West Virginia State Museum Education

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West Virginia State Museum Education Inspiring, educating, and enriching lives through West Virginian history, arts, and culture.

For May 2022's spotlight artifact, we're going to highlight the telegraph. 178 years ago, on May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse sent Alfred Vail the historic first telegraph message stating: “What hath God wrought!” The telegraph system quickly spread across America and the world, aided by further innovations in wire insulation technology and Edison's Quadruplex system.

Work began to build a telegraph line across the country in the summer of 1861. It was completed on October 24, 1861. On that historic day, the first telegram was sent from California to the east. The Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court telegraphed President Abraham Lincoln to declare California's loyalty to the union. As a side note, on that day the Pony Express essentially went out of business. The telegraph had rendered its services obsolete. The telegraph sparked later inventions that would essentially render it obsolete, except in certain circumstances as the USS West Virginia's highlighted here.

If you'd like to see the telegraph, used on the USS West Virginia during World War 2, stop in the West Virginia State Museum, Capitol Complex, Charleston and you will find it in Discovery Room 20-West Virginians at War.

For our April 2022 spotlight artifact we'll highlight Rev. William Browder's (St. Alban's, Kanawha County) wrought-iron plow. The plow's handle, beam and stay were made by the reverend from a hewn tree log and combined with the wrought-iron plow made by a local blacksmith circa 1865. Interestingly, when we think of plows, we generally think of the steel plow that John Deere was able to mass produce circa 1837-1843, but the wrought-iron version was common before (and for some people after) the steel plow.

You can see Rev. Browder's plow outside the log cabin at Discovery Room 4 in the West Virginia State Museum, Capitol Complex, Charleston, WV.

The West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History is seeking entries for the 2022 Quilts and Wall Hangings Juried Exhibition starting Friday, March 25 until Monday, May 2, at 4 p.m. This is the 41st year for the exhibition which will open Friday, May 27, with an awards ceremony at the annual Vandalia Gathering at the Culture Center, State Capitol Complex. The free summer-long exhibition will be displayed through Sept. 13, 2022.

Quilts and wall hangings can be mailed, or hand delivered to Laiken Blankenship, exhibits coordinator for the department, at the Culture Center.

Quilts and wall hangings, handmade or machine made, by West Virginia residents are eligible for the exhibition. Special consideration will be given to hand-quilted entries. Entrants may submit one quilt and one wall hanging. There is a nonrefundable fee of $20 per entry. Quilts and wall hangings shown previously in a Department of Arts, Culture and History Quilts and Wall Hangings juried exhibition are not eligible.

A quilting workshop will be held on May 6 by Juror Linda Luggen titled “Ironing Out the Wrinkles.” Participants will bring their problem pieces for a troubleshooting Q & A. There are limited spaces available and an RSVP is required.

The prospectus and entry information for the 2022 Quilts and Wall Hangings Juried Exhibition can be found at https://wvculture.org/agencies/museums/.

For more information about the exhibit or to request a printed prospectus, contact Laiken Blankenship at (304) 558-0220 or [email protected].

President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." Each year on December 7th we honor the courage and sacrifice of warriors who comprised the “Greatest Generation”, and now 80 years after that infamous day, we still remember the sacrifice of many who made our country strong and free. We would like to take this opportunity to join you in observing December 7th as National Pearl Harbor Day.

Come and see our scale model of the USS West Virginia and some of the artifacts related to it in the Great Hall, Culture Center, Capitol Complex, Charleston. The exhibit will be on display until December 27th.

Today marks the 80th birthday of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP).

“Volunteers serving America's communities, saving lives, and shaping futures.”

"The Civil Air Patrol is America’s premier public service organization for carrying out emergency services and disaster relief missions nationwide. As the auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, CAP’s vigilant citizen volunteers are there to search for and find the lost, provide comfort in times of disaster, and work to keep the homeland safe. Its 56,000 members selflessly devote their time, energy, and expertise toward the well-being of their communities, while also promoting aviation and related fields through aerospace education and helping shape future leaders through CAP’s cadet program" (https://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/).

To see more about the CAP, visit the West Virginia State Museum, Capitol Complex, Charleston. You can learn more about the CAP and West Virginia's military heritage in Discovery Room 20, "West Virginians at War".

Today marks the 158th anniversary of one of America's most iconic speeches, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Below is the copy of Lincoln's speech that he wrote for Colonel Alexander Bliss to have.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

Also, stop by the West Virginia State Museum, Capitol Complex, Charleston and check out the 35-star flag that was flying over Gettysburg's Soldiers Cemetery at the time of Lincoln's famed address. It is hanging in the museum's South Connections Room, near Discovery Rooms 8 and 9.

For November's spotlight, we are going to highlight the nation's first business trust, Kanawha Valley salt manufacturers. According to historian John Stealey, the Kanawha Salt Company formed their "output pools" in November of 1817, forty-three years earlier than historians previously thought the first trust was formed.

In fact, in the early 19th century, the nation's largest salt producing area was in the Kanawha Valley, and the industry reached its boom during the War of 1812.

The artifact itself is salt produced in Malden, West Virginia during the late 1800s. If you would like to learn more about the salt industry in the Kanawha Valley stop by the West Virginia State Museum, Capitol Complex, Charleston and see more in Discovery Room 3: Conflict and Settlement. You can also learn more on the West Virginia Archives and History page (https://archive.wvculture.org/history/thisdayinwvhistory/1110.html)

The West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History will be hosting its 2021 West Virginia Juried Art Exhibition awards ceremony on Sunday, November 14, 2021 at the State Theater, Culture Center at 2:00 p.m. There will be a reception that follows the ceremony. The building will open at 1:30 p.m.

This event is Free and Open to the public. Make sure to stop by to show support to our fine West Virginia artisans, and to see their fantastic works of art.