Photos by Abbie Tumbleson, Newport News Times

I immediately felt the need to reorganize the organization back when I came on board as Executive Director of the Lincoln County Historical Society back in March 2012. The reorganization was needed over and above renovating the 10,000 square foot main floor of the Pacific Maritime & Heritage Center and opening to the public (opened June 2013).

The opening of the Maritime Center set in motion a series of changes:

The Log Cabin Museum was permanently closed (as a museum) a few months prior to the opening of the Maritime Center as we lacked sufficient staff to run all three museums. The children’s’ “hands on” exhibit was refreshed and reinstalled at the Maritime Center. The remaining exhibits were taken down and the objects given a rest.

A greatly needed artifact storage area was created at the Maritime Center. This enabled us to empty out three off-site storage units that we were paying top dollar for each month. It also made it much more efficient to manage our collections.

And finally, the research library and archives were moved from a extremely cramped room in the Burrows House to the Log Cabin. Until this move library materials were stored in multiple locations. Now the materials, books, newspaper clippings, photographs, maps etc… are all in one location and there is plenty of room for both staff and the researching public.

All of these changes involved moving stuff. I owe a debt of gratitude to the many volunteers and the work of staff who made it possible. While there is much more work to be done, this reorganization will enable us to better serve the public.

– Steve Wyatt