New museum director

John Anderson has a nice write-up in today's Charlotte Observer about the Museum of the Waxhaws new director. I'd say he has the chops to be a fine director. Here's his background; visit the link to see the whole story.

"My involvement with museums goes back over 25 years, when I started volunteering as a living history interpreter at several sites in New Jersey and New York," Scott said.

"I was on the historical advisory board of the John C. Storms Museum in Park Ridge, N.J., where I helped develop special events and programs, and put together exhibits from my own collection, which included historic textiles, antique toys, militaria and ephemera."

He's also someone who walks the walk or, more correctly, marches the march.

"I joined a Revolutionary War re-enactment group in 1976, which was the beginning of my involvement with living history interpretation," he said. "Over the past three-plus decades, I have participated in over 900 re-enactments, from Canada to Georgia. I have also been lecturing at New York City and New Jersey schools for over 20 years. One of the highlights of my lecturing career was when I was asked to speak at the USMA museum at West Point about the National Guard's role in World War I."

He is a professional anthropologist/archeologist who's not afraid to get his hands dirty:

"I also began digging at a young age, when I discovered that northern New Jersey and the lower Hudson River valley had quite a few good fossil sites to offer," Scott said. "When I was a high school junior, I began working on Eastern Woodland Indian archaeological digs, first as a volunteer, then as a paid field hand. My area of study has, for the most part, been the American Colonial period, beginning with the colonization by the Dutch and English during the 17th century, with a special interest in their contact with the native peoples.

On a personal note, Scott Farb and his daughter were nice enough to open up the museum last Tuesday and give a excellent tour of the exhibits to some lucky Cub Scouts and their parents. Both were dressed in historical garb. In the words of one of the scouts, he looked like "a pirate". And in my own words, she looked like an old-timey girl wearing an old-timey hat. My historical background is such that I cannot place the time period.

On another side note, don't be frightened away by his picture in today's Observer. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on how you look at it) , it was not included in the web version of this story. He's much more personable than that photo lets on. Vacant & downtrodden is how I would describe it.

And on one final side note, I believe I overheard him say repairs to the museums' roof have recently begun (and a visit to the museum's Facebook page confirms it in a Jan 19th update), so it appears enough donations were received after their problems were publicized. Good news!