Lots to love about the Chicago Public Library including fishing poles

The Chicago Public Library is a great resource for families. You probably already know that, right? But I am not just talking about checking out books for the kids. Did you know that you cancheck out fishing poles from some branches and meet famous authors face to face? Yep, it true. This place has a lot more to offer than books. Check out some of these cool programs.

read on....

The bible of baseball cards

By David Davis

For many boys who were collectors, a 1973 book helped turn one's hobby into a full-fledged obsession.

READ ON

Cheney inks book deal reportedly worth millions

From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Cheney is writing a book.

(CNN) – Having made his rounds on the cable news circuit over the last few months, former vice president Dick Cheney is now headed to a book store near you.

Cheney has struck a deal with publishing house Simon & Schuster to write his memoirs covering a more than 40-year career in government, stretching all the way back to his roles in the Nixon and Ford administrations.

“It has been a tremendous privilege to serve during some of the most interesting and challenging times, as well as with some of the most fascinating people, in American history,” Cheney said in a statement provided to CNN. “I look forward to writing about these experiences for the first time.”

Read On.... If you can stomach it!

New editions of 4 King books in the works June 23, 2009

Four books by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that have been long out of print will be published again under a deal with Beacon Press brokered by King's youngest son.

Beacon, a department of the Unitarian Universalist Assn., publishes books on social justice, human rights and racial equality. Among the authors it has published are James Baldwin, Derrick Bell, Cornel West, Howard Thurman, Marian Wright Edelman and Roger Wilkins.

read on

LYRICS OF THE DAWN Poetry and Social Movements

READ ON 

Libraries tap into Twitter

Increasing numbers of librarians are using Twitter to engage readers and spread information

read on

A Literary Legend Fights for a Local Library

VENTURA, Calif. — When you are pushing 90, have written scores of famous novels, short stories and screenplays, and have fulfilled the goal of taking a simulated ride to Mars, what’s left?

Read On 

Richard Nixon's Presidential Library releases more tapes

Presidential history buffs alert: The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum has announced plans to release an additional 154 hours of tapes that the nation's 37th president secretly made of his own meetings and conversations. This marks the fifth release of Nixon tapes, according to Ken Hughes of the presidential recordings program atUniversity of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. Hughes says the recordings should be available online almost immediately, but he'll also be transcribing some of the juicier bits on his wonderfully named blog, Fatal Politics.

The tapes being released tomorrow were made during the first two months of 1973. Our friends at the Miller Center provide some historical context:

During this time, Nixon forced South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to accept a settlement with North Vietnam that both men recognized would lead to a Communist military victory. Nixon needed the settlement to conceal the failure of his "Vietnamization and negotiation" strategy to achieve the goal of a South Vietnam that could defend and go Read On vern itself.

Simon & Schuster to Sell Digital Books on Scribd.com

n another sign that book publishers are looking to embrace alternatives to Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book store, Simon & Schuster has agreed to sell digital copies of its books on Scribd.com, a popular document-sharing Web site.

William P. O'Donnell/The New York Times

Books from best-selling authors like Stephen King would be among the titles available for purchase on Scribd.com.

Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS, plans to announce Friday that it will make digital editions of about 5,000 titles available for purchase on the site, including books from best-selling authors like Stephen King, Dan Brownand Mary Higgins Clark. It will also add thousands of other titles to Scribd’s search engine, allowing readers to sample 10 percent of the content of the books on the site and providing links to buy the print editions.

“We are interested in getting our books in front of consumers in as many formats and distribution platforms as possible,” said Ellie Hirschhorn, chief digital officer of

Read On 

Queens wins Library of Year

Read More

Obama's half-brother George signs book deal

George Obama, 27, is the youngest of the seven children born to Obama's father in Kenya and was recently arrested there for marijuana possession. The two Obamas have different mothers and never met until Obama visited Kenya in 1987.

The book is tentatively titled Homeland and is scheduled for publication in January 2010. It will be co-written by Damien Lewis, author of the books Apache Dawn, Cobra Gold, Operation Certain Death, Bloody Heroes, Slave and Desert Claw.

"Even had George Obama not been our president's half brother, his story is moving and inspirational," said Simon& Schuster publisher David Rosenthal. "It is an object lesson in survival, selflessness and courage."

The publishing deal makes George the fourth member of the Obama clan to sign a book deal in recent months. Shortly before his inauguration, Obama signed a deal for a teenage version of his best-selling book Dreams From My Father.

Basketball coach Craig Robinson, the president's brother-in-law and First Lady Michelle Obama's brother, is writing a book called A Game of Character. Obama's half sister Maya Soetoro-Ng is writing a children's book called Ladder to the Moon.

-IANS

http://www.themoneytimes.com/20090615/obamas-half-brother-george-signs-book-deal-id-1072340.html

Old graves in path of Peoria library's expansion

Lincoln Branch Library can't expand until bodies are removed 

If the first few days of digging are any indication, more bodies lay buried around the Lincoln Branch Library in Peoria than officials had thought as they plan a major expansion -- way more.

The hope was there wouldn't be many, but after scraping away about a foot of topsoil this week, archeologists soon found evidence of more than 50 graves, raising immediate concerns others could be nearby.

"We have no idea how many [skeletons] there are," said M. Catherine Bird, research coordinator of the Marengo-based archeological firm hired to excavate the property. "We don't have information that says how many lots were sold or how many people were buried in the lots."

Built on land once used in the mid-19th Century as a final resting place for hundreds of pioneers, the library can't proceed with the planned $5.5 million expansion until officials are sure all the bodies have been removed.

y law, human remains are to be protected when they are uncovered at a construction site. To avoid potential delays with its expansion, the Peoria library got a permit to excavate the property bordering the library and remove any remains found there, said Dawn Cobb of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

Peeling away the topsoil and performing the initial survey, which will cost $53,000, likely will take a couple of weeks, said Bird, who works for Midwest Archaeological Research Services. Officials said that if the firm found evidence of burial remains, the project likely could take several months and cost more money. The bodies would be relocated to another cemetery.

Depending on how many grave sites are discovered, the excavation at most could cost the library $400,000, supervisor of public relations Trisha Noack said.

"We're committed to building on that spot," Noack said.

Work on the library started in 1910 on the site of what had been called the City Cemetery. Opened in 1842, the cemetery was closed in 1886, during a time when there was fear the bodies would contaminate the public drinking water, officials said.

The remains of at least 388 early settlers were moved to Springdale Cemetery. People who watched the evacuation said they doubted many remains were missed, according to reports.

At least two families, however, still are buried in their original plots near the library.

The families were upset when they saw the other tombs being moved and in 1887 got court injunctions that the graves of their loved ones never be disturbed, Noack said.

Toward the front of Lincoln Park, where the library is located, the graves of Frederick Griffin, his wife, mother and a granddaughter aren't anywhere near the construction site, she said.

But the burial sites of Harriman Couch's wife and child happen to lie right in the path of the originally planned wedge-shaped annex.

The library's lawyers looked into what it would take to get permission to move the graves.

"That injunction stays enforced forever, and it would be very expensive and time-consuming to overturn it," Noack said.

So the library changed the shape of the expansion to avoid the graves. A protective barrier will be placed around them to make sure nothing is disturbed.

The library needs to expand but doesn't want to abandon its original home built by philanthropist and steel baron Andrew Carnegie, Noack said.

"It really is an architecturally important building," she said. "A used building is a preserved building. When you decide not to use a building, that's when it gets into trouble."

from:http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-peoria-library-bodies-12-jun12,0,2856219.story

Baseball's League of Nations: Exhibit shows Native American impact on baseball

By CHASE WRIGHT

Times Staff Writer


STAMFORD -- Jackie Robinson didn't set the precedent for the minority integration of baseball -- Louis Sockalexis did. 

A Native American from the Penobscot tribe, Sockalexis played three seasons for the Cleveland Spiders beginning in 1897. His major league contract didn't break the color barrier or have the same cultural impact that Robinson did, but Sockalexis, and other early American Indian ball players, were the first non-whites assimilated into the sport of baseball. 

"I think Native Americans had an important impact on baseball as the first group of integrators," said Jeffrey Powers-Beck, author of "The American Indian Integration of Baseball." 

A professor of English and associate dean of graduate studies at East Tennessee State University, Powers-Beck is also an avid baseball fan, which inspired the idea for the book. 

His book, in turn, has inspired the curators of the Stamford Museum and Nature Center, who developed two exhibits and a series of programs around the highly acclaimed publication. 

"Baseball's League of Nations: A Salute to Native American Baseball Players" and "Dynamic Traditions: Form and Function in Native American Art" open to the public on Saturday, June 20 and will be on exhibit through Oct. 18 in the Bendel Mansion Museum Galleries. 

Working closely with the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, N.Y., the Stamford museum will explore the struggles on these native players and showcase those who reached prominence, said SM&NC curator Rosa Portell. 

The exhibition presents images and biographical sketches of many players, with a focus on baseball in Native American communities, American Indian players in the major and minor leagues and barnstorming teams, women players of Native American descent, and American Indian stereotyping in sports, she said. 

"There have been a number of Native American players who have reached extraordinary careers," said Portell. "They were really the first minority to be accepted into the game of baseball, and we wanted to showcase that history."

American Indian baseball legends like Jim Thorpe, John Tortes Meyers, Charles Bender and George Howard Johnson will all have their place in the exhibit, said Portell, as will up-and-coming young stars Jacoby Ellsbury of the Boston Red Sox and Joba Chamberlain of the New York Yankees, who are both of Native American decent. 

Native American assimilation into white culture began at the end of the Indian Wars, when the American government and military established Indian boarding schools to "kill the Indian, save the man," said Powers-Beck. 

It was in these boarding schools where Native Americans learned about baseball and were given the opportunity to showcase their skills in the sport, he said. 

Sports presented benefits to both the students and the school, particularly for the gifted athletes who could gain employment, financial freedom and the American dream for succeeding at the sport of baseball, said Powers-Beck. 

However, on the diamond, Native American ball players weren't treated the same as their white counterparts. They endured the same levels of racism that blacks did when baseball was initially desegregated, from fans, managers, players and sportswriters, said Powers-Beck. 

Whooping fans would scream out the Indian war cry whenever a Native American stepped to the dish, he said. Racist chants were common, particularly for natives with darker complexions. 

An African American, Charlie Grant nearly broke the color barrier decades before Robinson, when he disguised himself as a Native American under the name Chief Tokohama. 

"When Grant was uncovered, darker-skinned players endured additional racism from fans who assumed they might be black," said Powers-Beck. 

Still, Native American players carried on, and in many cases excelled in a sport that was not their own. 

Those successes are celebrated in Powers-Beck's book and through the Stamford museum's spring exhibit. 

"It's great that this story is being told," he said. "Those athletes deserve recognition and it's exciting that they're getting what they deserve." 

"Baseball's League of Nations: A Salute to Native American Baseball Players" and "Dynamic Traditions: Form and Function in Native American Art" opens June 20. Admission is free for SM&NC members and chidden under 3, $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, $4 for children ages 4-17. Visit http://www.stamfordmuseum.org for information on related programming. 

from: http://www.thehour.com/story/470613

Library owed over $54,000 in lost materials/fines

Library owed over $54,000 in lost materials/fines The Kate Love Simpson Morgan County Library Board enacted a policy at its May 2009 board meeting to use a collection agency beginning July 1 to help encourage patrons with overdue materials to return them to the library. The Library Board voted to pass the cost of this service on to each patron whose account will be handled by the collection agency.  “This new policy was developed with fairness to all library patrons in mind. Materials not returned are not available for others to use or borrow. Also, if materials are not returned, in most cases, money from the library budget is used to replace them,” said Blythe Schubert, director. “Library patrons owe the citizens of Morgan County over $54,000 for lost items and fines. This same money could much better be used to purchase new items for patron use instead of replacing non-returned items.” The Library Board hopes this practice will encourage all library borrowers to return items by the date due. Fines for overdue books will be 10 cents per day starting July 1 with a maximum of $5.00 per item in overdue charges, Mrs. Schubert explained. Most library items may be renewed by bringing the item with the patron’s library card for presentation at the circulation desk, by telephoning either library, or by using the library’s website. Also, book depositories for returning material when the libraries are closed are conveniently located for patron use.  Patrons who cannot afford to pay the full amount of their materials and fines may also set up payment plans to avoid credit problems.  The library will still notify patrons that their materials are overdue and patrons will have ample time to respond prior to being turned over for collection. Unique Management Services has been selected as the collection agency for the library. Unique Management works with libraries throughout the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. They specialize in the recovery of overdue materials and have an excellent record of treating patrons professionally, according to Mrs. Schubert.  “The library is serious about recovering overdue materials. Patrons who do not return materials are stealing from the library,” Mrs. Schubert said. “Fortunately, only a very small percentage of patrons using the library do not return materials as agreed. This new policy will not affect the vast majority of patrons who return materials on time. The library is committed to provide excellent service and to have materials available for all patrons.” The library in McConnelsville is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Kate Love Simpson Library telephone number is 962-2533.  The Chesterhill Branch Library is open Monday through Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Chesterhill Branch telephone number is 554-7104. Read On

Lincoln library now historic landmark

By John Sharp

of the Journal Star

Posted Jun 09, 2009 @ 11:07 PM

Last update Jun 10, 2009 @ 09:40 AM

---

PEORIA —

A 98-year-old South Peoria library branch built with money from famed philanthropist Andrew Carnegie is officially a historic landmark.

By a unanimous vote Tuesday, the City Council endorsed a measure to add the Lincoln branch library to its list of historic landmarks.

“I don’t think anyone has any question whatsoever that one of the few remaining Carnegie libraries in the area is a historic landmark,” 2nd District City Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken said.

The vote came with little debate despite the Peoria Public Library Board’s wishes not to have the branch granted landmark status.

Concerns expressed by Library Board President Mike McKenzie indicated that a landmark designation could potentially slow a $4.5 million to $5.5 million construction of an addition to the library.

McKenzie said after the vote that he is hopeful that those who support the preservation of the library branch will continue to work with the Library Board, which wants to proceed with expansion. For instance, the Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation has met regularly with the board to discuss the expansion project.

“We want (the expansion) to move forward with everyone as a participant,” McKenzie said. “I think we have a commitment from various groups to make themselves available and be responsive to the schedule that needs to be maintained. Hopefully that will happen. I have no reason to believe it won’t happen.”

City officials, including Planning & Growth Management Director Pat Landes, said there should be no unexpected delay in the expansion project.

Because the library is a landmark, any alterations to its exterior require a certificate of appropriateness, which must be granted by the Historic Preservation Commission. Changes to the building might be needed because plans are for the library to add a walkway connecting the old structure with the new expansion.

In addition, the Library Board needs to get a special use permit from the city’s zoning commission in order to proceed with the expansion because the facility is located in an area zoned for residential properties.

Landes said the city is planning to hold a rare joint historic preservation and zoning commission meeting in which the public will get a chance to weigh in on the changes. She said the meeting, at the earliest, would take place during the first week of August.

The streamlined approach of combining the two commissions for one meeting appealed to some council members who previously questioned if the landmark designation would slow the library as it proceeds with the project.

“I really feel comfortable now,” at-large City Councilman Eric Turner said. “My biggest concern (was) not to have the library forced to deal with undue delays or costs put on them.”

The library was built in 1910. Its property served as a farm of one of Peoria’s earliest settlers and as a public graveyard during the 1880s.

An excavation project currently is going on to determine if any burial sites or artifacts are located within the area of the expansion project. Thirteen distinct burial spots were found on the property Tuesday.

Read On

Readers turn to libraries amid recession

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAGERSTOWN, Md. | Carol Bannon is visiting her local library more and more as the economy struggles.

When the Hagerstown woman wanted "Another Path" by Gladys Taber, she couldn't find the out-of-print book for less than $70. The Washington County Free Library system offered her the book at no cost.

"Books can be expensive. Hardcovers can be $20 or above," Miss Bannon said.

System director Mary Baykan isn't surprised - people use libraries more when they are struggling financially or if they don't have optimism about the economy. Less confidence means people spend less money, especially on materials the library offers for free.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/07/readers-turn-to-libraries-amid-recession/

Miss Baykan said people also use libraries to look for jobs and find resources to help them start new careers.

"It's frustrating for libraries facing cuts or that have had cuts to see the overwhelming needs our community has and our citizens have," Miss Baykan said.

Kathleen O'Connell, assistant director for the Washington County library system, said future budget cuts could mean fewer new materials, but library officials are not looking at cutting hours, Ms. O'Connell said.

Washington County library spokeswoman Patricia Wishard said circulation and library visits were up in 2008 and the number of new library cards increased more than 66 percent in 2008, compared with 2007.

Lessons Of Oregon History May Be Lost To Budget Cuts

Here is a transcript of a segment on OPB on May 26, 2009.  It looks like the Legislature is suggesting that no monies go to OHS in the upcoming appropriations. We also learned that because the Society has so many volunteers the State is getting a bargain with labor costs at 20 cents on the dollar, much less than what it would cost if the State was to run this themselves. Good to know. 

Form OPB: http://news.opb.org/article/5065-lessons-oregon-history-may-be-lost-budget-cuts/

As the details of state cuts reverberate through Oregon’s communities, some organizations are taking a bigger hit than others.

The Oregon Historical Society for example, which has a museum and reference library in Portland, was zeroed-out of the co-chairs budget and the chances of getting back in don’t look good. 

Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, the society is considering everything from putting its collection with a university, to cutting yet more staff.

The Oregon Historical Society is located on a prime piece of real estate in downtown Portland. It’s a perfect spot for school visits, or for attracting passing tourists.

Eileen Pastorias is from Texas and is enjoying the sights and sounds of the pioneer exhibit.

Eileen Pastorias: “This is marvelous with all the original pieces that are here and the sound effects are wonderful as well. Everything from early guns and covered wagons, it’s easy to try to imagine how I might have made this journey myself if had I little children and dogs. How do you begin to account for the courage that brought these people here.” 

The films, costumes and old Native American canoe showcase Oregon’s history and educate its children. 

Indeed last session, lawmakers gave the society almost $1.5 million under the Cultural Heritage Program.

But, faced with a $4 billion hole this session, the co-chairs recommended the society be cut loose.

George Vogt: “This is not good and I think people need to stand up and say so.”

George Vogt is the society’s executive director.

George Vogt: “In a time like this, when we have a downturn in the economy, it’s absolutely the wrong time to throw culture and heritage under the bus. We cannot afford to eliminate the entity that is providing a major part of the history education for kids.”

He’s talking about the school tours that regularly bustle through here; the traveling exhibits that shuttle out to the four corners of the state; and the research library, which used to be open full -time, but is now open  three afternoons a week.

Vogt says with the society’s 100 volunteers, the state is getting a great deal.

George Vogt: “I figure that for about 20 cents on the dollar, we’ve been giving Oregon a first rate museum and a first rate research library. The state would have to pay far, far more than that as a state agency or as part of a university.”

Having the collection held by a university or state agency is only one money-saving option being considered.

Vogt says others include: cutting more staff -- even though it recently reduced its workforce by 28 percent; and there’s also talk of trying to get money from local governments -- like Portland City or Multnomah County. In exchange, they’d get free entrance for their residents.

Meanwhile, the co-chair of the Ways and Means Committee, Senator Margaret Carter, doesn’t seem optimistic that any state money will be forthcoming.

In fact, when you ask her about the Oregon Historical Society, she says it’s hard to talk about giving money to a museum when legislators are worried about cutting days off the school year and reducing services for disabled people.

The Portland Democrat says those are the kinds of things that got top funding priority in her budget plan.

Margaret Carter: “Balancing this budget is taking a lot, I mean micro looking into the budgets of this state, to look at where we can cut the most without harming the most vulnerable.”

Back in Portland, the society does have options. For one, says Vogt it owns the whole block on which it stands.

George Vogt: “But as many of the listeners will know. These are assets that are sometimes difficult to touch when you need them. And it’s actually a bad time to be looking at the development of the block.”

So for now, a new apartment complex looks unlikely.  And in the coming weeks, the Oregon Historical Society board will look at what needs to be done.

Meanwhile at the pioneer exhibit, visitors wander through the show peering into display cases and sitting down for short films. Texas tourist Eileen Pastorias thinks we could all benefit from a little more history.

Eileen Pastorias: “It seems amazing to me that everyone can tell you who was on American Idol, and very few people could trace Lewis and Clark’s adventures or could name some of the early pioneers who came here or historians who documented all this stuff. It’s romance, it’s excitement, it’s the stuff that’s true courage. I think it’s marvelous.”

The society has asked all its friends to inundate legislators with letters of support. But then many other organizations are doing the same.

The budget should be finalized early this summer.

In the interests of transparency, OPB lobbied for funds from Oregon’s Cultural Heritage Program, but was also cut from the co-chair’s budget.

OPB hasn’t received any operating funds from the state since 2003.  

© 2009 OPB

Civil War-era cash helps SC make some money

Thanks to Terry Baxter for  bringing this to my attention. Creative Archival Funding 

 

 By JEFFREY COLLINS, Associated Press Writer Jeffrey Collins, Associated Press Writer   – Thu Jun 4, 3:41 pm ET

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina is selling money to make money.

State officials have quietly picked through boxes of Civil War state currency and auctioned it on eBay, providing the state archives with an influx of cash amid tight budgets.

"These are very bad times. This helps us a great deal. We can pay for things we could never afford otherwise," said Charles Lesser, a senior archivist at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

About 40 boxes of the currency were supposed to be destroyed more than a century ago, but some of the bills were tucked away in the Statehouse basement and eventually moved to the state archives. They sat there largely undisturbed for four decades and only recently did officials realize they could sell the cash.

The archives have made about $200,000 selling hundreds of the bills over the past couple of years. Most of that money was made in an auction of uncut sheets of the currency last year, but every week or so, South Carolina puts a couple of loose bills up for sale online. The old money is a little wider, whiter and lighter than today's paper money.

Last month, a bill from the Bank of South Carolina worth $4 when it was issued almost 150 years ago fetched nearly $400.

The man behind the project is 74-year-old Jack Meyer, a retired University of South Carolina history professor who volunteers about eight hours a month to sift through the boxes and find bills in good enough condition to sell. In 1 1/2 years he's made it through one of the 40 boxes.

"I've got job security," he quips.

When the South lost the Civil War, Confederate money became worthless and the new Reconstruction government in South Carolina refused to cover the paper money issued by the state when it wasn't a part of the U.S.

Several other Southern states went through a similar process after the Civil War, but state archives director Rodger Stroup said as far as he knows, only South Carolina failed to destroy all of its currency, bringing this unexpected windfall more than a century later.

Meyer, the retired professor, spends every other Tuesday at a simple table in a third-floor room of the archives armed with a magnifying glass and bundles of bills. He tries to find bills that aren't wrinkled or torn, or look particularly aged. It's tedious work that reminds the occasionally acerbic academic of the decades he spent in the Air Force.

"It's very interesting. It's like the military — 90 percent boredom, 10 percent excitement," he said.

The excitement comes at the least expected times, like the day Meyer turned over a $1 note and found a handwritten message: "The last of fifty-thousand and this is going for whisky."

That bill was preserved and will stay in the state archives, along with the best samples of every other distinct kind of currency Meyer finds as he goes through the boxes.

For each sale, the South Carolina archives pays a small fee to eBay and to the state surplus agency that handles the transaction. State law prevents the proceeds from going toward salaries, but allows the purchase of supplies like acid-free storage boxes and projects like digitizing frequently viewed documents, said Stroup, the archives director.

The one big purchase the archives made was a scanner that has been used to store several large, one-of-a-kind maps from South Carolina's early days. That allows historians to pore over the documents without any risk of damaging them, Lesser said.

Archivists have set aside several potentially high-value items for a future live auction. Those include notes signed by Confederate Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton, a former South Carolina governor.

The bills, issued during the Civil War, provided information on what people thought was important to the then-rebel government. Plenty of bills have pictures of John C. Calhoun, the U.S. senator and one-time vice president from South Carolina best known for laying the foundation of secession by advocating that a state could ignore any federal laws it thought were unconstitutional. Others have Revolutionary War heroes like George Washington or South Carolina's own Francis Marion.

Meyer can only theorize why workers back in the 1880s didn't follow orders and destroy the cash.

"I think they were lazy," Meyer said. "But this time it worked out for the good."

The Amazing World of Claymation- Oregon Historical Society

One of Oregon's favorite sons is having an exhibit of his works and history at Oregon Historical Society. This looks like an interesting and fun exhibit about Will Vinton. 

From OHS Web page

Featuring Will Vinton's animation art collection, this exhibit illustrates the historic and ground-breaking evolution of Claymation. Don't miss this fascinating journey into the artistry that goes into creating animated films. Born in McMinnville, Will Vinton has won virtually every film and television award given to a filmmaker.

See Vinton's personal animation art collection – including drawings, paintings, clay and cast sculptures, videos and storyboards! This one-of-a-kind show celebrates the artistry involved with creating award-winning Claymation films. Learn what goes into making some of the world's best-known animated characters, including the Domino's Pizza "Noid," the famous California Raisins, and Eddie Murphy’s "Thurgood Stubbs," from the television show, "The PJ's."

'Artery' Exhibit Prompts an Art Attack in Arkansas Town

Commentary from Fox News, 

Exhibit A is a painting of Alice in Wonderland, by Beth Post of Fayetteville, Ark. Titled "The Temptation of Alice," it is a rendering of the iconic children's book character alongside the "Drag-Queen of Hearts," a man wearing women’s lingerie. The two of them are surrounded by rabbits that are, ahem, busy making more rabbits.

Exhibit B is a painting of the Virgin Mary, by Michelle Levy of Eureka Springs, Ark. Titled "The Divine Mother," it depicts a bare-breasted Mary nursing the baby Jesus, with text above the Madonna that asks, "Does this halo make my face look fat?"

Welcome to the “Artery” exhibit, a collection of 27 8-foot-by-4-foot paintings that has been on display in the town of Eureka Springs since September, and whose current theme — popular icons in religion and culture — has raised more than a few eyebrows in the small northwestern Arkansas town.

Those concerns have led some city council members to draft a contract that would take control of the public art exhibit from its curators — and have led some artists to cry censorship.

• Click here to see some of the controversial paintings.

The paintings line a 150-foot long retaining wall that was transformed from crumbling rock to public art space in 2004. The project's creator, Charlotte Buchanan, told FOXNews.com that the Artery is the lifeblood of the community, hence the name.

Read On.