The Gann Museum’s First Exhibits and Renovations
By Cody Berry
This week’s story is focused on some of the renovations that the Gann Museum’s first board of directors undertook to convert the former library into a museum and its first exhibits. On May 22, 1980, someone known only as “B.F” wrote in the Benton Courier that the very first renovation the Gann Museum needed was the installation of a new floor.1
A picture of board member Gwen “Pud” Evitts standing on the museum’s front porch accepting a donation from two men appeared in the Benton Courier on May 20, 1980, (pictured below) a month before it was made an official non-profit. In the picture’s caption it said that she accepted two donations of 50 gallons of gasoline from Chief gas station managers Johnny Hunnicutt and Don Garner to be given away June 30 to end the renovation fund drive.2
Cynthia Howell wrote in the Arkansas Democrat that the museum’s original three rooms were in good condition and that the back room, which was added when the Gann became a library, had new carpeting and furnishings being put in which were coordinated with the pink, brown, and beiges of the inside bauxite walls, which Pat Dunnahoo described as “beautiful rock.”3 Howell said that $2,000 had been raised for the museum, which was enough to open it. Howell said that the museum would open after the weather cools and the displays and minor renovations are completed.4 The article didn’t say what those minor renovations were.
A small bauxite mining car, which had been discarded, was found and restored. It was to be part of permanent display on mining. There is no mining car in the museum today. At that time, the Gann Museum already had some of its Native American artifacts and the grave marker made by “Mr. Atchison,” a local potter in 1878. The pioneer display in the museum’s back room was not built yet. Howell’s article said that it “will be built around a mantel piece and handmade doors that Pat Dunnahoo retrieved from a cabin built in 1866. The logs were said to be from “an old smokehouse,” by Dunnahoo.5
On October 16, 1980, a picture of board member Jeff Cook working in the museum was published in the Benton Courier. Cook can be seen putting some finishing touches on one of their displays. Items were placed on wooden shelves placed along a wall for viewing.6 Perhaps those shelves were part of the minor renovations that were needed before the museum opened.
Citations:
1 “B.F.,”Gann Museum,” Benton Courier, Thursday Evening, May 22, 1980, p. 4
2 The Benton Courier, Tuesday Evening, May 20, 1980, p. 2.
3 Cynthia Howell, “Gann House to see action as new museum,” Arkansas Democrat, Found in Gann Museum Scrapbook at the Gann Museum.
4 Cynthia Howell, “Gann House to see action as new museum,” Arkansas Democrat, Found in Gann Museum Scrapbook at the Gann Museum.
5 Cynthia Howell, “Gann House to see action as new museum,” Arkansas Democrat, Found in Gann Museum Scrapbook at the Gann Museum.
6 Benton Courier, October 16, 1980, p. 2