{"id":10612,"date":"2023-11-01T09:26:57","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T15:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/?p=10612"},"modified":"2023-11-01T09:34:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T15:34:57","slug":"carlson-stepping-down-as-curator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/carlson-stepping-down-as-curator\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlson stepping down as curator"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Carlson stepping down as curator<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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By Kerri Rempp<\/strong><\/p>

Discover Northwest Nebraska<\/strong><\/p>

A visitor from Belgium found his way from a toy convention in New York to the Dawes County Historical Museum to view the Heesacker toy collection and the Erixson doll collection.<\/p>

A local resident recently donated items to add a Vietnam exhibit to the military room, where Curator Phyllis Carlson enjoys the personal connections to Fort Robinson, where she lived during its time as a military post when her dad was stationed there and her uncle ran the bakery.<\/p>

Personal stories are shared while visitors stroll through the Dawes County Historical Museum connecting points on a timeline, from Dawes County\u2019s earliest days to the present, as young students bring their families back to the museum after taking part in Frontier Day.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s like walking through your own history,\u201d said Carlson, who retired as curator in October after 10 years at the helm. \u00a0<\/p>

Carlson, a retired teacher who taught in Sheridan and Dawes counties for 30 years, was first introduced to the museum through her in-laws. Father-in-law Dave Carlson served on the board, while mother-in-law Irene volunteered. In the summers, when she wasn\u2019t teaching, Carlson would work at the museum as a volunteer alongside Irene.<\/p>

When Belle Lecher was ready to retire as curator, the board reached out to Carlson about taking on the position.<\/p>

\u201cI could see the value of the place, and the goal of preserving the history of Dawes County,\u201d Carlson said.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Dawes County Historical Museum has a good base of volunteers, and she set a goal to get them more involved in the day-to-day aspects.<\/p>

\u201cI wanted to try to find ways to integrate our volunteers.\u201d<\/p>

She wanted the museum to be a place where volunteers enjoyed a positive attitude, cooperation and like values and goals while they worked to preserve the county\u2019s history. Volunteers have taken on expanded roles with maintaining the exhibits, membership and research requests and record-keeping. In return, they\u2019ve learned even more about the museum.<\/p>

\u201cIt gave them ownership,\u201d Carlson said.<\/p>

Two major exhibits were added to museum during Carlson\u2019s tenure, each requiring construction to house them. The Marcus Cain machinery collection from the Cullen family is a one-of-a-kind collection of farm equipment, all built by Marcus Cain during growth in the agricultural sector of the county. The museum raised funds to construct a building to house the equipment, and actually built it around the machinery. The collection has been featured in several agricultural publications, including Nebraska Farmer.<\/p>

The Doll House was constructed to house a collection of an estimated 3,000 dolls donated by Clara and Richard Erixson. Clara was a doll maker and restorer in Lincoln for 20 years and had been searching for the right place to donate the collection. After the couple relocated to Crawford and visited the museum, they selected it as the recipient.<\/p>

\u201cIt was her life\u2019s work,\u201d Carlson said. An endowment fund and grants made it possible to construct the Doll House, an addition to the museum\u2019s Cove building.<\/p>

It\u2019s always a challenge to determine which donations to accept, Carlson said. A family considering a donation of an exhibit treasures the item.<\/p>

\u201cIt meant a lot to the people, to the family,\u201d Carlson said. But the museum is limited on space and must determine if the item or collection reflects a stage of growth in Dawes County first and foremost. Other considerations include the item\u2019s condition and whether the museum already has the same item in its collection.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Over the years, the museum board, volunteers and curator have worked to create a museum that encompasses Native American history, settlement, agricultural and business growth, railroad expansion and more.<\/p>

\u201cIt hits all aspects of life,\u201d said Carlson, who when pressed, said she especially enjoys the doll and surgical collections.<\/p>

The museum also hosts several events each year, including Frontier Day, when local students get to attend school each May in the one-room schoolhouse on the museum property. A lot of students have made memories over the years at Frontier Day, and often bring their families to the museum and guide them on a tour.<\/p>

Outside of Frontier Day, the museum strives to make its exhibits kid-friendly so children can connect with the past on their level. During a tour, kids can take part in a scavenger hunt, try their hand at using an old-fashioned typewriter and rotary phone or have a tea party in the Doll House.<\/p>

Each September, History in Action Day encourages visitors of all ages to explore days gone by as they churn butter, shell corn and press apples. The summer Garden Party highlights an aspect of the museum and provides a closer look at some of the exhibits.<\/p>

In 2022, the Dawes County Historical Museum hosted a Smithsonian exhibit on rural America and took part in the Nebraska State Tourism Passport Program.<\/p>

\u201cIt was a thrill to do the Passport Program. It was just wonderful,\u201d Carlson said. \u00a0<\/p>

The museum is unique in that it allows visitors to see and touch the exhibits up close.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s not behind glass,\u201d Carlson said, noting that one visitor remarked that of the 200-300 county museums he\u2019d visited, Dawes County was the best.<\/p>

During her decade as curator, Carlson has worked to grow the museum\u2019s outreach and reputation.<\/p>

She writes \u201cMeanwhile Back at the Museum,\u201d a feature for the monthly Golden Age Courier publication owned by the museum, established a Facebook presence and expanded its quarterly newsletter to 12 pages. She also designed posters, brochures, business cards and merchandise for the museum and oversaw the launch of a new website.<\/p>

With the support of the board, she also created an extensive advertising campaign.<\/p>

\u201c(Advertising) has really brought the museum to the forefront,\u201d she said. \u201cOur outreach is much bigger than it was.\u201d<\/p>

The museum now receives research requests from overseas through its Facebook page and welcomed visitors from 9 foreign countries, 65 Nebraska cities and 41 states as of mid-October. \u00a0<\/p>

\u201cThe board has been great to work with, very supportive,\u201d Carlson said, making it possible for all the accomplishments to happen. \u00a0Rex Cogdill will take over as curator for the next year to continue the positive growth.<\/p>

Though she\u2019s stepping down as curator, Carlson plans to continue to volunteer at the museum.<\/p>

\u201cMy whole 10 years have been a labor of love,\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cThe people I\u2019ve worked with have all made it such a pleasant journey.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carlson stepping down as curator By Kerri Rempp Discover Northwest Nebraska A visitor from Belgium found his way from a toy convention in New York to the Dawes County Historical Museum to view the Heesacker toy collection and the Erixson doll collection. A local resident recently donated items to add a Vietnam exhibit to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[246,493,494,495,55,496],"class_list":["post-10612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chadron","tag-dawes-county","tag-dawes-county-historical-museum","tag-museum","tag-northwest-nebraska","tag-pioneer-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BDD_3703.jpg?fit=2048%2C1365&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgf0HI-2La","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10612"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10618,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10612\/revisions\/10618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovernwnebraska.com\/staging\/5924\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}