BRIGADIER GENERAL JAMES B. THAYER OREGON MILITARY MUSEUM

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1 BRIGADIER GENERAL JAMES B. THAYER OREGON MILITARY MUSEUM SE Industrial Way Camp Withycombe Clackamas, Oregon Phone (503) Fax (503) DSN The Oregon Military Museum Monthly Report February 8-March 4, 2013 FRONT LINES UPCOMING EVENTS: Planning is in process for two major upcoming events. Please mark your calendars and make plans to join us for: Saturday April 20 th is the 2013 All-Star Salute, benefiting the Capital Campaign of the Brigadier General James B. Thayer Oregon Military Museum and celebrating Oregon s proud military heritage. For more information, please visit: The 17th Annual Armed Forces Day / Living History Day at Camp Withycombe will be Saturday May 18, America s Military History Comes Alive! Honoring All U.S. Veterans 17 th Annual Armed Forces Day / Living History Day Camp Withycombe - Clackamas, Oregon Saturday May 18, 2013 Sponsored by: Military Vehicle Collectors Club of Oregon & Brigadier General James B. Thayer Oregon Military Museum Come join us for the Annual Armed Forces Day/Living History Day. This is a FREE public event. Hours are 9:00am to 5:00pm, Saturday, May 18, Displays include: Restored military vehicles from bicycles to battle tanks, from World War I to the present. Authentic military campsites and displays of uniforms, arms and equipment. Living History enthusiasts, reenactors, military vehicle collectors, ready to share their knowledge of military history throughout America s past. Please note: Drivers must have a valid Driver s License to enter Camp Withycombe. All adults need to present a valid form of identification. Page 1 of 5

2 RECENT HAPPENINGS: A new membership opportunity has been created to benefit the Museum! To receive the new Membership brochure, please drop us an or call Our thanks to all involved in making the new brochure! It looks great! Meetings continue with architect Don Stastny and his team. New additions and many refinements are being made to the earlier Museum concept drawings and floor plan schematics. New models and updated drawings are being created. We will soon be able to share them with you. Many hours have been spent this month contributing to the draft of a new Oregon Army National Guard Regulation that establishes and implements the Museum s policies, practices, and standards. A few Museum team members were fortunate to meet with several staff of the very impressive Army Heritage Education Center (AHEC), at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. Topics of discussion included fund raising, exhibition development, fabrication, and installation, styles of learning and use of technology in exhibits ( such as holography, as below), display case specifications for preservation, digital archives management, and achieving museum climate standards for both archives and artifacts. We sincerely thank the AHEC staff for their generous gift of time and expertise. Thanks to project manager Gary Van Drew, we have received a nice gently used conference table for the classroom. We are getting ready to have a few small displays there as well. Ultraviolet light filters have been placed in our new collection storage areas. Thanks to the 2004 grant from the Army Historical Foundation, we were able to purchase them for the old museum building. The filters have a total life expectancy of 10 years, and will need to be replaced in two years. We have brought the World War I German 210mm Krupp Howitzer (Lange Mörser) indoors. After just recently being painted, new rust was already quickly reforming. The howitzer was a war trophy issued to the State of Oregon after its captured at Meuse- Argonne and shows battle damage. To our chagrin, the warmer indoor environment awoke the yellow jackets that had set up house inside it! The barrel and part of the mount were quickly bagged, and insect traps have resolved the issue. Four fairly large model aircraft have been returned to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), with our thanks for the Page 2 of 5

3 loan. The aircrafts removal opened up a large space on the Drill Floor (future Main Exhibit Hall). We are saddened by the loss of two 41 st Infantry Division combat veterans who were good friends to the Museum, Dr. George Timmons and David W. Herd, Jr. George served with the 186th Infantry Regiment and played the trombone in the 186 th Band. David was one of a group of Oregon City High School graduates to enlist in the National Guard in 1939, joining Company D, 186th Infantry Regiment. This month, 6 researchers were assisted. IN PROCESS: Unpacking remains our top priority as time permits between meetings and events! This month we unpacked another 300 objects. That s approximately 650 artifacts since the unpacking process began. The majority of these are large, heavy and/or cumbersome artifacts, that require more time to unpack. We have kept up with all the data entry required to note all the new home locations for these objects in our two databases. A great deal of reorganizing is occurring as well. Pallets of uncatalogued library materials and objects are now in one place; all excess furniture has been moved into the old mess hall; emptied packing materials are being sorted into piles for recycling or for later re-use; and macro-artifacts are now becoming accessible. Our continuing thanks goes to the dedicated corps of volunteers for assisting us. Preparations are underway for our annual hazardous materials and environmental compliance inspection, (i.e. making sure all inventories, MSDS sheets, and product quantities are up to date). Ms. Daly has done a great job, with zero findings for the past few years. We continue daily monitoring to see if the HVAC systems are running properly, to monitor the relative humidity in a total of seven zones and adjust as needed, and to look for leaks. We now have an alarm screen on the digital controls that help us realize that an issue has arisen. There are still several issues being worked out, but We can t say thank you enough to the State Shop and the contractors in helping us respond quickly when facility issues arise. The most recent concerns include 75 alarms on one of the HVAC fans, and a urinal that would not stop running - the last time that the adjacent commode malfunctioned and ran for a long period of time, the floor drain backed up more than 55 gallons of water. Almost complete are the renewals of all incoming and outgoing loans. We are working with the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Training for one remaining loan. Supplies needed for unpacking and day-to-day operations have arrived, including two additional dataloggers for areas that contain artifacts and archives. Page 3 of 5

4 New Home for an Army Escort Wagon An exciting new artifact, a horse-drawn U.S. Army Escort Wagon, is making its way to the Brigadier General James. B. Thayer Oregon Military Museum. The donation comes from Curtis Trailers, Inc., a Portland company founded by Myron and Betty Lou Curtis. One of Myron s wishes was that the Army Escort Wagon be donated here. Since their parents passing, the children, Myron, Jr., Cammy, Mylo, and Carley are making sure that their parents wishes are being met. Family members are working on donating much of the collection to various museums and public entities, such as the recent donation of a beautifully restored 1904 Nott Steamer Fire Engine to Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue. Myron and Betty Lou Curtis began collecting horse drawn trailers and wagons in the early to mid-1960s. The collection grew to include fire-related items, and then military-related vehicles and equipment. The large private museum on the company s business site on SE Powell Boulevard has been called a hidden treasure by those fortunate enough to see the more than 150 transportation vehicles and wagons. The Army Escort Wagon is iconic of the days before motorized vehicles became commonplace. These wagons were approved by the Secretary of War on November 21, 1878, but actually saw service through the 1930s. Drawn by four mules or four horses, the Army Escort Wagon replaced the Civil War s six-mule wagons. This World War I era wagon still has its original manufacturing data visible, showing it was produced by the International Harvester Corporation. According to the U.S. Army Transportation Museum, 100,000 of these wagons were ordered for the war effort, requiring the participation of the entire wagon-making industry. Only 38,000 were ever delivered. A common sight on military posts, the wagons could even be seen taking children to school, delivering milk, or picking up a soldier s family at the local railroad station. The Army Escort was used throughout Oregon, even at Camp Withycombe and Camp Clatsop (Camp Rilea). Unfortunately, during World War I in France, the mix of motorized units and animal-drawn wagons often became giant tangles, as trucks and wagons tried to move supplies forward through heavy traffic, in bad weather, and on bogged-down muddy roads. RELATED WEBSITES TO VISIT: Again, thank you for your support and interest! If you wish to join our list to be notified when new reports have been posted online, please us at museuminfo@oregonmilitarymuseum.org Museum: Capital Campaign: Foundation: Page 4 of 5

5 2013 CALENDAR / UPCOMING EVENTS: Mar 14 Environmental Compliance Inspection Apr 4 Daly is presenting a textile preservation workshop that is being co-hosted by the Oregon Museums Association and Registrars Committee-Western Region. It will be held at the 41 st Infantry Division Armed Forces Reserve Center (AFRC), Camp Withycombe. Apr 20 All-Star Salute to the Oregon Military, Governor Hotel, Portland. May 11 West Point Society meeting and tour, Museum and AFRC. May 16 Armed Forces Day at the State Capitol, Salem. May th Annual Living History Day at Camp Withycombe. May 30 Oregon Heritage Commission s Preservation Month Fair at the State Capitol, Salem. DATA LOGGERS: PERIOD: February 1, 2013 February 28, 2013 Museum Standards: Stable temperature and relative humidity are needed to preserve historic artifacts, photos & documents. The goal is to maintain 68 F and 50% relative humidity (), except vaults should be at 40%. Temperature and/or should not swing more than +/-5 within a 24 hour period, since these swings are what cause major deterioration. Green highlights indicate when and where all standards were met. Yellow highlights indicate violations of standards during the time period listed, by being off goal (too hot or cold, too high or low ). Outside Temperature High 61, Low 31 Quick Look: Fluctuations of more than 5 or 5% occurred within a 24 hour period this many times: Collections: 1 of 28 days Library: 1 of 28 days Vault : Art Storage: 1 of 28 days Drill Floor Stage: 18 of 28 days Vault 6410: Textiles Storage: 28 of 28 days Vault : 0 of 28 days 1 of 28 days 0 of 28 days February 1, 2013 February 28, 2013 LOGGER NO. LOGGER LOC. HIGH LOW AV HIGH LOW AV Collections Art Storage Textiles Storage* Library Drill Floor Vault Vault Vault Page 5 of 5