Avery's Comment on Mystery Piano

Thanks, Avery, for your comment on the post about the mystery piano in the woods. As far as I know, no one has admitted moving it into the woods, or claimed ownership of it, or figured out how it got there. If anyone has any information about it, I'd love to hear from you!

A Great Big "Thank You!"

Hello, Riley, Camille, Lily M., Beckett, Eric, Noah, Ben, Sam, Zach, Sophie, Adele, Lily B., and Chase --

Thank you, each and every one of you, for your wonderful comments! I am so glad that you like Electra to the Rescue. I think the pictures in the book are marvelous, too. And Electra is quite a character. She reminds me that it's important to think for yourself, and not just do what everybody else is doing.

I loved reading about the different things you collect. Believe it or not, my husband has a big sister who collects fruit stickers, too! And I have beautiful colored rocks that include quartz. Electra's very first collection was a group of dolls that her grandma gave her. And it's exciting to know there will be more sand collectors among us! Marbles, webkinz, motorcycles, rocks, charms, quarters, lego guys, glass animals and figures -- you guys are incredible!

Thanks again for reading my book and for sending your comments,

Valerie

Mrs. Rogers' Neighborhood

Hello, Mrs. Rogers' students --

Valerie Biebuyck here. I hope you enjoyed your field trip to Shelburne Museum and that Electra to the Rescue helped you understand that special place. I was so excited to learn that you have been reading my book!

Mrs. Rogers told me that you are talking about your collections in class. Electra would have been thrilled to know that you are interested in her collections, and that some of you collect or may start collecting.

I'm sure Electra would have wanted to know all about your collections and your thoughts about them. Here are some questions I think she would have liked to ask you:

• What do you collect?
  
• Why do you collect that?


• How do you organize your collection?


• Do you display it? How? (Electra always was very interested in how best to display her collections so that everyone could enjoy looking at them.) Do you keep your collection tucked away in a safe place? Or do you display it sometimes and keep it tucked away sometimes?


• What's the most unusual thing that you have collected?


• If you want to start a collection, what would you collect?

When I was about eight years old, I used to collect sand from beaches my family visited. I would put it in pretty, colored bottles. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was giving a presentation about Electra to the Rescue in Charlotte, Vermont. A woman came up to me afterwards and said, "Please sign this book for my friend. You would not believe what she collects. She collects sand!"

Collectors are everywhere! And if you think no one else could possibly collect what you do, think again!

Electra would have been very happy to learn of your interest in collecting. Collecting tells us something about ourselves and the world in which we live. That's part of the reason why Electra started Shelburne Museum.

Keep it up! Who knows what you might do with your collections someday!

Happy collecting,

Valerie Biebuyck

Mystery Piano in the Woods

When Electra Havemeyer Webb moved the steamboat Ticonderoga to Shelburne Museum in 1955, everybody knew how it got there. Transporting a 900-ton steamboat over land is not something that can be done quietly. Apparently, though, a piano and bench can be moved into the woods without anybody noticing.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/23/massachusetts.piano/

Taking Care of Your Stuff

Click on this link for good, basic, general information on taking care of your stuff.

http://antiques.about.com/cs/beginners/a/aa101000.htm

Collecting for a Cause

Here's a good reason to collect: to support a good cause.

You don't have to keep what you collect. Collect something you can turn into cash for charity. The kids in this article collected soda can pop tops and donated them to a hospital, which then recycled them and used the money to help its patients.

What else can you collect that you can get rid of easily for a good cause?


http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/24/Hernando/Kids_are_collecting_s.shtml

Mystery of the Missing Lighthouse

Electra would have liked this story.

The thirty-foot tall lighthouse overlooking Cape Cod's Wellfleet Harbor was built in 1881. In 1925, it was gone. Over the years, people lost track of what had become of it. Local historians believed for decades that it had been taken down and destroyed at that time.

The lighthouse was found a few months ago, 3,000 miles away in Point Montara, California. It had been moved across the country.

Colleen MacNeney figured out what had happened to the missing lighthouse with her parents, Sandra and Bob Shanklin, known as "The Lighthouse People" because they've photographed every lighthouse in the United States. They recognized an old photo of the lighthouse at the U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office in Washington, D.C. while organizing their photos. It looked like a lighthouse they had photographed in California. They researched it and found out they were the same lighthouse. Apparently, the lighthouse service was trying to save money by replacing a dilapidated lighthouse in Point Montara with the one from Cape Cod.

Electra would have appreciated that materials from an old structure were being reused. After all, Shelburne Museum's Horseshoe Barn (which houses the vehicle collection) was built with beams and shingles salvaged from old Vermont barns and gristmills. Also, she would have liked that someone else had the idea of moving a lighthouse so many years before she moved the Colchester Reef Lighthouse from the middle of Lake Champlain to Shelburne Museum. And I'm sure Electra would feel a kinship with the Shanklins. They collect lighthouses, too, through their photographs, and through their passion to record an image of each one in the United States.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/06/case_of_the_mis.html

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/04/lighthouse.found.ap/index.html