Linda Moore, Museum Director

Linda Moore appears in the adjacent photograph. She shows how a man's tie was used in an exhibit.

Linda Moore has been involved with the Three Rivers Museum for the past ten years. She began as a volunteer on May 7, 1997. Roger Bell asked her to identify and catalog a growing collection of artifacts.

The museum board started accepting donations of historical material before 1997. There was no building for storage then. Connors State College solved the need for space. The three rooms used by the museum soon began to be congested as donations piled on top of earlier donations.

Roger Bell, the Three Rivers Museum board chairman, called for volunteers. He realized it was possible the collecting effort might backfire if there was no way to keep track of the collection.

Linda saw the first effort at cataloging as a good start that needed to get better. Descriptions of donated items were first recorded on paper forms. Linda said she envisioned the day when there would be a stack of paper forms while the board was still in the dark about what the museum possessed.

Next the museum acquired a computer for inventorying. Linda, unfamiliar with computers, began mastering the skills of operating one. She assumed the responsibilities of "collection management" when she joined the museum board.

The Three Rivers Museum continued to grow rapidly over the next couple of years. In February, 2000, Linda resigned from the board to become the museum's first Executive Director. She continued to catalogue items in the museum collection. Now over 10,000 artifacts are included in the museum's catalog.

The public rarely sees the work that goes into making a museum function successfully. This labor occurs out of the sight of the viewing public. In addition to cataloging, workrooms are used to preserve artifacts and to build exhibits.

Preservation is a major practice in museums. Linda said the she knew nothing about preserving artifacts when she started. She said she learned most of what she knows about preservation from reading how-to books and studying websites. Specialized knowledge about preserving a unique item requires expert advice. Such information often came from online sources.

Linda also learned how to build exhibits. She learned how by taking classes and attending state conferences. Linda has attended the last nine conferences conducted by the Oklahoma Museum Association.

Thanks to Linda Moore's dedication, the Three Rivers area has a professional museum residents can be proud of.