Max Walters is the new curator at Darwin Barker Museum in Fredonia.

The Darwin Barker Museum has basically been quiet for about 10 years. The good news for the area is that life has returned to its historic galleries because we have a new curator.

In bringing this young man to Fredonia, it has spurred an interest in museums that has been long dormant on my part. Through the industrious persistence of my vast research staff, I have a few points of interest to share with you about museums. And who doesn’t love museum trivia?

My staff discovered that the first museum was established by Bruce who was the little known son of Adam and Eve. He was the one in between Cain and Abel. Do you get it — ABC? This museum housed only one artifact. According to my researchers, it was the remains of Eve’s fig leaf. Apparently, Adam’s pathetically tiny fig leaf had withered to nothing within a couple of years after his death.

There is a cornucopia of museums around the world. Some are really quite unusual. For example, there’s one in Southport, England, that has a collection of lawnmowers. I’m sure there’s one from the 1950s that starts better than the one in my tool shed right now. I can pull and pull and all it does is groan. “Leave me alone, it’s too hot today. I don’t like cutting grass when it’s wet. I get all dirty and messy. I’m too tired. Go away.”

Of course, if England can house a museum for lawnmowers, La Crosse, Kan. can certainly support a museum for barbwire. But when you think about its oddness, who doesn’t love wire?

Our lives are controlled by wires. Look at the ones coming into your home. They’re wonderful wires. They make our life so much easier. I must have at least 14 miles of wire just in my man cave alone. I’ve got wires to my lamps, landline phone, and a computer router, There’s a modem, (what ever that thing is I have no idea), but there sure are a lot of wires around it. I’ve got wires to my printer, my illuminated weather station, flat screen TV, DVR, disc player, and space heater. I’ve got a museum dedicated to wire right here in Fredonia. But about that museum to barbwire, you better pay your admission fee to that place. It could get quite bloody trying to sneak in there.

In the state of Massachusetts, there’s a museum dedicated to Bad Art. Hey, you don’t have to travel there for that. I’ve got a house filled with my efforts to fill that description.

Well, that’s enough about weird museums. Let’s get back to one that will soon be exciting to visit. The Darwin Barker Museum in Fredonia doesn’t have weird wires, bad art, or an old 1895 Steam Powered Start Toro. Soon you will be invited to visit and examine its more traditional treasures. There will be a good deal of cool stuff available that pertains to the history of Fredonia and northern Chautauqua County. The Barker museum has a new full-time curator who is excited to be here and present to the public many of its treasures and artifacts.

The new curator is Max Walters. He’s an energetic 29-year-old who grew up in Harrison Township, Mich., which also sits on the coast of the Great Lakes. His alma mater of Central Michigan University provides an education for 20,000 students and a football team that is 65 players larger than Fredonia State’s gridiron warriors. But when it comes to stage productions, Fredonia State can declare, “We are the champions.”

Walters has previous professional experiences at the Historical Society of the Tonawandas, and the Ukranian American Museum in Detroit. Most recently, he completed an assignment at the Canterbury Shaker Village in New Hampshire.

He researched an artifact there which changed his understanding of Shaker craftsmanship and social organization.

There is a large 69- by 46-inch yellow cabinet made by a Shaker artisan that dates back to 1827. It stood out because it was a very early example of its type of construction — so early that it shouldn’t have been designed like it was, according to Shaker custom. I came to discover in this interview, the Shakers believe that God gave them guiding principles to follow in constructing their simplistic — style of furniture. Deviations from the standard were against their stated beliefs in the early 19th century, revealing a tension between creativity and order. But the design was functional and elegant so it was repeated, with approval from the religious leaders.

One of the amazing connections between Fredonia and Max’s Michigan origins is his interest in the Houghton family of Michigan and Fredonia. You may be aware of Fredonia’s Houghton Street and Houghton Park named after the 1800s family. We also have close by Houghton Hall at FSU, and a few miles east of here, Houghton College.

One of the main interests of any museum are its artifacts which have a strong connection to its locale. In mentioning artifacts, I think I noticed an idea flash through Max’s discerning mind. Hmmm, was he thinking while looking at me, ” I bet I can display this artifact talking to me in our medium size case.” I better keep an eye on this guy.

At times, it takes an outsider to identify a characteristic about one’s hometown that, we who are very familiar with it, may never see. Coming from a larger Michigan area than Fredonia, he noticed how prevalent the connections are between people here. The six degrees of separation rule states that there are six social connections in operation between any two people. Max suggested that, in Fredonia, it may be down to just two.

Walters is not only intrigued about the Houghton connection, he wants to explore the extraordinary contributions to our nation made by our small village. We have the first Grange, the first gas well, the first gas street lighting, and Fredonia is the home of the women’s temperance movement.

During our interview, Max mentioned the McNeill fountain in Barker Common park which prompted another familiar blank look on my face. “Huh, what’s that?” I have drunk from that fountain for many years. What I never noticed is that it was dedicated to Esther McNeill, the first President of the first chapter of the Women’s Temperance Union. Since that awakening, I have also discovered that there exists beneath the fountain a chamber that allegedly held ice that would provide extra cold water on summery days.

Our curator is an avid cook and likes to try recipes that are unique to the places where he has lived. We’ll see how he does with the depression-era culinary delight known as tripe. My wife Sharon says, “Lot’s of luck, Max.” She still shudders at the memory of her one and only attempt at cooking tripe for her beloved bridegroom. I can still hear her declaration of independence. Upon clearing the kitchen with a fire hose, she stated without any doubt “If you want tripe, you can go to your mother’s.”

Max saw an analogy that many of us would not perceive. He called Fredonia, the Paris of Lake Erie. I thought that was a curious statement fo a new resident to make. “And what causes you to make that connection, Max?” He pointed to the shared amenities of the continentally separated communities. Paris and Fredonia share the commonality of great music, provided locally by FSU and Fredonia High School: wine, because of our lake shore grape industry. Paris is the historic City of Lights and Fredonia was lit in the 1800s by natural gas, and then there’s the unique architecture of both Fredonia and Paris.

And although his resting place is in Paris, one could argue that Lafayette was more beloved in Fredonia — as a burn mark on the window frame of the museum from the excitement of his 1824 visit attests.

Voila; “The Paris of Erie.” I like it, Max. On behalf of our Small Business Revolution community, we’ll proudly accept the designation.

I hope to see all of you soon at the renaissance of the Barker Museum.

Nin Privitera is a Fredonia resident whose column appears the second Sunday of each month. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com