It’s All in the Details
Our Scottish Rite representative took me out to dinner during the last week of work. It was my time to share some of our discoveries and ask questions before our final departure. I had two options: Chicken Annie’s and Chicken Mary’s. Both were great regional restaurants. We went to chicken Annie’s and had the famous fried chicken dinner. It was a nice break from our standard fair at Sharky’s and the Nu Grill where we had tried every single item on the menus.
I tentatively brought up our miraculous finds from Moses’ temporary studio in 1924. I felt odd about mentioning these treasures. Everything – every historic artifact – was leaving their town and it would all rapidly disappear.
My heart sank as I thought of these undiscovered remnants uncovered well over a year AFTER the June 2014 auction. What else had been up there? I explained our finds to he and his wife at dinner. “Well,” he slowly drawled, “there was an awful lot of stuff up there. You wouldn’t believe the amount of type of things! There were even all of the lights from the old theatre. There was also some sort of odd structure – or a type of big frame with weights!”
“Ah,” I responded as my heart sank. “That would have been the remainder of Thomas Moses’ paint frame …much of it was mostly incorporated into the top wooden battens. I guess that there was some still left.”
A general sense of devastation overcame me as I realized that they had no idea or understanding of what had been thrown out. If only someone, thought to ask, but this happens in so many places. Masonic temples go up for sale and no one has the time a new home for the artifacts. On those final days, they get a dumpster and fill it.
I remembered a similar moment at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center earlier that year with the CEO of Minnesota Masonic Charities. He was also the CEO of the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Society and Museum. We were discussing the need to catalogue and clean out of the museum prior to the move into the new facility. He wanted to hear that most of the contents were “unworthy” of remaining in their collection. He explained that Dave had just kept a lot of junk.
I had that we should contact the various fraternal organizations to see if they would like artifacts that we wanted to get rid of during this cleaning. “Just get a dumpster – less controversy” had been my directive. I understood his point of view, but couldn’t follow this unethical demand – not as a historian. I flat out refused to place any museum artifacts into a dumpster without seeking out another home for them first. Needless to say, someone else was appointed to go through the artifacts and determine each item’s fate.
It was this same type of thing had happened high above the stage at Fort Scott just prior to the auction. For some, it took too much time to identify the various contents stored in this space and disperse it to appropriate recipients. It was just easier to just throw it all out.
I came back to the conversation about Moses’ paint studio. The original 1904 lighting instruments had found their way to the dumpster, boxes of antique lamps, and a sundry of other “unknown” items. I just smiled politely across the table at my dinner companions understanding that this was just the tip of the iceberg. This was just one of many times when someone would be responsible for disposing the history that was shared between the fraternity and the theatre.
To be continued…
