Whenever I read about people’s collections, I never cease to
be amazed. Some pieces of ephemera are so incredibly costly that I could never
imagine people actually being able to purchase them. This is especially the
case with a man named Ray Riley. Apparently, he has had certain artifacts –
such as Grant’s sword, J.E.B. Stuart’s sword, and Grant’s coat that he wore at
Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Miraculously enough, Riley is allowing a museum
to display Grant’s coat! He’s been holding onto it for a couple decades, but is
now letting a local Texas non-profit museum put it on display. (Though he did
explicitly state that the coat will never leave Texas, due to a lack of trust
of the national government with his artifact, unfortunately.) This is a great
opportunity for history lovers, especially those particularly passionate about
the Civil War.
The reason I brought this to your attention is because I
found a lot of parallels between this article and our most recent book, Land
of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe’s America, by Andrew Ferguson. In the book,
Ferguson discusses “the magic of stuff” or “the power of things”. He mentions a
myriad of people who collect objects, museums who display them, and the force
that is behind them. Ferguson elaborates on the reality that people in my
generation cannot have the capacity to be patient in “traditional museums”
anymore, but are more than willing to quietly revere artifacts. He also
mentions about collectors, such as a woman that only collects Lincoln and Mary
ephemera, believe that handing him the historic objects will give him sort of
respect and understanding of the history. Through both these stories and this
recent news article, it shows just how much value our society places on
historical items. Museums are becoming increasingly visual and interactive (and
less text based), so these items will only become more valuable over time.
Although I am reluctant to see what many view as the “decline of scholarly
museums”, I am interested in seeing how the value of ephemera changes with
these developments.
That's an interesting museum (I've been there).
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised you have been there! Especially now that Grant's coat is there, that will have to be a must-stop place for me as well. :)
Delete