The Watkins Community Museum -Extra Credit-

The Watkins Community Museum in downtown Lawrence serves primarily to showcase items and history of interest to the Lawrence community. Watkins is located in a building built in the late 1800′s to house the Land Mortgage Company, as well as the Watkins National Bank. After serving a number of different functions, including at one point housing city hall,the building was turned into a museum in 1975.

As you enter the main floor of the building, the first significant object to great you is the car shown in the attached image. Information provided along with the automobile states that it is a Milburn Electric acquired by Albert Henley (then president of Lawrence Barbed Wire) for his wife for $1,045. Looking over this car it is interesting to note the forward thinking that was present among at least some of the residents of Lawrence during that time frame to be considering the viability of electric cars even though the internal combustion engine was so clearly superior at the time. Excerpts on the informational plaque echo an opinion that is held to this day about electric vehicles, when it quotes a newspaper as stating that the driver could not have been speeding because the Milburn would not get up to excessive speeds even if fleeing a burning house.

I most appreciate the museums significant preservation of architectural elements that are quite uncommon today. The stained glass windows with their ornate framing running along side the stairs the upper level, as well as the amazing decorative hinges present on the upstairs doors, provide a great view of the detail that was sought for the building housing successful businesses of the day.

The information and exhibit serve well as a supplement to the subjects that we have learned about during this term.  From the ornate building to the examples of early Kansas clothing and tools on the upper level, the exhibits provide not only a sense of scale, but also a significant sense of tangibility to the stories and history.

-Jeff G.

World War I Museum **Extra Credit**

For extra credit I decided to visit the WWI Museum at Liberty Memorial. It was a great museum and I had no idea it was so great! The museum is under the Liberty Memorial, and through doors that blend into the monument, if you weren’t looking you would never know that the doors were there. The parking is really easy, you park along the side of the “horse-shoe” shaped lot. The historical significance is pretty self-explanatory, it is a national museum. It is next door to the Federal Reserve Bank.

The majority of the museum is on a national level, but a small room in the exhibit focuses on the Kansas History part. The museum is divided into two parts: Before the U.S. involvement, and the War with U.S. involved. In between these two parts there is a video on a big screen, with an example of what war was like under it.

I have always been interested in WWII, so this was something sort of new. I know quite a bit about it but never a lot. The information was presented in a much more detailed and visual way. There was a replica of the trenches, which I never knew much about. It was one of the most interesting points. I liked how the museum used every piece of space they had. The exhibits on the floor, under glass/plexiglass were a different way of presenting the information. I think the information was presented in a more personal way, it focused on the people and the emotions.

This quilt was made by the Women’s Auxiliary in Harveyville in Wabaunsee County in Kansas. It was made in 1917, with the names of the soldiers in the city that served in the war. The quality of the picture is poor. (Sorry from my phone). An interesting fact I learned about WWI was the amount of soldiers from KS that served, which was 63,428, while 367,864 from New York served. It is no where near the amount of New York, but still a large amount of people.

The final exhibit is a section that has quotes from famous people. The quote that caught my attention was from H.G. Wells, a British Author. In 1935, he said “if we don’t end war, war will end us.” I think this is significant because WWI was “the war to end all wars” but did not succeed. It foreshadows WWII in a sense. It brought a sense of the emotion and turmoil the world was feeling at the time.

- Talia Kipp

 

***sorry I forgot to take a picture of myself, but I do have the receipt and ticket to prove I attended the museum. I definitely want to go back and spend more time!**