Historical Society Receives Celanese Coning Machine

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, July 7, 2010

The Celco plant in Narrows has been an important industry in Giles County since the plant opened on Christmas Day in 1939. Celanese Acetate has been an economic driver requiring housing, businesses, and amenities to be built for plant workers throughout the county. Production at the Celco plant has shifted over the years as markets have changed. One of the products that the plant no longer makes is acetate yarn for manufacturing fabrics.

In 1905, Swiss brothers, Camille and Henri Dreyfus, were the first to develop a commercial manufacturing process for cellulose acetate, which could be used to make films, fibers, molded objects, and toilet articles. In the 1920s, acetate fiber was first spun in Cumberland, Maryland and a weaving mill was built to turn the acetate yarn into cloth. The Celanese name first appeared at this time as well, a combination of the words “cellulose” and “ease” for the ease of wearing the acetate fabric. The name was a marketing tactic, as the silk market worked hard to discredit the new fabric.

Acetate had several qualities that were superior to silk, including the ability to hold permanent moiré designs and pleating. These qualities revolutionized the dress industry, influencing fashions of the time. Later acetate was woven with silk, cotton, wool, and other fibers to provide wrinkle-free, quick-drying clothing at a reasonable price.

Celanese recently donated a coning machine and several bobbins of Celanese acetate yarn, including the last one to be spun at the Celco plant. According to John Kinney, Jr.: “Installed in the 1940s, coning machines manufactured a filling yarn, used between sheets of yarn from Celco bobbins. Some of the U.S. textile companies that purchased cones from Narrows were Satkin Mills, Burlington/New River Mills, Woodhall Mills, and National Velvet. Most U.S. textile manufacturers went out of business, beginning in the 1990s, due to foreign competition. This also led to ending coning production at Celco.”

Look for the Celco coning machine to be part of a new textile exhibit later this summer in the Historical Society’s Museum!

Wabash Band Drum Donation

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, June 30, 2010

The Giles County Historical Society received the donation of a snare drum used by Charles H. Habernigg in the Wabash Band at the annual Habernigg family reunion on June 19th in Pembroke. The Wabash Band was organized in 1884 and featured the talents of local community members who played marches and concert band music typical of the time. Before radio and television, concert bands were popular entertainment where people could socialize and hear the latest music.

The Wabash Band was well-known in Southwest Virginia and played at many county fairs, political affairs, and other events. Band members wore gold-trimmed green uniforms and traveled in a horse-drawn wagon, highly decorated with the Wabash Band name on the sides. The band was lead by J. S. Eaton for over 50 years and usually had about 12 members with local family names like Eaton, Stafford, Anderson, Hedrick, Brown, Jones, Peck, Robertson, Meadows, King, Dehart, Habernigg, Fanin, and Wright.

The drum used by Charles H. Habernigg was donated by his granddaughter, Betty Harless Lynch of Aldie, Virginia, in honor of her aunt, Mrs. Georgia H. Williams, the last living child of Mr. Habernigg. The presentation of the drum to the Historical Society was made at the annual Habernigg reunion where relatives ranging from Mr. Habernigg’s daughter through great great great grandchildren were present. The drum will complement other Wabash Band instruments and memorabilia already on display at the Historical Society. Look for an improved Wabash Band exhibit including the Habernigg drum in the Historical Society’s museum in August.

Virginia Association of Museum Fundamentals and Collections Forums

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, June 23, 2010

The Giles County Historical Society is a member of the Virginia Association of Museums (VAM). VAM (www.vamuseums.org) has over 1,000 members focused in the Virginia and Washington, DC area and brings together this museum community to further education and training, foster development, and provide support for museums and museum staff. For small museums with small budgets, like the Historical Society, the support of VAM and the expertise available to us through its many members and staff is invaluable.

Last week, VAM offered a 3-day Fundamentals Forum and Collections “Boot Camp” at Virginia Tech that Historical Society staff members were fortunate enough to attend. Classes were taught by Virginia museum professionals with many years of expertise as executive directors, curators, exhibit designers, grant writers, museum educators, and jacks-of-all-trades. Many were from small museums with small staffs and small budgets and were familiar with the many jobs each of us must perform everyday to keep a museum running. Topics in the Fundamentals Forum included daily museum operations, outreach and partnerships, annual fund and membership, school programs, technology and social media, financial management, volunteer management, and others. The Collections “Boot Camp” included hands-on exercises working with collection items including a trip to the Virginia Tech Museum of Geosciences, exhibit design, and less glamorous topics such as creating a collections policy, archives management, and deaccessioning.

The VAM Fundamentals Forum and Collections “Boot Camp” were made possible through a generous grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) and the Institute for Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS). Both of these organizations have been under increasing scrutiny as state and federal budgets are tightened. However, their support was crucial for making this program possible and affordable for small institutions like the Giles County Historical Society to attend and experience an unforgettable and intense educational and networking opportunity that will ultimately strengthen our organization and move us closer to our goal of creating a professional 21st century museum.

Virginia Time Travelers Program

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, June 16, 2010

Are you planning a summer vacation that includes visiting Virginia museums and historic sites? Come by the Giles County Historical Society to get your copy of the TimeTravelers Passport Guide. The TimeTravelers program of the Virginia Association of Museums encourages children and adults to visit the many historic and cultural resources that Virginia has to offer. Participating museums stamp the passports. Once the passport has 6 stamps, you can become an official Virginia TimeTraveler and receive a certificate and embroidered patch.

For 2010, the program features an expanded Passport Guide that is, in itself, a souvenir of travels throughout the state. Over 100 museums are represented in the 40 page glossy book with photographs, descriptions, contact information, and a place for the passport stamp. If your plans include visits to Mount Vernon, Monticello, Colonial Williamsburg, the Virginia Historical Society, or the Virginian State Capitol, you’ll be on your way to completing your passport. If you are venturing to Roanoke to visit the Taubman Museum of Art, the O. Winston Link Museum, the Virginia Museum of Transportation, or the History Museum of Western Virginia, they will stamp your passport as well.

Even if you already have your TimeTravelers Passport Guide and are looking for an extra stamp, stop by the Historical Society. We are listed under the New River Heritage Coalition (www.newriverheritage.org), a cooperative formed by the museums of the New River Valley to share expertise, create a cohesive picture of life in the New River Valley, and collaborate on marketing efforts. Make visiting Virginia museums and historic sites part of your summer vacation!

Quilt Documentation Day Grant

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, June 2, 2010

The Giles County Historical Society received a grant from the Community Foundation of the New River Valley at their annual meeting on May 18, 2010. The grant, from the Endowment for Giles County, funds the Giles County Quilt Documentation Project, specifically supplies and equipment to properly document quilts made within the current boundaries of Giles County from colonial times through 1999.

An offshoot of the Historical Society’s yearly Pride In Our Heritage Quilt Show, the Giles County Quilt Documentation Project is a new initiative begun by Melissa Barnhart to collect information for family members as well as provide a repository of information about the unique quilting history of the county. Quilts are photographed, oral history information recorded about the origins of the quilts, and technical data regarding patterns, stitching, cloth, and other details is collected. Quilts receive a label indicating their participation in the Giles County Quilt Documentation Project, quilt owners receive a copy of all information collected, and data is recorded in a database for access by quilt researchers. Thanks to Barnhart’s initiative, the project is currently spreading to other counties in Southwest Virginia. Giles County’s next Quilt Documentation Day will be October 23rd.

The mission of the Community Foundation of the New River Valley is to enhance the quality of life in Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, and Pulaski Counties and the City of Radford by serving the charitable interests of donors; making creative, visionary and sensitive grants; devoting special emphasis to programs that enrich the spirit and life of our community; and acting as a catalyst and convenor for leadership and community development. The Community Foundation’s Endowment for Giles County is funded by your friends and neighbors to support nonprofit work in Giles County.

Smocking Class - June 11

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, May 26, 2010

Giles County Historical Society and Giles Arts Council present a smocking class with Beth Cross, a member of the Red Bud Chapter of the Smocking Guild of America, on Friday, June 11th from 1:30 to 4:00. This is the latest class in the Needle Arts Class series. Smocking is a form of utilitarian and decorative stitching that has been in use since the 13th century. Smocks were loose fitting blouses of linen worn by farm workers and other laborers. The loose fit provided protection and warmth, as well as freedom of movement. The linen was gathered into pleats at the yoke and sleeves. Smocking stitches secured the pleats creating stretch in the garment while also providing decoration and identification.

During the period of industrialization, smocks became dangerous for workers to wear because they were loose fitting and could get caught in machinery. Though smocking was no longer a necessity on work clothes, the embroidery stitches used became popular on women’s and children’s clothing as decoration.

What was once a rather laborious process of creating the pleats, has become easier with the use of a pleater which gathers the fabric. The focus of smocking today is on the embroidery stitching rather than the gathering of the fabric. Pleating creates a canvas on which to work with the pleats creating vertical lines and the threads holding the pleats in place creating horizontal lines. Simple outline, cable, trellis, and wave stitches can then be used to create intricate and beautiful patterns on the pleated cloth.

If you would like to learn a more about smocking before taking the class, stop by Living History Day on May 29th from 12-5pm and visit the smocking demonstration on the lawn of the Andrew Johnston House. Then join us on June 11th to learn smocking stitches that can embellish clothing or Christmas ornaments. Please contact the Historical Society to register for the class.

A Celebration of the Needle Arts Show - May 30th

Discover Giles County Historical Society article from the Virginian Leader, May 19, 2010

For the last several years, the Giles County Historical Society and Giles Arts Council have been collaborating on a series of Needle Arts Classes. The classes have helped us learn of the many talented artists in the area who create beautiful works with the simplest of implements: a needle and thread. Are you one of those talented artists or do you have a collection of vintage needle arts such as appliqué, counted cross stitch, crewel embroidery, crochet, dressmaking, drawn work, embroidery, hand smocking, handmade dolls, huck weaving, knitting, lace making, needlepoint, plastic canvas, samplers, or tatting?

We are in search of exhibitors for A Celebration of the Needle Arts Show on May 30th from 1pm to 5pm in the Andrew Johnston House with a “sneak peek” on May 29th from 12pm to 5pm during Living History Day. Sorry, no quilts for this show. Registration forms are available on our website: www.gilescountyhistorical.org or at the Historical Society and are due May 21st.

A Celebration of the Needle Arts Show will feature the works of Betty Bales, a local needle artist who enjoys learning new skills and honing old ones. Betty is a self-taught artist who has been sewing since grade school. When she sees a technique she is unfamiliar with, she teaches herself. Her works show the breadth of her enjoyment of all things needle arts.

On Sunday, May 30th, the show will feature a presentation by Missy Barnhart on “Decluttering Your Fiber Arts Life” at 1:30pm and 3:30pm. Needle arts demonstrators will be located throughout the house showing bobbin lacing, embroidery, knitting, and crochet. The show’s youngest needle arts demonstrator is Casey Wilburn who will be working on her third Angel embroidery block. She makes these blocks as gifts for important people in her life. Like many 10-year-olds, Casey enjoys many sports, likes school, and is a straight A student.

If you don’t do needle arts yourself or haven’t in a while, plan to come to A Celebration of the Needle Arts Show and get inspired!