A Visit to the Museum – V
With the holidays now well behind us and spring upon us, museum donations have picked up dramatically! And additional volunteers have stepped forward to help organize the deluge of new contributions.
Tony Gross forwarded a Nashua (NH) Spartans shako. Dennis Cole of the Drum Corps Heritage Society, who also serves on the Museum advisory board, has contributed a cache of items collected over a 12 year period.
Two Blue Devils jackets and an “imp” plaque, used by the corps as a fundraiser in 1971, were donated by Jay “Rance” Marks. Charlie Groh contributed a 1983 Velvet Knights Winterguard outfit, and Mike Klawitter sent along a 1994 Americanos staff jacket.
Matt Jaquith recently met with Museum Curator Bill Ives in the cell phone parking lot at Philadelphia International Airport to donate a Rockland Defenders t-shirt, a Drum Corps World Drum Corps Trivia Game (circa 1986), a stash of never before seen drum corps trading cards, program books, calendars, and a $100.00 cash donation.
Joan Kelly Stafford is working to catalog and place contest program books into binders, helping organize the Museum’s second floor. She also contributed a jacket from the St. Andrew’s Bridgemen, a Bridgemen jacket, a jacket from the Royales of Eatontown, NJ, and a mace used in the Bridgemen’s 1980 field show.
A regular member of the Museum staff, handling many in-house duties, is George Growcott of Royersford, PA, who has a vast range of experience in the drum corps activity. Going as far back as the early 1960s, he has performed with the Pennsauken (NJ) Vagabonds, Maple Shade (NJ) Shadettes, Brass Unlimited of Belleville, IL, the Archer-Epler Musketeers, and Westshoremen. He has instructed and designed visual programs for such groups as the Bellettes All-girl Corps and aforementioned Brass Unlimited of Belleville, IL, Archer-Epler Musketeers, Junior Musketeers, and Illusion of Upper Darby, PA, Reading Buccaneers, Kingston (ON) Grenadiers, and Alliance of Atlanta, GA. George has also been connected to several indoor colorguard and percussion units, notably at Norristown, Quakertown, and Spring-Ford High Schools in Pennsylvania. As an adjudicator, George has worked for the All-American, Mid-Atlantic, National and DCA judging organizations and served as a Timing and Penalties judge for several WGI Regional Championships. He was voted into the National Judges Association Hall of Fame in 2017.
It is due to the efforts of George and a growing list of volunteers who organize the artifacts received by the Museum and create the traveling displays seen at various
marching-related events.
Joan Stalford, a Bridgemen alumna, and Kathy Corcoran, formerly of the Crossmen, along with Joanne Nammavong and her daughter Emily, have taken on the task of organizing the hundreds of program books received by the Museum and inserting them into binders.
Judy Battersby is organizing and cataloging the plethora of photos received in November from drum corps photographer extraordinaire Moe Knox.
The Museum also received a visit this past month from Anna Pittman of Brooklyn, NY. Anna, who marched in Teal Sound, had her first glimpse of the collection displayed at the DCI Championship in Indianapolis back in August. She is looking to do a documentary on the history of the drum corps activity.
Bill Ives, working with Jeremy Williams and Christine Ream, is initiating a series of podcasts of some of the historical events in the annals of drum corps history. Watch for these soon on Bill’s Facebook page!
The Marching Pageantry Arts Museum is currently located at the historic Archer-Epler VFW Post 979, 6736 Marshall Road, in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. Bill Ives is President, CEO, and archivist of the museum corporation, an IRS 501(c)(3) charitable corporation. Donations of drum corps, marching band, and color guard memorabilia are always welcome. Cash donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law and may be made payable to:
Marching Pageantry Arts Museum
c/o Bill Ives
1024 Second Avenue
Media, PA 19063
The museum is currently open on Monday evenings from 6:00 to 10:00 PM by appointment only. Bill can be reached by e-mail at ivesbill@mac.com or by phone at (610) 937-6555.
It is asked that individuals consider making donations through their Will and/or that next of kin of a deceased loved one donate drum corps artifacts (equipment, jackets, uniforms, t-shirts, program books, flags, etc.) to the museum. We have heard a number of stories where valuable items have been disposed or destroyed by “uninitiated” surviving family members.
The Marching Pageantry Arts Museum – “A story worth telling and worth knowing”