Mayfield Museum

The town I live in, Mayfield,* has a heritage museum which features rotating exhibits of things from the local area. The museum, which is run by volunteers, is in a one room building and has been open two years. They have had exhibits on standard museum fare such as business, education, and churches in the Mayfield area, as well as an exhibit of miniatures.

The current exhibit, "From the Attics of Mayfield"  has me the most excited. The museum committee thought that non-native Mayfieldites needed a chance to participate in a show and issued the invitation of, "Come one, come all and show us what you have hanging around in your attic."  I answered them with a few items of my own. Now I feel kind of proud as I get a chance to show off some of my heritage to others. It's nice to live in a small town where these things happen.

In case you can't make it to the exhibit, here are some of my things that are on display.

This is a picture of my great, great grandmother which is probably of not much interest to anyone but me. But here's something that you might be interested in. Look at the pink arrow pointing to the black bump on top of her head. That is the top of a rod that was holding her in place. The picture was taken sometime in the late 1800's when a picture subject was required to be still for as long as ten minutes. There were poles with clamps on them to help with this process. Usually, the "clamp" was painted out or hidden behind hair, but this one was left visible. Interesting, right?

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This folder belonged to my great grandmother, daughter of the lady above. It carried the catalog for Maisonette Frocks that were sold door to door for a few decades in the early and mid-1900's. The dresses started out in department stores, but door-to-door sales proved to be more successful since most women at that time didn't work outside the home. Eventually, door-to-door was the only way they were sold. I have no idea if Great Grandma was a good saleswoman or not, but I can tell you that she didn't get rich from it.

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This booklet, from 1912, was campaign literature for the Prohibition vote in West Virginia. West Virginia approved Prohibition in 1914. This booklet came from my grandmother, daughter of the frock saleswoman.

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Children's books from the 1930's.  No story here (except in the books.)

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*The name of my local town has been changed to protect the innocent. Mayfield is where the original June, Ward, Wally, and Theodore lived.