Magic museum's mysteries will be studied
Andy Fitzpatrick
MARSHALL — Stepping into the American Museum of Magic is stepping into mystery, sometimes even for the people who oversee it.
Take the eerie, golden head sitting on top of a pair disconcertingly human hands in the back of the museum.
Museum Administrator Kate Peterson said it's a mind-reading machine. But who made it? Where did it come from? What cards did the hand point to that proved it could read minds?
Peterson walked among the curious artifacts and colorful posters, parts of the 10,000-piece collection housed in the museum building, admitting she didn't know the stories behind all of them.
"It is challenging," Peterson said of maintaining the collection, which also includes about 800,000 items in a separate archive building, the former home of the Marshall's public library.
Peterson can be forgiven. The museum is dedicated, after all, to the craft of performers intent on keeping their secrets.
Some of those secrets will be revealed when two assessors from the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works arrive in September.
They're coming as part of the Washington, D.C.-based organization's Collections Assessment for Preservation Program.
Collections Assessment for Preservation Program Coordinator Tiffani Emig said the assessors are chosen by the museums they visit.
"The purpose of the program is to give small and medium size museums the opportunity to receive direct consultation from specialists who focus on collections care and building care," Emig said. "The goal is to help these small and mid-size museums receive a prioritized set of recommendations on what they should do to improve the care of their collections."
A collections assessor might give recommendations on how to stop a paper artifact from deteriorating, for example, Emig said.
The museum has a huge book collection, largely kept in the storage building.
There's a 16th century tome, "The Discoverie of Witchcraft," among the museum building exhibits.
First printed in 1594, the book reveals how some tricks were done as a way to show how people were being fooled.
"Amazing text," Peterson said. "It shows some different magic tricks that they were learning back then in the 16th century."
The assessors will visit for two days and then spend a month working on a report, Peterson said. She applied for the program in February.
Peterson wants to add more information to the artifact exhibits, giving the public more information on the stories behind the tricks. Getting that report on how to best care for the items is a step in that process.
There is, for instance, a small cannon that belonged to the Queen of Magic, Adelaide Herrmann, in the late 19th century. She and her husband, Alexander Herrmann, did seemingly dangerous acts such as catching bullets fired at them.
How the cannon figured into the act, Peterson couldn't say, but wants to find out and tell everyone by giving it a larger exhibit. Now, it sits on the floor of the museum's second level.
"Many of the small museums are already doing great work with limited staffs and limited resources," Emig said. "What this program does is help them set a course for their future by giving them a path forward."
Contact Andy Fitzpatrick at269-966-0697 or afitzpatrick@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @am_fitzpatrick. Hear him on soundcloud.com/thejumppage and soundcloud.com/bestpodinworld.
If you go
- WHAT: American Museum of Magic Gala Fundraiser.
- WHERE: Franke Center for the Arts, 214 E. Mansion St., Marshall.
- WHEN: 7 p.m. July 22.
- COST: $75.
- INFO: The fundraiser will feature a performance by Las Vegas magician Jeff Hobson. For more information, call 781-7570 or go to americanmuseumofmagic.org. The museum is located at 107 E. Michigan Ave., Marshall.