Artifacts
Artifact 1
Purple Dress
This purple velvet dress belonged to Jennie Means Cooper. Born in 1865, Jennie was a life-long
Hopkinsvillian. She married William Cooper, the proprietor of the Phoenix Hotel, in 1889 and was a
member of First Methodist Church. Together, they raised two children. Jennie’s beautiful dress sports
some very modern elements. The plunging neckline and daring mesh sleeves show that Hopkinsville had
definitely moved out of the Victorian and into the Edwardian era.
David Clark donated Jennie’s dress to the museum in 1985.
Artifact 2
Boddie Suit
This wool suit – with tails! – was made for George Boddie, Jr. by Sammet Bros., tailors in Cincinnati, in
1907. We know this thanks to the handwritten tag sewn inside the pants. George Boddie, Jr. was the son of
George Boddie, wealthy landowner in the southern part of the county. Born in Christian County in 1886,
George, Jr. likely attended the Missouri Military Academy before enrolling in Miami University in
Oxford, Ohio. Local newspapers indicate that he spent a summer abroad in Europe in 1906, and we found
him on a ship manifest returning from France again in 1910. George died of tuberculosis at a sanitarium in
El Paso, Texas in 1918 at age 31. Before his death, he lived in Chicago and worked in real estate as a
member of the firm McNeal & Boddie.
It is unknown when or how George Boddie, Jr.’s suit entered the museum’s collection.
Artifact 3
Motorcycle Helmet
This leather motorcycle helmet belonged to Wesley Dalton. In 1914, seventeen year-old Dalton ripped
through the two mile course at the Pennyroyal Fair’s innagural motorcycle race in two minutes and fifty-
six seconds, while wearing this helmet. In a time when Hopkinsville’s speed limit was 6 mph and most
people still drove horses and buggies, Dalton averaged nearly 41 mph on his Harley Davidson.
Transportation in Christian County had entered the modern era.
D.D. Cayce donated Dalton’s helmet to the museum in 1978.
Artifact 4
Glass Negative
This glass negative is one of many created by Hopkinsville photographer Edgar Cayce around the turn of
the century. Though better known for his psychic abilities, Cayce was a prolific and skilled photographer
and documented the interiors of many local businesses. This one is a piano and organ store. We don’t
know the proprietor, but it could have been R.C. Hardwick or R.E. Qualls.
Cayce’s glass negative collection was donated to the museum by D.D. Cayce.
Artifact 5
Feathers
This gorgeous collection of 77 colorful feathers likely came from a local millinery and were intended to
decorate women’s hats. The 1910 Hopkinsville City Directory lists no fewer than six milliners, and all but
one were located on Main Street. These ranged from individual proprietors like Mrs. Fannie Rogers to
large businesses such as Frankel’s Busy Store. Milliners worked in seasons, with the new styles for a
season being released all at once. Hopkinsville’s milliners traveled to Chicago and New York to see the
new fashions and purchase materials. The Hopkinsville Kentuckian reviewed the new styles shown here
on opening day, September 23, 1913, announcing that black velvet was the season’s most popular hat
material, predominantly embellished with ostrich plumes dyed in various shades.
The feathers were donated to the museum by Lois Peyton in 1980.
Artifact 6
Crazy Quilt
Made by Elizabeth Smithson around the turn of the century, this crazy quilt is a blend of old and new and
is a personalized chronicle of contemporary sentiments. Elizabeth Smithson attended the University of
Kentucky, where she earned a degree in teaching. She worked at Bethel College and in Hopkinsville’s
public schools in the 1910s before moving to Oklahoma to teach in the 1920s. She made the quilt out of
cloth scraps, many likely left over from dresses and other sewing projects, joined with a decorative feather
stitch and embossed with needlework.
The quilt was donated by Anne Henry in 2001. It was gifted to her mother by Elizabeth Smithson, a
neighbor.
Artifact 7
Buick
White with black leather seats and shiny gold trim, this 1909 Model 10 Buick is the oldest known
automobile bought new in Hopkinsville. Frank Yost purchased it from the McGrew machine shop for
$1,200 (including shipping) in 1910. The Buick factory was in Flint, Michigan, and the car came to
Hopkinsville by rail. Yost drove his Buick in the 1913 Pennyroyal Fair’s automobile parade, joining thirty-
nine other local automobile owners.
The Frank Yost family donated the Buick to the museum.
Artifact 8
Wedding Dress
This peach taffeta dream was worn by Marguerite Barker Pinson at her wedding in 1914. The dress was
purchased in Paris while the bride-to-be was working as a nanny for the daughter of a major industrial
tycoon. It features a column shape with lace sleeves and lining at the décolletage. Her trousseau also
includes her slip, silk stockings and shoes.
Jean Pinson Askew, Marguerite’s daughter, donated the collection to the museum.