By Mick Woodcock
(Seventy-five years ago on June 11 the first guest signed the Governor's Mansion register and the Sharlot Hall Museum began. We are running a series of articles that explore the people and events that have shaped the museum's long journey. Today, we will investigate more recent history, 1980-1995.)
The Governor's Mansion renovation was not the only exhibit space that saw new life. The Sharlot Hall Building was targeted for major exhibit work. The gift shop (now called the "Museum Store") was moved from the main room into the room on the south end of the building. Exhibit cases were constructed around and into the room using pine and glass. Thematic exhibits titled "Life in Old Yavapai," were designed that covered most of Anglo human history in the area from 1864 to 1920. The Hartzell Room received a slight make over to help enhance the story of the prehistoric peoples and the local Yavapai tribe already being told in there.
The Museum Center's Multi-purpose Room was pressed into service as a rotating exhibit gallery. "Babies and buggies, Perambulators and Playthings" was the first of these in 1981. An over abundance of department store mannequins, courtesy J. C. Penney, were put to work exhibiting "The Fashions of Della Toverea Stuart" the same year. 1982 found "The Kolb Brothers: Three-Quarters of a Century of Photographing the Grand Canyon" occupying the space, including one of the wooden boats that ran the Grand Canyon. 1983 had "One Hundred Years of Federal Forestry," and exhibit developed in cooperation with the U. S. Forest Service and using their collections. Two years later "Opening the Family Trunk" was installed featuring the clothing of the Jack family of Flagstaff and Glendale, Arizona. "The Art of Solon H. Borglum," an exhibit done in collaboration with the Prescott Community Art Trust, finished out the decade.
The early nineties started with two traveling exhibits "Territorial Arizona in 3-D" and "Timeless Images: Photographs from Arizona Highways". These were followed by exhibits done by the staff "A View From the Home Front: Arizona Remembers World War II", "Sharing Arizona: The Fragile Coexistence of Man and Wildlife in Arizona", and "Pieces of Time: A gallery of American Quilts".
Smaller exhibits were done in the Museum Center Foyer. Two of these "The Weaver and the Wool" and "The Chinese Experience in Arizona" were borrowed. "The Coming of the Rails: The Centennial and History of Prescott's Railroads" which celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of the railroad's arrival in Prescott and "Tirn 'Em Out Wild - Stay Cowboy!" an exhibit on the centennial of the Prescott rodeo, were done by Museum staff. A permanent exhibit on Sharlot M. Hall was installed in 1992.
The Transportation Building was opened in June of 1990 featuring the Museum's collection of large, wheeled vehicles. It had been storage for fourteen years before that. Staff did a great deal of work to modernize the interior of the structure to make it suitable exhibit space.
Technology had become a part of Museum life with the purchase of the first computers in the early eighties. Cataloging of the object collection as well as work with the archival collections occupies much of the curators' and archivists' time. At the end of the decade, an index of archives photographs is made available worldwide through the Arizona Southwest Index maintained by Arizona State University. In 1993, the archives join the Yavapai Library Network thus making the Museum's book catalog available online throughout the world. Links to both of these database were made available to our virtual visitors when the Museum up-loaded its first World Wide Web site (now sharlothallmuseum.org).
Other notable firsts had occurred. 1983 found the Museum publishing its first book, "Meeting the Four O'clock Train" by Dixon Fagerberg, Jr. Five years later the "Sharlot Hall Gazette" published its first "Journal Edition" with a scholarly piece by volunteer Richard Gorby. The newsletter got a face-lift in 1994 with a name change to "Directions".
The early nineties became a time of change as staff that had been around since the 1970s began to retire. Ken Kimsey, director since 1973, was given a rousing send off at a party in 1990. Karen Lindquist, staff artist, retired in 1993 and Angie Henrie, curator of education in 1995. Mac Harris, originally director at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, filled the director's slot. His resignation in late 1994 left Sue Abbey, the Museum's archivist, as interim director until Richard Sims, formerly the director of the Museum of Western Colorado, was hired to head the agency.
Fifteen years of change took Sharlot Hall Museum from being a fledgling regional museum to one of seven hundred nationally accredited museums. Hard work by board, staff and a large cadre of volunteers brought Sharlot's house of treasures to a place of prominence in Arizona. We would like to think that "Miss Sharlot" would be proud of our accomplishments if she could see us now.
(Mick Woodcock is the registrar and runs the living history program at the Museum)
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (Dino Dig 1992). Reuse only by permission.
The Museum has embarked on many off-campus field trips in the last 15 years. Along with floating on the Verde River, and touring the footsteps of Sharlot M. Hall on the Arizona Strip, the Museum sponsored four trips to central Utah to help dig for dinosaur fossils as shown here in 1992.