EDITORIAL: 100 Objects series will provide 100 local history lessons
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Bracken Burns, who leads Washington County Historical Society’s antiquities committee, takes a look over several of the objects that will be featured in the “Washington County in 100 Objects” series the Observer-Reporter will be running weekly.
The Observer-Reporter building in Washington
The original quote – apparently – was uttered about a century ago by George Santayana, esteemed writer and philosopher. His sage words: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
There have been so many versions of that sentiment, often with the word “history” supplanting “the past,” that it isn’t entirely certain whether Santayana originated the oft-used lament about a perceived public indifference toward history. But that indifference is alive and well in many quarters, including the immediate area.
Probably without realizing it, the Washington County Historical Society – of all entities – put itself in position of appearing to harbor a blasé attitude toward history. The society had collected a formidable number of artifacts it was preserving and protecting, but which rarely, if ever, have been on public display.
Bracken Burns, a former county commissioner and leader of the historical society’s antiquities committee, admitted to the Observer-Reporter’s Brad Hundt: “We hold a wealth of possessions, and no one knows we have them. It seems selfish or odd to have all this stuff and have it in the attic.”
That will no longer be the case. The historical society and the O-R have teamed up for a weekly feature, “Washington County in 100 Objects,” that launched Monday. Each Monday, for essentially two years, an object from the society’s collection will be spotlighted in the print edition and at www.observer-reporter.com. The artifact will appear on the front page, with an explanation of its history the following week – along with a picture of another relic, summary to follow seven days later.
Hundt reported that “when the series is completed, an exhibit of all the objects is tentatively planned.”
Clay Kilgore, executive director of the historical society, pointed out that “Washington County in 100 Objects” will provide mini-history lessons about the county and Southwestern Pennsylvania – and beyond. Readers, he added, “will also learn about the settlement of our country.”
A number of items promise to pique people’s interest, including a poker set that belonged to Ulysses S. Grant, triumphant Union general and the nation’s 18th president. Apparently, he had the cards during the Civil War and while he was in the White House, and left them in Washington – here, not D.C. – during a presidential trip.
“It’s extraordinary to me that Ulysses S. Grant was at Trinity Hall and played poker with these cards,” Burns said.
History is extraordinary as well, and should not be ignored or forgotten. Local history will be chronicled on the pages and website of this newspaper every Monday over the next two years.