By Leah Davis Witherow, Curator of History The CSPM is thrilled to announce the opening of our newest permanent exhibit, Evidence: Finding the Facts About William Jackson Palmer which opens on Saturday, September 14. Years in the making, this exhibit will debunk persistent myths about General Palmer and his family by inviting visitors to examine evidence firsthand. By doing so, viewers will come away with a deeper and more meaningful understanding of our city founder’s unique story and our community’s history. Portrait of Queen Palmer, ca. 1880, CSPM Collection The Evidence exhibit will encourage critical thinking, foster historical analysis and provide a “behind the scenes” look at the work of historians and archaeologists. How do we know what we know about the past? How does this change over time? How can we tell fact from fiction? The answer is evidence! In the case of the Palmer Family and estate employees, we have never had more evidence than we do today. Thanks to donations of letters, diaries, photographs and artifacts over the past two decades, we have a deeper understanding of the day-to-day life at Glen Eyrie. Combined with over 60,000 archaeological artifacts discovered in a long buried trash pile near the Palmer Estate at Glen Eyrie, an even clearer picture emerges. In many cases, new evidence negates commonly held misconceptions and reveals a more interesting and complicated story. For instance, General Palmer’s handwritten letters describe how he fought in the Civil War because of his Quaker faith – not in spite of it. Locket of Elsie Palmer’s Hair, ca. 1890, CSPM Collection MUSELETTER AUGUST 2019| PG 2
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