Chieftains Remembers Christmases Past

Date/Time
Date(s) – Dec 10 2012 until Jan 05 2013
All Day

Moravian Exhibit

 

Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home invites you to visit us this holiday season to experience Christmas as it might have been with the Ridge Family.  The Moravians influenced the Cherokee and introduced them to Christianity.   Included in the exhibit are a Moravian star and a tree decorated with minimal ornamentation.

Both John Ross and Major Ridge sent their daughters to Salem Academy in North Carolina, a Moravian school, for further education.  Research tells us that Ridge was “taken” by a transparency of the Nativity when he took his daughter to Salem Academy on Christmas Eve, 1826.

See authentic copies of Sally Ridge’s accounts and registration information courtesy of  Salem Academy and College Archives.

 

 

Advertising Art Panels

The art panels displayed on the walls throughout the home are courtesy of Mrs. William Davis, former Chieftains Board Member and last owner of Wyatt’s Store on Broad Street in downtown Rome.

Advertising Art emerged in the 1920’s and is experiencing a comeback today.  Most will remember the many successes which Coca-Cola experienced using this art form with some of the world’s most recognizable art.  The media is somewhat similar to our current Tempra paints.

These panels hung on the first floor of  Davison’s Department Store in Atlanta during the Christmas season for several years in the early 20th Century.  There was only one Davison’s store at the time, and that store is now Macy’s in downtown Atlanta.

 Roman Bobby Wyatt was a friend of the Davison’s CEO at that time.  When Mr. Wyatt heard that they did not plan to continue display of them, he asked to have them.  In the 1940’s and 1950’s Wyatt hung them on either side of the middle columns of the store at Christmas for many years.  After the store was purchased by Mrs. Davis, the panels were displayed around the store and in the windows every Christmas but never in the places or in the way that Mr. Wyatt did.

The exhibit will be open Fridays and Saturdays, 1 – 5 p.m.

Members free.  Non-members, regular admission applies.

 

 

 


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