'The Collectors'
“The Collectors” series gears up again with a program by Helen Ferguson on March 23 at the Maridon Museum, 322 N. McKean St.
Ferguson will present some of her collection of “Pens and Pencils.”
“I mostly collect advertising pens and pencils,” said Ferguson. “It used to be banks and other businesses would give them out. I even have one Butler Library gave out one time.”
The writing implement must have the name of company and its city and state on it and pencils must not be sharpened to be valuable, the Butler resident said.
She started collecting pens and pencils when she was about 10 or 12 years old, she said. “My dad had a hardware store and gas station in North Washington,” she recalled. “Salesmen would come and give my dad pencils and he would give them to me.”
She is member number 162 of the American Pencil Collectors Society that has more than 2,000 members worldwide, she said, joining the society for $1 in the 1950s.
Some pieces in her collection look odd, she said. “One looks like a snow cone, one looks like an ice cream cone, and one looks like a camera,” Ferguson said.
She said her collection probably totals about 900 pieces.
“I’ve got them in little plastic bags, and I’ll pass them around as I talk about them,” she said of her presentation.
One pencil in her collection is from the 1934 World’s Fair that her aunt brought back from Chicago.
“It’s about 4 inches long and red on one end and black on the other,” she said.
Programs in “The Collectors” series run from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is free, but reservations are required. Call 724-282-0123.
Other programs scheduled in the series are “Baubles, Bangles and Bling” with Zelda Wilbert on May 17, and “Curiosities and Conundrums of Make-do Repairs” with Ellen King on June 15.
For more information, visit maridon.org.
