Today we had the pleasure of talking with Jim Butts and his sister Merilyn Hammond, who donated several artifacts, in 2006, that their parents had collected in the 1960s. Many of the artifacts had come from an area where their grandfather owned a cabin, and where they spent the summer as very young children. Today, they joined us to talk about some of the artifacts in their collection.
Over the last several months we have been working with Weldon Exhibits on our permanent exhibit and finding out just how much information we don't have about many of the artifacts in our collection. Many of the artifacts that were donated to the college decades ago came without any records of where they were found or when they were found. These details are always essential for understanding artifacts and the stories they can tell us.
As we try and piece together information about the archaeological collection that is now under our care, we have been combing through records to find clues. In the last few weeks we have found several original files on one of the ollas we are highlighting in the permanent exhibit. Today, it was an oral history that we are relying on. In the two hours Jim and Merilyn were at the museum, they were able to tell us where over half of the artifacts in their fathers's collection came from. The information we have been able to add to our records today is invaluable for our collections and our research.
The timing of this visit couldn't have been more perfect as we are really trying to puzzle together information on many of the collections. We want to thank Jim and Merilyn for taking the time to give us their information. Jim drove out from Salt Lake City for this meeting!
We are happy to have been able to connect with them and can't thank Jim and Merilyn enough for today. We are excited that they are happy with the plans we have for the museum and that that their parent's collection will now be permanently preserved.
.JPG)
Unfortunately, this year the museum has not received a grant to cover our popular coiled clay program. We are going to have a hard time paying our staff for all of these events and will be relying heavily on volunteers who have done coiled clay with us before. If your child has made a clay pot with us in the last year, we are reconstituting the clay they used in order to have enough clay (we hope!) to handle the large amount of children we are expecting to visit our booths at these festivals. If anyone has enjoyed making pots with us and is interested in volunteering at any of these festivals, please email us at ivdmuseum@gmail.com.
