The Baldwin County Heritage Museum in Elberta lost one of its most avid and dedicated advocates when Becky Holliday, longtime curator and education director, retired from her position last week.

Holliday had to step away from her responsibilities at the museum due to personal health, according to a press release.

“I am confident you will understand and respect the need for me to spend what time that I have left working for my own family as I have worked for yours,” Holliday said.

With the absence of Holliday in the upcoming New Year, the already struggling museum’s future is even more uncertain.

Holliday claims the story was never about her, but instead the diverse and enthralling history of the people of Baldwin County she spent years trying to preserve; years she spent trying to convince natives of the worth of their history, which she valued so much considering she was an implant to this area, not a native.

“The story was never about me,” she said. “It was about the museum — the heritage of Baldwin County — and the right of the children yet unborn to share and experience this wonderful history.”

Holliday spent years of her life muddling through the history of the people of Baldwin County, and she said she would do it all over again if she had the choice. She made Baldwin County her home, and absorbed its past as part of her own. She moved here from Texas after she retired from her profession as a historian and an educator.

She particularly loved the stories she found in Baldwin County because the history was so rich, and in many cases, still living.

“This is the people’s museum in that the overall scope of museums it is incredibly unique because everything here is donated by the people, the buildings, the land, the artifacts, this is completely the people’s museum. It makes a very unique advantage for you. You can talk to first generation American born, first generation founders of the communities, first generation immigrant. Now they are dying out, but that is still available here so you get to have a living history class,” she said.

She also found here, like many other rural American locales, life was centered around certain places, which created a melting pot of heritage and memories.

“The cornerstones of your society in a rural America are your church, your school and your family and your community. This is what this museum is all about. It is a heritage museum. It is grandma and grandpa’s house,” she said.

How she helped it

After mere minutes in Holliday’s presence, it becomes apparent how much she cares for the museum and how emotionally attached she is to its well being. It is also apparent she wishes she could have done more to secure the future of the museum, both financially and in the hearts of the people it should matter most to.

In some ways, she believes she failed to do what she set out to do years ago when she took the museum up as her cause.

“If I had done the job I tried so desperately to do — the museum would be well-loved, sponsored and cared for by the residents of this county. That is not the case. There is no victory, no pride — only a deep and heartbreaking sadness — and a feeling of utter and complete failure. To revisit the milestones of the last few years only underscores how completely and totally I failed to educate the people of this county in the need for them to cherish their own heritage and protect it. As I said, there is nothing to be proud of.”

The museum has faced, and will most likely face in the future, many hurdles. The biggest two hurdles for the museum, according to Holliday, are acquiring adequate funding to protect the artifacts entrusted to the museum, and maintaining an army of volunteers large enough to enable the museum to keep its doors open so everyone can take a walk through grandma and grandpa’s house to better understand their roots.

“Until we can get regular funding and regular volunteers it will remain closed because we can’t take care of what we have, much less open up another building this big,” said Holliday.

The museum’s state weighed heavily on Holliday, even months ago before her resignation was approaching.

“It is beyond wow — it is absolutely tragic  — and it is very difficult for me to talk about it and not cry,” she described the state of the museum with tears in her eyes. “This is really difficult. This museum represents 28 years of work and love and support for area residents who have come in and done all of the things you see, and for hundreds of our snowbirds and volunteers who have helped me build these exhibits.

“But I don’t have the people to keep the doors open. I don’t have the people to greet the guests. You have got to have a key holder, and a minimum of one volunteer at all times to open something this large or you are not protecting the safety of the visitor and you are not protecting the artifacts and that is our job.”

The museum is in desperate need of volunteers. According to Holliday, ideally the museum would have an army of 120 volunteers.

“Right now, if I had 40 volunteers I would think I had died and gone to heaven because we would be able to at least unlock the door and have someone on constant patrol watching out for the museum,” she said. The museum is lucky if there are more than two dozen volunteers in a month.

The second issue facing the museum — membership — is another big one according to Holliday. It is also one she spent a lot of time trying to remedy.

“Because this is the people’s museum, the people need to be a member, and if they are not and you are going for grants, the first thing a grant says is well, who belongs?” she said. “It is all up to the people of this county, it is their museum, they are the sponsors, they are the members, they are the volunteers, and the choice is theirs. There is nothing I can do about it, except cry a lot.”

Despite the future of the museum, Holliday and those she worked with to build and maintain the museum made a commitment to care for the artifacts entrusted to their care. Somehow, some way, according to Holliday, the artifacts will be available for the future generations if the volunteers at the museum have any say about it.

“We will do whatever we have to do because the commitment is to care for the artifacts in our keeping. We will do what we have to do, but for myself, with 30 years experience creating educational programs and museum exhibits, this is very difficult because I like to see it open to the busloads, I like to see grandma and grandpa’s house available to someone who needs to just take a walk that day and remember what Granny looked like. And the thought of that not being available is very difficult for me,” she said.

Her life’s work was to preserve this heritage for children she would never meet. Her legacy will be preserving the legacy of an entire county for future generations to experience.

“The ones that we are really working for are the children that are not yet born. They will never know me, or the wonderful people who gathered all of this up, they will know the story and the lessons we leave behind,” she said.

The history of this area was especially important to her because the current times are so “throw away” and it is important to remember where we come from while the world becomes a smaller and more assimilated place.

“It hurts my heart because the things here, they are not fancy antiques. They are just things and stuff. It is just life, but you need that, you need that touchstone and reality, especially as we move more into a plastic community where one town looks like another.  You need to understand who you are and where you came from,” she said.

As she leaves her responsibilities at the museum in the hands of her fellow volunteers and the people of Baldwin County, she pleads for enough people to take notice and take action of the gem that is the Baldwin County Heritage Museum and protect it from becoming just another piece of history, lost like other civilizations whose history is gone with the wind.

“Though I have always known the day would come that I would leave the museum and have worked toward that end as I have trained others to take over tasks that were originally mine, this is still a difficult choice for me to make because the importance of the museum finances and its management are still misunderstood or ignored by the citizens of Baldwin County. The museum needs a minimum of 3,000 members. We have yet to reach 1,000.”

She implores the citizens of Baldwin County to stand up and protect what rightfully belongs to them all.

 “If you do not stand up and protect your museum, the loss will be of your own creation,” she said. “It is time for you to step up and take ownership of your museum. Your membership and/or sponsorship is needed and will be needed yearly if the museum is to succeed.  It is the people’s museum only if the people purchase a membership and vote at the annual meeting.”

Leaving the museum with an uncertain future was not something Holliday wanted to do, but circumstances will not allow her to continue her work at the museum.

“I had always anticipated retiring from the museum as a joyful day that would celebrate the fact that the Baldwin County Heritage Museum had come of age. I am truly heart sick that this will not be the case. I regret that my work is unfinished,” she said.

However, had Holliday not dedicated years of service to the Baldwin County Heritage Museum, undoubtedly the hallowed halls filled with the history of the county, the people, the places, and simple reminders of what it was like at “grandma and grandpa’s house,” would be emptier and less loved, if not lost for future generations altogether.

Holliday dedicated the later years of her life to preserving shards of the past to share with children she would never meet, hoping the people who the history belonged to would realize the treasures held within the humble walls of the museum. She hoped through her work at the museum she could ensure the history of the people of Baldwin County was accessible to all who wished to walk through it.

Her most important goal, to be able to leave the museum in the able hands of its owners, the people of Baldwin County, is not unattainable. Through her years of dedication, thousands have experienced their own history and come to realize it is worth as much, if not more, than the stories and artifacts from famous kings and rulers.

If others follow her example and carry on her passion for the history of this area, in the years to come thousands more will have the chance to have the same experience.