PRINCETON – A West Virginia museum overflowing with artifacts honoring the veterans who served their country from the Civil War to the present day is looking forward to more space and getting a greater public outreach.
Artifacts ranging from military uniforms from different eras, German and Japanese war souvenirs brought home by World War II veterans, a display honoring a Medal of Honor recipient, a piece of barbed wire from a prisoner of war camp and a great variety of other historical items fill the Those Who Served War Museum in Princeton. Located at the Memorial Building near the Mercer County Courthouse, the museum’s board recently appointed a new director.
George Williams served on the museum’s board of directors before becoming accepting his new position about two months ago. The former director, Tony Whitlow, who is staying on as the museum’s curator, asked Williams to accept the job.
“He asked me if I would take over and I told him I’d be thrilled to and honored to,” Williams said as the museum opened for Tuesday.
Williams, who is also a veteran, said he served in both the Navy and the Army.
“I was active duty Navy for 10 years and West Virginia Army National Guard for a couple of years,” he said.
Now Williams is looking at the future. The museum’s many artifacts fill a large room. Exhibits telling the stories of veterans from the Civil War to Operation Desert Storm fill display cases and cover the walls.
Visitors immediately find themselves among uniforms, a portrait of Medal of Honor recipient Junior Spurrier and his Medal of Honor, Germany and Japanese pistols donated by World War II veterans, period photographs, Civil War and World War I weapons, a German soldier’s can opener, a bit of barbed wire from a POW camp which help American air crews and much more. Every piece tells a story.
Williams was asked if he has a favorite exhibit.
“I don’t have a favorite because I think they all should be honored equally,” he said. “They’re all my favorite, I guess. As many times as I’ve been through here, every time I come through I find new things and fortunately Tony has agreed to stay on as the curator because nobody knows this museum and this place in here like Tony does. So we always have him here to help us navigate.”
A new museum sign is ready for installation outside the Memorial Building. The museum’s supporters hope it generate more public awareness.
“Thanks to generous donations from the Community Foundation of the Virginias and the Shott Foundation and private donors, we have been able to purchase a new digital sign for out front. It was a fairly expensive sign, but we managed to get it paid for and we’re now working on the installation process,” Williams said. “It’s a beautiful sign.”
“Hopefully, it will attract more attention for the museum,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of people in this area, this county, that don’t know it’s here; which is a shame because if you’re from this area and this region, there’s a really good chance you have ties to this museum. We all have family and friends who are veterans who have served, and that’s who we honor here, those men and women who have served. If you’re from this area, you probably have ties to somebody in this museum.”
The museum’s supporters want to honor as many veterans as possible, but space is limited now. The hope is that the Mercer County Commission will be able to relocate several offices downstairs to another building. This would free up space for the museum’s growing collection of artifacts donated by veterans and their families.
“I hope that happens. They seem to be very supportive of the museum and hopefully that will happen,” Williams said. “We have few other maintenance issues to address in the future.”
Oftentimes donations of artifacts have to be declined because the museum lacks the room for them.
“You walk through the museum and obviously it’s just cramped in there,” Williams said. “I think there’s just too much to take in. There’s too much to appreciate what we have. We’re thinking about moving a couple of the war eras downstairs, Korea and Vietnam. I guess it depends on areas we get downstairs and how much room we have. The problem we’re having right now is that we’re having a hard time accepting new donations because we simply don’t have the room. We’re just completely out of room.”
Whitlow agreed that the museum needs more exhibition space. Displays are too close together for visitors to truly appreciate them.
“Yes, that’s our problem,” he said. “All the veterans feel like if they want to put something there, they ought to be able to. Our displays, some of them, are touching each other.”
“We’d love to expand some and be able to accept more donations,” Williams said. “Unfortunately, that’s not where we are now. Hopefully we’ll be there in the future.”
Whitlow said if the museum can get more space, exhibits from Vietnam and Middle East veterans could be moved downstairs, free up more of its upstairs main room.
The Those Who Served War Museum was started in 1998 in a small Memorial Building room. It was full within a year. Changes that serve the museum today were made at that time.
Whitlow, who served Mercer County in the Legislature for 12 years in the House and another 12 years in the Senate, sought help from Oshel Cragio, then chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, for help getting an elevator. Cargio was able to find $80,000 for the elevator project.
Then Gov. Cecil Underwood came to Mercer County and presented the donation, Whitlow said, adding that his brother, the late Buddy Whitlow, did many of the museum’s renovations and did not charge for them.
“Now it’s so crowded, we certainly need to make space,” he said.
Changing the museum’s name could be in its future as well.
Williams said the desire is to honor all veterans from all periods of America’s history.
“We want to people to think of the museum. For years it’s been called the Princeton War Museum, the Those Who Served War Museum,” he said. “I’d like to get away from that because we’re not really a war museum. We’re a veterans museum. We’re not honoring wars. We’re honoring the men and women who served in those wars, who served our country, so I think a more appropriate way to refer to the museum is the Mercer County Veterans Museum or the Those Who Served Veterans Museum because we want people to know it’s a Mercer County attraction, so it’s a Mercer County museum. We are part of the county.”
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
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