sbtate

Our final display at the Vinton History Museum featured a back to school display in the school room. This month’s display will celebrate the start of another school year. The school room on the first floor of the museum was the perfect environment for a back to school display. One of the best take-aways from working at the Vinton History Museum was using creativity to professionally show history to the public. This internship exceeded all of my expectations for a museum working experience.

• 

• 

Part of my research for the Vinton History Museum was to go through old scrapbooks in the museum basement. They were collections of newspaper clippings that were cut out and placed into the scrapbooks that were found in the museum’s basement. There were clippings of people who served during the time of the newspaper’s publication from Southwest Virginia along with other national news that the local newspapers published. My job was to remove any newspaper clippings that were related to the town of Vinton. Most of the newspaper clippings were from the Second World War. Other clippings included in the scrapbooks were marriages, obituaries, economical achievements, and public events in downtown Roanoke, Vinton, and Salem. After hours of reading and removing clippings, I was able to recover a good portion of information regarding Vinton and the Vintonites who served during World War II. I created a small display of some of the Vintonites who served and died.

We created a military display for the Vinton History Museum to commemorate Independence Day. All three uniforms were donated to the museum. From left to right, the desert camo uniform is the most modern military uniform in the museum’s inventory and is also a women’s uniform. It was used within the last few decades. The center uniform is from the Second World War. The uniform to the right is a uniform from the Korean and Vietnam wars. The Korean Vietnam uniform was donated to the museum a month ago, while the other two uniforms were stored in a closet. All three uniforms have never been on display before. We created this display to honor the men and women who served and who are currently serving for America’s freedom. This display shows the history of American military uniforms from the 1930’s.

The month of June is known to be a very popular wedding month. We decided to do a wedding display. The dresses belonged to Doris and Helen Kasey. They were both married on July 19, 1958. The original newspaper clipping is at the center bottom of the picture. The other newspaper clipping at the lower right corner of the picture is a clipping of their fiftieth anniversary in 2008. The stain glass window in the background came from the church they were married, Vinton Baptist Church. We were interviewed by the Vinton Messenger at the Vinton History Museum’s ice cream social on June 5. We were also included in the June 10 edition of the Vinton Messenger. We also celebrated our birthdays near the end of June. In conclusion the month of June has been a busy and eventful time at the Vinton History Museum.

I choose this internship because it produced a flexible schedule and an opportunity to dive into the historical community. Our first project in late May was to make a historical display commemorating the graduates of William-Byrd high-school for their experience with COVID-19. The display also showed historical pictures of a senior class in the 1920s in the center and a 1950s senior class in the lower right corner. The desk also showed a 1960s senior year book and graduation programs ranging from 1970-1990. The formal blue dress was donated to the museum and the graduation gown that was probably made in the late 1960s. Overall, this display reveals the revolving history of education in Vinton.