Explore Permanent Home for Turf Museum at Spa: Trustees Desire Tracks to Put Trophies and Art on Display, Daily Racing Form, 1953-08-22

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Explore Permanent Home For Turf Museum at Spa Trustees Desire Tracks to Put Trophies and Art on Display SARATOGA, Saratoga, Springs, N. Y., Aug. 21. Moves to explore the possibility of building a permanent home for the National Museum of Racing on the grounds of the Saratoga Association, near the reading room on Union Avenue, and to expand the collections of works of art and memorabilia to make them more national in scope, were discussed at the annual meeting of the governing members and trustees of the museum at Saratoga Friday. C. V. Whitney, president of the National Museum, presided over the meeting, which was held at Saratoga race couse, with vice-presidents F. Skiddy von Stade and Nelson Dunstan, trustees Carelton F. Burke, Walter M. Jeffords and J. Samuel Perlman in attendance as well as A. M. Douglas, secretary-treasurer; G. M. Francis, assistant secretary-treasurer; E. J. Rousuck, director of the musuem, and Francis E. Dorsey, attorney for the museum. All of the officers of the National Museum of Racing, Inc., t. were re-elected, including vice-president George D. Widener, who is currently in Europe. It was also decided to increase the board of trustees from its present number of 17, with Royce G. Martin, Mervyn LeRoy, Benjamin F. Lindheimer and Edway P. Taylor being invited to join the board. Walter M. Jeffords was added to the executive committee, replacing F. Skiddy von Stade, who was re-elected as" vice-president. Following discussions in which the proj- ect for a permanent home for the museum was agreed upon as a necessity, with the site, a committee composed of C: V. Whitney, Walter M. Jeffords and Francis E. Dorsey was appointed to further explore the proposal. The board of trustees also decided to make a strong effort to give wider circulation to the museum collection by sending portions of the exhibit to other tracks during the year. Last year, portions of the collection were shown at Delaware Park and at Louisville, Ky., though not at Churchill Downs. Hollywood Park, Hialeah Park and Laurel have expressed a desire to exhibit selections from the National Museum next year, and an effort will be made to interest other racing centers. In this connection, a proposal to equip a large trailer along the lines of the "Freedom Train," to carry paintings and turf memorabilia to the nations race tracks was also considered. It was felt by the trustees, that the present collection, which attracted 9,114 visitors from July .22 to August 18 this year, exclusive of the many who failed to sign the register, as against 6,300 during the same period last year, should be expanded to include more trophies from the Deep South, Far West and other regions where racing flourished in the early years of the sport in" this country, that it may be more truly representative.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1953082201/drf1953082201_3_2
Local Identifier: drf1953082201_3_2
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800