Happy National Walnut Day! While this holiday was created to celebrate the hard-shelled nut the walnut tree produces, we are instead “going nuts” about a few objects made with the beautifully-grained wood at the heart of the tree.
by Curator of Collections Nick Powers
May 7 marks National Teacher Appreciation Day, an opportunity to celebrate and honor educators of all types who make lasting contributions to our communities. Teachers change the lives of millions of children every day, inspiring a lifelong love of learning and molding young minds in a positive direction.
Have you met some of our favorite furry friends?
Potter Samuel Bell (1811-1891) of Winchester made this pair of molded whippet figurines in 1841. Whippets are an English sighthound breed descended from greyhounds. The Bell family of potters made numerous whippets as decorative pieces for Valley homes, some of which retain their original paint decoration.
Raise a glass to celebrate National Beer Day with this beer stein in the MSV Collection! National Beer Day began right here in the Old Dominion in 2009, but Virginians have enjoyed “cold ones” for centuries.
A one-of-a-kind piece of Valley folk art from the MSV Collection is an honoree in Virginia’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts Competition. Online voting for the competition is taking place through midnight on January 31. Learn the about artist Robert Cross and vote for the MSV!
It’s cold and flu season, which means people turn to their preferred doctor to alleviate coughing, sore throats, runny noses, and worse. In late 1800s and early 1900s Winchester, one of the men who filled that role was Dr. William Joseph Whitlock (1849-1921). An herbal physician and his own best salesman, Whitlock left behind several small medicine cabinets that advertised his “Whitlocks’ Renowned Remedies,” including one in the MSV Collection.
Carvings by folk artist John L. Heatwole (1948-2006).
For the past three years, the MSV has participated in the Virginia Association of Museums’ Top 10 Endangered Artifacts program. This year, the MSV is nominating a copper still pot, cap, and coils used in the late 1800s by the James C. Foltz Distillery in Edinburg, Virginia until state officials enacted Prohibition in 1916.
People in the Shenandoah Valley celebrated the holidays in ways that have long since disappeared. Discover a once popular Valley holiday tradition that involved mystery, surprise, and a whole lot of fun: “Belsnickeling.”
By Curator of Collections Nick Powers
In Part 2 of The Legacy of Storer College (1867–1955), MSV Curator of Collections Nick Powers continues to explore the 150-year-old history and rise to national status of Storer College through several objects gifted to the MSV by descendants of the College’s founders: Nathan Cook Brackett (1836-1910) and his wife Louise Wood Brackett (1842–1936).
