2010 - Lift Off!

By: Erin Crissman, Curator

This year will mark my second full year as Curator at TFM. Since I arrived in May of 2008, I’ve been completing projects scheduled before I arrived, assessing what needs to be done and making priority lists for the future. This year, though, I feel more at home (partly due the house my fiancée and I purchased right in the Village of Cooperstown) more a part of the team, rather than the “new curator.” Here are a few things I’ll be working on in 2010: Historic Village

Pharmacy Restoration. Like Dr. Jackson’s Office last year, the Pharmacy will receive some TLC from the curatorial and facilities departments. We emptied the pharmacy of its collection objects, herbs and glassware to ready it for the plaster-repair crew to begin next week. This project is slightly less intense than Dr. Jackson’s office. The Pharmacy is just receiving an interior face-lift rather than a complete overhaul and new exhibition. Stay tuned for photographic updates! Bump Tavern: This is often considered to be the gem of our building collection at the museum. Bump was one of the first non-craft buildings to come to the museum (in 13 pieces!) and although it receives a lot of maintenance, it hasn’t had serious attention in about 10 years. In a multi-year project, Bump’s exhibition rooms will get a face lift, some new printed interpretation and new paint. Come out to see our newly polished gem Memorial Day weekend. New collection initiatives

Thanks to a very supportive donor, TFM will undertake two major collections projects in 2010.

The first is to create a new collection of rural photography that will document changes in agricultural practice and farm family life in Central New York from 1840 to the present. Think you have some photographs in your family’s collection that might fit into this new initiative? Stay tuned for further updates! Above: Dagerreotype of Patience Clark Armstrong, Plainfield Center, Otsego County, NY ca 1850-1875. The Farmers' Museum Collection, Museum Purchase, F0003.2006(02)

We’ll also be launching a new collections website, an on-line database, in conjunction with the New York State Historical Association Research Library. This new project will provide incredible access to many of our 20,000 objects with contextual information from the NYSHA Research Library’s collection. Over the next 12 months, you’ll be able to explore our collection of woodworking tools, for example, and also find related library materials like trade catalogs, cabinetmaker account books, business records and other manuscript material. I can’t wait for these exciting projects! Share