Pasto Agricultural Museum expansion almost ready

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- After three decades of operation, the Pasto Agricultural Museum at Penn State's Ag Progress Days site at Rock Springs is on the verge of a major expansion. While the new section of the facility will not be open for the 2008 event, the old section will be, along with an adjacent tent containing items for the traditional silent auction.

"We regret not having the entire museum ready and open for Ag Progress Days, but we are excited about the future," said volunteer curator Daryl Heasley, professor emeritus of rural sociology in the College of Agricultural Sciences. "The expansion will include an addition to the current building and installation of heating and air-conditioning systems that will serve the entire structure.

"These restorations will allow us to increase our educational programming and to schedule educational tours year-round," added Heasley. "Currently under construction, the addition will provide adequate space to enable the exhibition of 80 to 85 percent of more than 1,200 rare and antique items currently in the museum's collection."

The 5,200-square-foot addition -- which boosts the facility’s size to 8,400 square feet -- will permit a substantial increase in the current number of displays, thus allowing the showcasing of the collection to Penn State faculty, staff and students, as well as to visitors from around the globe. In addition, it will provide workspace for staff, volunteers and student interns.

Items in the collection are concentrated in the time period between 1775 and 1940, although the assemblage of objects spans 6,000 years from 4,000 B. C. to the 1940s. All preserved items in the collection represent functions of rural life when work on the farm and in the home was performed by human and animal power only. Nothing requiring any other energy sources is exhibited.

"Our goal is to make the Pasto Agricultural Museum a center for linking early agricultural innovations to current farming practice by honoring and learning from the past while looking to improve the future," said Heasley. "The enlarged and renovated museum building will allow enhanced educational programming to reach this aim.

"The programs will target diverse groups including clubs in the College of Agricultural Sciences and other students from across the university, elementary and secondary school classes, retirement residences, and visitors to the Pennsylvania Farm Show and Ag Progress Days," he added. "Expanding, revising and updating the museum's Web site (http:/PastoAgMuseum.cas.psu.edu/) will supplement this effort."

Silent Auction

Ag Progress Days 2008 visitors can participate in the museum’s ninth annual Silent Auction on Tuesday, Aug. 19 and Wednesday, Aug. 20. Registration is necessary to bid on items donated by individuals and organizations to help fund the museum’s enhancement campaign for the addition to the building. This year’s items include Penn State football tickets and a lawn tractor, along with antique and collectible tools and household objects.
The popular cash-and-carry section will return. Buyers of these items can pay cash and take the item with them. Early arrivals will have the advantage in this section.

Bidding will close promptly at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Successful bidders can pick up their items after payment (cash or check) is processed Wednesday. An additional 15 percent of the purchase price ($15 minimum) will be added for all the items not picked up on Wednesday.

Sponsored by Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, Ag Progress Days is held at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, nine miles southwest of State College on Route 45. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 19; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Aug. 20; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 21. Admission and parking are free.

For more information, visit the Ag Progress Days Web site at http://apd.psu.edu.