In the 1990s Harrisburg, PA mayor Stephen Reed envisioned a campus of museums dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of artifacts going back to colonial times. To this end, the city spent millions collecting pieces from across the country. The idea, as I understand it, is that the city would profit in the long run through the tourist dollars the museums would attract. In 2001 the National Civil War Museum opened in Reservoir Park. Less than an hour’s ride from Gettysburg, the museum is worth adding to one’s itinerary. It is a beautiful, modern facility with a collection few others can match. The scope is equally impressive, covering the entire Civil War era from 1850 to 1876. In 2009 it became one of the Smithsonian affiliates I mentioned the other day. Sadly the plans for the additional museums never came to fruition, the economic crises and budget deficits of recent years having rendered these plans untenable. Now Harrisburg has commissioned a New York auction house to sell a signifacant portion of the city’s historical collections to pay off the municipal debt. The sale will be held across eight days this coming July after a full inventory.

I do not know enough about the city’s fiscal troubles, though I am sure they are severe. These are tough choices, but I hope city officials are thinking things through. They held a similar auction in 2007 that netted the city $1.4 million. It is not clear how large the city’s holdings will remain after this 2012 sale. During New York City’s darkest years in the 1970s some New York institutions resisted the temptation to sell despite the obvious short term gains. Today, these museums and repositories are enjoying a renaissance of record crowds despite Gotham’s own very real financial difficulties. Something to consider.

(image/Confederate Bowie (top) and Naval knives in NCWM collection, Claire H.)

Baseball great Ted Wiliams was such a notorious tightwad that when he shopped he often paid by check, hoping the store owner would keep the check as a souvenir, thus saving Williams the money not deducted from his bank account. It is not clear how many of our presidents were also cheapskates, but we now know that a good many of them also paid by check. Last year workers at an Ohio bank discovered a trove of checks collected by a former executive decades ago. The checks were last seen in 1983 after a takeover and presumed lost in the ensuing decades. All told, there are about seventy written by twenty-four presidents and other luminaries such as Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Thomas Edison. One was written by George Washington in 1799, the year he died; Lincoln wrote a check for $800 to “Self” on April 13, 1865, the day before he was mortally wounded at Ford’s Theater and two days before he died. Some speculate he cashed the funds to pay debts incurred by Mary Lincoln. For several months the bank displayed the items on a rotating basis at various branches in the six states where it does business. They are currently on display at the William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum through February 28th. Bank officials are considering donating these fascinating documents to a repository such as the Smithsonian.

These are the things that remind us that historical figures were real people who lived real lives, even performing that types of mundane tasks we each do every day.. Pics here.