Amid the ongoing COVID-19 downers making up much of the newsfeed of late, a Chattahoochee museum recently got a bit of news that’s well worth celebrating – a spark of light amid a dreary backdrop, to be sure.
Earlier this week, the Apalachicola Arsenal Museum announced that a Florida Humanities Cares Grant will now complete the funding needed for the museum’s new Native American Exhibit.
“It is ready to install as soon as permission is granted to go onto [Florida State Hospital] grounds,” Arsenal Museum director Linda Kranert said.
According to Kranert, the new Native American installment will mark the second professional exhibit at the Arsenal museum, part of the sprawling Florida State Hospital campus off U.S. 90, east of town. The unique collections of historical artifacts and interpretive displays that make up the museum are housed inside a former military powder magazine, which served the U.S. Army outpost that occupied the present-day state hospital grounds for several of the early decades of the 19th century.
Coming next, Kranert said, will be an educational exhibit on the American Civil War, particularly how it played out in and affected the lands and peoples of Northwest Florida.
“The Arsenal was the scene of the first action taken by Florida in the Civil War,” Kranert explained. “Troops were trained at the facility and a group was formed there as well. The Arsenal helped provide ammunition to the encampments along the River as well.”
Learn more at the Apalachicola Arsenal Museum Historical Society page on Facebook.
