A special Civil War era fashion show and public display will be held this Sunday between 1:00-4:00 PM at the Armstrong County Historical Museum. The public is invited to attend.
The Armstrong County Historical Museum will host a special event this Sunday between 1:00 and 4:00 PM at its facility at the corner of Vine Street and North Grant Avenue in Kittanning.
According to organizer Robert “Slim” Bowser, the event titled Bonnets and Bayonets will feature a fashion show of Civil War era clothing as well as a display of new items recently added to the Civil War room.
“The museum got pretty busy after we featured our first Civil War open house, so we thought that we’d do another event to try and get some folks to come back after their summer vacations.”
Bowser said the concept of a “fashion show” isn’t exactly what one may think.
“We didn’t want to call it a fashion show because that implies that we’re only doing ladies’ fashions and that’s not what it’s all about. Our men, ladies, and children are all going to be showing some of the different fashion styles from the Civil War period. We’re going to have some of the children, our grandchildren, kids, ladies, mens, we’re all going to be coming out with an emcee describing what they are wearing. Not everything is actually going to actually be on a person. We are going to have some things on tables and hangers. We will show you everything from morning and day dresses for the ladies to the men’s military uniforms, civilian clothes and even a little bit of the post-war when the survivors joined the GAR. We’re going to show what that would have looked like.”
Bowser urged guests to bring a lawn chair as the event is scheduled outside on the Vine Street side of the building.
“Visitors are also welcome to go into the museum. We’re going to have some refreshments out there too. Just some cookies, coffee, lemonade and things like that. A nice family event and a good reason to come in and see your local museum,” Bowser said.
Armstrong County Historical Museum Co-Curator Tyler Woodside holds one of the swords from a collection originally owned by a local doctor that was provided to the Museum by the Kittanning Elks Lodge #203. The swords and muskets will be part of the Civil War display this Sunday at the Museum.
Museum Co-Curator Tyler Woodside said there will be a display of items that originally belonged to a doctor in town and were donated to the Elks Lodge in Kittanning.
“The Elks has a collection of early swords, early muskets mostly of the civil war period and other accoutrements basically that was donated years ago by a club founder named Dr. Jessop,” Woodside explained. “The items have been in storage for 30 plus years. They’ve aged nicely. It’s a good thing now to get these out for the community to enjoy and that’s kind of why I came up with the idea to bring the collection up here to the museum for a permanent display for everyone to look at.”
Woodside gave additional details of the collection.
“Dr. Jessop was an early doctor in Kittanning. He was actually the founder of Armstrong County Memorial Hospital, the first hospital in Kittanning at the time. And, he was the guy in town at one time. He was also an avid hunter and collector of muskets and local history and that’s kind of how the club (Elks) got the collection. He was a founder and before he had died, he had given the whole collection to the club to be a kind of a little museum at the club. At the time, there was no museum in Kittanning at the time. He thought it was important to keep it all together and to display it and so we’re just trying to do the same thing and keep Dr. Jessop’s vision alive with teaching people local history, especially when it comes to the civil war and local weapons and things like that and that nature.”
Woodside said the collection included approximately 13 swords and nine muskets.
“For those that have never been to the museum, why you’re missing out because there’s quite a few things in there that shows the history of our County,” Bowser said.
“There are some really interesting items that you don’t normally see every day that you typically would only see in a museum like Gettysburg. You have your own little Gettysburg Museum right in Armstrong County now thanks to the Elks,” Woodside said.
There is no cost to attend the event this Sunday.