When the doors swing open to the Wood River Museum of History and Culture, Ketchum will be a centerpiece of exploring the region’s past – from tribal history to Hemingway to becoming a global ski destination.
“We think central Idaho holds a lot of stories – yes stories from the past but also stories that are unfolding right now,” said Dr. Jenny Emery Davidson, executive director of the Community LibraryAssociation. “Our hope is that everybody who comes into the museum finds a point of connection and sees themselves as part of that collection of stories that shape this place.”
Davidson joined Mary Tyson, director of the Center for Regional History to talk with Morning Edition host George Prentice about their much-anticipated grand opening, which will also include a performance from a Grammy Award-winner.
“We really want to be welcoming to everyone and to honor the history that Idaho holds.”Dr. Davidson
Read the transcript below:
GEORGE PRENTICE: It's Morning Edition. Good morning. I'm George Prentice. If I get a bit too excited for the next several minutes, my apologies right up front, but I am excited about this. This week, the Community Library in Ketchum puts the grand in grand opening when they open the much-anticipated Wood River Museum of History and Culture. Jenny Emery Davidson is here, executive director of the Community Library Association. And Mary Tyson is here, director of the Center for Regional History. We welcome both of them back to this broadcast. Good morning to you both.
JENNY EMERY DAVIDSON: Good morning, George.
MARY TYSON: Hi, George.
PRENTICE: Jenny, up top. What is your hope for this museum?
DAVIDSON: Oh, George, our hopes really are big. They're big. And I also think they're quite individual and specific for every person who comes through the museum. We think that central Idaho holds a lot of stories - yes stories from the past, but also stories that are unfolding right now. Our hope is that everybody who comes into the Wood River Museum of History and Culture finds a point of connection, sees themselves as part of that larger collection of stories that shape this place. And we also hope that everyone who comes in finds a moment of surprise. So something they didn't know about this place that really peaks their interest and curiosity in a fresh way so that by the time somebody has walked through all of the exhibits and they step back out onto the street and look up at Bald Mountain and look at the community around them, they both feel affirmed as part of this place and also have a new sense of the many layers of stories of history that make this place what it is.
PRENTICE: And Jenny, point our listeners where to go. This is right in downtown Ketchum.
DAVIDSON: It is. And it's just diagonally across the street from the community library itself. And right next door to the Gold Mine thrift store, which is a funding arm of the community library and has been a part of its history since its inception in 1955. The gold mine actually is that building was the first library, and now the museum is nestled between these two buildings at 580 4th Street, and Fourth Street has been designated by the City of Ketchum as a heritage corridor. So, we think it is particularly fitting that we are able to relocate this museum and relaunch it in a place that the city really is wanting to see as a heritage focused part of the heart of Ketchum.
PRENTICE: Mary Tyson, when I spent some time with you in your archives earlier this year, my deepest appreciation surfaced pretty quickly from how hard you and your colleagues have been working toward this day. So, talk to me about how you're feeling.
TYSON: Well, I'm really excited about finding out how the community responds to what we've put together. We have over 80 artifacts from our museum collection, and we hope that we're telling stories about them that really resonates with the community in different ways. And I'm really excited to see, like Jenny talked about layers, I think the exhibits will unfold for people and that you can return and find out something more or think about one of the stories more deeply, or tell someone about someone you know in the exhibit. One of the exhibits is How in the World did you Get to Sun Valley? And it's all about arrival stories. We have ten of them, and they range from the late 19th century to current day. And so, it touches a lot of parts of the Wood River Valley and central Idaho.
PRENTICE: Talk to me about the dedicated spaces in the museum.
TYSON:. One of the dedicated spaces is a tribal room, and we are focusing on Shoshone Bannock homelands. And we've worked to develop some text panels and some artifacts that have been replicated by Shoshone-Bannock tribal members. One is Sam Galloway, and he made us fish baskets with traditional materials. Willow And they are beautiful. So, we are excited about just presenting the story of who was here and who continues to be here. And we are excited about dialog that will develop and another kind of unfolding. Of the layers of ancient history mixed with contemporary relationships with the Fort Hall and the Shoshone-Bannock tribes. We have another contemporary artifact replicating traditional muskrat shoes made from muskrat pelts and bulrush that's made by Babette Haskett. And they are so beautiful.
DAVIDSON: I think there are a lot of possible points of connection and interesting juxtapositions. And one that I want to point to specifically is where we have right next to each other a trophy that was won by the skier Gretchen Fraser in the late 1930. This is before she went on in 1948 to become the first American man or woman to win a gold medal in skiing at the Olympics. And one of her early successes and where she helped to shape herself as a skier was in Sun Valley. And it's also the place she chose as her final home. So you have this small trophy that is an indicator we now know in retrospect, of the great victories that are to come for her. And then right next door, we have a singular small portrait of a Chinese man that was taken in Hailey in the 1880s. And we really have no other information about him, in contrast to Gretchen Fraser, about whom so much has been written. And many people may come to our museum specifically wanting to learn more about someone like Gretchen Fraser. But this Chinese man, we don't really know how he got to Hailey. We don't really know what he did when he was here. We just have this portrait from a photography studio in Hailey at that time period and we have newspaper articles from that very same time in which local business owners are actively calling for the boycott of Chinese businesses and for the exclusion of Chinese customers from their businesses. So that gives us some insight into why we know really nothing about this man, because there was a larger cultural movement around him that was making his story invisible. And so to have those two pieces next to each other again, I think people could find different points of identification and different kinds of surprise in the trends, the diversity of people over time that have shaped this place and have experienced it in very different ways.
PRENTICE: And it's the definition of storytelling, right? Because history is the continuation of sharing those stories. And there's a real possibility of someone coming to the museum and sharing some information possibly about that photograph.
DAVIDSON: Absolutely And we do have many invitations for people to share their own stories In the museum. We invite people to write on a luggage tag, their own story of how they got to central Idaho, how they got to Sun Valley. And in the Hemingway Gallery, we have a couple of vintage typewriters that are of the same ilk that Hemingway himself used. And individuals can sit down and face a blank sheet of paper and see what it's like to press upon those keys and watch words form on the page. And I will tell you that in our sneak peeks of the museum so far, the typewriters are exceptionally popular. So, we hope that in addition to learning the stories of others, people are prompted to share a bit of their own stories as well.
PRENTICE: I have to admit. I'm a sucker for a great gift shop, especially at a museum. Tell me there's going to be one.
TYSON: There is. There's a great gift store. Yeah, we're super excited. We have stickers and patches and cards and hats in the lobby. Space of the museum is a giant wall covered artwork. It's a wallpaper of an image of the Wood River Watershed, and it is beautifully rendered by Daniel Coe. We are using the image a few times, once on a water bottle that's for sale and there are bookmarks that are free. Part of our Baldy exhibit is showcasing some ways that Baldy has inspired culture and the arts. And we have featured Judith Freeman, who was a ski instructor and was encouraged by one of her clients to become a writer. She was already an aspiring writer, and it was on Baldy as a ski instructor that she really dedicated herself. And she's a successful writer with seven novels now. And so, we have made one letter press chapbook of a story that she wrote about Mary Hemingway, and we are selling that. And we have many books on Central Idaho for sale as well.
PRENTICE: This is a sneaky way for me to mention that the Community Library is self-sustaining, which to our listeners… they're going to say, “Hold it. What?” For those who don't live in the Wood River Valley, the Community Library is self-sustaining.
DAVIDSON: Right. So, access to the museum will be free because that is a driving priority of the Community Library, is to provide free access to everyone, to educational resources and contemplative spaces. The Community Library, when it was founded in 1955 by 17 women, they wanted it to operate independently, and so they took it upon themselves to developing a funding structure independent of local government. So, we don't receive any dedicated tax dollars from the city or county. We privately fundraise every year and also have a thrift store that contributes to the library's operating budget in a robust way. The Gold Mine Thrift Store.
PRENTICE: Your opening celebration on Wednesday…it includes a Grammy winner.
DAVIDSON: Yes, We will officially grandly open the doors to the Wood River Museum of History and Culture. And as part of that celebration, Hovia Edwards, who is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes, is going to perform a couple of musical numbers on her flute. She has won a Grammy Award for her work and has also been involved in an opera that is under development now based on the life of Sacajawea. We are so excited to have whoever's music be part of lending some ceremony to this opening and to this space, which we really want to be welcoming to everyone and to honor the history that Idaho holds.
PRENTICE: Real quick, once the grand opening has come and gone, what will be your days and hours?
TYSON: We're open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 to 6.
PRENTICE: And they are Mary Tyson and Jenny Emery Davidson have a grand time on Wednesday. And thank you so very much for giving me some time this morning.
TYSON: Thank you.
DAVIDSON: Thank you, George.
Find reporter George Prentice on Twitter @georgepren
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