After 100 years of being passed down from generation to generation, Nedra Atwell of Bowling Green knew what to do with the family dining buffet. She donated it to the Kentucky Library and Museum at Western Kentucky University.
“Our family has been in Kentucky since (it) was Kentucky,” she said, adding that one of her ancestors traveled with Daniel Boone. “I think it’s very appropriate for our family to have something exhibited in the Kentucky museum.”
Atwell’s buffet was one of about 500 items on display Friday as the museum unveiled its new Snell-Franklin Decorative Arts Gallery. “We’ve had a decoration arts collection since 1929. Some of it has never been on exhibit before,” said Timothy Mullin, museum director. “It was really very important that we find the space.”
The pieces were donated to the museum over the decades - many are from WKU alumni and have been in storage. The museum recently landed enough university funding to open a new gallery on the third floor, moving the decorations out of storage and displaying them.
“A museum is known for what it puts on display,” Mullin said. “We are an entertainment business. The more entertainment we can provide to people, the more important it becomes.”
Now, the third floor is lined with antique furniture, portraits, vases, photos, statues, sculptures, dishes and other items. An old organ sits in a corner, while a record player and a 1915 telephone sit in the same display - the phone worked until 1983, the description read.
The most expensive piece, a 1765 tea table, is worth $2 million, Mullin said.
The tea table, and several other items, were donated by WKU alum C. Ray Franklin. His great-nephew’s wife, Ruth Franklin, was on hand for the exhibit opening.
“This would absolutely thrill him to death,” she said. “He was kind of an eccentric person, and this would absolutely thrill him.” It has been several years since Ruth Franklin has seen his collection - she used to see it when she visited him in Asheville, N.C., before he died, she said.
“So it’s been several years since we’ve seen it,” she said. The exhibit opening was celebrated with a party, which also honored the local literary program, The Big Read. The party’s theme was “The Great Gatsby,” a tribute to this year’s featured book.
About 200 people attended the opening. Officials had to limit the number of party attendees to keep from getting overcrowded. Gary Bewley of Glasgow toured the exhibit Friday; his favorite pieces were the old paintings, he said. “I’m very impressed,” he said. “I had no idea what I was coming to see, and it’s beautiful.”
The new gallery is permanent, but workers will change pieces if new items are donated. The museum now has nine galleries - over the past five years, it has opened five new galleries, three of which were permanent, Mullin said. “It’s to enhance what we have for people,” he said. “It’s so people of Western, of Bowling Green, of southcentral Kentucky know what we have.”
Jon Ricker, a senior computer information systems major at WKU, helped build the exhibit. Ricker and a few other students emptied the space, arranged the pieces, painted the walls and installed the lighting, among other tasks. “It’s pretty awesome, just (the collection) itself,” he said. “But to know I helped put everything where it is, it’s just a little something extra.”
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