The Scottsville Museum is a hidden treasure….about 20 miles south of C-ville, but worth the trip. They have recently opened a new exhibit, titled “Small Town, Big War.”
They have collected dozens of oral histories from Scottsville veterans who served in the war (conveniently transcribed and available in notebooks distributed throughout the exhibit). The photo shown here illustrates a reconstructed tent space of a U.S. Army communicator at a WWII command post. The exhibit is filled with interesting facts (like the microfilming of mail to US soldiers so that they could save valuable space on transport boats and planes, a.k.a. v-mail). Or a reconstructed Scottsville kitchen during WWII and the statistic that “victory gardens” provided 41% of the vegetables consumed by US citizens during the war (you can imagine what a miniscule amount of food today’s home gardens provide vs store-bought food). Pick a beautiful day and enjoy the scenic drive down to this well-designed exhibit. As an aside, this exhibit illustrates the importance of local county (loco) history for understanding larger cultural trends.