New Museum Displays
by Helen McAllister 6/22/06
The Gift Shop area of the Museum has been opened up for better traffic flow by rearranging the display cases. This has created a more open look as you enter the Museum. Two of the green display cases have been moved into the back room, along with a smaller glass case.
These changes have created an exciting display opportunity in the back room of the Museum, which has been devoted to "Tehachapi Women of History." A special thank you goes to Charles White who made it possible to have glass doors installed on the cases. This is now a display area where we can show a rotating display of our dress, hat, jewelry and fabric collection.
One of the back walls in this area will feature photographs and information about the women who have played a part in Tehachapi history. Del and Jerrie will help with the research on "Tehachapi Women of History." Charles, Jerrie, Mel and I moved items around, and Mel and I did the carpentry work and painting.
The old storage cabinets in the back room were dismantled to make room for the cases from the main room of the Museum. The office and storage space rented last fall made it possible to move most of the stored items out of the Museum and create more display space.
There are more changes in store for our small museum. We are grouping like items together to better tell Tehachapi’s story. Having a separate area for children's displays and for women displays will give a more family-friendly feel for our visitors.
We plan to keep the American Indian Display on the south wall and will include geology and early man. A nearby display of recreated models of Ice Age Animals will appeal to children.
The Railroad Display is being reorganized and some of the smaller items from the Stokoe Collection will be exhibited, courtesy of the City of Tehachapi. These items will eventually be housed at The Tehachapi Depot when it is restored.
The display on the Cummings family history will continue, but will be moved to the north wall on a newly created three-way extension that Mel is now building for this very purpose.
"The Women of History" display and the “Ice Age Animals” display for children will be complete in time for the Ice Cream Social on June 22nd; however, the other new displays will be completed as time allows. Once all this is completed, we plan other changes so that there will always be something new to see!
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