Bear Creek Heritage Center tour , collection examination and Oral History, Oh my!


Bear Creek Heritage Center              Photo by A. Blythe, 2018
Friday, June 15

Today, I was shown and got to tour, the Jackie Townsell Bear Creek Heritage Center, which is the other museum that the Irving Archives manages.  The Bear Creek community is the African-American community in Dallas County,.  It was established by freed slaves in the 1850s and grew after the Civil War.   There are three museums on the property that is owned by the City of Irving.  The first museum is the Bear Creek Masonic Lodge #263, the next museum is the J.O. Davis house and the third museum is the Sam Green House.  The two houses are from the founding families of Bear Creek.

Kevin had a group of about 40 students which were allowed to tour the three museums on the grounds.  Then Kevin meet with all of the students in the table area to discuss the history of the area.  I got to tour and see all of the history and information that the Irving Archives in conjunction with the City of Irving Museums had created and displayed.  It looked like a museum that one would find on a state park.  After the students had left and securing the place, Kevin and I returned to the Irving Archives.

Once we returned, I worked on some of the Las Colinas Women's Association collection and completed examining the fourth box, which was filled the the association's meeting minutes.  Again, thinking back to what Kevin said about the binders and their contents were to be put into various folders the same idea occurred to me that the meeting minutes would be placed in various folders as well.  I continued to examine the box and record notes on my finding aid draft for future use.   After examining the box, I went to work on the Myrtle White oral history that I started on June 12 for the remaining of the day.

I completed the Myrtle White oral history, finished transcribing what was said on the tape, and then entered the following at the top of the transcript "Audited by Alison Blythe on June 12 and 15".  I inquired about this and Kevin explained that each transcript that is audited then either Chris or Kevin, himself, would go through it one final time to make sure that everything sounded correct.  Since these oral histories were on cassette tapes I asked how they digitized them.  Kevin showed me the program that they used and the machine that the tapes are played on to become digital.  If someone requests a copy of any of the oral history Chris or Kevin would digitize the information on the tape and send the wav file to the person or a copy of the transcript is sent instead, which I thought was an interesting way to share history.


        
Bear Creek Community
Photo by A. Blythe, 2018

 


 
   Bear Creek Masonic Lodge #263
Photo by A. Blythe, 2018


Jackie Mae Townsell
Photo by A. Blythe, 2018

J.O. Davis house
Photo by A. Blythe, 2018


Sam Green house
 Photo by A. Blythe, 2018

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