The past year at the History Museum for Springfield-Greene County has been pretty busy. As you may have learned from the news letter that the Museum sent out last fall, we published a book on Springfield. If you took advantage of the pre-publication price break and ordered the book you should be enjoying it by now. And you should know that you got a real bargain because the History Museum Executive Board decided to raise the price to $29.95 (still a very good buy). The book is titled "Crossroads at the Spring" and has been a big success! We sold about 200 pre-published copies of the book and from November 11th when the book arrived and January 1 we sold over 2100 copies! Wow! I call that a big success! It helped that the book was carried in several local book stores including B. Dalton in the Battlefield Mall and Barnes & Noble which featured the book with a book signing and other promotions. The whole project was very exciting for me. It was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed writing all the text and captions for my two chapters. It was very difficult selecting the photos because we couldn't use all that we would have liked because the funding limited the number of pages and pictures we could have. However, because of the wonderful response to the book it looks like we may be doing a companion book for the year 2000 that would include a lot of the photos we couldn't fit into this one. The current book is still available at local book stores and at the History Museum.

The Fulbright Family Archives has some great news, too. The History Museum was awarded an $11,000 grant from the William T. Kemper Foundation for the computerization of the Museum's Fulbright Family Archives. A computer system has been purchased and Gary DeMoss has been hired the Systems Analyst and Archivist. Mr. DeMoss and eleven volunteers have begun the task of cataloging and cross-referencing each item in the collections and archives. The project could not be done without the vital work of the volunteers. The volunteers on the project are Alan Metz, Patsy Corbett, Hayward Barnett, Linda Cantrell, Beverly Cooper, Rex Edmonson, Dennis Smith, Patti Stoner, Nicki DeFreece, Sigrid Greer and myself. The project is expected to take at least two years to complete and when finished it will benefit the Museum greatly in our ongoing efforts to maintain the collections and make them easier for the public to access.

All-in-all the year was pretty busy and it looks like 1998 will be also. In addition to the computerization project we have many other things planned. Like the wonderful gala for May 8 we are working on. It will commemorate President Truman's 1952 visit to Springfield and the festivities will include a Presidential Ball at the Shrine Mosque, a silent auction, mini-exhibit and an appearance by Truman himself. (That will be quite a trick to pull off, huh?) We are also getting ready to open a new temporary exhibit on January 14 called "Friends and Neighbors: Our Community in Photos" This exhibit will be celebrating Black History Month and the photographs and artifacts from the Museum's collections and area residents. Adah Fulbright will be featured in the exhibit. I think it will be a big hit and bring in a lot of new patrons to the History Museum.

Also of interest to all of you who are planning to attend the Fulbright Family Reunion here in Springfield next June, we are starting to work on coordinating our summer exhibit called "Artistic Springfield: Then and Now." This exhibit will open in mid-April and run through September 12th. We will be working with 27 organizations to relate our area's unique history of the arts and their impact on people's lives and the community. Our exhibition partnership will include visual, performing and participatory arts such as folk dancing, quilting, wood carving, folk music, writing and weaving. In addition to the History Museum's exhibit there will be many public activities on the same theme that will include performances, demonstrations, lectures and classes. If you are planning to come to the reunion (and I hope you are), I think that this exhibit will be an added plus for your visit.

That's about all the news from the History Museum for now. I hope to see you all here next June. Until then, keep healthy and safe and I will be keeping an eye on things here in Springfield.