A George Washington Museum — in Alabama

 ========= Old Image Removed =========Array
(
    [_wp_attached_file] => Array
        (
            [0] => 2017/05/Washington_Museum.jpg
        )

    [_wp_attachment_metadata] => Array
        (
            [0] => a:5:{s:5:"width";i:600;s:6:"height";i:300;s:4:"file";s:29:"2017/05/Washington_Museum.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:5:{s:6:"medium";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:29:"Washington_Museum-336x168.jpg";s:5:"width";i:336;s:6:"height";i:168;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:9:"thumbnail";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:29:"Washington_Museum-140x140.jpg";s:5:"width";i:140;s:6:"height";i:140;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:9:"wbhm-icon";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:27:"Washington_Museum-80x80.jpg";s:5:"width";i:80;s:6:"height";i:80;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:22:"wbhm-featured-carousel";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:29:"Washington_Museum-470x235.jpg";s:5:"width";i:470;s:6:"height";i:235;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:14:"post-thumbnail";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:29:"Washington_Museum-125x125.jpg";s:5:"width";i:125;s:6:"height";i:125;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:12:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";s:11:"orientation";s:1:"0";s:8:"keywords";a:0:{}}}
        )

    [_media_credit] => Array
        (
            [0] => 
        )

    [_navis_media_credit_org] => Array
        (
            [0] => Karl C. Harrison Museum of George Washington
        )

    [_navis_media_can_distribute] => Array
        (
            [0] => 
        )

)
1638788389 
1496988030

A short drive south of Birmingham is a museum that might seem more at home in the nation’s capital. It’s dedicated to George Washington.

The reason there’s a George Washington museum in Columbiana boils down to a teapot. It was 1982 and a woman living nearby took her teapot to an appraiser.

“From the markings on it, he knew that it had belonged to a descendent of Martha Washington,” says museum curator Don Relyea. He says the appraiser asked the woman if she understood what she had.

“That’s when she told him she was a sixth generation granddaughter of Martha Washington,” says Relyea.

Relyea says the woman was interested in selling the artifacts that had been passed down through her family. Some went to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate in Virginia. But a substantial portion of the collection was purchased by a local banker. That became the foundation of the Karl C. Harrison Museum of George Washington.

Nowadays Relyea gives tours. On a recent one given to a nearby church women’s group he points out key artifacts such as Martha Washington’s prayer book, George Washington’s cufflinks and French porcelain vases from 1785 that survived a flood.

Throughout the tour Relyea tells stories, like George Washington’s advice to his granddaughter on a potential husband.

“He told her that there were three things that he thought were the most important things that she should look for,” says Relyea.

Washington’s suggestion was that she should marry a fellow American so she wouldn’t have to move to another country, her spouse should be close to her in age and they should be friends. When his granddaughter did marry none of those things applied and she got a divorce.

Among the 700 items on display are letters from founding fathers and a tea set which Relyea says is his favorite. He says being around these objects it’s hard not to create your own stories. He says a candle on a bedside table does that for him. He imagines George Washington in a chair, reading by candlelight.

“Then in the background I can hear Martha hollering out, ‘George! You be careful how you blow that candle out. You’re getting wax all over that table.’” says Relyea. “Because if you look at this side of the table it’s covered with wax stains.”

The museum does seem a bit hidden in plain sight with several women on the tour admitting they didn’t know anything about the collection until recently even though it’s just down the road. Ramona Adams says she learned about it when she met Don Relyea’s wife on a church trip.

“We were roommates and she was telling me about it and I said, gosh, I didn’t even know there was a museum in Columbiana,” says Adams.

Relyea says while they’ve had visitors from around the world, he’s disappointed more people don’t know about the museum. He says it represents an important period of American history that he doesn’t want to be overlooked.

 

Trump names former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia to be ambassador to China

With his nomination, Trump is leaning on a former business executive-turned politician to serve as the administration's envoy to America's most potent economic and military adversary.

Trump nominates Rodney Scott to lead Customs and Border Protection

Rodney Scott at CBP and Caleb Vitello at ICE would work alongside Stephen Miller, who was named deputy chief of staff for policy and Tom Homan, also tapped to be a "border czar."

Some rural Nevadans want Trump to stop the state’s solar energy boom

Backlash against massive solar energy farms drove strong rural turnout in Nevada may have helped flip the presidential vote there to Republican for the first time since 2004. But it's not a given Trump will derail President Biden's plans for more Nevada solar.

France’s toppled government adds to the European Union’s bigger political problems

The political instability in France — and simultaneously in Germany, where the governing coalition collapsed a month ago — could have wide-ranging consequences.

NASA delays Artemis II human moon mission once again as it wraps up heat shield investigation

The mission to take four astronauts on a trip around the moon and back, previously targeting a launch at the end of 2025, has been delayed until at least April, 2026.

How worried should we be about Disease X?

An unidentified illness has claimed nearly 80 lives in DRC. Investigators are on the scenes to determine what it is — and how much of a threat it poses locally and globally.

More Arts and Culture Coverage