Curator Corner
We’re Moving On Up
After the flood from a burst pipe in the winter of 2023 damaged the temporary storage site for the National VA History Center collection and archives, the move to a new home was ramped up. Conducted earlier than expected, moving everything took massive amounts of coordination and elbow grease to get thousands of pounds of artifacts, equipment, and historical records to Building 126 on the Dayton, Ohio VA campus.
Curator Corner
Keeping Our Heads Above Water
What do you do when a water line bursts in a building holding hundreds of historic artifacts and thousands of archive materials? You react quickly. When cold weather hit Dayton, Ohio in 2022, the building holding the VA History collection suffered a burst water pipe which could endanger everything. Our National VA History team responded and enacted a plan with Dayton VAMC leadership on how to save the items that are critical to telling VA's Story.
Curator Corner
What’s in the Box? Christmas Card Printing Block
What's in the box? - For this holiday and Christmas season, the curatorial staff at the National VA History Center found an item from the Mountain Home VA that involves a trade that is rarely used today: letterpress printing.
Phones and laptops make it easy to type and design cards that can be printed in mere moments. But in the past, printing a unique Christmas card, for example, would have required specialized training and skill to create a template. Which, is exactly what our staff at the NVAHC found in the latest box opened in the collection.
Happy Holidays!
Curator Corner
What’s in the Box? It’s a Mannequin Head for Halloween
What's in the box? - In the first of many, our National VA History Center is on the search to discover unique collection items one box at a time. On a dark and stormy night (not really), deep in the confines of the quiet halls of the warehouse (actually in a well lit office), our curator staff opened a box to find a mysterious and lonely head, with no body. It was the Curse of the Mannequin Head!
Curator Corner
From the Collection: Alaska USB Card
Curator Corner blog - A unique item in the National VA History Center collection, a USB flash drive that looks like a card. In an effort to get assistance to as many Veterans in Alaska, these cards were sent out with preloaded documents to help apply for benefits.
Curator Corner
What’s the Plan? The Interpretive Master Plan
Curator Corner blog - The long and fulfilling process to create the critical planning document for the National VA History Center is done. The Interpretive Master Plan details the themes and stories that will be told within the future NVAHC.
Curator Corner
From the Collection: Where’s the Tumor?
Curator Corner blog - There’s a 3D tumor out there and the VA History Center wants it. The quest for contemporary artifacts is a constant challenge. It’s not simply a question of what to collect, but when, where, and how to collect items of potential value to our collection. In this case, the hunt is on for an item used in an innovative collaboration at the Seattle VA Medical Center to safely remove a tumor from a Veteran’s kidney.
Curator Corner
Core Project Team For Museum Moving Forward
Curator Corner blog - A key first step in developing a new museum is an Interpretive Master Plan (IMP) and a core project team to create it. On June 9, 2021, a group of VA employees met with the staff from the Smithsonian Exhibits program to begin forming the team that would begin planning for a future VA museum.
Curator Corner
From the Collection: A Donation From VA Employee
Curator Corner blog - A VA employee found a historic blanket at a flea market. She then learned about the National VA History Center and made a call. Soon it was a donation item to the collection. Check out this courtesy story from the Eastern Oklahoma VA Health Care System.
Curator Corner
From the Collection: Happy Halloween and Creepy Dolls
Curator Corner blog - Happy Halloween! As a tribute to all the dolls that make our hearts race, this edition of the Curator Corner features procedure dolls from the recently acquired group of early 20th century artifacts from Mountain Home VA Medical Center in eastern Tennessee. Some of these dolls are super creepy.
Featured Stories
Introducing VA’s first artifact – Dayton Bible
The National VA History Center is progressing in the early stages at the Dayton VA Medical Center campus - but artifact collection to fill its rooms has successfully been underway. Less than a year after celebrating the Center's establishment, VAs History and Archive team transferred the first artifact into its collection - a 19th Century Bible from the campus chapel.