Heirlooms on display at Historium exhibit July 11-23
Helen Conardy is proud of her unique little steamboat-shaped dish, not because of its monetary value but because of the sentiment behind it. Made around 1904, the antique glass dish was given away to promote the sale of some of the first commercially available prepared mustard. Its original owner was Helen's grandmother, Mary Adeline Ebrite (1863-1939), who passed it to her daughter, Helen Margaret Ebrite Blisard (1892-1981.) Helen Conardy is the third-generation owner of this unusual little treasure, and she intends to display it at the Ozark County Historium during the coming exhibit entitled From Ozark County Kitchens, to be held July 11-23.
Event organizers invite everyone to submit items for display for this special event, including such things as dishes, linens, vintage cookbooks and aprons, crockery and pottery, tools such as churns or butter molds, or anything else that might have been found in Grandma's kitchen. Items that have a story behind their origin are especially requested.
A highlight of the two-week From Ozark County Kitchens exhibit will be a workshop from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday morning, July 16, when people may bring in their old family recipes, memories of meals and food and photographs to create one-of-a-kind scrapbook pages. The creations will be compiled into a memory cookbook entitled "Apron Strings: Recipes and Recollections," to be sold at the Historium.
"We've already been given some wonderful photos and recipes and are beginning to make pages for the book, which will be much more than a cookbook," said Mary Morrison, a member of the Ozark County Genealogical and Historical Society, sponsor of the exhibit at the Historium.
"Colene Rose has shared her mother's recipe for chicken and dressing that has been a big hit at the Morrison Reunion for as long as I can remember," she continued. "Colene now brings a huge pan, and it disappears quickly."
Another early donor is Diane Dreckman White, a Gainesville resident, who brought in vintage cookbooks used by her grandmother, the late Rose Dreckman, along with photographs of Rose as a young woman. Diane remembers her grandma as being a wonderful cook and sees the book as a way to preserve and share her memory.
OCGHS members will be in the Historium, on the west side of the Gainesville square, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 5 through 8, to receive contributions to be loaned for the exhibit. Organizers stress that this event is open to everyone; no admission will be charged to view the display. For more information, contact Susan Ault at 679-4253 (papajohn@ozbb.net) or Janet Taber at 265-3372 (janettaber@gmail.com.) The Historium phone number is 679-2400.
<p>Helen Conardy is the third-generation owner of a
steamship-shaped dish that will be display July 11-12 at the
Historium during the "From Ozark County Kitchen" exhibit. Historium
volunteer Sandra Stone, standing, is one of the event's
organizers.</p>
