Topic starter
19/08/2011 12:48 pm
You are cordially invited to attend the dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony of the new HSM Collections Management Facility on Friday, September 23rd at 7:00 PM. This is a free, public event and is the prelude to the Steamboat Bicentennial Celebration Weekend.
Many thanks to our photo magician, Jimmy Reising, for the front design of the invitation card (herewith attached) which will go into the mail this week.
Y'all come!
"Curator Keith"
19/08/2011 1:11 pm
Dedication ceremony
This is of course during the same weekend as the Historical Festival, whatever the name is (and the BELLE charter on Saturday night). It will be our first chance to see Keith's new kingdom... and probably permanent chairs for Jimmy and Kenny... once again the little museum can and does!
Topic starter
19/08/2011 11:31 pm
Friday at the HSM
Lots going on at the HSM today, as we began mailing out the invitations to the dedication ceremony next month for the CMF (collections management facility) and work continued on the construction of the pilothouse replica. The big 8 foot pilotwheel was brought down from the third floor (very carefully!) and taken out to the carriage house for repair and sealing before being installed in the new pilothouse, which will have gingerbread trim a la Str. J.M. WHITE. The whistle was also tested (on a vacuum cleaner) and should work just fine for our purposes. A visor and breastboard were installed yesterday. The windows in the pilothouse will be "recycled" ones which were removed from the Str. BELLE OF LOUISVILLE pilothouse some years ago and which have been residing in the museum basement just waiting for a new life!
Had numerous visitors this afternoon, including a couple from Paducah connected with the River Discovery Center (formerly the River Heritage Museum) and an enthusiastic young couple who frequently visit Natchez, where she dons a hoop skirt and helps as a tour guide in a friend's antebellum home. She was delighted that I also visit Mississippi freuquently and could "talk Natchez" with her. It's always great fun and a real pleasure to meet the variety of visitors who come to the museum.
The day began, however, on a very sad note, as news quickly spread around the Jeffersonville waterfront that a worker was killed early this morning in an accident at Jeffboat, the third fatality there in less than two years. In the 107 years that the Howard's owned their shipyard, there was ONE fatality, when a man was killed in a sawmill accident.
Images: Pilothouse construction last week. In photo #1, note DELTA QUEEN paddlewheel shaft, removed in 1980, in distance.
Topic starter
21/08/2011 3:59 pm
Mayfly Invasion Halts Work on Pilothouse!
Construction and painting work on our new replica pilothouse was brought to a halt due to an "invasion" of mayflies. It brought back memories of Upper Mississippi (and less frequently on the Ohio) trips on the DELTA QUEEN when the ugly, harmless bugs would suddenly materialize and plague the boat. I especially recall early one morning when were emerging from the Keokuk Lock and suddenly the white front of the pilothouse became black with hordes of mayflies as they "attacked" the DQ. The deck crew was kept busy hosing them off decks and elsewhere for a good portion of that day!
22/08/2011 6:58 am
Thanks for the heads up!
Now that my Fall Semester schedule has been finalized on my return voyage to school at Concordia University-St. Paul, it appears that I have Friday's off. Am definitely going to try to schedule a trip to HSM for the 23rd if military schedule permits.