A hand-drawn architectural rendering from 1926. Photos of the toboggan run and multiple hockey rinks. Postcards from the 1950s capturing skiers posing as they went off a jump.

Those are just a few of the items in an exhibition celebrating the history of Drumlins Country Club. The University-owned club is marking its centennial with monthly events, including an exhibition that offers a chance to step back in time.  Visitors can witness the evolution of the club from a 260-acre chicken farm to a facility that offered students and the local community outdoor recreation opportunities year-round, from golf and swimming in the warm months to skiing, skating and sledding in the winter.

The exhibition came together in just a few months, pairing Drumlins’ in-house archive with the expertise of Andrew Saluti, associate professor and program coordinator for museum studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and Morgan Clarke ’29, an undergraduate architecture student and museum studies minor.

Joseph Sidoni, interim director of Drumlins, reached out to Saluti in February, knowing the professor was both a member and neighbor to the club, to help organize the club’s photos and artifacts into a gallery.

“Because we have a lot of historical photos and artifacts and architectural drawings, etcetera, we thought it’d be a great idea to set it up and outline the history of Drumlins,” says Sidoni.

For Saluti, whose home was originally part of the same farm that was purchased in 1926 for the development of Drumlins, the interest in participating was more than just professional.

“I live directly across the street, so for me this was a project that was very personal,” he says. “It was something I felt I really wanted to do, and then, being able to make it a curricular experience with students was even better. But the history of the area, the history of the connection to SU, a lot of that to me it was a story that I’ve always loved and I was excited to be a part of making a little display.”

A Unique Learning Experience

Clarke was excited when she learned about the opportunity to assist with the exhibition. She declared a minor in museum studies in the spring, after learning of a career path in exhibition design, and was eager to gain experience.

“I was like, ‘Wait, this is the perfect position for me,’” she says.

Clarke used her experience as an architecture student to create a 3D model of the gallery space. Saluti says she also did the majority of the digitization of the artifacts and helped install the exhibition in late April.

Saluti and Clarke also drew on the University’s Special Collections Research Center for documentation on the club’s ties to the University.

“It was really cool to just go through the collections and think about how we could show the story through both objects—for example, we had golf clubs and old tournament trophies and plaques—and then also visually through photographs,” says Clarke. “Typically there’s more text in an exhibit, but we focused on the visual aspects of the story.”

The quick turnaround for the project offered Clarke, who didn’t have any experience in curatorial research or exhibition design, a unique hands-on opportunity to do archival research, digitization of original material and design the exhibition’s storytelling.

Saluti says Clarke “dove right in.”

“These are the experiences that get faculty excited,” he says. “They get us excited to be able to share that experience with students, but also they help to inspire the students to rethink how they might use that academic degree.”

Clarke says working on the project felt like the first step toward exhibition design.

“I took a museum studies class this past semester, but it was more focused on practice and the collection and preservation of museum artifacts,” she says. “It was really exciting to get that actual hands-on experience and think about how this career path could be an exciting opportunity for me.”

An Opportunity to Discover and Reminisce

Saluti says he learned a lot about the club’s history as a hub for both the University and the broader community.

“I want people to come into the display and remember their experiences the same way I do,” Saluti says. “One of the objects that we have in the exhibition is the announcement of the new pool from 1981. I have neighbors who grew up with that pool. So to have an exhibition that helps you navigate that history and helps you think back, it’s really nostalgic.”

Some club members even loaned items for use in the gallery.

“There are folks whose families have been at Drumlins for 50-plus years, and then you have University folks who don’t know anything about Drumlins,” Sidoni says. “It’s nice to get them in the gallery and have them take a look at where we’ve come.”

The exhibition will remain on view through the year as Drumlins approaches two flagship centennial events: an Aug. 22 block party and a New Year’s Eve gala.