Note: This update on the Swiss Community Historical Society is reprinted from the society's recent newsletter.
By Phil Kingsley, president of the society
In the wake of the June 2010 Swiss Day the Society's Board has begun exploring some new directions and possibilities, and has reorganized some of its committee structure to support this.
For example, the development of the Homestead to represent life of a specific time period means the house no longer functions as a museum for all the artifacts the Society has received over the years.
A number of the artifacts do not pertain to farm life of the 1840-1850's period; also some are duplicates, some did not originate in the Pandora-Bluffton Swiss Community. Yet most are valuable historical artifacts deserving to be preserved and displayed.
So the Board has established a Museum Committee, under the leadership of Chuck Niswander, to examine the possibility of developing a community historical museum, where artifacts can be safely stored and displays and exhibitions mounted.
In a related action, the Board has reactivated its Inventory Committee, with Alice Chumbley Lora chairing and with a goal of creating a systematic and complete inventory of all the Society's holdings.
This is something that has been worked at over the years but never quite brought to completion; we have high hopes of listing all of the items the Society owns along with notes about location, description, source, etc. of the items. This will, of course, be an essential element in decisions about the creation of a museum.
As we develop the Homestead into a realistic portrayal of a historic period in the rural community, the Board would like to greatly expand the program of visits and activities at the Homestead.
To this end, we are establishing a Homestead Events Coordinating group under Jane Shaw's leadership to schedule and publicize opportunities for tours, visits, and events at the Homestead.
We are particularly hopeful that we can increase our program of schoolchildren's local history fieldtrips to the Homestead. We also hope to increasingly be able to accommodate family gatherings, club meetings, and other groups.
The Board's Program Committee has for many years organized four main events: (1) a Spring Informational Program of the Society, (2) Swiss Day, (3) Fall Festival, and (4) a Christmas Open House. Under new Chair, Gary Wetherill, the Program Committee, in conjunction with Events Coordinator, Jane Shaw, is looking at some ideas for additional public events at the Homestead.
Also to accurately interpret the Homestead to visitors, we will need a cadre of trained docents. To meet this need the Board is creating an Interpretation Committee to develop the information docents will need and train them in presenting it to the public. We will need volunteers to serve as docents, and we welcome inquiries about this.
Finally, the Board is also working to broaden its publicity outreach. Richard Jordan, Chair of the Publicity Committee, has been joined by Judy Hilty Kingsley, in an effort to contact additional media with information about Society activities and events.
In the midst of all these outreach activities, we are still pursuing restoration work at the Homestead. Specifically our Operations Committee, under the leadership of Ron Lora and Project Managers, Seth Bixel and Jeff Althaus, is investigating what it would take to repair the foundation and some of the siding and windows of the workshop-shed behind the house; and the Fitting-Out Committee, chaired by Tom McCullough, and the Curatorial Committee, chaired by Keith Sommer, are continuing to generate ideas about how to furnish various rooms in the house, in particular upstairs bedrooms and a possible "textile" room.
As you can see there is a lot going on with the Swiss Community Historical Society. We welcome input from members and interested parties in all of the following ways: active participation on any of the committees, ideas and suggestions about how we should proceed, financial contributions to support this work.
Swiss Day 2010
The Swiss Community Historical Society celebrated the 60th anniversary of Swiss Day on June 27 with a fine potluck meal and a program featuring a community choir and ensembles singing some of the favorite old hymns, Swiss folk songs, and the Swiss national anthem.
With about 120 people in attendance, the Swiss Day program also included a pictorial review of people, events, and activities of the Society over the past 60 years.
A second part of the Swiss Day activities occurred at the Swiss Homestead where we had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly-renovated Schumacher House. Seth Bixel and Jeff Althaus, Project Manager and Assistant Project Manager for the restoration work on the house, were specially recognized at this ceremony.
