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Alliance Chapel display, sewing machine, cultivator, grindstone, lantern, scythe, and corn

Family Artifacts

The Family Beadwork

Family artifacts take many forms. They can hold deeply significant and symbolic meanings to the families that have kept them. From photographs to wedding dresses, the items saved represent more than just material objects. They hold memories of times long past, of hardships and hope. Artifacts take up space, in a literal sense and in more emotional ways not easily quantified.

Objects provide a lens with which to view the past. As Lila Harper so eloquently writes, "Someone had left a blessing, like a stone left on a grave, saying, I remember you and I was here."

The narrative written by Lila Harper (viewable by scrolling through the gallery below) discusses the family significance of the beadwork pictured on the right.

Photograph of the Spiegel Family Beadwork
Alliance Chapel display, corn sheller

Help us Build our Collections

If you have any family artifacts you'd like us to include in our collections and/or virtual exhibits, please send us an email.

Alliance Chapel display, sewing machine, cultivator, grindstone, lantern, scythe, and corn
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