Excitement is growing in Eatonton-Putnam County as people of all ages look forward to the return of the beloved Dairy Festival on June 4th! It’s also the perfect day to remember Dr. Benjamin Hunt, the man without whom an Eatonton dairy festival might never have been!

We promised to highlight some of our OSHM team’s favorite museum artifacts or exhibits this year; however, Docent/Board Member Rufus Adair had a hard time choosing just one. Here are three of his very favorites.

If you ask the Old School History Museum docents to talk about their favorite museum artifacts, you will likely get a different answer from each one of us. So we decided to give our team a chance to share and explain their choices in our 2022 eNewsletters. To start the series, our director, Sandra Rosseter, shared the following story:

In keeping with our December tradition, we are sharing a few more Christmas memories…this time from four of our OSHM Board members. Enjoy!

The audience at the recent Sunday At The Museum lecture was enthralled with some authentic stories behind the production of three classic American movies set in the Civil War years. The lecturer, Wilbur (Bill) Kurtz III, told the story of his grandfather, Wilbur Kurtz Sr. (1882-1967), an icon in the world of Civil War art and history and a technical advisor to Hollywood.

Seven years ago, Bill III came to our museum’s Sunday lecture series to speak about his famous artist/historian grandfather. As I listened, I felt an immediate connection to this Illinois-born man who came south in 1903 and fell in love with my hometown, Atlanta.

Last month Rufus Adair, OSHM docent and board member, wrote a delightful story about a childhood experience that led to his life-long fascination with Native American pottery. His article captured the imagination of many readers, and the museum team asked if he would follow up his Archaeology Day promotion with what he learned that day. His observations were so interesting that we just had to share them with our readers! Here are some of Rufus’ notes.

During the summer of 2021, the Old School History Museum lost four dear friends whose volunteer work has been a priceless gift over the years. We will miss them and would like you to know about them.

This little story started with a bang on a beautiful fall Saturday back in the mid-1950s. It indeed involved an explosion, but it was still a disappointing bang.

With a wingspread of 120 feet and height of 102 feet, tail to beak, how did this ancient quartz rock mound, thought to be thousands of years old, survive the farmer’s plow, road builders and developers to delight today’s travelers and history buffs? Read more about Rock Eagle.

We are delighted to announce that the Old School History Museum will re-open June 5th for Saturday Docent-Guided Tours! Read our June blog for a few notes, news, and reminders from the Museum.

It’s baseball season! After more than a year of pandemic, hearing the sound of bat and ball colliding is joy to the ears of all baseball fans. Following your favorite team as life slowly moves toward “normalcy” is more exciting than ever! Whether high school, college, or professional teams, the rivalries remain and the competition grows stronger. Eatonton, GA, has had its share of excellent high school teams for generations, but there was another team we should not forget…the Imperial Mill Baseball Team!

Hats off to our amazing team who put together the collection of vintage hats now on display at the Old School History Museum, designed the windows, and were hat models for this blog! The inspiration for featuring vintage hats came when my cousin Erin called to say that she was giving me four hats that had belonged to her grandmother, my Aunt Theresa - a woman I loved dearly…

This month, Doris Moody, with humor and chagrin, shares a teenage experience she recalls in vivid detail! The stories we tell and the memories we share of the Old School curl around our roots like tendrils and bind us together far below the surface of our conscious minds. It is this common bond that supports the Old School History Museum’s Memorial Book. If you attended the Old School at any time, whether you graduated or not, you have earned a place in this beautiful book.

If you know Eatonton/Putnam County, you already know this community can boast an astonishing number of champions, Hall of Famers, and amazing artists! Sadly, during the past year, Eatonton has lost several of those very gifted people. The OSHM is remembering several friends and volunteers in this blog post.

Recently, a few of our OSHM Board Members grew nostalgic and shared some favorite personal Christmas memories. We thought you might enjoy!

At the beginning of WWII, all branches of the military were racially divided. In 1941, the U.S. Army established a segregated training program for African American pilots in Tuskegee, Alabama, called “ The Tuskegee Experiment.” The dedicated young men who volunteered to become the USA’s first black military airmen would be known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

In the 1950s our police department was very small. Our police “booth,” as it was called, was a small brick building about the size of four telephone booths. Superman never flew out of it, but we had dedicated police officers who came out in a flash if anyone needed help.