Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Prattaugan Museum will be holding a new jewelry collection where the idea is to showcase local family heirlooms and pieces special and sentimental to that family.
All pieces in this next exhibit are donated from the community, as a community project, Prattaugan Museum Director Jordan Scott confirmed.
“This is one of the first exhibits in a long line of future community projects. That’s the goal of this museum is to showcase the history of our community and to also record the history of our community as it happens,” Scott said.
Families within the community who wish to showcase their family jewelry will have their artifacts on display and will receive their piece back at the end of the exhibit. Scott also confirmed that the museum has diligently taken photos of specific artifacts that may be too delicate to keep in the exhibit.
“We have a volunteer that’s associated with us that is bringing multiple cases of jewelry that belongs to her family. My own family has donated about four to five pieces, and we have some other families that are going to be dropping back some of their familial pieces,” Scott said.
With her own family pieces in the exhibit, Scott’s grandmother loaned her porcelain and gold cameo with other beautiful features added to the piece, to the exhibit.
“It was a piece that my grandmother loved to look at when she was a little girl, and my mother loved to look at when she was a little girl. I used to beg to see it, and it’s just this really important familial piece that we’ve loved, that she’s letting me showcase,” Scott said.
Another familial piece from Scott’s family comes from her grandfather. It is his father’s railroad watch that was given to him upon his retirement from the railroad, also a sentimental piece to Scott and her family.
While Scott and her family have some beautiful pieces in the exhibit, other local familial pieces will be on display. Scott stated there is one local family that is donating a piece to the exhibit, where the mother in that family had pearl pieces made for them when they were babies. While the familial pieces are only about 20 years old, it’s a tradition within that family to have pearl pieces made for their children.
“Even though it’s 20 years old and not by definition historical there is still this connection with the wider community and one day there will be a history of it. There’s another family whose grandfather carved their grandmother’s earrings out of peach pits. We’re really trying to focus on some of the simpler things and the sentimental value of it all,” Scott said.
The exhibit started June 16th and will run through the end of summer. The Prattaugan Museum is open Tuesday through Friday 10a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Questions can be directed to Scott at (334) 361-0961 or, [email protected]
