Eatonton and things

On Saturday we headed out to Eatonton to visit the Georgia Writers Museum as well as the Uncle Remus Museum. The Georgia Writers Museum was right downtown, across the street from the Putnam County Court House (or the Pvutnam Covnty Covrt Hovse, as the children liked to say).

Here's Phoebe and Alexander with a little statue of children reading outside of the museum:

 

Eatonton is home to many authors of renown—Flannery O'Connor, Alice Walker, James Chandler Harris. The Georgia Writers Museum had some lovely exhibits about these writers, as well as a few others who were less well known (poets and things). It also had an exhibit dedicated to the evolution of word processors. We learned that one of the first typewriters was a Remington—the same company that made guns.

Andrew was mortified that one of his early laptops was in the exhibit (featured as a now-defunct piece of technology...how rude). That little computer in the corner had a little game set up, asking museum patrons to play, so we're assuming the kids were allowed to touch this exhibit.

It was interesting to learn a bit more about these writers and their connection to Georgia. The O'Connor and Harris exhibits were particularly well developed...I think the Alice Walker exhibit could have been better, but...she's also still alive...so that might be why they haven't done as much with her.

The museum was certainly smaller than I'd imagined it would be (Eatonton was smaller than I realized, too), and we soon made our way through it. 

We stopped by the courthouse yard to look at some sculptures nearby. Eatonton might be proud of Alice Walker, but they are simply dazzled by James Chandler Harris. Likenesses of his "creeturs" are everywhere (it took me a while to find that word in his story because I figured it would have been spelled "critters," but no—they're "creeturs" and that distinction is evidently very important to make).

Here's Phoebe kissing a little statue of a rabbit...or squirrel...or something:

Here's Rachel sitting beside a statue of Uncle Remus:

Here are Benjamin, Zoë and Alexander with the Uncle Remus statue:

There was a sound box here, where we could press buttons to hear a woman read some Uncle Remus tales. 

Here's Benjamin with a handful of coins he found in the gutter in front of the courthouse...this kid is a money magnet. 

The Uncle Remus Museum was certainly an interesting little tribute to Joel Chandler Harris. Rather than elucidating his life's trajectory (like the Georgia Writers Museum seemed to do rather well) the Uncle Remus Museum seemed to be more a collection of memorabilia (often with a bit of a Confederate twang) and fan art (including a random college thesis). It didn't seem to be organized in a way that told the story of Joel Chandler Harris, so much as it seemed to strive to paint a bucolic image of plantation life, perpetuating the myth of the "happy slave," and valorizing Joel Chandler Harris for recording these stories that otherwise would have been lost due to the illiteracy of "the slaves."

Notably—and rather unsettlingly—the museum is housed in a few repurposed slave cabins.

It felt irreverent to be looking at images of "happy slaves" and Disney-fied depictions of Uncle Remus and his "creeturs" knowing the history of the dwelling itself. And I felt like an Uncle Remus Museum might approach the idea of Uncle Remus and talk about the inspiration for that character and the lives of the enslaved people (which is more humanizing language, used at—for example—the Stagville Plantation in Durham as well as at the Wren's Nest in Atlanta)...rather than focusing on the life of JCH. There were mentions of George Terrell, but such mentions seemed to be more in passing (and interestingly with less pomp than the Confederate flag got). 

The Wren's Nest was JCH's house in Atlanta, a rather fancy house he was able to purchase for himself with the proceeds from selling the stories he—for lack of another word—"took" from the enslaved people working on the plantation. The website for the Wren's Nest already lays out more history of the plantation, enslaved people, and George Terrell than the Uncle Remus Museum seemed to (and it uses language like "enslaved people" and acts as a venue to promote Black storytellers). I think it would be interesting to visit the Wren's Nest as well, to see what their museum (which is also focused on JCH) is like, but it's a little more expensive so I don't think we'll be taking our whole family there.

The Uncle Remus Museum also has a strict policy against photography, which is always tricky for me because taking pictures of captions to read later has been one of my go-to methods of museum enjoyment for the past several years I've spent chasing kids through museums...so I'm sure there's a lot that I missed at the Uncle Remus Museum. But, oh well...

We used their picnic area after to have a little lunch I'd packed—good ol' peanut butter and honey sandwiches, a roadtrip staple!

Here's Phoebe with a fistful of "crowpoison" (false garlic):

And here's Miriam showing off those pollen-encrusted leaf (the leaf itself is truly brown—the pollen counts have been truly horrendous today...but it just rained a bunch so hopefully that will help a bit). 

*****

I'm still thinking about differences between the Uncle Remus Museum and the Wren's Nest (which, admittedly, I haven't been to yet). One thing that I will mention, however, is their gift store. The Uncle Remus Museum has some handcrafted items, such as Christmas ornaments and a tic-tac-toe game. There seems to be an odd fixation on "Tar Baby" at The Uncle Remus Museum's gift shop. This does not seem to be the case at the Wren's Nest gift shop (which you can shop from online). The focus there is instead on Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox. Their books are priced better (and I would doubt would come with a sales pitch from the museum staff). 

Another thing that I can't stop thinking about is the connection between Beatrix Potter's work and Joel Chandler Harris's tales. Evidently Potter was inspired by Harris (as was A.A. Milne). I don't recall that connection being mentioned in anything I've read about Beatrix Potter! It's been interesting to think about the influence of JCH on her work.