A Glimpse of History at the Art Loan Exhibit
Aberdeen women curate a display of relics, paintings, and curiosities to enrich the city's moral and social status.
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The ladies of the M. E. church of this city during last week prepared a very pleasant surprise for the entertainment and enlightenment of the public, in the form of an Art Loan Exhibit. Quaint, odd and beautiful were the relics gleaned from by-gone centuries, each having its own little fanciful story to tell to the thoughtful observer. The painting that catches the eye of the sterner sex is that of 'Linus,' the Oregon wonder, a remarkable horse with a tail measuring one hundred inches in length. Real estate men form in a solid phalanx around a painting titled 'Aberdeen in '93.' Rev. T. W. Butler contributed a piece of mummy cloth, 3,000 years old. Unbounded credit is due to the ladies of Aberdeen for their untiring efforts in the furtherance of all worthy movements that tend to upbuild the moral and social status of Aberdeen.
“Quaint, odd and beautiful were the relics gleaned from by-gone centuries, each having its own little fanciful story to tell.”
In an era before museums were common, 'art loan exhibits' were how frontier towns established cultural pedigree. Today, this effort to 'upbuild' the city's status echoes in contemporary civic organizations and art councils trying to define Aberdeen's identity.
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