Jul 2012 - Port Aransas Museum

The Road to the Future Begins in the Past
Volume 6, Issue 7
PAPHA Newsletter
Festival Crisis Averted
PAPHA Board members and Committee members are pleased to announce a
big problem with this year’s Old Town
Festival has been resolved.
They were recently informed that
PAPHA would not be allowed to use the
Community Center it had reserved for
Saturday, Oct. 27, because it was needed for early voting.
Museum Director Rick Pratt quickly
worked with the City Manager, City
Secretary and the Deputy City Manager/Public Works Director to convince
Nueces County officials to move early
voting from the Community Center to
the Civic Center.
Though PAPHA had booked the
Community Center, voting would take
precedent.
Thanks was given to the city and Rochelle Limon of Nueces County for the
move.
Keeping the Festival on Oct. 27 was
important was important as it will keep
the Old Town Festival on the same
weekend as the Harvest Moon Regatta
and the P.A. Art About art walk, making the Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce-Tourist Bureau and the Port
Aransas Art Center happy.
Lots of fun activities are in the works
including the surfing contest at the beach,
the Plein Air painting event, storytelling
by Port A old timer residents, Pat Far-
New Orleans Workshop
Farley Boat Works
The American Association for
State and Local History sponsored
the workshop on collections, and did
a masterful job. The workshop was
worth the effort and I came away
more convinced then ever that we
should not concentrate on building
a collection. I learned a lot about
curating the few items we do hold
permanently or display on long term
loan as well.
We delivered boat #1, the Aransas
Rose to its new owner, 11 year old
Rachel Patton. With three shades of
pink and lots of varnish, the boat was
absolutely gorgeous.
Boat number two is nearing launching
July 2012
leys famous gumbo served at noon and
of course the parade which is planned to
be larger and longer this year.
Since it will be held on the day the
annual Sand Pumpkin Patch is created
each year, Port Aransas Parks and Recreation Department will include the
carving event on the beach as part of the
festival activities. Families will be able
to carve pumpkins in the patch on the
beach.
At some point during the day PAPHA
will dedicate the new markers for Old
Town which will be placed on the street
signs in the area.
So, as they say, mark the date, and
come celebrate with us!
Museum Director’s Report
Inside this Issue:
Raffle ............................................... Page 2
History Contest ............................... Page 2
Poster contest .................................. Page 2
Doll Exhibit ..................................... Page 3
1931 ferry article ............................ Page 4
Cleaning Cuties............................... Page 5
1930 causeway article..................... Page 5
1925 paper article ........................... Page 6
and number three is about half way there.
See ‘DIRECTOR’ on Page 5
Museum Gift Shop
Looking for a special gift? Then
make the museum gift shop your first
and last stop for the best collection of
locally inspired and produced treasures
in town.
Choices range from bright handmade
fish necklaces by lovely “calendar
girl” Ginger Henley to J. P. Morton’s
fantastic driftwood birds. Unique and
affordable, our note cards, books, photographs, fine art and craft reflect the
charm and beauty of the island. And
don’t forget, profits from sales directly
go to support the museum!
Raffle
How lucky are you? Find out by buying a raffle ticket, or 20, for the chance
to win an art quality photograph of the
Dune Chapel by Bill Edwards. This
available for $1 each or 6 for $5 at the
museum gift shop.
Poster contest
We need your art! Enter the Poster
Contest for this year’s Old Town Festival today! The winning image will
be the focal point of the event poster
and other promotional materials, and
you will personally win grand applause
and rave reviews from all across town.
You don’t need to be a professional artist to enter, just unpack your pencils,
paper and paint and let your creative
side loose! Rules and a downloadable
registration form can be found on the
website at http://portaransasmuseum.
org/news-and-events/poster-contest/
History Corner
Our website has a new section under the “Museum/Island History” tab.
The History Corner is a collection of
articles written primarily by Dr. John
Guthrie Ford for the Port Aransas South
Jetty newspaper. The first installment
was published in December 2010 and
explored the history of the Farley Boat
Works as well as the museum’s dream
of re-establishing the operation as a
working museum. Well, with the help
of that article and a lot of hard work that
dream is now a reality.
Other topics in the monthly features
include how Mustang Island was affected by the War Between the States,
bareback riding as a mode of public
transportation, and why the lighthouse
and channel don’t match up (any longer).
Dr. Ford is a charter member of
the Port Aransas Preservation and
Historical Association. He is the
author of A Texas Island, co-author
of Images of America: Port Aransas,
and compiled and narrated The Mercer Logs: Pioneer Times on Mustang
Island, Texas. These titles are available in the museum gift shop.
framed, 8” x 10” photo printed on watercolor paper would be a lovely addition
to any coastal home, or a fine recuerdo
of time spent on the island. Tickets are
Page 2
We appreciate The South Jetty and
Dr. Ford for granting us permission to
reprint these wonderful essays and discussions. They are just too good to be
read only once.
(http://portaransasmuseum.org/
category/history-corner/)
PAPHA Newsletter
July 2012
Doll Exhibit at Museum
Along with our current post card exhibit [which requires a special BIG THANK-YOU and credit to JIM
MOLONEY], we also are blessed to be able to offer a special doll display. Dolls owned by Eva Rae Mercer are now on display in the beautiful wood and glass cabinet built by Herb Lancaster. Ann Gibbs, daughter of Betty Ann Gibbs, made them presentable and wrote the lovely history on the dolls seen below and at the museum. Betty Ann made dolls for many years so Ann was well-versed in how to present them in their best light.
Eva Rae Mercer was born in 1930 and lived in Port Aransas until she graduated from high school.
As all little girls do she played with dolls and these are hers, dressed as she left them in 1948. She
packed them in a box which had come from Montgomery Wards in Chicago and cost 30 cents to send
to Port Aransas.
Eva Rae made mud dolls, one of which she made of concrete and still exists. Another small doll
was made of cloth and embroidered with a face. Another cloth doll has a “bought” head. She had
wooden doll house furniture made by her older brother and china furniture which was typical of the
times. The refrigerator had taken the place of the ice box and has a cooling coil on the top of it. (Bet
they still called in the ice box, though.) The stove had an oven attached to the side and a water heater
on the back of the oven. Independent water heaters for the whole house did not become common until
the 1940’s so water was heated for washing dishes, baths, etc. on the stove. The bathroom furniture
included a chamber pot for under the bed since outhouses were still common.
While Eva Rae had bisque china dolls which have been around since the 1700’s, she was the first
generation to have a lot of composition dolls and a few plastic dolls, which were more lifelike. The
identical Dionne Quintuplets were born in 1934 and caught the imagination of the world. Sets of dolls
were best sellers and complete sets are relatively rare today because they were played with so much.
Eva Rae had a complete set and dressed them in the homemade “onesies” which they still wear. Each
has a slightly different expression on her face. The names of sisters were: Annette, Cecile, Yvonne,
Marie, and Emilie. Composition is generally a mixture of glue and sawdust. While doll bodies were
made of composition from the 1870’s, heads were not molded from it until the early 1900’s after the
first World War caused the decline of the German doll industry and the rise of the American industry.
They are hardly ever found today, since plastics have captured the market.
Eva Rae’s Shirley Temple doll is also a “compo”, and is in her original dress, underwear, and shoes.
The wigs for this doll were made of mohair and the moths ate Eva Rae’s, so the wig is a reproduction.
Eva Rae made do with a “do rag” when she played with her. These dolls were very expensive ($5) and
little girls on the island were often told that they could not be afforded. Christmas and birthdays were
Cont. on page 4
Page 3
PAPHA Newsletter
July 2012
sometimes very happy surprises. These dolls were in the catalogs which every household had and where
many of the supplies came from (including the house that became this museum). Movies did not reach the
island until the 1950’s and then only in the summers, but were shown regularly in Aransas Pass.
The Mercers were firm Catholics and brought over a priest for every appropriate occasion, so it is no
wonder that Eva Rae had a nun doll. The doll is hard plastic and dressed in her original attire, even the
underwear. Eva Rae also had the late 1930’s equivalent of Ken and Barbie -- these are composition dolls
made in Japan and dressed by Eva Rae -- including the original safety pins.
There are a lot of “doll house dolls”, small china and plastic dolls, which could be played with in doll house
settings and dressed in scraps of material left over from mother’s own dressmaking activities. One of these
is an early Kewpie in plastic. One is a miniature plastic baby dressed completely by her Aunt Kate in a
crocheted layette (hat, top and pants) picture A set of the larger dolls is posed in a schoolhouse setting
because that was a favorite play activity of Eva Rae and her younger friend Marcy Mathews.
Since the two girls were good students they were allowed to play with paper dolls while at school. Marcy
was the designer since she could draw better and Eva Rae was the “cutter outer”. A selection of paper dolls
from “Gone with the Wind” that the girls played with at home is displayed here. They are originals and have
the tabs for fastening the accessories on to the dolls which were a “modern” improvement.
Finally, even in the 1930's, Mickey Mouse was a favorite player. Here is Eva Rae’s MM handkerchief just
as she left it 64 years ago. Mickey Mouse appeared on the movie screen for the first time in November
1928. This handkerchief was obviously respected greatly because it was unused— disposable tissues had
only been advertised since 1930, so handkerchiefs were an essential part of a little girl’s wardrobe.
By Ann Gibbs
Page 4
PAPHA Newsletter
July 2012
DIRECTOR
We have 15 folks signed up to
build boats. As you will remember, I
predicted 6 would be a good turnout,
so we have way more than doubled our
expectations. The project has all the
signs of something that wants to grow.
Let’s see if we can keep up and guide
it well.
Old Town Street Signs
You will shortly hear from Pat Farley
and June Petitt about the street signs for
the newly defined old town. This is a
great step in the direction of protecting
the wonderful ambience of the heart of
our historic little town. The signs are
pretty cute, with our first trademark, a
Tarpon on them. Nice work folks and
big thanks to you.
Cont. from Page 1
Gift Shop
The newly configured gift shop is
working very, very
well.
$3115.00
came in during
the month of June.
This will cover our
operating expenses
at the museo very
nicely.
Website
A new feature,
“The History Corner”, has been added
to our growing website. The posts are
John Ford’s wonderful Jetty columns.
Other contributions from any source
will be accepted in the “History Reveals
Itself” section. So
sharpen your pencils and write up
a bit of your personal Port A history for us.
Archives
Our archives are
immensely popular and growing
larger and more
valuable
every
week. Folks wait
in line for their
chance to explore
this
wonderful
collection of photos and documents
from Port A dating back to 1889, when
we were Tarpon, Texas.
The policy for the use and sharing
of these valuable pictures is now under
discussion. We are now asking for a
minimum donation for each image copied from the archive.
A higher fee may be requested form
commercial users.
Exhibits
The new Post Card exhibit is popular
and getting a lot of positive comments.
Very few towns of our size can boast
such a variety of views. Posted almost
from the beginning of our town, these
cards pretty well illustrate our history as
a tourist destination.
Rick Pratt
(July 2012)
CLEANING CUTIES
If you’ve ever been upstairs in the Port Aransas Museum,
you know what a mess it has been. The second floor had
kind of turned into a place to dump your junk. We needed the
space to be productive and the guys who
work on the exhibits desperately needed
a space to spread out their work.
In walks our own “Cleaning Cuties”,
Carolyn Curlee, Carolyn Grosse and
Pepper Pendenzski. They went to work
with their organizing skills and have
transformed the second floor office
space. There are rumors that they have
found things that have been lost for two or three years.
When you run into any of these three, give them a big
thank you.
Page 5
PAPHA Newsletter
July 2012
Save the
Date!!
Celebrate
Texas
Independence
Date with the
Port Aransas
Museum and
Farley Boat
Works
Saturday
March
2, 2013
Annual
Dinner
Fund Raiser!!
Visit us at www.
portaransas
museum.org
Save the
Date!!
Page 6
PAPHA Newsletter
July 2012