From Lincoln to Obama: Some Insights into Historical Artifacts

Do you ever have those weeks where it seems like everything is going wrong? I had that kind of week. But being at the museum is like a breath of fresh air: to interact with historical pieces, work with intelligent, experienced curators and professionals and see the public get excited about history. I tell you, a day at the museum is the cure for all that ails me.

Today was a get-down-and-dirty type of day. Dennis is collecting all paper items that have to do with the hotels and casinos of Las Vegas. So, Michelle and I got the job of hunting through the collection looking for these types of pieces - matchbooks, menus, programs, brochures - that kind of stuff. Remember that mountain of boxes I showed you earlier? Let’s just say it was a treasure-hunt of a task.

But, along the way we came across some interesting finds and I discovered some insights of my own. For example, in one box was a whole slew of Obama pamphlets, posters and literature from his 2008 campaign. I will admit that I am not a democrat so my discovery made me snicker at first. But upon second glance, something occurred to me. Who’s to say that these pieces won’t become important in the future? Maybe they will be preserved and put on display in a museum? Maybe they have already. What I discovered was history in the making. Obama was, after all America’s first black president, that is a major historical moment, no matter what your political persuasion. These things, although ordinary or insignificant are historical objects!

For example I was watching an episode of Pawn Stars the other day. Did you know that one of the “experts” that they use comes from our very own Clark County Museum? But I digress. One piece that they were looking at was a wanted poster for John Wilkes Booth for Lincoln’s assassination. Someone had saved and preserved it all these years - what a treasure! Although items like these seem obvious to save, what about others. 150 years ago no one probably thought that saving a campaign poster from Lincoln or Roosevelt’s political campaigns was noteworthy. But today these are precious artifacts. The bottom line is who is to say in the present that something is not important? Although I frequently dive through boxes in the basement full of what some people would call “junk,” each piece tells a story, it has a history, and who knows - in the future it may find itself in a museum display.