Author: Tom Kelly
Tom Kelly, Museum Studies Intern at the Boys Scouts of America, Laurel Highlands Council - Spring 2024
Built in 1968, Flag Plaza, located downtown across from PPG Paints Arena, overlooks downtown Pittsburgh. Inside this building is a vast collection of Americana and regional history that the current owners, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), don’t know much about. My job, as the sole intern, was to take on the task of archiving these items and creating a catalog that would, most importantly, be a way of knowing just what they have.
My first task was to distinguish what information should be deemed most important. After discussing with my intern-advisor, I decided to have 6 categories- the item's proximity, a catalog number, the date or year it was produced (or an approximation), a description of the item, some notes about what the item physically is, and the significance that the item held. I ended up having 4 kinds of significance, either a Regional, Americana, Scouting, or Monetary significance. Once this was decided, my archive began.
Throughout building the archive, I also have had many different opportunities to work with the collection. One of the first of these was working with a local art appraiser and auction house. I learned some of the skills needed to appraise different items, including framing techniques, detecting brush strokes, and valuable research tips to ensure that I was finding consistent and relevant information. Out of the items looked at, the 1876 painting One Hundred Years Ago, by W.H. Wilcox, was easily the highest appraised piece. Other valuable pieces include Betsy Ross Flag By Steven Dohanos, and a Nat Youngblood Piece, titled Emblems of Freedom.
Another task I had was to construct a small display in honor of Judge Livingstone Johnson, who was a vital part of Pittsburgh’s Civil Rights movement. Judge Johnson was an upstanding citizen and was very involved in the Boy Scouts of America throughout his life. This opportunity gave me the chance to collect items, curate a display, and spearhead my first kind of exhibition. Using the items I had, I curated a display of his original Eagle Letter, letters of recommendation, his original uniform, and memorabilia from the camp he attended.
Despite being here for the semester, I am still not finished with this collection. There are still hundreds of items that I need to catalog, then the second part of my project will begin- offloading. Slowly but surely, the BSA hopes to relieve themselves of many of the items under their stewardship and hope to find institutions that can properly take care of and appreciate the art and other artifacts. In the future, I am very excited to work with local institutions and collections and find the proper homes for many of these items. I am also looking forward to starting to research what some of these items are worth in an auction market. There are hundreds of different items, ranging from fine art to limited prints, signatures ranging from President Ronald Reagan to singer Bing Crosby, and maybe 100 pieces of china that have not been unwrapped in years. This next aspect is something that I am very excited to start researching.
All in all, the skills and connections that I have gained from Flag Plaza have been indispensable for me. I greatly value what I’ve completed and am very excited for what is yet to come. So far, I’ve categorized around 1,375 items and have hundreds more likely to go. Despite this, I am very excited to see where this project is going.