A slice of history -- from a pinball machine to fur coats

Apr. 9—There aren't too many places where you can see items once owned by Colorado pioneers sitting just a few feet away from a vintage pinball machine and CRT televisions. At the Longmont Museum collections center, however, decades upon decades of history can all be experienced under one roof.

Located in Weld County, the collections center serves as the home for many materials owned by the Longmont Museum. The 15,000-square-foot building is lined with shelves and lockers containing more than 10,000 items, all of which have the potential to be displayed in the museum's next exhibit. Curators declined to disclose the exact location for security purposes.

The collection also encompasses the St. Vrain Valley region rather than just the Longmont city limits, and include several items from Hygiene.

"Especially if those smaller towns don't have historical societies or museums, we definitely see ourselves as the repository and caretaker of that history," said Elizabeth Beaudoin, history curator for the Longmont Museum.

When it comes to what belongs in the collection, Beaudoin explained that the museum is looking for objects of "lived history." This allows for an expansive array of items representing the lives of Longmont area residents, things like toys, dolls, guns, pianos and chairs.

"We like to collect things that a good majority of the population can kind of connect with and say, 'Oh, I had one of these,'" Beaudoin said. "It fosters intergenerational communication and learning."

Before the collections center was completed in 2018, its items were split between different storage spaces in the city. The textile collection was transferred to the center from the museum just last year, while the archive of paper items — such as photos and newspapers — remains at the museum to be more accessible for researchers.

Most of the collection was gifted to the museum by individual donors. Beaudoin usually interviews people about the objects they donate to try to capture the stories behind the items, whether it's a Sears catalog, an air-raid siren or a high wheel bicycle.

"Just because it's old, that's not something that convinces us to add it to the collection. It really is the story," Beaudoin said. "You want to be able to have the visitor connect with that object."

Clothes from various eras are also well-preserved, from fur coats to dresses to hats. Recently, the collection acquired a suit from a men's clothing store that operated on Main Street from 1928 to 1980.

"We're always interested in things from Longmont businesses that either still exist or are gone," Beaudoin said. "Sometimes, the stuff that we want from people who are cleaning out their house is in their junk drawer, maybe not in their glass cabinet."

When the museum began collecting items in the 1940s, staff were mostly focused on artifacts from 19th-century pioneers. Another push for historic preservation arose during Longmont's centennial celebration in 1971, leading to several items being donated during that decade.

Now, the museum is actively seeking donations of items from demographic groups in Longmont beyond the pioneer families that received a lot of attention between the 1940s and 1980s. While the collection doesn't carry a lot of artwork, the team recently took in a mural made by teenagers in the 1990s who were part of an anti-gang program.

"It's almost 30 years old, and it kind of tells a story about what it was like for a segment of the population in the 1990s," Beaudoin said. "Objects do that really well. They illustrate the past in a way that the spoken word can't. It allows community members to really have a tangible experience with history."

Even with the massive array of historical artifacts, the collections building is big enough to hold even more. It also has the potential to be expanded, which means it should be a long time before another home for these items is needed.

"Not every museum has the luxury of having space for large items," Beaudoin said. "A lot of smaller museums and historical societies just have barns and basements."

Aileen Jijina, Longmont Museum registrar, said the donors who handed over their items expected them to survive, and the museum has a responsibility to honor that.

"Protecting those artifacts in perpetuity is important to our mission, and this facility is the best way to do that," Jijina said. "It's a good place to house Longmont stories."

To find out more about the collections center, including information about tours, contact Beaudoin at [email protected].