Trip to Hayden, Part two

After the Six Mile cemetery visit, Ellen and I headed over to the Hayden Historical Museum.  We stopped to admire the monument to one of Hayden's many favorite sons who went on to illustrious careers, Ed Whitcomb, Indiana's 43rd governor.  My photo of the monument is not very good, but you can see it at this link - Friends of Ed Whitcomb. I do have a good closeup of this plaque. 
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Ed Whitcomb, now 95, is still living in Indiana.  There is a wonderful video about him at this link -Video.  The story of his WWII experience is dramatic enough for a feature film - but after his service as governor and approaching his 80's, he made a solo sailboat trip around the world. I am distantly related to him.

Inside the museum, Ellen might have stayed reading in the library and talking with Museum Director Rodger Ruddick for the entire two hours we were there, but there were things to see.  I published a few photos when I was telling the Civil War history on my quilting blog (several seen at this link) but here's one I didn't publish there. This is needlework done by my great-aunt Carol, made from linen her grandmother and aunts processed during the Civil War.

I think a real treat the museum offers is the new addition, a stand-alone building they named "A Place Called Yesterday."  Lester Tracey, also a Museum Director, donated his collections of parlor instruments and Life Magazines to the museum for display.  Here are two photos of the magazines I took.

But the best part was when Lester demonstrated the instruments. This first one is not really a "parlor" organ - it was loud and you could see how effective it would be at getting the attention of passersby.

I made some audio recordings during my last visit and decided I could post a couple of them here.  First we have the Regina music box - (you can see higher resolution versions of these on YouTube)

The audio from my laptop does nothing to convey how glorious the music emanating from that wooden box is.

And here Lester demonstrates one pre-electrical volume control system -

We kept Lester and Rodger talking past visiting hours and headed back to Louisville for the night. On our return trip Tuesday we stopped in Berea Kentucky at the Artisan Center,  then had lunch in town at the historic Boone Tavern.  I took Ellen's picture while we were waiting for our meal.

It was great to have Ellen's company on my pilgrimage. It was a long trip to make to such an obscure place as Hayden!  What Ellen didn't know when she agreed to come along, is that the Hayden Museum is the Center of Gravity - here's the Congressional Record proof. I don't mind saying the odd force has had its pull on me.  Maybe Ellen too - she says she would go back there.