A SPACE FOR ODDITIES; MUSEUM BRINGS BIZARRE ITEMS OUT OF VAULT : THE FACTS.Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer Curators at the Ventura County Museum of History and Art unveiled Thursday a whimsical sampling of odds and ends from their vault of more than 20,000 objects. Some of the items have never been on public display - perhaps for reasons of taste. Visitors are greeted by an alligator-skin purse festooned with the gnarled gnarled adj. 1. Having gnarls; knotty or misshapen: gnarled branches. 2. Morose or peevish; crabbed. 3. feet of a real alligator alligator, large aquatic reptile of the genus Alligator, in the same order as the crocodile. There are two species—a large type found in the S United States and a small type found in E China. Alligators differ from crocodiles in several ways. . Toward the end of the exhibit is the recently acquired and decidedly ancient toilet from Peirano's Grocery in downtown Ventura, which closed in 1986 after 98 years in business. The porcelain toilet uses gravity and a tub of water suspended near the ceiling to flush water through its now-corroded pipes. Collections manager Kathy Henri noted this particular artifact A distortion in an image or sound caused by a limitation or malfunction in the hardware or software. Artifacts may or may not be easily detectable. Under intense inspection, one might find artifacts all the time, but a few pixels out of balance or a few milliseconds of abnormal sound was thoroughly scrubbed clean after being acquired last month. The grocery building, the county's oldest brick building, is being renovated. Henri and an assistant, Andrea Bright, selected the 300 pieces in all to showcase a few of the more interesting items donated to the museum since it opened in 1913. The display was organized so there was at least one item representing every letter of the alphabet. ``We just tried to find the interesting things that people don't usually get to see,'' Henri said. There are numerous dolls, glass milk bottles, eyeglasses eyeglasses or spectacles, instrument or device for aiding and correcting defective sight. Eyeglasses usually consist of a pair of lenses mounted in a frame to hold them in position before the eyes. (including a pair made in 1780), old license plates, underwear and irons. In these safety-conscious times, the rusting gasoline-powered iron is worth checking out. While not all of the curiosities were produced locally, a 100-year-old jar of olive oil olive oil, pale yellow to greenish oil obtained from the pulp of olives by separating the liquids from solids. Olive oil was used in the ancient world for lighting, in the preparation of food, and as an anointing oil for both ritual and cosmetic purposes. , now an unappetizing murky yellow, came from Ojai. Hugh McMillian bottled the oil using olives grown on his ranch, Henri said. ``He was on his way to the World Exposition in Chicago to market it when he drowned on the way in the Santa Clara River Santa Clara River may refer to:
Also on display is a contraption consisting of wheels, pulleys and thin metal rods - a foot-operated dental drill A dental drill (or dentist's drill) is a small, high-speed drill used in dentistry to remove decayed tooth material prior to the insertion of a dental filling. Dental drills are used in the treatment of dental caries. . There is the Mission Hotel's register from 1872 to 1874, which notes the precise number of baths, breakfasts and suppers enjoyed by a patron. ``Sometimes they even noted how many drinks they had or if they brought horses or wives or servants,'' Henri said. A banner headline banner headline n → Schlagzeile f in the Dec. 4, 1908 edition of the Oxnard Courier promised: ``Short articles about prominent men and business firms in and around Oxnard.'' And there are a number of musical gadgets, including a 1940s Magnavox table radio, a wooden jukebox from 1930 and a Pianola. The latter item is a four-foot-tall wood box that, when attached to the front of a regular piano, turns it into a player piano player piano, an upright piano incorporating a mechanical system that automatically plays the encoded contents of a paper strip. This strip, perforated with holes whose position and length determine pitch and duration, is drawn over a pneumatic device that shoots using rolls of paper with punched holes for musical notes. The exhibit runs through Aug. 31. The museum, at 100 E. Main Street in downtown Ventura, is open every day except Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults; children under 16 are free. For more information, call (805) 653-0323. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos Photo: (1--Color) The Ventura County Museum of History and Art is showcasing some of its weirder items, like this alligator purse with feet attached. (2--Color) A stuffed mutant lamb born in 1928 is among the oddball items on display at the county Museum of History and Art in Ventura. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News |
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