The Montgomery Museum is pleased to host quilter, quilt lover, and quilt expert Bunnie Jordan.
An appraiser accredited through the American Society of Appraisers and a contributing author to several books, including Quilters Hall of Fame, Virginia Quilts, and Southern Quilts, we are fortunate to be able to offer this opportunity to the community and hope you will take advantage of this time with Bunnie.
Date: November 13, 2019
Location: @ the Museum, 300 S. Pepper St., Christiansburg, VA
Time: Appointment Times are Available between 10:30-2:00pm. Please contact the museum to make an appointment now.
Cost: A verbal appraisal will be $25 and a written appraisal will be $55.
The newly opened exhibit at the Montgomery Museum of Art & History explores the long history of schools in Montgomery County. A collection of objects and photographs illustrates the many challenges in providing education to children prior to 1940. Of special interest, is the School Census map on display. This map enumerates the number of children served by the county’s schools in 1940, where the children lived, and shows the locations of the schools and school districts. Photographs of many of the 59 schools in service in 1940 have been added to the map.
Playgrounds, or even grassed schoolyards, were uncommon before 1950. Community groups often raised money to buy playground equipment. Here children at Ellett School are playing games in about 1950. (D. D. Lester Collection, Montgomery Museum)
Early in the county’s history, children were educated at home with the first schools being established by local churches during the 1820s. By the 1850s, academies for both young women and young men were established at Christiansburg and Blacksburg. It was not until 1870, that Montgomery County organized its first public school. The legislation that created the state’s first public school system in 1870 also codified the requirement for separate schools for white and black students.
The number of schools in Montgomery County grew gradually after the inception of the public school system in Virginia in 1870 to peak during the late ninteenth century when one-room schools were dotted throughout the county. School consolidation begin in the 1910s and by the early 1960s, buses carried students to only a few schools.
Few schools serving either race in Montgomery County could have been considered well funded during the nineteenth or early twentieth century. Local residents often provided supplemental funding for special programs, playgrounds, and new buildings or additions. In the case of the rural African American schools at Wake Forest, Pine Woods (or Piney Woods), Shawsville, and Elliston, the funding for new buildings came not only from local residents, but from the Julius Rosenwald fund. This fund was established by philanthropist Julius Rosenwald (president of Sears, Roebuck, & Co.) in 1917 to help provide appropriate school buildings for African American children. The fund, encouraged by Booker T. Washington and supported by specialists at Tuskegee Institute, helped local communities across the South build the best possible schools. It is estimated that one-third of the African American children in the region were served by Rosenwald Schools by 1928. For more information about Montgomery County’s Rosenwald Schools, visit Fisk University’s Rosenwald Database.
The minutes of the October 5, 1929 Montgomery County School Board meeting illustrate how basic schools in Montgomery County were during the early twentieth century. A request to add water coolers to the county’s schools was denied; instead members stated that “a bucket and dipper will be furnished.” Indoor plumbing was rare in the county’s schools. Students often traveled several miles on foot or on horseback to the nearest schoolhouse. They carried pails packed with food because few schools had lunchrooms or cafeterias prior to the 1950s.
Gradually, one-room schools were replaced during the early 1900s with two, three, or four room schools. As roads and automobiles improved during the 1920-1950 period, the pace and scale of this school consolidation increased. During the 1950s and 1960s, many of these small rural schools closed.
The earliest libraries in Montgomery County were created
by church Sunday Schools, clubs or societies, or even private individuals. In
Christiansburg, for example, girls attending the Christiansburg Presbyterian
Church Sunday School class taught by Miss Emaline Miller (later Emaline Craig)
in 1833 were able to check out books from the “lybrary.” This library may have
belonged to the Miller family since the circulation record was kept by Miss
Miller in a small handmade booklet.
The Bookmobile and a library float are seen in the 1948 Farmer’s Day Parade in Christiansburg. Notice the raised panels of the Bookmobile revealing book shelves on either side of the vehicle. (D. D. Lester Collection, Montgomery Museum of Art & History.
The Christiansburg Circulating Library Company was incorporated on March 16, 1850 by a number of well-known Christiansburg professional men including Eli Phlegar, David G. Douthat, and Rev. Nicholas Chevalier. No further details of this library are known, but it may have been a for-profit subscription or membership-based institution. The next library we have records for was at the Virginia Agricultural & Mechanical College, which had a 500 book library when it was founded in 1872.
There was a public library in place in
Christiansburg by 1907 when the Christiansburg Library was noted in the annual Report of the State Librarian as being a
“citizen’s library” station serviced by the Virginia State Library’s Traveling
Library Department. The same report notes that Shawsville was served by one of
sixty-seven library stations. The Shawsville station had 39 borrowers for the
year with a circulation of 173. The library in Christiansburg was still in
operation in 1916 when a notice in the News
Messenger noted a library “story hour” event. In 1919, the Christiansburg
Free Library’s limited hours were announced in the News Messenger; it was open only on Wednesdays from 2:30-3:30 pm. From
its description as a “free” library it is clear that this was a public
institution without membership or subscription fees. Long-serving Montgomery
County School Superintendant Evans King once recalled that in 1928, the Christiansburg
library held 500 books.
The existing county library began in
1941 as part of the Radford Area Library system. Established with Works
Progress Administration (WPA) funds, branches were located at Radford and at Christiansburg.
The Christiansburg library was initially housed in the mezzanine level of the
Piedmont Department Store at 34-36 East Main Street. The space was donated by
the store’s manager, Isaac Mensh. It opened in 1944 with Miss Juanita Robertson
as the librarian.
The county ceased contributing funds to
the program in 1943 ending WPA funds as well. A citizen campaign restored funds,
however, and the library grew to 40,000 books. The Christiansburg Library moved
to the Phlegar Building on South Franklin Street in 1946, to the Marshall House
in 1953, then to a former church on Radford Road in 1977. The first Blacksburg
branch library was established on Main Street in 1969. It later moved to Draper
Road. The City of Radford left the library system in 1970 and Floyd County
joined in 1975 to create the regional system still in place today.
The expansion of the Christiansburg Library to the Marshall House in 1953 allowed space for a Children’s Room as seen in this photograph from October 6, 1954. (D. D. Lester Collection, Montgomery Museum of Art & History)
Branch libraries throughout the county often
began as deposit places located in homes, crossroads stores, etc. that were
stocked monthly from a bookmobile. The bookmobile was crucial to the growth of
the library system. The first bookmobile, created during the 1930s, was a
retrofitted automobile with lift-up panels covering shelves that were accessed
from outdoors. This unit was invaluable during the gasoline rationing of the
World War II period. In 1949, the Bookmobile added a trailer; the first in the
state. The trailer was elaborately designed with shelves, desk, coat closet,
cupboard, heat, lights and venetian blinds. It carried 1,200 books. In 1961,
this was replaced with a van and in 1978 a Gerstenslager model bookmobile with
2,500 books. The bookmobile service ended in 2008.
The long history of the library illustrates
both the importance placed on reading in Montgomery County and the efforts
community members have made to ensure that books were available to all. Looking
at the long history of local libraries highlights how fortunate we are to have
access to the significant offerings available at the modern Montgomery-Floyd
Regional Library system.
Sources: Kanode, Roy, Christiansburg, Virginia Report of the State Librarian, 1907-1908 and Acts of Incorporation, 1850; copies in Montgomery Museum files Miscellaneous documents, June Sayers, Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library
During the Colonial era, Montgomery County was considered to be the western edge of settlement. Yet, it is not the location we generally mean when we think of “The West.”
This mythos was created in large part by the Wild West Shows
that toured the country during the late-nineteenth century. The shows presented
the culture of the Plains Indian as the only
American Indian and the cowboy as a hero.
William F. Cody founded “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” in 1883. The show featured “frontier characters” performing riding and shooting exhibitions, rodeo activities, theatrical reenactments, and more. Cody’s show joined with a similar show founded by Gordon Lillie (aka “Pawnee Bill”) in 1908 to become “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Far East” show. Arriving in Roanoke in October 1911, the Roanoke Times wrote that the pair had: ” . . . united their forces for the purpose of giving the people of America an anthropological exhibit of the globe.” The show performed again in 1913 and was described as the “original ‘movies’.”
Pawnee Bill’s History Wild West Show appeared in Radford around 1906; the troupe paraded along East Main Street in this photograph. (D. D. Lester Collection, Montgomery Museum of Art and History)
The Wild West shows, along with circuses, minstrel shows,
musical performances and more toured the country and stopped in Montgomery
County regularly. To learn more about how Montgomery County residents got their
kicks, view the newly opened exhibit “Entertain Me!: Montgomery County Traveling
Shows” at the Montgomery Museum of Art and History.
The newest exhibit at the Montgomery Museum, “Spirit of Progress: Montgomery County in the 1920s,” looks at both the advances and the inequalities that were part of life during this time. Women, newly able to vote, also experienced expanded opportunity for economic freedom. Women now worked at industrial jobs at the Blue Ridge Overall factory and found new acceptance in business and professional positions.
Pink silk dress with drop waist, c. 1925.
The clothing on display in the exhibit
tells the story of the changing role of women during this time. A
pink drop-waistline silk dress is typical of the boyish look
fashionable during the 1920s. The loose fitting dress hung straight,
not revealing the wearer’s curves. The ability to abandon the
constraining corsets required by the form-fitting, heavy dresses of
the nineteenth century was empowering. Freedom of movement, both
physically and socially, was the hallmark of the 1920s for women.
The female sewing operators working at the Blue Ridge Overall factory embraced this new freedom as they donned men’s denim overalls and festive caps to march in the 1926 Lee Highway Opening parade. These women felt free to celebrate their place in the economic picture of the county and to abandon dresses for men’s pants in public. However, they earned only earned about half as much money as men working similar unskilled factory jobs at the time.
Female employees of the Blue Ridge Overall Factory participated in the opening parade during the 1926 Lee Highway celebration. (D. D. Lester Collection)
Juanita Robertson was a working woman whose wardrobe continues our story. Miss Robertson graduated from Christiansburg High School in 1916 and by 1920 she was employed as a telephone clerk. While we do not know if she ever considered marriage, Miss Robertson was clearly interested in forwarding her career. In 1930, she was employed as a stenographer at “the college,” probably Virginia Tech. She continued working as a stenographer at least through 1940. In 1944, she took the role of librarian for the newly opened public library in Christiansburg. In 1945, she began working for the Town of Christiansburg. She soon gained the position of assistant town treasurer; a role she would hold for the next nineteen years. Upon her retirement in 1966, she was honored with a banquet and those who knew her remembered her years of “efficient and faithful service.”
Certainly among the county’s earliest
“career women,” Juanita Robertson was also concerned that her
wardrobe be fashionable. Two dresses and a beaded purse owned by Miss
Robertson are currently on exhibit. By the 1930s, women’s clothing
became softer and more graceful. The natural waistline and curves
were again celebrated as seen in both of Miss Robertson’s dresses,
which date to the late 1920s or early 1930s.
Blue evening gown and silk floral day dress, circa 1925-1935, worn by Miss Juanita Robertson.
The clothing now on exhibit is
beautiful. When we understand how these garments tell the story of
women across Montgomery County who were joining the workforce and
finding new opportunities, the beauty of the garments has an even
deeper meaning.
HOURS: Tuesday thru Friday 10:30AM-4:30PM and Saturday 1:00PM-4:00PM