State museums to sell off bits of history

HUMMELSTOWN, Pa. – Piled high in a cinder-block auction house near Harrisburg are castaway pieces of history from Pennsylvania’s state museums.

Culled from their attics are deeply worn farm tools and cracked pottery. Stained linens from Pullman cars. Fragments of mining maps. Boxes of unidentified flotsam and jetsam.

Sotheby’s, it’s not.

Most of the boxes, which go on the auction block tomorrow, contain more bric-a-brac than heirlooms.

But the bulk of the items fall into two popular subject areas for collectors – farming and railroads – that may generate some competitive bidding, experts say.

The auction catalog contains 1,600 items in 500 lots gleaned from seven of 26 museums and historic sites across the commonwealth.

“These are the items that may be duplicates in a collection, that may be in fair to poor condition, or where the history is lost,” said Mary Jane Miller, the museums’ head of collections management.

It might look like a rummage sale to help bail out the cash-strapped Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission. After all, the agency’s budget was slashed almost in half last year and its workforce reduced by one-third.

But it’s not. The auction proceeds are placed in restricted accounts to pay for conservation and acquisitions.

Neither the Ziegler Auction Co. nor museum officials has any idea what the sale will bring, but some museum curators are looking to reduce the backlog of items that need restoration.

Miller said that in 15 years in the job, auction proceeds have ranged from $3,000 to $30,000, the year the state sold off a number of oriental rugs.

There are no fancy rugs this go-round, but there are unique items from the days before electricity and macadam roads: a stone wagon used to haul material for roads in the Lehigh Valley and a dog-size treadmill that once powered farm machinery.

Then there are the model trains – some handmade to scale – and real railroad memorabilia that are generating regional interest, said Jay Ziegler, owner of the auction house: Box after box of American Flyer trains, tracks, transformers, and miniature accessories for model railroad layouts, and a mysterious oversize model of a truss bridge.

There are plenty of railroad ephemera: miniature soaps, matchbooks, and equipment plates, brochures announcing the first Metroliners circa 1975, a handful of 1980s-era SEPTA signs, and train schedules for long-gone lines, including one for the Reading Co. noting a regular stop at the George School.

Railroad historians say rail-related collectibles have long been popular, particularly in Pennsylvania.

“Pennsylvania is a railroad state in every sense of the word,” said Maryland-based railroad historian John Hankey. “Even if people are not riding trains anymore, they are still connected to them.”

Miller said that before sending artifacts to auction, the state tries to keep them in the public domain by placing them with other museums in Pennsylvania. About 500 items went to other museums. The state also tries to contact the last-known family members of donors.

“We tried to find the stone wagon a home in the Lehigh Valley, but in this shrinking economy could not,” she said.

Miller says items that leave the state collection undergo a committee’s review before heading to auction.

Some objects are removed because they have lost their provenance, Miller said, holding up a white-linen christening dress that came from an unknown general store.

“The history is lost,” she said. “Now it’s just one of many christening dresses.”

There may be no Antiques Roadshow-worthy moments tomorrow, but for people with a passion for the past, the auction presents an opportunity to bring a piece of history into their homes, curators say.

“There’s a lot of power in objects, particularly those that were handmade and used by real people,” said Jim Lewars, administrator of the Landis Valley Museum in Lancaster, which turned over about 300 items for sale. “You don’t have to be a diehard to have a connection.”

If You Go

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission auction will begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow at Ziegler Auction Co., 1550 Sand Hill Rd., Hummelstown, Pa. Doors will open at 7 a.m. for a preview of items.

For directions and information, including the catalog, visit www.zieglerauction.com. Telephone: 717-533-4267.

Contact staff writer Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@phillynews.com.

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