Abstract
In September 1925, the U.S. Navy airship USS Shenandoah broke apart in a violent storm over Noble County, Ohio. In the days that followed, thousands of onlookers converged on the crash site. Amid widespread looting and vandalism, local residents salvaged fragments of the wreckage—metal framework, canvas, ropes, kitchenware—that became both family heirlooms and community artifacts. Out of this dispersed collection grew an unusual institution: a traveling “museum on wheels,” developed by Theresa Rayner, who outfitted a trailer with glass display cases and brought the airship’s remains to schools, festivals, and civic gatherings across the region. Alongside this mobile museum, fixed markers and memorial events emerged, including granite monuments, carved stone blocks at recovery sites, and annual ceremonies of remembrance. This paper explores how the creation of the Shenandoah museum and its associated memorial practices have preserved the airship’s story while shaping a distinct regional identity. Drawing on archival research, oral histories, and material culture, I examine how grassroots collecting transformed vandalized wreckage into living heritage, how the mobile museum challenged conventional expectations of what a museum can be, and how regular memorial events anchor memory in place. In doing so, I argue that this case provides an important model for inclusive heritage practice: one that privileges community voices, expands access beyond institutional walls, and reimagines museum narratives around ruin, technology, and local pride.
Presenters
Wesley BishopAssistant Professor, History and Foreign Languages, Jacksonville State University, Alabama, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Grassroots, Museums, Wreckage, Ruin, Aviation, Community, Memory
