Twentynine Palms Historical Society
29 Palms, California

Accessions Report - Fall 2020

by Cathy Snodgrass

Wednesday morning volunteers

The Gift Shop is open for business, but the museum portion of the Old Schoolhouse Museum is still presently closed as per State of California mandates. Dana Bowden has been using this time doing a full-on reorganization of the exhibit area. It looks absolutely wonderful, and we look forward to the day we can pull back the black curtain to reveal all. I personally think you'll love it. The work Dana has put in to the smallest details has been amazing.

During this reorganization, she and I have also been trying to make sure items on display have been accessioned. That's been quite the task, as you might imagine. We've done the best we could. We did have some new accessions that have come in during the quarter. The last two items are displayed in our Cabin Exhibit.

A Maybelle Carey oil painting from Phyllis Croonenberg.
A sun purple glass child's mug and plate from Cathy Snodgrass.
A handmade iron and wood short-twin bed from Larry and Dana Bowden. (They also made the bed.)

In August, we experienced our first acts of vandalism. Someone had broken an outdoor faucet to turn on the water and couldn't get it turned off. The water ran for two days. The faucet was repaired and secured. The culprit then took what is suspected to have been pliers to access the line to the cooler. Reports were made to the Deputy Sheriff. Les Snodgrass has been working to finish the installation of the courtyard gates in order to help keep this type of thing from happening again. One of our long-distance members (Bernd Krammer) gifted the Historical Society with a surveillance system, and that will be a major security benefit as well.

We are forever grateful to our members for the support they give to our organization. It's been tough for all nonprofits during this pandemic. We are always extremely touched with the donations and assistance our members provide.

Research is still not allowed at this time, but our Wednesday work staff is back in full work-mode (identifying photographs, reviewing newspaper articles, sorting through physical donations, and helping with accessions.) We all look forward to the day things will get back to whatever normal we'll be able to have. Every one of our volunteers is dedicated to helping find a better way to do what we need to do.