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News Archives 2006
The Historical Museum at St. Gertrude Earns Grants for ImprovementsCOTTONWOOD, Idaho—Sept. 8, 2006 - The Historical Museum at St. Gertrude is fortunate to have received several grants in recent months. These monies will help with a variety of initiatives, from providing travel stipends for fourth-grade school field trips to supplying new mannequins, exhibit cases and rug supports. We are, as always, very grateful for support that allows us to preserve and improve our collection, and offer our profound thanks to the following organizations:
The DeVlieg Foundation --
$1,000 Idaho Community Foundation --
$3,400 Foundation Northwest -- $5,000 Lewis & Clark Trail Museum
Initiative -- $15,000 Historical Museum at St. Gertrude Exhibits Original Chief Joseph Painting by Lewiston Artist
Hoffman, who graduated from Lewis Clark State College with a degree in Fine Art Painting, spent more than a year and a half researching and creating “A Precedential Age: Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce,” an original acrylic on canvas. The striking artwork incorporates highly realistic details with vivid colors, a unique blend of simplicity and beauty. “I don’t have, nor do I ever intend to have, a specific painter’s style, as I think that it stifles creativity,” says Hoffman, who focuses primarily on classical forms of abstraction, especially Cubism, and various forms of realistic rendering, sometimes blending realism and the abstract. “While doing research for this painting, I learned about the history of non-Indian settlers of the inland Northwest, broken treaties, land acquisition, war, genocide and of the forced dislocation of an indigenous people,” says Hoffman. “A precedence of injustice, it seemed, was set in time for all ages.” “It is not possible to go back and restore a time, a place, a people, a land or a culture,” says Hoffman, who has been drawn to how creative design plays on an active imagination since childhood. “In all ways, however, I am encouraged to be instrumental in presently co-creating an environment and community of justice, peace and joy for people of all ages here and now.’ “A Precedential Age: Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce” will be on display at the museum through October. Archival quality prints using the Giclee (ghee-clay) process are available in a variety of sizes on canvas and watercolor paper. Contact gjhoffman@cableone.net for more information. STITCHED IN TIMEMuseum’s Raspberry Festival Quilt Show to Honor Memory of Bertha Kopczynski COTTONWOOD, Idaho—Whoever
said, “A stitch in time saves nine … but haste makes waste” could have been
talking about the nimble fingers of local quilting legend, Bertha Kopczynski.
Bertha Kopczynski, second from left, joins her husband and daughters in proudly
displaying a quilt the family made to memorialize Bertha’s daughter Carole after
her death in 2001. “Any time my sister or I would call Mom and ask what she was doing, she’d just say, ‘Quilting,’” recalls daughter Theresa Wessels of Lewiston. “When I was a young girl, I can remember my mother, grandmother and great aunt setting up a quilt to work on in the living room. I think that’s where it all started.” Bertha, who passed away last year and is survived by nine children and 22 grandchildren, was always quick with a quilt, whether it was a blue ribbon-winner or a much-loved scrap quilt. She left a legacy of more than 864 quilts, the details of which she recorded in a “Book of Quilts” she had kept from the 1970s. At Bertha’s funeral service, quilts, instead of flowers, graced the church altar and a quilt adorned the Cottonwood sign at the entrance to town. “Some of our favorite quilts are not the most beautiful ones,” says Wessels, who added that each of the siblings inherited 15 quilts after her mother’s death. “It’s often the scrap quilts that are soft and threadbare that we use every day. They were all made with her love.” Bertha was definitely known for her quilts. And it was a creative passion that started young. “We grew up together as neighbors in Greencreek, Illinois, before moving to Greencreek, Idaho,” recalls Clara Frei, Bertha’s longtime friend. “We used to cut the clothes out of fashion catalogs to put on our paper dolls.” Bertha’s creative aspirations eventually grew into quilt making. “I have a quilt she won a blue ribbon for in my spare bedroom,” says Frei. “Every time I look at it, I think of Bertha. I miss her every day.” For Bertha, being a good neighbor often meant handing out quilts, pies or plates of cookies. “When my kids were younger, we built a fort in the backyard,” says neighbor Michele Byers. “Bertha saw it and brought over a quilt for the kids to put in the fort. Our family has taken that quilt to every baseball game and picnic since then. It’s part of our family memories.” In addition to creating countless quilts for friends and loved ones, Bertha also enjoyed getting involved with the local community, praying the rosary every morning at St. Mary’s parish, and trying her hand at pinochle with the sisters of St Gertrude. Each year Bertha supported the museum’s Raspberry Festival by joining Sr. Wilma Schlangen and other volunteers in the monastery raspberry patch at dawn to pick berries in the weeks before the festival. And she’d always volunteer for the festival quilt show. Now the museum would like to honor her support by dedicating this year’s Raspberry Festival Quilt Show in Bertha’s honor. To honor Bertha’s memory and quilting talents, The Historical Museum at St. Gertrude is especially encouraging entries (and stories!) of quilts that Bertha assisted on or created as part of its annual Raspberry Festival Quilt Show on Sunday, August 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Monastery of St. Gertrude in Cottonwood. All entries to the Raspberry Festival Quilt Show are encouraged to share details about the quilt maker, the quilt’s origin and techniques used on the back of the entry form. Display space for quilts is limited, so please return your entry form to the museum by noon Friday, July 28. More than 400 people will view the quilts in the monastery’s Spirit Center and cast their ballot for the Viewer’s Choice Awards. Before the show opens, local quilters determine recipients of the Quilter’s Choice Awards, and the Benedictine Sisters at the Monastery of St. Gertrude award their favorite entries the Sister’s Choice ribbons. All proceeds from the Raspberry Festival Quilt Show honoring Bertha Kopczynski will be donated to the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude. For entry forms or questions about the quilt show, please contact LaDawn Kidd at (208) 962-2387 or newkidds@camasnet.com. This year’s Raspberry Festival on the first Sunday in August is a can’t-miss event. In addition to the quilt show, this popular benefit for the museum features live music, a 10K Raspberry Fun Run/5K Cake Walk, $5 cowboy breakfast, a cash raffle, antique car show, motorcycle show, Arts & Crafts Festival, games, folk demonstrations, book sale, tours of the monastery’s chapel, BBQ beef sandwiches and, of course, lots of raspberries. Hand-picked on the monastery grounds, the delectable raspberries are used to create jams, mustard, vinegar and some mouth-watering raspberry shortcake! Gen. Clark and Sgt. Ordway visit Historical Museum at St. Gertrude
California Retiree Helps Launch The Historical Museum at St. Gertrude into ‘Digital Age’A glimpse of California license
plates cruising across the Camas Prairie might raise some eyebrows among local
folks, but at The Historical Museum at St. Gertrude it means help is on the way. At least four times a year, Santa Cruz resident Sandy Pearsall, 59, loads up her rig, buckles in her beloved Chihuahua and makes the 900-mile drive to Cottonwood, ID, to volunteer at The Historical Museum at St. Gertrude. While she often spends her time polishing exhibit cases or taking inventory of artifacts, this spring’s project will have a much more long-range impact by taking the museum’s collection into the “digital age”. During her month-long “volunteer vacation”, Pearsall is helping museum staff create an electronic photo archive to preserve digital images of thousands of artifacts. She has even purchased and donated a brand-new computer to house the digital archive and burn CDs of the collection.
With 70,000 acquisitioned artifacts—including early medical equipment, antique weapons, traditional farming tools and kitchen utensils, as well as European and Asian antiques and artwork from the Rhoades Emmanuel Memorial Gallery—this is no short-term project. Fortunately, Pearsall plans return trips to continue the archiving process. But how did a retired resources management analyst from California get so involved with the historical museum on the prairie in the first place? “The first time I visited the museum was in 1972 when it was housed in the basement of the high school,” Pearsall recalls. “I walked in and there was this little lady, Sister Alfreda, knee-deep in artifacts. She loved them so much and she could tell a fascinating story about each piece. It was living Idaho history.” “The next time I visited was 30
years later in 2002,” she says. “I was just awestruck by the building, the
exhibit cases, the beautiful Asian and European antiques. It’s been fun to watch
the museum grow. It’s still growing.” She’s enjoyed being a part of that growth through good old-fashioned elbow grease and more. Lucky for the museum, her former employer has supported her efforts as well. “My company matches my donations dollar for dollar,” says Pearsall, who retired last year from the research department of CTB McGraw Hill, an educational publisher. “And if I volunteer for at least 60 hours a year, the museum is eligible for a ‘work grant’. That gives my support for the museum more impact.” Pearsall says that the joy of being retired is that her time is her own. “I can spend it doing things that make a difference.” When it comes to preserving the past, time is an important theme for Pearsall. “My family has a clock from Scotland that is older than this country. Many kids today probably don’t even realize there was a time when you had to wind clocks. I think it’s important to preserve these pieces of history that can teach kids today about times past.” If you would like to volunteer or support the museum’s new photo archives, please contact The Historical Museum at St. Gertrude, 465 Keuterville Road, Cottonwood, ID, 83522, by calling (208) 962-2050 or emailing curator@stgertrudes.org.
Museum to celebrate 75th anniversaryIn 2006, The Historical Museum at St. Gertrude will celebrate its 75th anniversary, making it one of the longest continuously operating museums in the Northwest. Begun in 1931 by Sister Alfreda Elsensohn, the museum continues to reflect the history of north central Idaho. Exhibits pertain to the first residents, the Nez Perce; to the settlement of the area; to the ranching, farming, mining, and logging in the region; to weapons of the past; to an exquisite Asian and European collection; to the history of the sisters of the Monastery of St. Gertrude; and much more. The museum staff invites you to visit the museum to see the improvements that have occurred, to see the new exhibits, and to reminisce about the “good old days”. To celebrate this 75 year milestone, the museum plans several activities during the year including a big band dinner dance on March 25, the 14th Annual Raspberry Festival in August, a variety of lectures during the year, a Smithsonian traveling exhibit in October/November, and much more. We are initiating a monthly Cottonwood Chronicle feature entitled “75 Years Ago This Month”. We hope you enjoy this historical venture. We welcome your comments. - Lyle Wirtanen, Director Little Museum on the PrairieNez Perce people have used the prairie camas
root as a food source for thousands of years. The Historical Museum at St.
Gertrude, located on the grounds of the Monastery of St. Gertrude near
Cottonwood, Idaho, hasn’t been around that long. But with its 75th anniversary
on tap this year, it is among the oldest continuously operating museums in the
Northwest. The galleries are packed with pioneer lore, from military and medical
artifacts to a display on the fascinating life of Polly Bemis (a Chinese woman
sold into slavery as a child, who in later life went on to manage a boarding
house in early Warren, Idaho). The museum also has a collection of fine Asian
and European antiques. Spring, when the blue camas lilies and yellow canola
fields bloom, is a beautiful time to pay a visit. (208) 962-2050. Go Daddy-O! Swing into Spring at ‘Moonlight Serenade’ Big Band Dinner DanceCOTTONWOOD—Dig into that closet, dust off those wing tips
and get your Zoot Suit pressed. It’s time to swing into spring at the “Moonlight
Serenade” Big Band dinner dance in Greencreek, ID.
The evening’s festivities will kick off with a no-host bar at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 25, 2006, at the Greencreek Community Hall. A buffet dinner featuring roast beef and all the trimmings follows at 6:30 p.m. Then, things really get moving from 8 to 11 p.m. when everyone’s encouraged to jump out on the floor and boogie to live music by The Hog Heaven Big Band from Moscow, ID. Swing-era fashions and shameless showboating on the dance floor are encouraged. Moonlight Serenade is a benefit for the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude in Cottonwood, ID, and will replace the Victorian Tea as the museum’s annual fundraiser. Tickets are $20 per person or $35 per couple. The event is limited to 300 people, so get your tickets early. “We wanted to create an event the entire prairie would enjoy,” said Lyle Wirtanen, museum director. “So come on out, have fun, dress up and relive the Big Band era!” For more information or tickets to Moonlight Serenade, contact the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude, 465 Keuterville Road, Cottonwood, ID, 83522, by calling (208) 962-2050 or emailing curator@stgertrudes.org. About the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude Located in Cottonwood, ID, the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude is celebrating 75 years of preserving the history of North Central Idaho. Founded in 1931, the museum is one of the oldest continuously operating museums in the northwest and contains 70,000 artifacts with 12,000 on display. For more information, log onto www.historicalmuseumatstgertrude.com. Got Archives?
The workshops are free and Steve Walker, Idaho State Archivist, will be the instructor. Everyone is invited to attend. The Council of State Archivists in conjunction with the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH) put the course together as an introduction to archives. Some topics to be covered include: What are examples of historic records? What do you collect and how do you collect it? How do you process your collections? How do you house your collections? Who uses historical records? plus much more. Bring your own lunch, or meals are available at the Monastery for $7.00, RSVP required. In Moscow, attendees can order lunch to go from Applebee’s For more information, contact Lyle Wirtanen at the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude at 208-962-2050; or in Moscow, Sherry Caisley at the Appaloosa Museum at (208) 882-5578 ext. 279.
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© 1997-2007 |
COTTONWOOD,
Idaho
Churchill Clark,
left, and Tom Eire, far right, present Lyle Wirtanen, director of the
Historical Museum at St. Gertrude in Cottonwood, with an appreciation plaque
made of wood from a dugout canoe milled by Bennet Lumber and featuring the
brand of Capt. Meriwether Lewis. Clark, the fourth-generation grandson of
Gen. William Clark, has spent the past three years portraying his famous
ancestor’s journey as part of the “Lewis and Clark Then and Now” Discovery
Expedition. Eire, of Lewiston, will act as Sgt. Ordway when he kicks off a
week-long re-enactment of Sgt. Ordway’s Salmon River Fishing Expedition as
his party crosses the Clearwater River at Kamiah on Saturday, May 27.
“Each
artifact tells the story of the people who owned it,” says Pearsall. “But
history passes away with people. It’s important to hold onto that history, to
honor these lives and stories. Museums are a wonderful way to do that.” 
The
Historical Museum at St. Gertrude in Cottonwood and the Appaloosa Museum in
Moscow are hosting The Basics of Archives, a workshop for archivists and others
responsible for historic records. The Cottonwood workshop is scheduled for
Tuesday, February 7, 10:00 - 3:00, at Spirit Center at the Monastery of St.
Gertrude. The Moscow workshop is scheduled February 9, 10:00 - 3:00, at the
Appaloosa Museum.