Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: For museum, it's nuts to the world Date: Sat, 7 Nov 92 19:23:58 EST Message-ID: \SE A;METROPOLITAN \SS (WS) \HD For museum, it's nuts to the world \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT WAVERLY, Va. WAVERLY, Va. (AP) - In the fall of 1842, Dr. Matthew Harris harvested the peanut crop he had planted on his Sussex County farm and shipped it to Petersburg for sale. The crop's popularity spread, creating a new industry that today has made peanuts the No. 2 cash crop in Virginia behind tobacco. A century and a half later, this tiny town's 2-year-old Peanut Museum is preparing to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the nation's first commercial peanut crop. "This is where it all started," said Lucye M. Hughes, a volunteer at the museum. Peanuts, native to South America, first were brought to the American colonies in the 17th century but were not widely planted until the 1800s. Dr. Harris got his first peanuts in Norfolk in the 1830s and began experimenting with them. During Peanut Harvest Time at the museum, visitors can watch demonstrations of peanut harvesting, examine antique farm equipment, listen to choral groups and browse through arts and craft displays. The Peanut Museum is part of the Miles B. Carpenter Folk Art Museum. Mr. Carpenter was a well-known woodcarver, and the museum is in the house he purchased in 1912. The Carpenter museum decided to branch into peanut history because so many visitors would say, "We're in peanut country. Where do peanuts grow?" said Shirley S. Yancey, another museum volunteer. There weren't too many places to steer interested tourists. "The only thing we ever had was the historical marker sign," Ms. Yancey said. Since the late 1950s, a state historic marker and a billboard on U.S. 460 between Wakefield and Waverly - two small towns midway between Richmond and Suffolk - have told travelers about the area's historic status, and peanut pie is the specialty at Wakefield's Virginia Diner. The folk art museum started its peanut exhibit collection with memorabilia donated by local residents. Ms. Yancey said the items needed to be displayed but did not really belong with Carpenter's woodcarvings. Eventually, a small storage building on the property was renovated and turned into the Peanut Museum. The collection includes photographs of workers harvesting peanuts by hand, newspaper articles about the industry and old peanut equipment, like a burlap sack, baskets and a hand-turned sheller. Peanuts remained almost solely a Virginia crop until after the Civil War, when soldiers - some of whom had been issued them as rations - took them home as seeds to other Southern states. Today, Virginia is the fifth-largest peanut-producing state. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM