Introducing Our New Exhibit: My Country Called 

By Cody Berry 

Over the past few months, I’ve been searching the building for anything that came from the 1940s in hopes of building a display on Saline County during the Second World War. This year marks eighty years since the end of WWII in 1945 and this is our tribute to the brave men and women from here who answered their country’s call. Our new exhibit, “My Country Called,” is inspired by Arnold Wright’s book of the same name.  

Earlier in the year, we introduced our WWII Wall of Honor which contains the names of more than 600 people from Saline County who served in either the Pacific or in Europe. Our new exhibit showcases some of those men through some things they left behind for us to enjoy. I found things that belonged to some very interesting people like soldier turned politician Ewell Ross McCright, Lester F. and Roscoe McCool, Jr., Elliott M. Davis, Alvin McNeil, and Virgle Curtis Beaty, who served in Korea after WWII.  

In addition to our veterans’ items, I have also tried to show what life was like here during the 1940s. I found pictures of downtown Benton, the Royal Theater’s opening day in 1949, some Benton Panther yearbooks from 1944 onwards, and the local Gold Star Mothers ceremony in 1948. I also have some items that serve as reminders of the days when the government rationed almost everything for the war effort. I found a couple ration books filled with stamps and two old license plates. One from 1943 is made from wood and another from 1948 is metal like ours now. 

I also have a framed United Nations flag, a South Korean flag, and some signed currency that was brought back by Virgle Curtis Beaty. There’s also a bamboo hat from the Philippines and photos taken by Elliott M. Davis when he served there in 1944. I scanned his photographs and made enlargements for our display. These show ships sinking in Manilla Bay and the ship he served on, a destroyer called the USS Jesse Rutherford and a shot of him in his Navy uniform. Those items were donated to the Gann Museum earlier this year by Davis’s grandson.  

“My Country Called” will be ready just in time for Museum Day on Saturday, September 13, where from 10am to 4pm, all ten of our local museums will be open to the public. I hope you and your family can come and enjoy the exhibits at the Gann Museum soon. We are open to the public every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 9am to 3pm. See you then!