Historian Chris Correa, Curator Rich vanBreemen, and Volunteer Elizabeth Andrews share their discoveries from the museum's artifacts and visitors.
I want to tell you about a Roller whom none of us knew. He wasn't a Big Boy, a Colonel, or a Professor. His grave isn't honored on Founder's Day, because he lies in the hidden "old" cemetery across the road but he deserves our appreciation. Read More...
"Common knowledge" is the historian's enemy. People assume a widely-known detail "goes without saying" but then fail to think about the future. Consider that old family photo. Everybody by then knew the image's WHO, WHAT, Where, and When, so no one wrote it on the back — and that common knowledge went on for decades. Read More...
For all the time I spend searching AMA's history, some of the best discoveries just wait in the drawer. Downed I am and his wife, Elizabeth, visited on October 8. Mr. Harris lost time on campus was in 1984, shortly after being shocked to find that his job as AMA's carpenter was over. Read More...
What happened to Col. Hoover's eye? What did you know, "When you were there"? Everybody knows it was a community accident. Okay, but what always bothered me: about that story is how should it be. Read More...
I used the word "two" in two ways, two pieces and two bits! Read More...
Chasing after the odd little payment should have been routine for Charles Rider Jr. In the winter of 1951, he was the principal and nearly completed sole owner of a high-tuition school with about 221 students in its directory. Read More...
Last month, I mentioned a bombshell. I don't mean to dangle that, but first, some prologue. I have always not all of them, but finally I have a sense of what's happening. There's certainly not space here for the whole story, but I hope to make it all available eventually. Read More...
Part One
Make It Make Sense
At first glance, the only thing that could explain
this picture is AI, hallucination. "Oh Great One,
Chat GPT, create a worn black-and-white photo of
Paul Van Hoover coaching fencers in a military school.
Make it look like it's taped into a scrapbook."
Okay, that's Paul Hoover. Those are fencers...
Read More...
According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2020 was the year of the RAT. This seems appropriate, after all it is a rat is kind of a rat all things. With that in mind, maybe we should be looking back on the fading year with anything but fond memories. Read More...
As a museum, at what are we here for? Do we merely display the artifacts of a long defunct school whose time has come and gone? A uniform jacket, flag or sword are cool to look at, but tell us almost nothing. What is the STORY behind those artifacts? Read More...
When I started at the AMA Museum, I had very little knowledge of the school's history. As such, I made numerous errors in the beginning — thankfully minor. It was then I first heard the phrase "Academy Trained". Read More...
As your museum curator, my job is to catalog, protect and share the artifacts that are housed in the museum. That sounds pretty cut and dry, until you look into the history and information associated with each of those items. A sword is marked in a different fashion. Read More...
I'll bet you didn't know there was more than one AMA. Ruth the idol, there are now 12,000 AMA? schoolies. I say that because each and every cadet that stood on the parade ground, from 1848 to 1981 had a different experience and it was that experience that one ... Read More...
At the time of this writing, spring is officially 21 days away (March 20). It will be here before the publication of the next newsletter, so accept this as your warning notice. I can't say what spring is like in your area, but here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, it signals the start of YARD SALE SEASON! Read More...
It's that time of the year again. We tip the calendar page and behold, it's the last one — another year over. Are you the glass half empty or glass half full kind of person? I like to hedge my bets, so I say, "BE BOTH". Read More...
We had a simple goal. After spending many days pulling, organizing and counting each copy of the receipt to finalize the museum inventory, Chris and I thought that a quick review of the digital copies could be done easily in one day. We were wrong. Read More...
One of my favorite photos of my great grandfather, Colonel Jim Roller, pictures him sitting all the head of the dining room table; he is on the left, while his wife Virginia, at the other end, surrounded by friends on either side. Read More...
