Menu
Volunteer gives more than time to Fort Site
Carol Grant, a Fort Scott National Historic Site volunteer from Wichita, recently donated a framed reprint of the Jerry Thomas painting "Watching Parade," (Fort Scott, Kansas, 1842-1853). The painting also appears on the cover of Dr. Leo E. Olivia's book, "Fort Scott: Courage and Conflict on the Border." Information from the book states Thomas, "a nationally acclaimed artist, has made a career of creating wildlife and western art. His original works will appear on the covers of all eight volumes of the Kansas Forts Series."
Thomas who currently resides in Manhattan, is the owner of Jerry Thomas Gallery and Collection in Scott City, where according to Grant, much of his work is housed. Grant said she expressed interest in purchasing the original "Watching Parade" painting. However, she eventually wound up purchasing print of the painting from his gallery in Scott City. Grant also paid to have it framed before gifting it to FSNHS last month. Grant said she enjoys the historical aspects of Thomas' work the most.
"I met Jerry Thomas at (the) Smoky Hill Trail Association (in Oakley), and visited with him and liked him," Grant said. "Then when I saw that he had the painting on the cover of their (FSNHS) book, I thought it would be nice if they had one of his prints."
This is Grant's third time volunteering with FSNHS in the past four months. Grant was in town for a week working on a newspaper archival project for FSNHS. Most of the newspaper articles for the project were from the Fort Scott Tribune.
"We've had a lot of past newspaper clippings, photographs and documents about The Fort, kind of ranging from the 1950s through the 80s of (the Fort going from) a city park to a national park," Ruth Walters, FSNHS museum technician said. "And with Carol's help, and just her background in libraries and archives, she's actually making them into archives (with) organization kind of themes to them. So they can eventually be put into our larger archives that we have elsewhere."
Grant said she also spends time during the year volunteering at Pecos National Historical Park in Santa Fe County, N.M., and has also recently volunteered at Estes Park, Colo. Grant, who is a retired librarian, said she enjoys doing organizational types of projects.
"I think she is absolutely wonderful," Walters said. "She has a lot of background, education and experience with this. And it's a project that just sat there. We've been meaning to get to but have had priorities come over it. That she's been able to help us with it has been so amazing."