Virtual Exhibitions

The collection has been slowly migrating down from the main museum into the air-conditioned exhibition hall ever since the tornado.  Some things have been easier to move than others.  Small items can be picked up and shelved with relative ease and safety, while large items, like bicycles and carriages, are little more difficult to relocate.  The biggest problem, however, has been large framed paintings which needed a place where they could be hung before they could be moved anywhere.

The answer to this problem came in the form of large free standing walls which had been a part of displays on the second floor.  The process began with the paintings which were brought down to the first floor and propped up to await their eventual hanging.  Doing this not only got the paintings closer to their final destination, but it also gave them time to adjust to the less hot and humid first floor before going into the air conditioning; sudden changes in temperature are bad for paintings. 

The next step was to bring down the walls.  They were taken apart and carried down the stairs in large rectangles.  Once they were in the exhibition hall they were attached to one another.  From a bird's eye view  the walls form a sort of "capital I" shape, with one long line created by five rectangles, and one more rectangle on each end to make the whole structure more stable.

This creation gave us the perfect place to hang the paintings.  We have a little gallery downstairs now with everything from a picture of Barnum's daughters to pair of antlers that used to hang over a fire place.