Interviewee: Mrs. Nancy Glaser, female, Caucasian, Director of the Augusta Museum of History, Augusta, Georgia
Interviewer: Dr. Niki Christodoulou, Augusta University
********************
Dr. Christodoulou: Nancy. Tell me a little bit about yourself. Like, where and when you were born, and some of your background – maybe studies and the like. (0:31 seconds)
Nancy Glaser: Sure, sure. Nancy Glaser. I’m the Executive Director of the Augusta Museum of History. My world started in Charleston, West Virginia. So, I was born and raised in West Virginia - went to undergraduate school at Vanderbilt University, Peabody College of Education - getting excited to become a teacher. Um taught intercity Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and decided at that point to go on to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. Received my M.A.D. – sort of not – it was an education Master’s, but I did a lot in museum studies, sort of created my own curriculum. And got my Master’s degree and I decided after about the third riot in Pittsburg that it was time for me to look for other opportunities, but in the Education field. So, I made the decision to – My mother worked at this mausoleum. So, I’d grown up with museums, and I made the decision to go into museum work and have felt that I have been on vacation ever since. Love what I do. My first job was at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia and from there I was there for three years, and I went down to The Ringling Museum of Art: Sarasota. Was there for six and a half years. Decided I want to put my Education degree there. Was a gentleman by the name of Howard Gardener – multiple intelligences. I wanted to really experiment with the idea of how that could work in a museum setting. Art museums didn’t always lend themselves to those kinds of experiments. So, I went to a children’s museum in Richmond, Virginia, and I got to have a wonderful time learning how to apply Howard Gardener’s theories. Um, was there for six years and what I found was that I missed this stuff, the collections. The other thing I had never done in museum work was I never built a building, and there was an opportunity in Kentucky at the State Museum; it was part of the Kentucky Historical Society – to build a building. So, I decided to go to Frankfurt, Kentucky. Was the Director of the Museum, the State Museum, as part of the Kentucky Historical Society and we built a Kentucky History Center. I was there for 11 years. After a while, I got the itch again, and there’s a pattern here: I always been around water, rivers, and stuff like that. So, when I came to – there were a few jobs that I was applying to at that point. And I absolutely fell in love with this, and the only thing I ever heard of Augusta, Georgia was there was this little golf tournament called The Masters, and that was about it. I had not really known much more about Augusta, Georgia. I came down here for one interview, and I started falling in love. And I came right back, and I totally fell in love with the area and had been here since 2005. So, it’s probably the longest I ever been in an institution at this point. Um – (4:23)
Dr. Christodoulou: You’ve been here for 11 years? (4:27)
Nancy Glaser: Eleven years, here. Well, more than 11 years. Since 2005. Yeah, about 11 years. Math is not my – Good thing they have calculators on computers. Lots to do here; there were a lot of issues that had to be addressed. Um, but they had a great board, an excellent staff. The staff has been growing and changing over the years, as the museum has been growing and changing over the years. Um, we are the only nationally accredited museum in this region. Um, there are only, I think, 18 nationally accredited museums in Georgia. In the country, there are a little over 820 nationally accredited museums out of 18,000. So, it is – there are standards that you have to maintain and adhere to in order to keep that accreditation. So, we continue doing things. There’s no gray. You’re either doing them right or not doing them. And we continue doing things right, here. (5:38)
Dr. Christodoulou: What do you need to do in order to stay accredited? (5:42)
Nancy Glaser: There are public programs; there are ways that you work with collections; and processing collections; and caring for collections. People entrust their family treasures and their heritage to this intuition, and we have an obligation to take care of it properly. There is also a matter presenting information. So, you have exhibits, exhibitions, and there – and at that is just listening to the community and knowing, what the, what the expectations are. When I first arrived, I was told, you know, on certain terms, that there needed to be an exhibition on golf. Not the masters, on golf history. And that’s what we have now. There was also an expectation that we needed to have an exhibition on one of the international musical icons, and that’s Mr. James Brown. We have an exhibition on Mr. Brown now. Another expectation was we needed a – There were a number of people from this area, Local Legends, is what the name of the show is that needed to be explored. And they needed to be explored, and their stories needed to be told. We have an exhibition on legends. So, its listening to the community and hearing the kinds of things that they want to see. The other is, um, for me, it’s, it’s getting – sharing as much of the collections as we can. And we can’t – as any museum can’t do – we can’t get anything out at any given time. Most museums get anything from five percent to eight percent of their collections out on view. The rest of them are in storage. So I made a commitment, I guess it was probably five or six years ago, that we would make our collections more accessible. The easiest way to do that is with technology. So, people can go to our website, and we are slowly getting our collections available to be seen on our website, and that’s important to me. And that continues, and we now have well over three million items in this collection. The other thing I found rather unusual – Augusta is very unusual – is to have a museum of this size, history museum of this size. The town is small, and I applaud the people of Augusta having the foresight to do that. I had nothing to do with creating this facility. I just tried to improve on what my predecessors have done. (8:30)
Dr. Christodoulou: Yeah, that’s pretty amazing. Indeed, it’s um - (8:33)
Nancy Glaser: It’s fun. (8:34)
Dr. Christodoulou: It is fun. They appreciate, apparently, you know, the history they have here. (8:42)
Nancy Glaser: It’s a rich history here. I mean uh Georgia is one of the original 13 colonies; it certainly doesn't have the history of where you’ve come from. It isn’t quite that old, but we are one of the original 13 colonies… Although Georgia was considered, at that time, a buffer state between Spanish Florida and the rest of the colonies. But it, it, goes back to the beginning, and it’s got a rich history, and it’s terrific. (9:11)
Dr. Christodoulou: Did you have to learn about or felt like learning much of the history that… (9:13)
Nancy Glaser: Oh, I’ve had to. Oh, Yeah. I‘ve had – I’ve been - fortunately, there was a curator here when I arrived, Gordon Baker, who introduced me to the world quite a bit. I’ve had – there’s Dr. Edward Cashin, who used to be a Professor of History at Augusta University. I guess then, Augusta State. He was incredibly helpful, and I have all his books. One of the people, my go to people, is Dr. Leanne Caldwell, who is an Augusta University, Professor. So, there are people out there that I’ve been very fortunate to have as an access, and being able to introduce me to this world here in Augusta, this region, really. Because the museum covers not just Richmond County, but also the history of Burke County, of um Columbia County, of McDuffie County on this side of the river, on the other side of Edge Field, and Aiken. It’s what they call; the acronym is the C.S.R.A.: Central Savannah River Area. And that is our mission: to preserve and present the history of the C.S.R.A. (10:28)
Dr. Christodoulou: Do you remember what were some of the things that impressed you? From the things that you heard, what was it that made an impression on you? (10:48)
Nancy Glaser: That it’s so much more the history here is so much more than what just the surface. You know, just the golf, and there’s so much going on here that the whole mill history, the canal, the Augusta Canal. The golf history is pretty interesting. You know, what I found fascinating was that the first golf course on this side of the river was really part of the Bonaire Hotel, which now – it’s sort of morphed into what is now the Augusta Country Club. And actually, then you have The Forest Hills – was the next major course that was put together and built. And is actually now the home course of the Augusta University; that’s their home court, Forest Hills. And the baby of the group, you know, 1933, was that little golf course on Washington Road. So, it’s more that things are more than just what people just read about in the paper necessarily. You start scratching the surface, and you get the lower layers, and it’s just one great idea: one great story after another. That’s what museums are about, you know, telling those wonderful stories. And it doesn’t have to be I mean we have a full steam engine here. It doesn’t have to big a huge thing. And we have – it was great; we have a badge. It was only about this big [makes a small circle in hand] and could have been nothing. Nothing really, and we flipped it over, and we were able to tell who it belonged to, and it happened to be a sheriff, a deputy sheriff, who was um – actually, this was from the late 1800s, the badge. We found out that he was actually the son of the Augusta Jailer, and he was born in the Augusta jail. And how cool is that; it’s all from a little badge. So, you don’t have to have a big thing to be able to tell a great story, and museum are in the business of telling stories; that’s what I’ve been able to find out. Since I’ve been here, it doesn’t have to necessarily be somebody famous; it can be somebody infamous too. But there are some wonderful and great stories, and I don’t know if Augusta or this region is unique in that. It’s just a matter of when you are in an area that’s the kind of things that I always sought out and a lot of people have. And I wish I had more opportunities to introduce those stories to even a broader audience. And that what we’re working on now; that’s the part of it: marketing and getting the word out. (13:27)
Dr. Christodoulou: So, what are some other objects you have found…or pictures, maybe? (13:32)
Nancy Glaser: Oh jeez. I have over three million items in here. Um, we had discovered um just recently last year, we were given close to 800 thousand negatives from a photograph studio called Fitz Simms. And it dates back to the late 1940s; it’s being able to document from the late 1940s all the way through, I guess, the early 200s and all the people; and all the places; and all the um the events. All these were documented in this one photography studio. And understand there were millions, and all we were able to take at this point were – they had a ten-year contact with the local newspaper. But the Augusta Chronicle the regional newspaper. They also did a lot – they worked for insurance companies; they did a lot of aerials for Augusta. I mean can tell you – I had been able to see the development of the whole region. (14:41)
Dr. Christodoulou: But from – (14:42)
Nancy Glaser: Just from the 1940s, the late 1940s, all the way through, you know, the 1950s 1960s, 1970s; and all that stuff – all that’s back there. You know all the great stories about that. So yeah, I mean those are the kinds of collections that we have, and we’re just starting to now mine a lot of that. We’re just starting to dig out even more as we start processing this material and getting things scanned. (15:11)
Dr. Christodoulou: That’s amazing. And it’s an amazing idea to look for photographs in those places, right? (15:18)
Nancy Glaser: Um-hm. (15:19)
Dr. Christodoulou: Because it’s a part of it. (15:20)
Nancy Glaser: Um-hm. (15:20)
Dr. Christodoulou: These companies and – (15:22)
Nancy Glaser: They all we’re taking pictures. They were developing areas; these were all land development. We have pictures – there’s a – I’m trying to think of the most– there’s this highway that goes up and down here; it’s called Gordon Highway. We have pictures of it before all form this one collection before it was put in, while it was being put in the whole sequence from start to finish. Now, how cool is that? That’s a part of the history of the area. (15:24)
Dr. Christodoulou: And what other things? Yeah, this is amazing, very exciting. (16:01)
Nancy Glaser: I mean, I can give you a tour of the museum, and I can point out one thing after another. Whether it’s the – you know, the exhibition stars with um with the Native Americans. They were here well 12,000 years before anybody else; certainly, before the Europeans. Um – (16:21)
Dr. Christodoulou: Twelve thousand years! (16:22)
Nancy Glaser: Twelve thousand years. Uh and most of the collection that we have was through archeological digs of an area called Stallings Island; it’s just north of here on the Savannah River. It’s actually in Columbia County. But it’s actually right in the middle, smack in the middle, of the Savannah River. And archaeologists overtime have dug these materials up, and they date from the archaic, woodland, even to a little bit of the Mississippian period, which is the latest period of prehistory. I mean, you have that kind of material that’s on view. A lot of people don’t realize that um Hernando Desoto came this far north. Most people associated him with Spanish Florida and not really Georgia, but he did come up this far. Um, let’s see what else: um we had a couple of Revolutionary War battles in this area: one right across the street from the museum. I mean literally right across the street from us. (17:24)