the Big School Gallery, and we all like the idea. I'm doing some research on "Bibles as Art" because we have so many examples of beautiful Bible covers and interior religious art. The exhibit will also include Luther's Bible translation history, printing press history, and there will be analysis of each Bible in the exhibit. The exhibit will range from the early 1600's to about 1940. My research won't take much longer and we hope to have it put together by Sept. 15.
Fall tour scheduling is rolling in, and the end of July was booming with museum patrons and August has started off well, also. I remember when late July and August were the "slow" months. We had a delightful bus load of friends from the First Baptist Church in Jackson last week. We had several guests from Germany and visitors from all over the country.
There are scheduled "Luther Tours" for weekends in Sept. and October as a part of the CFW Walther 200th Birthday celebration. The tours will visit Walther sites in St. Louis and Perry County including our site and SLM. I will post the link for the tour site in tomorrow's blog.
Der Lutheraner (1st year translation) book is selling well in the gift shop. If you don't have a copy give me a call or an email. There are quite a few writings from our beloved Pastor Loeber. It is a true scholarly work. We are proud to have it available at our site.
Take Care,
Carla Jordan
June 21, 2011
The collections added to the new and amazing "What People Collect" exhibit are: Bob Fiehler's Prehistoric Native American artifacts, Former Teacher Popp's (1944-1950s) pencil collection, the Kennedy Inauguration collection is probably one of the most amazing things we ever had in the door (historically speaking), and TOMORROW we will have opalescent glass, match covers, AND we will move our beloved Altheda Schmelig's egg collection into the exhibit! We have Curt Palisch's toys, Leonard Kuehnert's toys, and other collections that we pulled in from the main gallery. This is the most fun I have ever had creating an exhibit at the museum. Many of our staffers have participated, set up their own exhibits, and we have had a blast.The Southeast Missouri State University Museum Caravan came to the museum parking lot today, and 41 children/adults visited their exhibits. It is always a "good thing" when they come to town.
I had a nice conversation with an anthropologist at SEMO today. He helped me to properly title Bob Fiehler's Native American collection. We are so fortunate to have the support that we receive everyday from Southeast Missouri State University.
Check the "SEMO Events" section of the Southeast Missourian for the announcement of the new exhibit.
Take Care,
Carla Jordan
June 20, 2011
What a day at the museum. We started with 57 people from the Vocatio project with the LCMS Seminary. The students who visited are from all over the country and are interested in vocations. They had a grand tour here, and then left for Saxon Lutheran Memorial for a meal and project.We then had numerous other tourists, worked on the amazing "Things People Collect" exhibit, and even heard a mini-organ concert by Tyson Wunderlich--life doesn't get any better than that.
We also have some AMAZING, CFW Walther, beer in our fridge here! All I have to say is, AWESOME.
We hope to have the "Collections" exhibit officially opened by the weekend. The new Koestering exhibit is both informative AND lovely to look at. Pastor Koestering was a "church builder" in a sense, he dual served the Frohna/Altenburg congregations for 13 years, and was at Altenburg a total of 23 years. Both current churches were built during his tenure.
Hope all is well with all of you. I travel to Joplin in a little over a week to check on my people there. Sorry about the lack of blogging. Everything is super at the museum--with a lot of visitation, plans, and future events.
Don't forget the Blue Grass Festival at SLM this weekend. Come and see our new exhibits!
Take Care,
Carla
May 28, 2011
As we step into June, we will be having 2 new and one revised exhibit. I will be away from the museum until June 7, but will keep posting if I can. My daughter, Lilly, is getting married on Saturday, June 4. I'm also from Joplin, MO area, and many of my friends and family have been hit hard by this disaster, so I will also be working on some fundraising to help them. Personally, we have 3 friend deaths, a broken neck, other injuries, and many lost and damaged homes amongst our circle of people. So, I'm whirling about what to do to help. We are all sending gift cards to Target and Walmart to my brother, Brian Taylor, to pass out directly so that people can get some things they need. One of the Walmart stories is still standing and Target was not hit. My brother, Brian, is a longtime teacher and businessman in Joplin, and he currently is a manager at Fletcher Hyundai/Mercedes/ Dodge. His dealership was not hit, so he has been using it as a hub for operations. He has been digging through rubble to help save people, he's been feeding people, and just ministering to them however he can. I don't think he's rested much since the storm started. At least 5 of the staff at the dealership have lost their homes, and there was one family death amongst the staff.I want to thank all of the museum staff who are covering during my absence. You are the greatest.
We have made museum friends in Michigan, Nebraska and other parts of the country this week. It always amazes me how far people come to see our site.
On June 1st, Saxon Lutheran Memorial, and Lynda Lorenz (curator) will be hosting the River Heritage Association meeting. The folks from the meeting will be offered tours of our site and the regional wineries. I hope this visit goes well, Lynda, and thanks for including us in the tours.
I'm pleased with the bus tours that are coming in for us and SLM this summer and fall. I don't remember the reservations coming in quite this early in previous years. Maybe bus travel is more economical??
Fred Poston has started his internship work at the museum. Fred is an instructor in the Global Studies program (teaches German) at SEMO. He is researching family correspondence and diaries from the immigration to St. Louis and Perry County. Please let us know if you have family letters--we would like to have copies to share with this project. Fred will also be translating some documents in Zion Roots to help us with our family research library.
I want to close with a positive story about the Joplin tornado. On Monday, two beautiful German shepards (one black/tan and one pure white) showed up at my brothers house (six miles from the storm.) They had minor injuries, were hungry, and frightened. Brian fed them, treated their owies, and gave them lots of love. One of the two, the black and tan, snuggled up with him readily. Anyway, the ASPCA set up a shelter in Joplin to assist people in reuniting with their pets and to help animals who lost their homes/owners. When Brian pulled up in his truck at the shelter, the dogs jumped out with him, and a woman ran up to him and said, "those are my aunts dogs, she lost her home, and the dogs were just gone." She said that she volunteered there that day just to see if she could find the two shepards. After filling out (almost too much) ASPCA paperwork, the dogs were on their way to being reunited to their owner.
Take Care,
Carla Jordan
May 20, 2011
A special thanks to Lillian Fiehler and Caroline Littge for holding down the museum today. It was an extraordinary week at the museum with visitors, big groups, and researchers. I'm looking forward to spending some time back at the museum on Sunday.I'm happy to announce that our dear museum friend, Fred Poston, from SEMO's Global Studies program will be joining us this summer for some interning work. He will be looking at correspondence, diaries, papers that were written soon after the 1839 immigration to St. Louis and Perry County. Ideally, he will also be doing some translation of German records in the Zion Roots collection. If you have any letters/diaries/etc. in your collections--please let us know.
It was wonderful to talk with Carolyn Schirmer regarding her and Ken Craft's research on the families in the New York group. This group of Germans traveled to Perry County (via NY City) about the same time that Bishop Stephan was being exiled across the Mississippi River. My theory is that this group came rested, more healthy than the newly arrived Saxons, and ready to help pull everything together. I'm not sure what the original group would have done without them. I'm hoping Ken and Carolyn will share their work (already contained in a NY Group binder section in our library) of more than 40 families with us at the next Immigration Conf. (2012)
My son, Beau, will be traveling home from the Air Force in a couple of weeks to attend his sister, Lilly's wedding. Between Lilly and Jacob there are 7 brothers! They will all be standing up with Lilly and Jacob. We are having fun making plans for this outdoor extravaganza. Lilly has designed a simple but elegant cherry blossom and lotus flower theme complete with paper lanterns. Doc's buddies and Roanne will be providing live music. It should be a great day.
Take Care, Carla Jordan
May 17, 2011
It was a great weekend at the museum with folks visiting from Germany and also wonderful regional visitors. I was at the airport on Friday evening in Cape, and I noticed a news rack with new booklets called "101 Fun Things to Do" put out by the Southeast Missourian. We are #56 and we share a "German Heritage" section with Saxon Lutheran Memorial. It is a nicely done entry, and the illustration for the post is a great picture of our Bible display in the Main Gallery. I'm delighted with the coverage.We are looking forward to a visit from St. Mark's Lutheran School in Steeleville, Ill. A special thanks to Edgar Roth for arranging their trip here every spring. We will have an RV club here tomorrow morning and another visit from Prof. Wickersham's "German Churches in Missouri" course at Maryville University on Thursday. These are busy but fun times.
We received a flyer from the River Hills Antique Tractor Club regarding their May 28-29 "Old Timers Day" at the Seminary Grounds in Perryville. They will have on display a steam engine, historic tractors, trucks, and cars. Tools and vintage lawn mowers will also be exhibited. The show opens each day at 9:00am. It sounds like a fun couple of days.
We have our running shoes on and we are ready to dive into another fun week at the museum.
Take Care,
Carla Jordan
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