Scurry County, Texas, museum offers WWI exhibit through June
SNYDER, Texas—One hundred years ago, the United States was preparing for war.
The Abilene Reporter-News reports it would be unlike any other in history, and though trains greatly aided in moving troops and equipment across the nation during the Civil War, it was World War I that proved to be the first mechanized conflict.
The last living veteran of that conflict died in 2012—Florence Green of Great Britain, a former waitress and member of the Royal Air Force who was 110 when she passed. The last American veteran, Frank Buckles, died the year before, also at 110.
But the memory of the millions who served still carries, even in the Big Country. A visit to the Jones County Courthouse will enlighten you with a display about the men who went off to war during those days. A trip to the Scurry
County Museum this spring can provide the same experience.
“Our World War I display is up through the end of June,” said Laurel Lamb, curator of the Scurry County Museum. “It’s a smaller display, kind of a preview of a larger exhibit we will do in the South Gallery next year for our Veterans Day exhibit.”
This year’s Veterans Day exhibit will cover the Vietnam War. In 2018, the larger World War I exhibit will mark the centennial of the end of that war.
As with many of the museum’s displays, the exhibit is a collection of artifacts from Scurry County residents.
One of the more fascinating items from the exhibit is what Lamb called “trench art”—two 16-pound artillery shells shaped and altered into souvenirs.
“Trench art was definitely a thing,” Lamb said. “When you think about it, the soldiers are sitting there for a long time in trenches, so they would make really neat pieces of art, like these artillery shells.”
There’s also a pay record for Victor Longbotham, who for his troubles earned a princely $40 a month before deductions. Nearby is a postcard sent home by someone named Homer.
“In our records, we have 118 veterans who served in World War I,” Lamb said.
Not a large number, but not necessarily a complete one, either. A big point of the exhibit is to spur public interest for further down the road.
“There are several purposes for this display and one of them is to get people to think about what they have in their own homes,” Lamb said. “A lot of people don’t think what they have is valuable.”
To that end, Lamb wants visitors to rummage through their own archives in search of any memorabilia from World War I. By the time the larger exhibit is presented, she hopes to have more artifact donations or loans to demonstrate how the war affected the area.
One of the biggest losses for military historians, and for the families of veterans, was the burning of the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis on July 12, 1973. At least 16 million military records were affected.
“So this is kind of another way to make people aware of how valuable and how fragile their items really are,” Lamb said of the exhibit. “Fires throughout history have destroyed a lot.”
She reiterated her hopes that those who visit will start digging through the old chests or stored boxes of their grandfathers or fathers.
“This is just a preview to get people thinking about it for the next year when we have a bigger exhibit,” Lamb said.