{"id":24048,"date":"2014-12-03T09:38:31","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T14:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=24048"},"modified":"2014-12-03T09:09:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T14:09:55","slug":"sanderson-museum-remembers-tommy-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=24048","title":{"rendered":"Sanderson Museum remembers Tommy Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Museum remembers first curator<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Linda Banks,<\/span><\/strong> Special to The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Karen-Kuder-&-Tom-Thompson\"<\/a>

The first curator of the Sanderson Museum, Tommy Thompson, is warmly remembered by staff and board members.<\/p><\/div>\n

In November the last flash of sun adds final colorful brilliance to our trees and our lives, but autumn also predicts falling leaves and winter’s chill. \u00a0November always brings the fleeting Sanderson Museum schedule to a close until spring returns. \u00a0This year, November\u2019s traditional expectations were met in a third way by our museum\u2019s loss of Tommy Thompson, the founding curator and last surviving founding board member. \u00a0<\/p>\n

On November 14, a close-knit, diverse group gathered at the Chester County Historical Society in West Chester to celebrate the life of this fine man. As a series of black and white photographs played above the memorial event hosted by Thompson’s son Bruce (commercial airline pilot and retired Delaware Air National Guard pilot and brigadier general), he opened with personal recollections reflecting a forthright honesty of which his father would surely have approved. \u00a0He ended with a forward-looking poem before welcoming the roomful of guests to share their own comments and memories.<\/p>\n

Many, including Sally Denk-Hoey, the museum’s former president, and Charles Ulmann, the current curator, expressed their personal fondness for and appreciation of the steadfast mentor and colleague who had brought the museum from chaos to structure. \u00a0Family members, friends, neighbors and workmates continued to interweave the narrative of the man they knew with spontaneous comments and anecdotes. The spoken words concluded with Tom Hoey’s strong, clear, resonant playing of Taps which held the room quietly rapt until the final whisper of sound had trailed away.<\/p>\n

The Sanderson Museum was closed for the day, but as Tommy Thompson (and certainly Chris himself) would have expected, it opened again on Saturday, November 15 at noon.<\/p>\n

As a Sanderson tour guide, I often introduce museum visitors to our collection as the miraculous intersection of two exceptional people in a meeting which showcases the finest elements of each one. \u00a0First, Christian C. Sanderson felt that he was called to participate in, celebrate, and record significant historical moments of his country and local region. \u00a0He amassed thousands of personal \u00a0items which reinforced historical events and personal experiences. \u00a0He attached small explanatory notes to thousands of these items. \u00a0Second, Tommy Thompson, Chris’s friend, was entrusted with the labor of sorting, organizing, cataloguing and displaying the minutiae of Chris’s life. \u00a0Two miracles found each other; both required patience, respect and diligence. \u00a0The ultimate result was the Christian C. Sanderson Museum.<\/p>\n

How fortunate we are that the Wyeth family (Andrew, in particular) stepped in to endorse the development of the museum. \u00a0How fortunate we are that Chris documented his robust, intentional life with detailed collections and commentary. \u00a0How fortunate we are that Karen Kuder Finkelstein created the rich film “Cannonballs, Anecdotes and Artifacts” and peppered it with interviews that reveal the Wyeths, Tommy Thompson, and a wide range of musicians and friends who valued Chris as a hub of Chadds Ford history.<\/p>\n

If you have not visited the Christian C. Sanderson Museum recently, put it on your calendar for 2015. \u00a0Thanksgiving and the coming holidays may be your season to be thankful for one more thing: \u00a0the intersecting lives which converged in the creation of this historical gem.<\/p>\n

The Christian C. Sanderson Museum is located at 1755 Creek Road, Chadds Ford, PA just north or Route 1. \u00a0It is open March through November, Thursday through Sunday, from 12 to 4 P.M. or by appointment. \u00a0Entry is $5.00 for adults. \u00a0Children under 12 are free when accompanied by an adult. \u00a0You may obtain more information by calling the museum at 610-388-6545 or by requesting information at info@sandersonmuseum.org<\/a> . \u00a0The website is www.sandersonmuseum.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Museum remembers first curator By Linda Banks, Special to The Times In November the last flash of sun adds final colorful brilliance to our trees and our lives, but autumn also predicts falling leaves and winter’s chill. \u00a0November always brings the fleeting Sanderson Museum schedule to a close until spring returns. \u00a0This year, November\u2019s traditional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[39,288],"class_list":["post-24048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-chadds-ford","tag-sanderson-museum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24052,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24048\/revisions\/24052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}