Step up on the old front porch of the Sanderson Museum, if you dare! On Halloween Night, the Sanderson Museum on Creek Road in Chadds Ford will be open from 6:00-8:30pm featuring some of the more bazaar and creepy items in the collection.

More than one museum volunteer has heard footsteps or felt a presence in the c.1838 house when no one else was there – perhaps spirits from past residents such Horace Quimby or Willard Sharpless, the one-legged blacksmith.

Visitors will be invited to find items such as the leather change purse in Jenny Wade’s apron pocket when she was killed by a snipers bullet at the Battle of Gettysburg; a piece of bandage from Lincolns mortal wound; part of the bunting draped over Lincoln’s casket; a penny run over by Lincoln’s funeral train as it passed through Philadelphia; a noose used to hang a murderer on Gallow’s Hill in West Chester in the late 1800’s; an “X” made on a card at midnight December 31, 1899 as the 19th century became the 20th; a1943 photo of Hanna Sanderson on her death bed, which later became the subject for a painting “Death on Christmas Morning” by Andrew Wyeth; sand from under the first atom bomb blast; Pieces of the U.S. Army B-25 bomber that crashed into the Empire State Building in the early 1945; a china mug showing General Douglas MacArthur with a symbolic sword in his back; a tombstone made for Chris Sanderson as a joke; the American flag that was placed over Hanna Sanderson at her death; a hyena head and an old bear’s head.

The museum is always free and the first 100 visitors will receive mementos of their visit.

IF YOU GO:
Friday, October 31, 2008
6:00 – 8:30 PM
Creek Road, Chadds Ford, PA.
Free Admission

View the creepy and bazaar in the Sanderson collection. Step up on the front porch if you dare!

• Eyewitness to the Settlement of the West: Jacob Wright Harlan
• Chester County Mushroom Farming

Eyewitness to the Settlement of the West: Jacob Wright Harlan by Bruce Mowday

Eyewitness to the Settlement of the West: Jacob Wright Harlan explores the life of Jacob Harlan (1828-1902) of Wayne County, Indiana and San Leandro, California. During his seven decades of life, Jacob took part in many of the historic events that led to the settlement of the West, including the gold rush and the fight for California’s independence.

Chester County Mushroom Farming by Bruce Mowday

Chester County Mushroom Farming explores the mushroom industry in Chester County, Pennsylvania. From the book cover: “Chester County is well known for its sprawling scenic views, rich farmland, the Main Line, and mushrooms. Chester County, and specifically the village of Kennett Square, is known as the mushroom capital of the world because of the quantity and quality of mushrooms grown there. Mushrooms have been around for centuries, with the French beginning cultivation in the 1600s, and mushroom farming began in Chester County more than 120 years ago. The earliest farmers were Quakers, but over the years members of the Irish, Italian, and Hispanic communities have joined the ranks of Chester County mushroom farmers. The local mushroom farmers were responsible for the forming of the American Mushroom Institute more than a half century ago.”

Other books by Bruce Mowday include:
• September 11, 1777: Washington’s Defeat at Brandywine Dooms Philadelphia
• Unlikely Allies: Fort Delaware’s Prison Community in the Civil War
• Along the Brandywine River
• The Chester County GOP- 150 Years of Public Service
• West Chester- Six Walking Tours
• Downingtown
• Coatesville
• The Selling of an Author

Join us for this special book signing and enjoy fiddle and blue grass music on the porch by The Brandywine Friends and folk ballads by Sally Jane Denk.

Henry Cole interviews Thomas Thompson as producer Hamish Rieck looks on

Thomas Thompson talks about Chris Sanderson with Henry Cole

Chadds Ford will be making an appearance on British television this December and it has nothing to do with the Battle of Brandywine. British filmmaker Henry Cole, host of a show on the British Travel Channel shot several interviews at the Chris Sanderson Museum on Creek Road Sunday. Cole’s guests included museum founding curator Tommy Thompson, artist and resident Karl Kuerner and resident Andy Bell.The show is “The World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides” and the current project has Cole making stops while riding a custom Harley Davidson down Route 1, from Boston, Mass., to Key West, Fla. It’s expected to air on British TV this December.

Previous shows have had Cole riding Route 66 from Chicago, Ill., to Los Angeles, Calif., and another show where Cole has ridden across Eastern Europe.

Cole arrived at the museum Sunday morning riding a Saxon, a bike that was built in Phoenix, Ariz. and shipped to Boston for him. His two-man crew was in a rented convertible Toyota.

The show host was apparently unaware of the significance of the Chadds Ford area since he showed surprise when told of the British victory during 1777 Battle of Brandywine.

He did get a mini history lesson from Thompson who told him about Chris Sanderson and the museum.

“It’s [the museum] is a tribute to Chris,” he said to Cole. “Many historians belittle him, but he was factual. He didn’t make this stuff up.”

After interviewing Thompson, Cole spoke with Kuerner on the artistic legacy of the area and then with Bell about motorcycles.

Bell wasn’t scheduled to be on the show, but he stopped by when he saw the bike Cole was riding. And when Cole mentioned a mechanical problem he was having, Bell gave him a map showing every Harley Davidson dealer in the country.

Bell, the subject of Andrew Wyeth’s “Stop,” showed up on his own Harley, the one he’s shown riding in the Wyeth painting.

When Christian Sanderson was a student at West Chester Normal School in 1898, he wrote to his mother asking her not to throw away a dried-up orange she might find in his bedroom dresser. “It was the last orange Papa ate,” he explained.

Sanderson saved a lot more than partially eaten fruit. The teacher, historian, fiddler and radio personality collected thousands of items over his lifetime, many of which are on display at the Christian C. Sanderson Museum, a small eight-room house in Chadds Ford where Sanderson lived for nearly 30 years until his death in 1966.

“He liked to save the first and last of everything,” said museum president and director Sally Denk. “Some things he saved have great value and others have no value at all.”

Indeed, visitors to the museum might be perplexed by some of the items that Sanderson cherished: a lock of George Washington’s hair, sawdust from an evangelist’s revival meeting, melted ice from the South Pole, and a photograph of two schoolboys holding a frozen cat they had put inside a teacher’s desk as a prank.

But among these oddities are also intriguing artifacts, including a book owned by Benjamin Franklin; letters written by Civil War veterans; a photograph of the slave who helped John Wilkes Booth onto his horse after Booth shot Abraham Lincoln; and autographs of Patrick Henry, Sitting Bull, Thomas A. Edison, Queen Victoria and Clark Gable, just to name a few.

The museum was founded in 1967, after Sanderson’s death, by several of his friends, including Andrew Wyeth and Thomas R. Thompson, who became its founding curator. It is open only on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

As it celebrates its 41st anniversary, it is “gradually moving into the 21st century,” Denk said. Museum staff have created a Web site, and there are plans to install a security system and a climate control system to better preserve the archives and artifacts. Professionally designed interactive exhibits will also be featured.

Christian Sanderson is remembered by friends as a man who inspired a passion for life, past and present. Museum vice president Chip Lohmann, 52, recalls Sanderson’s giving him bullets and arrowheads when he was a small boy. “I became a history major in college because of him,” he said.

Sanderson’s widowed mother, Hanna, shared his love of history. From 1906 to 1922, they rented a section of George Washington’s headquarters in what is now Brandywine Battlefield Park after Sanderson accepted a position to teach at a one-room schoolhouse in Chadds Ford.

During this time, Sanderson and his mother opened their home to the public for tours, history programs, festive dinners, and dances commemorating Washington’s birthday, according to founding curator Thompson, author of The Washington’s Headquarters Story.

It was here that Sanderson developed a close friendship with neighbor N.C. Wyeth and his family. Today, the museum proudly displays an original pastel painting by Andrew Wyeth outside the entrance to the Wyeth Family Art room, where another Wyeth painting of Sanderson, titled The Country Schoolmaster, hangs.

After Sanderson’s mother died on Christmas morning 1943, the Chadds Ford house fell into a state of disrepair. Although Sanderson maintained a makeshift museum at the front of the house, the rooms in the rear became almost uninhabitable because of his collections.

Museum visitors can read some of the 4,000 notes Sanderson wrote to himself and others. One note, scribbled on a scrap of paper sometime after his mother had died, states: “I apologize for look of house but everything in here means something to me.”

If You Go

Where and when: The Christian C. Sanderson Museum is located at 1755 Creek Road (Old Route 100) near the intersection of Route 1 in Chadds Ford. The museum is open to the public March through November on Saturdays and Sundays, from 1 to 4:30 p.m.
Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.
For more information, call 610-388-6545 or visit
www.sandersonmuseum.org

Members of the Sanderson Museum formally recognized the 40th Anniversary of its founding on Sunday, October 12 in the Garden Room of the award-winning Mendenhall Inn.

After President Sally Denk and Second Vice President Dean Camp offered champagne toasts, (to Thomas R. Thompson and to the museum’s future) members dined on young garden greens with Raspberry Vinaigrette; Prime Rib of Beef au Jus with Horseradish Mousse or fresh Salmon Fillet stuffed with Jumbo Lump Crabmeat.

After a decadent dessert of individual Opera Concerto Torts, Denk spoke briefly to the assembled guests noting that five years ago at the museums 35th Anniversary dinner held at the Concordville Inn, not one child was present. Now five years later, Colby and Mitchell Camp, Alex Furst and Kerry and Colin Moynihan attended the dinner with their parents board member Mr. and Mrs. Dean Camp, Karen Furst, and volunteers Karen and Andrew Moynihan.

Denk then introduced filmmaker Karen Kuder who introduced her documentary, “Cannonballs Anecdotes and Artifacts, The Wonderful Life of Christian Sanderson”, to the delight of all assembled.

Guests attending the celebration included senior board member John Silvasi and special Emeritus Board members Richard Layton, Richard A. McLellen and Thomas R. Thompson. Volunteer Terry Berndt drove in for the festivities from Allentown. Also attending were Sanderson neighbor Christina Lisk and neighbor and board member Rena Cuno; as well as artist and board member Karl Kuerner, award-winning photojournalist Richard Schwartzman and Clark Gregg of the US Department of Labor.

40th Anniversary Sketch by John Silvasi

So how are things going at the Sanderson?” is the question I always hear when someone sees me out and about the village. I have no doubt it was the same question our earliest board members and volunteers heard back in 1967 and 1968 during the initial “big clean-up” and with the opening of the first room.

There was a lot to do then before the public could see the difference: Repair and re-shingle the roof, re-build the porches, repair and paint the walls, modernize the electrical system; not to mention the hundreds of hours put in by Tom and Joyce Thompson, as they organized artifacts and archival material.

Today, although we have an organized collection, we face many of the same problems. The world of museums and non-profits has changed during the 40 years the museum on Creek Road quietly watched the Brandywine flow by.

The American Association of Museums has developed their Best Practices and standards for accreditation; Museum science has discovered how artifacts like textiles, metals, photographs, slides, film, wood, papers and other materials in our collection and archives are being adversely affected by the wrong lighting and heating systems installed long ago.

And the levels of human comfort have changed. Gone are the days when an open window and screen door were an acceptable form of summer air-conditioning. Currently we are running on two window units on the second floor and a donated window unit on the first floor.

As we rebuild and re-develop our board with strong leaders in the fields of finance, marketing and museum management, it is rare to find leaders of this caliber who will serve as volunteers and risk their personal estate and holdings in a lawsuit, serving a museum that does not have Directors and Operators Insurance. This was a difficult decision for our board, but when we risked loosing some of our best leaders, the handwriting on the wall was all too clear.

And the board made a wise decision to close off the front staircase in the museum. Although charming, the rise of the steps is higher than the back staircase and with the early 19^th century twists and turns, a serious trip and fall accident was waiting to happen. In our modern litigious society, intent to create a safe museum is your best defense in a liability suit.

Eric Steckel, property and grounds supervisor at Chadds Ford’s Painters Crossing Condominiums just down the road, has been a God-send to us as we make the many necessary repairs to our building. From the front and side porches, from the cellar to the second floor, Eric has not only made necessary repairs, but installed our beautiful bronze plaque to our founders to the left of the front door.

And finally, the Sanderson Museum was required to hook up to the new Chadds Ford sewer system in 2007.

Thanks to our very able contractor Joe Gomez of Kennett Square, who worked long days in frigid winter weather, we are now up and running. Prior to this year, our system emptied into the (neighbors) Cuno’s septic tank, as both houses had at one time belonged to Lottie Eachus. This was a mandatory $16,000 project! One afternoon I was even telephoned at my place of employment to make an emergency trip to the museum to get Joe access to our electrical system in the basement.

Yes, I can now tell you all about seeking contractor bids; mains and pipes; grinder pumps and green fiberglass holding tanks; township forms and township electrical and plumbing inspections; even how we accidentally discovered that the School Room in the museum had once been a bathroom when the blacksmith Willard Sharpless lived in the front section of the house. (those connections have now been safely closed)

Our next big project for 2008 will be a state of the art security system. As more and more people visit the museum and we receive wider publicity, it is imperative that we do so, not only to safeguard the collection but also the archives.

I dream that my legacy as the 4^th president of the Sanderson Museum might be as the president who helped bring the Sanderson Museum back to life and safely into the 21^st century, but alas it may just well be Sally Jane Denk – Sovereign of the Sanderson Sewer System!

Two of our most valuable and charming volunteers, Jean and Les Baiardi, were born quite a distance apart; Jean hails from Willow Grove, PA, and Les, West Springfield, Mass. Les had a long career with Boeing Helicopters. Now that he’s retired he likes stamp collecting, gardening and reading. Jean is also an avid gardener and reader and also enjoys cooking and sewing.

Living in the Hamorton section of Kennett Square since August 1976, Les and Jean have 3 adult daughters, along with two grandsons and one granddaughter. All the grandkids live nearby, so they are seen often.

The Baiardis lived in the Brandywine Valley for more than 20 years before they visited the Sanderson Museum. Tommy Thompson was their guide on that summer day in 2001. He was so interesting that Les and Jean quickly volunteered. The relaxed and friendly atmosphere created by the volunteers was also something that impressed Jean.

When asked about their favorite museum items, Jean says she enjoys the Peter Hurd landscape, while the NC Wyeth painting of the marching soldiers in the Battlefield Room is Les’s favorite.

“Since we’ve been helping out at the museum” Jean said, “we have studied the exhibits and learned a great deal about Chris and history. We’ve also met so many interesting people. We especially enjoy the old veterans.”

Editors Note: It was the Bairardis who alerted the Board to an article in the Daily Local News reporting on The Library Company’s (Phila) quest for information on the locations of several of Ben Franklin’s books sold off over the years. Through their head librarian, we were able to confirm that the book Chris Sanderson bought at a library auction in June 1947, had indeed belonged to Benjamin Franklin. It is on display in the Chadds Ford Room of the Museum.

As you probably know, I check our responses from the Sanderson Website that are delivered to an email box. About once a week I actually do get a message with the subject ‘From the Sanderson Museum Website. . . ‘.

The other 50 to 100 messages are junk mail, better known as SPAM in the digital era. Thank goodness it isn’t all paper junk mail or there would be no trees left.

Anyway, most of the real messages are asking for when the museum will be open. Occasionally someone asks for information about a relative that knew Chris.

Recently, I got a note from Maybelle Fraser. She wanted to buy a copy of Chris. I called her and had a delightful chat with her. She lives in the family home in Michigan as I recall and it sounds like her father collected and kept many items (“..everything that ever came through the door or fell in the yard…”).

She was looking through some old Reader’s Digests and found the July 1991 issue that had a condensed version of the Insight article written by Tom Dunkel titled “The Man Who Saved Everything”. That took her to Google which took her to our web site!!

She sent me a check and I sent her a copy of the book. It’s not the first time for such a request and it will not be the last, I’m sure.

We have received requests in the past for pictures and we are currenly working on one such request for a local historical society’s exhibit.

We are also interviewing one of the members of the Pocopson Valley Boys in the spring. Chip Lohmann’s efforts are bringing this about.

I’m now in the process of converting some of our obsolete photo and audio records into digitized information. I completed a group of slides in December.

My current work is transcribing all the museum’s cassettes into MP3 files to preserve them and allow easy sharing of them.

It’s a real time process! I put on a cassette, start up a piece of software on my computer and let it run! I’m getting to listen to all the tapes. What a treat!

Some of the quality isn’t great but the tapes are still a wonderful treasure for the museum

Founding Museum Curator Tom Thompson and I are in touch and he just can’t stay away. He is working on a more detailed index of the notes that Chris left. I’m helping him a bit with the mechanics of the process.

Before I sat down to write this, I walked into the museum and who should I find checking on some specific information in the book collection but Tom! What a wonderful surprise!

If anyone would like me to look up something special, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me!

Editor’s Note: As Chuck has reached that magic age, Wyeth- Ayerst, where he is in Information Systems, has offered him a fabulous early retirement package. Wyeth-Ayerst’s loss is the Sanderson’s gain.

2007 was an important year for the Sanderson Museum as the Board made great strides toward aligning the museum with Best Practices for Museums.

One of the first things the board did was to form a Marketing Committee that began to focus on public outreach. To this end, we now have full color, professionally designed brochures and rack cards which were distributed widely and received a positive response from visitors. (Many thanks to 2nd Vice President Dean Camp and Wachovia Bank for financial support in this endeavor.)

The museum’s website has been redesigned and updated and we look forward to adding more information about the museum and its collections as we move forward through 2008.

We have confidence that the Marketing Committee will continue this strong effort as we add new board members with experience in this area.

Technology plays a key role in running a business or nonprofit today and the Sanderson Museum is taking steps to become more savvy in this field. The Sanderson is currently experimenting with an online Project Management System where board members can collaborate to create documents, share files, have live chats, make To-Do Lists, and set goals. Online contact is a useful way for board members, some of whom live an hour away from the museum, to keep in touch between quarterly board meetings.

Another way we are making use of technology to advance the museum is computerizing our financial records. As the new system is set up, it will cut down on the time spent tracking deposits and expenditures and permit easy reporting. We also hope to start recording the collection records in a computer database and will be exploring grant opportunities to aid us with this project

A start has been made at digitizing the collection by scanning some of our thousands of photographs and ephemera. This will be an ongoing project that you will be hearing more about over the next few years.

Obtaining Directors and Officers Liability Insurance has been a major step in becoming a healthy museum. Unlike common liability insurance which protects the corporation against lawsuits from trip and fall incidents, D. & O. insurance will help us attract dynamic new board members who can contribute fresh skills and knowledge without fear of losing personal assets or life savings from outside lawsuits brought against volunteer board members. Unfortunately these actions have become all too common in our modern litigious society.

Over the coming year, the board will create a Long-term Strategic Plan for the museum. We will be addressing issues such as funding, exhibits and interpretation, collections management, and care of the physical plant. We welcome your opinions and suggestions!

Editor’s Note: Karen Smith Furst has been an important addition to the Sanderson Board of Directors. She has vast experience with collections and museum management at Winterthur Museum, the Brandywine Battlefield as well as the Chadds Ford Historical Society. Karen runs her own website design company, Furst Design. Her skills have contributed immensely to the growth of the Sanderson Museum.