Historical society annual dinner honors volunteers

Jerry and Vicki Blacker are Copper Spike Volunteers of the Year

The Cordova Historical Society held its annual fall volunteer recognition and awards dinner on Oct. 22nd at the Pioneer Igloo. This year’s theme was “Cordova Speakeasy.”

The theme was inspired by the recent publication of two historical fiction novels written by our own CHS Trustee Cathy Pegau.  The Charlotte Brody Murder Mystery Series trace little bit of a darker period in Cordova’s past with murders, fires, and lust as a constant thread.

As a part of her research, Cathy utilized the Cordova Historical Society’s extensive archival collection and the staff at the museum enjoyed assisting and learning along with her. If you haven’t read her novels yet, please do. They are a colorful look back at our past and you might even recognize an artifact or two!

The society did not hold an annual dinner in 2015, as we were busy entertaining the rest of Alaska’s historians and museum professionals at their 2015 annual conference —- the Cordova Center’s first event!  Now, a year later, we’ve accomplished getting moved into the new space, we’ve installed the Collections Spacesaver unit and are about to begin the installation of our new exhibits.

The Cordova Historical Society was founded in 1966—a mere 50 years ago. And here we are going strong and headed into the next very exciting chapter of a new space, new museum, new exhibit plan and eventually accreditation!

Over the past year, we not only moved the entire museum and its collections, but the historical society received grants totaling $42,900 for preserving artifacts, exhibit design, archival storage and for art acquisitions.

Advertisement

We opened the Copper River and Ziegler Galleries and held a year’s worth of successful shows including the most interesting Gansey exhibit. The new museum store is spacious, expanded and working well at financially supporting the exhibit design.

In the coming year, we plan to unveil portions of the new exhibits as they are completed and return to our popular programs for the community and the school district.

The evening was fun-filled with many attendees dressed in 1920s era costumes and include a performance of the ‘Flapper Tappers” as well as a short play entitled “The Four-Eyed Kid” written by Barclay Kopchak and performed by Barclay, Corrine and Cathy Pegau and Monika Reghetti.

One highlight of the evening was the presentation of the Copper Spike Volunteer of the Year Award to Jerry and Vicki Blacker, for assistance in moving the larger objects of the museum, including the 3,800-pound linotype.  A second highlight was the unveiling of the two new paintings acquired by the society – original Eustace Ziegler works most certainly painted here in Cordova.

Photo courtesy Wendy Ranney/ Cordova Historical Society
Photo courtesy Wendy Ranney/ Cordova Historical Society
Advertisement