The Second Floor of the Old Stone Fort
Museums in the 18th century were mostly created by wealthy aristocrats to show items they collected while traveling the world. They would display their collections in cabinets for their friends to see. The curators of these cabinets believed that the items would speak for themselves and provided little to no information on individual objects. It was also common to not include any labels within the cabinets at all.
This style of display slowly evolved in the 19th century to include labels and a greater care for grouping items in a way that told a narrative. In the fall of 1889, the Old Stone Fort was opened to the public displaying its collection in this style. Glass cabinets and display cases were filled with over 2,500 items that were gathered from across the county.
Today, the second floor of the Old Stone Fort is still staged to look as it did in the late 1800’s. Not only is this style of exhibit a simple way to display the collection, but it allows our visitors to step back in time to see how the museum looked back when it first opened to the public.
To get a closer look at some of the collections on display, click the images below.
