Highlights from A Secret Gift

Thank you to everyone who came to the exhibit opening and Soup at Six preview event last week!  We were thrilled with the turnout, and we hope you enjoyed looking at A Secret Gift in a 3D way.

Before guests went up to view it on Thursday night, I told them what I had told Gary Brown of the Repository the week before.  Ted Gup looked at some letters and saw a book.  Frank Motz read the book and saw a play.  Eric Benjamin read the book and heard music.

I read the book and SAW AN EXHIBIT.  I found myself checking off artifacts in the collection in my mind as I read it:

"We have the sign from Fairmount Children's Home."

"We have a bottle from Superior Dairy."

"We have a feed chopper from Dick's Manufacturing."

And so the idea was born!  Then in 2011 Ted donated the letters and checks, and I officially put the exhbition on my Keller Gallery schedule for 2013, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Sam Stone's remarkable gifts.

I'm not an artist, so it can be difficult for me to get my ideas out of my mind and onto paper for people to see ahead of time.  One of my favorite parts of the creative process is when I'm able to bring my vision into reality by setting up the gallery.  That's when my ideas become "sharable" with others!

And let me tell you, this exhibition looks exactly the way I envisioned it!

Here are some highlights:

The suitcase where Ted found the letters

Full sized Dick's Manufacturing feed chopper from our collection

Salesman's model of a Dick's feed chopper
On loan from Sally Dick

1930s era paint set

Shirley Temple doll

A sweet bear from our collection

McKinley High School yearbook from 1923 opened to the page with Sam's wife Minna's picture

1930s era radio from our collection

A re-creation of Sam Stone's office
All of the furniture belonged to him and is on loan from Ted
It is "staged" with artifacts from our collection

Photo highlights from our collection from the 1930s

The sign from the Fairmount Children's Home with related letter writer panels underneath

Some of the letters, thank you notes, and checks

1930s women's dresses

Some "context" artifacts, including Hoover presidential campaign items, a Superior Dairy milk bottle, 1933 McKinley High School yearbook, and a 1933 Ohio license plate

If you weren't able to come to the opening or the Soup at Six preview event, the exhibit is on view through Sunday February 2, 2014.  Our hours are:

Monday - Saturday
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Sunday
Noon - 4:00 PM