Please feel free to add your comments and share your stories about Piatt Castles. Whether you visited when you were a child, gave tours when you were in high school, were married on the grounds, or had any other experience here we'd love to hear how Piatt Castles has played a role in your life. All of your stories together make up our story.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Toys

I was talking to my mother the other day about topics that might make good blog posts.  She told me that some Piatt was born the year the Hula Hoop was invented.  I was apparently only half listening, because I now have no idea whom she was talking about.  I thought perhaps I would look up the year of the hoop's birth and figure out which Piatt she was referencing, but I learned that the hula hoop was conceptually invented by the Greeks in the 5th Century.  No Piatt was born then, so far as I know.  The modern hula hoop was branded as such by Wham-O toys in 1957.  No Piatts born then either.  Perhaps I mis-heard the entire conversation.  Regardless, it did get me thinking about toys.  If the same toy can be popular in 5th Century Greece and 20th Century America, there may well be something universal about the ways we play and what we find entertaining.  Children and adults alike are fascinated by they toys of yester-year.  

Hula Hoop, ca 1960
By now we all know that Mac-A-Cheek was opened for tours in 1912, but of course that is not the entire story.  William McCoy Piatt opened his drawing room in order to display his cabinet of curiosities, but the rest of the house remained a private residence.  Over the years more and more of the home was opened for tours.  When my mother was a child in the 1950s and '60s the family of five lived primarily in a small apartment in the back of the house (their bedrooms are now offices, and their kitchen is now the gift shop), but they kept a family living room and business office in an area that is now open for tours.  My step-father and I call this room the Star Room because of the large star in the parquet floor, but this room and the adjacent dining room were the last part of the house to be included on the tour.  Much as the drawing room is furnished as it was when William McCoy first displayed his curiosity cabinet, the back part of the house contains artifacts from the lives of the last Piatts to live at Mac-A-Cheek.  This is by far one of the most popular rooms, and I think this is so for two reasons.  First, visitors are given the opportunity to explore their own history and to share that history with their families.  The middle of the 20th Century is still very much part of our current story, and there is something very compelling about the familiar presented within the museum context.  Second, the whimsy of toys is irresistible.  Whether they are toys we remember from our youth or toys that far predate our childhoods, there is something so charming about them that we can't help but smile.

Below are a few pictures of my favorite toys on exhibit in Mac-A-Cheek.  Enjoy!

Winky Dink:  the first interactive television game

Barbie, 1961
Barbie, 1961



Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Commuting

Abram Piatt in front of Mac-A-Cheek
I'm thinking about commuting.  Before the castles were built, Judge Benjamin Piatt raised his family (including sons Abram and Donn who would go on to build Mac-A-Cheek and Mac-O-Chee, respectively) in a small wood-frame home near where Mac-A-Cheek now stands.  Some of you may remember when a remodeled version of this home housed a gift shop, but that's beside the point.  Benjamin was a Judge on the Circuit Court and he frequently had to travel to court houses around his district and often had business in Cincinnati, where he lived before moving to West Liberty.  It is just over 100 miles from Cincinnati to West Liberty, and Benjamin made this trip frequently.  This sounds like a pain until we remember that it was the middle of the 19th Century, and Benjamin was making this trip on a horse.  It took three days.
By comparison, Benjamin's son Abram lived and worked on the land in Logan County he had inherited from his father.  Aside from his military service he had little reason to venture farther than he could see.  Later in his life he frequently visited his brother Donn at his home, one mile down the road.  

Commuting is on my mind because I will spend the next three months commuting 50 miles each way (it would be 30 miles if there weren't a pesky bay in the way) from a small town in New Jersey to Manhattan.  I am very pleased that (a) I don't have to make this trip on horse-back, and (b) the NJ Transit trains have quiet commuter cars.  I will have lots of time for reading (and writing blog posts), and it won't take me an entire day each way.  I am a little jealous of Abram and his tiny commute, but I'm also so grateful that modern transportation allows me to take advantage of professional opportunities without the hassle of horseshoes.

NJ Transit Train

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Renewal & Reflection

Detail from Oliver Frey's 1881 fresco in the ceiling
of Mac-A-Cheek.  Many of the flowers portrayed here
were also planted in the garden in front of the home.
Spring is a time of renewal, and birthdays are times for reflection.  This spring I am completing the first year of my Master's Degree, and at the Castles we are celebrating our 100th birthday.  The last days of spring semester are an amazing time on campus.  The overwhelming stress of a heavy work load starts to lift, and it is replaced by anxiety about exams and excitement about the summer.  As we watch our colleagues prepare for graduation we're reminded how fleeting our time in academia is.  Very soon we will transition back into the 'real world,' and however smooth or trying that transition may be it will give us the opportunity to reflect on what we have learned and what we hope to accomplish going forward.
At Piatt Castles we are approaching our anniversary not just as a time for celebration but also as a period for reflection and planning.  We are using the entire year to review and redevelop the content of our exhibits and to reflect on what we hope to accomplish as a cultural institution.
In 1912 the simple goal of displaying a cabinet of curiosities was simple to accomplish with straightforward methods for evaluating sucess.  Today the goals and success metrics are much more complex, and we are using our 100th year of tours to take a step back and analyze the experience we provide to our visitors in order determine our goals for visitor interaction and find new and informative ways to measure how well we are meeting our goals.  You can help us by telling us what you took away from your visit to Piatt Castles.  What was your most memorable experience?  If you had to describe the museum to a friend, how would you do it?