Veteran Interviews

The Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County has a special military section in its "Athens" Gallery that you should examine on your next visit. The museum is a wonderful resource now open year-round, Wednesday through Saturday, 10am-5pm. Admission is always free. Check out their website at: www.cdpl.lib.in.us/services/carnegie

The museum is also offering more content than just what you see in its display areas, however. For example, thanks to an LSTA grant, we have digitized numerous interviews of local veterans and made them available on the web. We have 16 audio interviews of WWII vets you can reach directly. We also have 90 video interviews of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam vets that were recorded in the mid-1990s. This is the first time that all this material has been accessible to the general public, so be sure to take advantage of it in honor of our vets!

Go to cmmc.cdpl.lib.in.us/lh/cmmc-military.html  -- just click to listen or watch (you don't need any special software)

The once majestic Ben Hur building

We recently received a donation of a photograph that shows the Ben Hur building not long after it was completed in 1911. Note that the lower level is not yet girdled by black marble, which was added in a 1940s renovation.

This undated photograph must be from spring 1913 at the earliest. How do we know? For one thing, the flag on the side of the building has 48 stars -- and Arizona entered the Union as the 48th state in February 1912. But the movie posters show by the Princess Theater (just to the right of the Ben Hur building) provide the final clues.One poster advertises "The Winning of White Dove," a short that was released on 30 November 1912. Another poster shows "Struggle of Hearts," a short released on 3 December 1912. This is not a winter scene, so we can assume the photo was taken sometime in 1913 during warmer weather. If we have time, we may eventually look through our old newspapers to see what even caused the decoration of the Ben Hur building, and when these two shorts were advertised in town.

Donated in the name of Thomas D. Stewart.

This day in May, 1887. The same train?

 A train engine on its tracks. Five men pose in front (two stand on the cow catcher). A date is written on the reverse of the photograph: May 12, '97

Unfortunately, we have no other identifying information!A date is at least a starting point for figuring out an unidentified scene.

We also have another similar photograph, but with nothing written on it... and it appears to be the same scene, perhaps taken the same day. What do you think? What could be the occasion?

Spring Cleaning 1928

Spring cleaning is an annual task that has been with us for generations. Have you ever taken any pictures of your spring cleaning? We are fortunate to have a glimpse into the Terry family life in 1928, as seen in this photo.On the photo was written:

"1928. Spring cleaning. Clayton with the help from Lowell, Leslie & Mary Florence."

This image is from a family scrapbook loaned by Walter Terry; the pages were scanned by the library (August 2011). The scrapbook contains more than 600 photographs; 141 images were added to this database (series: 20110815). Most photographs are from Montgomery County, near Whitesville. A photocopy of the scrapbook is available in CDPL Local History, if you want to see it!

The children are outside of Home Place, on a rug. Clayton Terry (standing) holds a broom. Lowell Terry and Leslie Terry (kneeling) beat the rug with wire tools.Mary Florence Terry sits on the rug, seemingly amused by her brothers.