Robyn Miles / Daily News
Troup County Archives staffers D.J. Thomas and George Allen look over furnishings and artifacts of the 1840s and 1850s, part of a new temporary exhibit at Legacy Museum on Main depicting home life in West Georgia on the eve of the Civil War.
Troup County Archives staffers D.J. Thomas and George Allen look over furnishings and artifacts of the 1840s and 1850s, part of a new temporary exhibit at Legacy Museum on Main depicting home life in West Georgia on the eve of the Civil War.
“Visitors can see local objects used in West Georgia homes in the 1840s and 1850s,” said archives director Kaye Minchew. “These items tell of their use, place in the home and ancestors who used them, giving us a chance to reflect on life in West Georgia in 1860.”
Modern visitors will recognize names of families and individuals who are written about in local history books, Minchew said. They will have the opportunity to examine artifacts, learn about the people who owned the items and better understand the cultural values the objects represent.
“Many items found in living rooms, attics and trunks of today’s West Georgia homes show that our culture came with our settlers from the Carolinas, Virginia and East Georgia. To view the objects from the perspective of the men and women who made, used and passed the items down to descendants is to put us in touch with the roots of a simpler society,” she said.
“We can view objects and furniture with an eye to their construction, amount of decorative detail and the human touches that attach it permanently to a person, place and time. These inherited possessions recalled from past generations convey impressions of life and culture on the eve of the Civil War.”
Legacy Museum will host an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Attendees will have the opportunity to visit with artifact owners to learn more details of the object’s use and family history as the Civil War approached.
In conjunction with the exhibit, LaGrange College will host two Civil War lectures featuring Emory Thomas and Stan Carpenter, at 11:15 a.m. Oct. 29 and Nov. 17 at Callaway Auditorium.
The exhibit and lecture programs are supported in part by the Georgia Humanities Council through the National Endowment for the Humanities “We the People” initiative. All of these events are open to the public at no charge.
— If you go: Legacy Museum is at 136 Main St. in LaGrange. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.
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