Changes brewing at the Midvale Historical Museum

CAPTION 1: Museum receptionist Chelsea Rushton worked hard to incorporate old technology and new technology is the new exhibit “Evolution of House and Home” set to open Labor Day weekend.

CAPTION 2: The Midvale Historical Museum’s new logo was created by Chelsea Rushton and is based off an image of the Bingham Bill train that ran off Center Street out to the Bingham Copper mine.

The Midvale Historical Museum is unveiling a new exhibit called “Evolution of House and Home” that will be on display from Labor Day until just after the new year, thanks to a $5,000 grant from the Utah Humanities Council.

On display will be home-related artifacts from the pre-industrial period to the post-industrial period. The main focus of the exhibit is to show how technology has changed the dynamics of the family.

“I tried to pick artifacts that showcase the changes that took place in different industries. If you look at the food industry alone, we’ve gone from coal stoves to gas stoves to microwaves in a relatively short time,” said Chelsea Rushton, museum receptionist.

The grant paid for a new laptop and camera to facilitate this exhibit and others to follow. Museum employees and volunteers were also able to get training in research, museum organization, and formatting labels to make displays more interesting and informative.

The museum has also received a $6,000 expansion grant from the Utah Department of Community and Culture. When the museum was originally built, it was part of the design to have an open front courtyard. “It’s a nice architectural feature, but it has no practicality,” said Museum Director David Jorgensen.

Not only does the courtyard have no practical use, it has actually been a problem area in the past because of people loitering and sleeping in the courtyard. That’s no longer an issue, thanks to the attentiveness of the Midvale Police Department.

Jorgensen would still like to be able to use the space, though. The museum has a storage facility full of mining equipment they want to display but nowhere to display it. Ideally, Jorgensen would like to enclose the front courtyard and make it part of the museum.

The grant will help the museum pay for three architects to come in and give quotes and a design plan. The museum has to raise 25 percent of the money they need in order to match the grant and reconcile it by next summer.

Even if they get a quote and design plan everyone can agree on, the work is not over. They museum will have to apply for a Community Development Block grant from the government to cover the construction. Jorgensen hopes they are able to receive enough money through grants or fundraising to start construction next year.