1,500 artifacts collected by Southwestern Michigan College when it operated an on-campus museum will be auctioned off on July 29. Dowagiac Area History Museum Director Steve Arseneau says the items are surplus from the museum’s collection. They were donated by SMC to the museum years ago.
“The college started collecting back in the 1960s, shortly after it opened in 1966, and it operated a museum until 2012 when it closed the museum,” Arseneau said. “The city took over the museum with support from Southwestern Michigan College at that time.”
Arseneau says the items up for auction are those that don’t fit the mission of the Dowagiac Area History Museum, usually because they’re not local in nature. They include hundreds of circus posters and a hand-carved walking stick from James Polk’s 1844 presidential campaign. Proceeds from the auction will go toward the construction of a Collections Storage Addition to the Dowagiac Area History Museum to house the other items donated by SMC. The auction will be July 29 at 9:30 a.m. at the Fred L. Mathews Library on SMC’s Dowagiac campus.
