Category Archives: Museum
The Department Store Museum
I was working on an activity for the Texas Jewish Immigrant Experience Traveling Trunk when I came across a gem on the internet.
I needed information on early Jewish-owned retail businesses to add real life facts to some cards for a board game called Peddler’s Travels, a journey where players learn the trials and tribulations of a Jewish immigrant peddler at the turn of the 20th century.
Based off the Dallas, Texas, entry in our Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities, I learned of the Sanger Brothers. The entry reads:
“Starting in Millican, Texas, the German-born brothers followed the progress of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, opening new dry goods stores in each town as the tracks moved northward. In 1872, they opened a branch in Dallas, with Alex Sanger coming to manage it. Brother Philip Sanger soon came to help Alex with the business; the two opened a wholesale operation, which supplied small town stores and peddlers throughout the area. In 1879, traveling journalist Charles Wessolowsky called the Sanger Brothers store “an establishment of grandeur, taste, and elegance equal to any in the South,” and likened it to the leading stores in New York City. By 1890, the business employed 250 people and later moved into an 8-story building at Main & Lamar streets.”
Perfect! The Sanger store would serve as a helpful hand for a fictitious peddler trying to earn enough money to open their own store, the end goal to win Peddler’s Travels. But is the name something that Texas students would recognize? Is it still around?
I turned to Google only to find a wonderful treasure trove of data on not just the Sanger stores, but department stores, many Jewish, all over the country. The Department Store Museum is a fantastic site dedicated to the history of these retail stores. On the Sanger/Harris page it lists each of the stores, what was sold in its departments and even provides images of each location.
Ok, it’s a cool site. But why blog post worthy? What amazed me the most were the comments. As a new blogger myself, I was envious of the dozens of responses to these post. People happy to recount childhood memories of the large Christmas display, shopping with their parents or being trusted with their first charge card at Sanger’s. Recollections of when they used to work at the shops as a teenager, or younger people who have been gifted fur coats with Sanger/Harris in the labels curious about it’s history and worth. People bragging about the couch they bought 30 years ago that’s still in great shape! They really don’t make them like they used to.
People have an amazing nostalgic connection to these massive stores and the services they provided. I encourage you to hop on over to the site to look for your favorite store and connect with other former shoppers.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
From the Collection: When Life Gives You Wood, Make Ducks
I was in North Mississippi, visiting my husband’s family for the first time over Thanksgiving when I first heard about “the blind.” Being Jewish and from the North I had never heard this term, but after lunch we drove through the eerily empty and beautiful delta fields out to his father’s duck blind. It was a camouflaged hideout, made to fit eight people and two dogs. They had flooded the field to attract ducks flying south for winter and filled the water with elaborate decoys that, with a flip of a switch flapped their wings, signaling to ducks flying overhead that this was a safe place to land. When I asked about the small camp stove, I learned that the space served more as a clubhouse on early weekend mornings than a place for serious hunting.
I was reminded of that blind when I first spotted this beautifully crafted decoy in our museum collection. Created as a commemorative piece, it’s not bound for the flooded fields, but lives in our collection instead, as a symbol of both Jewish and Southern heritage.
Carved wood from Temple Anshe Chesed in Vicksburg
This duck comes from a synagogue in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vickburg’s Anshe Chesed dedicated their first house of worship in 1870. Like all great southern celebrations, the program began with a parade from the B’nai B’rith hall to the new temple, led by a police escort and Jaeger’s Brass Band from New Orleans. The congregation spent over 100 years in the building until the late 1960s, when they decided to move out of downtown and build a smaller temple. Their original building was torn down.
“Made of Wood from Mississippi’s first synagogue built after the Civil War. It was Dedicated Temple Anshe Chesed May 16, 1868 and was located at 1209 Cherry Street, Vicksburg
Gift from Benji L and Betty Lee Grundfest Lamensdorf”
Before the old synagogue came down, though, congregants wanted keep something to remember it by. I can’t imagine a more perfect way to honor an important southern institution than to manifest it in this traditional art form.
Congregants Benji and Betty Lee Grundfest Lamensdorf had a set of these wonderful decoys carved from the wood remnants of the temple, and one of them made its way into our collection. They serve as a reminder of what Jewish life once was, and still is in Vicksburg. The congregation, now over 160 years old, has shrunk significantly, but they still hold lay-led services and social gathering on most Shabbats. You might say these birds of a feather have done a great job sticking together, and we hope they continue to do so for many more Shabbats to come.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Spend a Summer in the South
Devoid of a Southern accent, people often ask me where I’m from. They are surprised that I’m from Connecticut. The next question is usually to ask how I got here.
I tell them I got to Mississippi on a lucky opportunity. In 2006, I was a junior at Brandeis University, looking for a unique summer internship. I was interested in museums, so when I came upon the listing for an internship at a Jewish museum in Mississippi, I was sold. The only things I had ever learned about Mississippi (or the South in general, really) were that events from the Civil War and Civil Rights movement took place there, and that it was hot. But Jews in the South? That was a story I knew nothing about, so I applied – and, long story short, had one of the most transformative summers of my life. So much so that after graduation, much to my mother’s chagrin, I made the permanent move to Mississippi to work full time for the umbrella organization of that Jewish museum – the ISJL.
I now have the pleasure of welcoming new interns and Education Fellows to Jackson each summer. The mission of the ISJL is so compelling that we recruit students and recent graduates from all over the country. Over the summer, adventurous folks – most of whom are “not from around here” – travel all over the region, learning about cultural traditions, working with community partners, and often breaking down stereotypes they may have had about the South. There’s also usually occasions for ice cream, county fairs, and blues festivals.
Community Engagement, Museum, and History Department directors recruiting interns!
This week, the Museum, History, and Community Engagement Departments are posting our new summer intern listings for 2013. If you or someone you know has an adventurous spirit and is interested in getting hands-on experience on a wide range of projects in an alternative part of the country, I highly encourage you to check out our site with more information about the internships.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
