Topic starter
19/10/2011 6:07 pm
Each new day at the Howard Steamboat Museum brings fun "adventures" and visitors. This past week has certainly been no exception and here are just a few blog notes of "Happenings at the Howard".
Dave Morecraft came to call last Thursday, bringing an early drawing of the AMERICAN QUEEN, when her name was tentatively BELLE of AMERICA. The drawing was so large, we had to unfurl it on the floor of the back porch! Thanks, Dave, for bringing it to share! Dave and Travis were here for lunch yesterday, Travis just back from a busy weekend on the DQ at Chattanooga. Lots of fun steamboat news and calliope talk!
Kenny Howe and Jimmy Reising went to Cincinnati on Monday to retrieve a most welcome donation. The CAPT. FRED WAY MEMORIAL DISPLAY CASE, donated by the MOR S&D Chapter to the Cincinnati Library in 1993, was deaccessioned and, through the kind offices of Rick Kesterman, has found a new home at the Howard Steamboat Museum. The lighted case, with adjustable shelves and locking storage area, currently resides in our new Collections Management Facility for safekeeping until it is decided where it will be placed. We are very appreciative of this generous gift.
A lady visitor, yesterday, was working on a research project concerning her relatives who were operators of a Louisville/Jeffersonville ferry boat, one of them murdered aboard the boat in 1917. She was most pleased that we had files on ALL of her relatives and the boats!
This morning we had visitors from Missouri, who are collectors of riverboat and train artifacts. They had with them some of their unique treasures to show, one of which was a stack lantern from an Anchor Line boat. They are now museum members!
Another visitor today, a gentleman from Wisconsin, was on a quest for photographs of the J.M. WHITE. He also collects river art and attributes Mike Blaser as influencing his daughter to become an art major in college.
A phone inquiry came in from a gentleman in Wheeling, wondering if we had any photos of a Howard built gasboat named the D.A.B. He was delighted to learn that we have no fewer than three images of the boat -- and xerox copies were sent to him that very day!
The gingerbread trim (copied after that on the J.M. WHITE) was painted during the weekend and will soon be installed on the new pilothouse replica in the back yard, along with the authentic pilotwheel and whistle. Nameboards are currently being made and will bear the name ROSEMARY, in honor of the late Rosemary Prentice, a longtime museum board member and benefactor of this project.
Jimmy Reising's fine photo exhibit, from the U of L photo archive collections, was mentioned in today's Courier-Journal and we've had vistors enjoying it today. It will remain in the carriage house until October 30th.
The catalog has gone to press for our annual "Fall into Art" exhibition, this year entitled SEEN FROM LIFE: PEOPLE, WORK and STEAMBOATS 1885-1932, featuring photographs from the Jim Howard Collection. The opening reception is on Sunday, November 6th at 1:00 PM. The exhibit will be up (inside the mansion) until November 20th. The 50+ mounted photo enlargements arrived this week.
Last but not least, a phone call just received concerning one of the mermaids removed from the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN!
Never a dull moment at the little museum that CAN and DOES! Gosh, I do LOVE my job!
"Curator Keith"
19/10/2011 7:05 pm
What a week! Let me know if the museum ever needs to hire an additional artifact collections employee...
19/10/2011 8:02 pm
My wife JoAnn and her sister should arrive in Louisville tonight or tomorrow and I've suggested they visit the Howard. Not sure of their schedule as they are moving at their own pace. I know they'll go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and maybe the Ky Derby Museum. They're en-route to Newport to board the Cincinnati Queen on Sunday morning.
So far, they've visited the Civil War locomotive General at Kennesaw, GA and took a ride on the Lookout Mountain RR in Chattanooga before heading to Owensboro, Ky for a dinner at the Moonlight BBQ. I think they also toured the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee.
-Jim Herron
Topic starter
19/10/2011 10:50 pm
Eating on the River!
I'll be on the lookout for them Jim, but they might not want to leave the Moonlite Barbeque Inn at Owensboro! Last time I was there it was so delectable that I ate far too much! And then, for dessert, they have scrumptious pie of every kind imaginable!
Meanwhile, speaking of "pigging out", my dad celebrated his 80th birthday yesterday and we are working on devouring a BIG chocolate cake with all the trimmings -- and PLENTY of creamy vanilla ice cream! Good thing I do a lot of running up and down three flights of stairs at the museum!