Let's turn the Historical Society into a second-hand store and sell the Newark Mounds

Another person with local roots has written to me about the Licking County Historical Museum's decision to sell photographs made by Clarence H. White. Read about it here. Rich Bergeman was news editor for the Advocate before he gravitated to the west coast and a career as a college professor teaching photography. Here's what he said:

I agree that the historical museum's sale of the Clarence White prints is short-sighted and just plain stupid. They think they'll earn a few bucks on them now for other operational costs, but the long-term loss will be significant and irretrievable.

What are they running that historical museum for anyway? If it's not to preserve the heritage of Newark's past they might as well turn it into a second-hand store and be done with it.

Clarence White is one of the few art luminaries in Licking County's history, and instead of peddling his prints, they should be showcasing them.

Their silly rationalization that the average man on a Newark street never heard of Clarence White is a real stunner. All that means is that they've done a piss-poor job of informing the local citizenry of the treasures they hold. It's like selling the Newark mounds to a condo developer because seven out of ten people on the street didn't know they were significant archeaological sites.