Two more free programs are coming up in the Finney County Historical Society’s Evening at the Museum and History at High Noon lecture series.
“Pearls, the Queen of Gems” is set for noon Wednesday, April 8, while “Our Archeological Past” will take place at 7 p.m. April 21, with the presenter asking those who attend to bring arrowheads or other stone points and implements they’ve discovered.
The series is sponsored by GCB Bank of Garden City, a branch of Grant County Bank, and participants should use the Finney County Museum’s north entrance. Beverages and cookies will be provided. Listeners are welcome to bring their own lunch or dinner. The museum is located at 403 S. Fourth Street in Garden City’s Finnup Park, adjacent to Lee Richardson Zoo.
Garden City goldsmith Janet Doll will provide the April 8 session, covering a story spanning thousands of years about ways that pearls have symbolized beauty, wealth and status in numerous cultures.
Believed to have been discovered by ancient peoples seeking food along shores and coastlines, the use of pearls is known to date back as far as 2206 BC in China.
Pearls were also widely harvested in the Persian Gulf, according to Doll, who designs and creates innovative jewelry at a studio over Grant Avenue.
Avocational Archeologist Chad Myers of Kalvesta will speak on April 21, focusing on recent discoveries at digs in Kansas and other locations.
Myers is a regionally recognized authenticator of stone artifacts, ranging from those in the historic period to prehistoric pieces dating back thousands of years. He is inviting anyone who attends to bring spear points, arrowheads or other stone artifacts to be identified by date, type and culture.
This year’s History at High Noon and Evening at the Museum lecture series began in January and has already included programs about Camp Amache, the World War II Japanese American internment camp near Granada, Colorado; Confederate prisoners in the Civil War who earned their freedom by serving in the Union Army; and the history of signature and autograph quilts.
Sessions on topics yet to be announced will also take place twice monthly in September, October and November.
Information is available at 620-272-3664.
