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| Public Gets a Look at Knoxville Museum's New Home -- PHOTOS AVAILABLE HERE |
A local museum is now officially open for a trip back in time.
The Knox County Historical Museum showed the public its new space in Knoxville yesterday, welcoming people from across the area and beyond.
The museum originally began in the mid-1950's and opened to the public in 1961 on the top floor of the old courthouse. The museum quickly outgrew its space, and some exhibits expanded to be on display on the ground floor of the courthouse as well. Their new home located next to the Knoxville Fire Department, gives more space to the hundreds of historical artifacts on display.
One of the curators of the museum, Sally Hutchcroft, tells WGIL the new location helps preserve the items. "You need the right conditions to do that, and here we have it in our new museum because it's temperature controlled and humidity (controlled). When we were over in the courthouse there's no way to control the light and the humidity, so we are delighted with this."
Some of the exhibits on display are from the Civil War. Those items include uniforms and a bible a soldier once carried. Another exhibit is Knox County inventions like the improved rotary steam engine from 1868 and a window shutter fastener from 1882.
A relative newcomer to the museum is a life-size horse which pulls a buggy that Abraham Lincoln rode in during his congressional campaign in October of 1858.
The museum is open Sundays from 2 to 4 p-m, or by appointment with one of the members of the Knox County Historical Museum Board. The museum will also be open during the upcoming Knox County Scenic Drive.
PHOTOS FROM THE MUSEUM'S OPENING SUNDAY:
(WGIL News Story and Photos by Dominic Fortini.) |
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| 09 27 09 by Newsroom |
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