For decades, the Museum of Boulder has been the place to go in Boulder County if you want to see some nifty old objects.
From the very first brew kettle from Boulder Beer Company to vintage ski equipment from Eldora Mountain Resort, the Museum of Boulder has in the past displayed objects in exhibitions that have helped bring to life the stories of Boulder’s vibrant history.
But when an exhibit is over, where do these important historical items go?
On Saturday, guests will have a rare opportunity to glimpse these objects, documents, books and images on a private tour of the Museum of Boulder’s Collections Facility, where out-of-commission museum artifacts go to rest when they’re not on display in the spotlight.
The tour will take visitors through the Museum of Boulder’s 7,000-square-foot, off-site collection facility, which contains more than 45,000 historically significant objects.
The collection was first established in the 1920s by an early iteration of the Boulder Historical Society. Over the past century, the museum has been steadily acquiring Boulder-centric objects — including Olympic sports gear, musical instruments, parking meters, underwear, carriages, quilts, chemistry sets, uniforms, weather balloons, a printing press, a horse-drawn sleigh and a kitchen sink — to name only a few.
With so many objects to gander at, Curator of Collections and Exhibits Elizabeth Nosek — flanked by a team of expert volunteers — will be on-site to highlight some of the most important artifacts in Boulder’s history, while also making sure guests don’t get lost amongst the massive collection.
“On this tour, I hope that people see the stories that can come through an object, and how objects can speak,” Nosek said. “That’s why we keep so many of these objects and use them to tell the story of Boulder and what a rich story Boulder has to tell.”
According to Nosek, one highlight of the tour will be a special showing of costumes from the famed Phyllis Plehaty collection. Plehaty was an artist, fashion designer, and expert seamstress who was also an active member of the Boulder Museum of History and served for many years as Curator of Costumes.
“Plehaty was such a treasure to both Boulder and the museum,” Nosek said. “She came to us with her expertise in fashion, and so we developed an expansive collection of dresses, coats and hats under her tenure here. Not only will guests get to see and learn about these clothes, but they’ll learn a bit about how we handle the garments to keep them safe to be viewed by generations to come.”
While the collection contains many artifacts from the past, the museum also preserves contemporary items from the present. One stop on the tour will allow guests to peek into the Boulder Strong collection, which was assembled in the wake of the King Soopers shooting in 2021 from items left for victims at the fence outside of the grocery store.
In addition to viewing the objects themselves, tourgoers will learn about the Museum’s meticulous preservation and storage process.
“With something like the Boulder Strong objects, it’s extremely important to keep them safe so that they may be around to educate future generations about the impact of this tragic event. Preservation is one of the most important things about what we do,” Nosek said.
Nosek also said that while the collection contains tens of thousands of objects, there are still a couple of items that the museum wouldn’t mind getting its hands on.
“As rich as this collection is, there are still some items that we don’t have, that would help broaden and expand our collection so that we can tell the story of Boulder more effectively,” Nosek said. “For instance, despite being home to the Colorado Buffaloes, we still don’t have a football in our collection.”
The tour will begin at Studio 6595 Art Studio in Gunbarrel, where guests can enjoy some live music, light appetizers and bubbly libations while perusing the studio’s large gallery space before heading to the collections facility.
Tickets for the tour are $55.20 and include an open bar, appetizers catered by Blackbelly, live music from local singer Laurie Dameron, access to the Studio 6595 space and the collections tour. Visit bit.ly/4d4VwBz for tickets.
