Curating the past

In preparation for curating the current exhibit at the Butte County Historical Society Museum, which centers on World War I in honor of its centennial, Nancy Brower set about a mammoth task: Reading the local newspapers from 1914-1918.

“I made copies of articles of interest, then sorted them by topic,” she said while giving a tour of the museum, which occupies a former church in Oroville adjacent to its archives, formerly church offices. But while those archives are extensive, requiring regular cataloging and only the occasional benefit of digitization, collecting materials to include in the exhibit went beyond the society’s holdings.

Brower reached out to fellow local historians who had items that were appropriate for the era, and all the way to the Library of Congress for historical documents to set the national stage for the time period. Society members contributed by arranging the displays; a former longtime reference librarian, Brower is content to remain on the research side of things.

What resulted is a thorough examination of what life was like in Butte County in the 1910s. There are references, of course, to what was happening on the national and international stages, but the focus at the Butte County Historical Society Museum is hyper-local. For instance, most people learned in school that women were put to work while the men were sent to war. But while national history books and documentaries depict women in munitions factories and at telephone company switchboards, the local exhibit features the “farmerettes,” those who joined the Women’s Land Army to tend the crops, of which there were plenty right here.

“That was really the beginning of feminism,” remarked Brower, president of the society.

Other displays focus on topics ranging from local baseball leagues to film production to the fashion and home decorating trends of the time. And others yet feature headlines of the day, such as one that lamented the death of nine to the Spanish flu in one day in Chico. Advertisements warned people to not go out in public without a mask. In the meantime, prominent local physicians were not immune to the draft. One newspaper clipping announces that Dr. N.T. Enloe, who had opened Enloe Hospital in 1913, was assigned medical duty in San Francisco during the war.

The museum isn’t limited to just one exhibit, however, and features several permanent installations, including the jail door that once confined Ishi, the “last wild Indian,” who wandered into Oroville before being sent to San Francisco and scientists’ study. Other displays offer lessons on early Thermalito and the resort at Richardson Springs.

“What distinguishes us from the other museums in Butte County is that we are concerned with the entire county, while most of the others focus on a smaller area,” said Lucy Sperlin, museum director. “Butte County has such a fascinating and broad history.”

The museum is just part of the picture for the Butte County Historical Society (BCHS), which is to say it’s one of four museums it oversees within the county and only a portion of its focus, which extends to archiving and telling stories. Also in Oroville, BCHS runs the Ehmann Home—referred to as “the house that olives built,” as it was once home to the grandmother of the preserved olive, Freda Ehmann. That’s where it holds its biggest fundraiser of the year, the Olive Festival (this year, it will be June 17).

Then there’s the Bangor Church, built in 1882 and the oldest standing church in Butte County—inside is the original Bible used by S. Kinsey, a preacher who rode on horseback from Brownsville on Sundays. The building barely escaped last summer’s fires. And, finally, the Oregon City School, which is likewise the area’s oldest schoolhouse, where you’ll learn about the group of Oregonians that settled the spot while looking for gold, led by Peter Burnett—who served as the first governor of California. (Its big annual barbecue fundraiser is May 27.)

A visit to the Oregon City School illuminated perhaps the biggest struggle for the society—maintaining its buildings, which are naturally very old. Silas Deanda, who lives on the property caretaker of the building, offered a tour, which included a walk around the outside of the one-room schoolhouse. In the rear, he pointed to supports that had been placed underneath the building, which over the years had begun to sink into the ground. He also has problems with vandalism, which is why he lives on-site and also why the museum holds little of value—there’s no security system, he said, but he wishes they’d put one in so he could beef up the offerings.

“There’s a lot of fiscal consumption in just maintaining these old buildings,” Sperlin acknowledged. “We keep the museum and archive buildings heated and cooled,” she added. But that’s not so in Bangor or Oregon City. The Bangor Church, in fact, closes during the hottest and coldest months of the year. Even so, being able to provide visitors with a true example of what life was like for early settlers to the area is worth the trouble, Sperlin said.

A fascination with history is what attracts most people to the museums and to the society itself (membership, which includes a subscription to the quarterly Diggin’s magazine, is $25). But Sperlin and Brower agreed that the group has discovered a deeper calling than just sharing their love of the past with each other.

“At some point, it morphed from a society of people enjoying history to a service organization serving the entire community,” Sperlin said. The organization was formed in 1956. Maintaining the region’s historical record is helpful in myriad ways, she said, from being able to contribute to history books to supplying documentation used in environmental studies to simply satisfying people’s curiosity about their ancestors.

The archives aren’t fully digitized, though they work on it in batches, Sperlin said. They do, however, have a very meticulous catalog of their holdings, so people looking for details on an ancestor or an old map can call or email to find out what information they may have.

While membership in the society tends to weigh on the older side, Sperlin said they are beginning to see more interest among young people—if not to join and volunteer, at least to come view exhibits and research history. As Brower likes to say, “If you don’t enjoy history, you probably had a bad teacher.”

Sperlin agreed. Good history is told through good stories, she said, that give meaning to what we do and enjoy today. “Every time I drive from Chico to Oroville, I know I’m driving on the old pioneer road. [Knowing the history] gives you a sense of place—every place you go, it makes it more interesting.”