About the fund
“A museum is a collecting organization, and the objects you collect are held in the public trust,” said Irene Zenev, retired former Executive Director of the Society. “Once you take on that obligation you have to preserve those collections in perpetuity. We’re obligated to always be around, so we have to find ways to make sure the public has access to the objects we’ve collected.”
The Benton Community Foundation (BCF), too, manages assets in perpetuity, so in 2005 the Historical Society opened an endowment at BCF to create a reliable and long-term source of funding for BCHS’s operations.
When construction on BCHS’s Corvallis Museum was completed in 2021, BCHS renewed its effort to grow sustainable funding for the future. With a goal of $10 million in endowed funds, BCHS is looking ahead to provide operational support so the organization can continue to present exhibitions and programs for community members for decades to come.
“My theory is, you have to have the highest quality project and programming you can strive for,” said Zenev. “People respond to quality. When we presented people with the new museum design and people saw how innovative and remarkable it was, they wanted to be part of it. You have to do the very best job you can.”
Anyone can donate to the Benton County Historical Society’s endowment. Click the button below to contribute.
About The Benton County Historical Society
Since 1951, the Benton County Historical Society (the “Society” or BCHS) has preserved historical artifacts, photographs, and manuscripts. The Society currently has two locations that are open to the public: The Philomath Museum, and the Corvallis Museum.
After Philomath citizens prevented the demolition of the 1867 Philomath College building and placed it on the National Register of Historic Places, the Society opened the building to the public in 1980 as a history museum, research library, and art gallery.
In 2021, the BCHS opened a downtown location in Corvallis, open to the public, where artifacts from their 60,000-artifacts in the Horner Collection are displayed, among others.
Stewarding Artifacts from The Museum of the Oregon Country
The Society also manages collections. One such example comes from the now-closed Horner Museum. The Horner Museum was the product of decades of collecting and interpreting historical materials for students and the surrounding community to study and enjoy. In 1925, John B. Horner, professor at Oregon Agricultural College, consolidated several existing collections on the campus–some dating back to the 1840s. He solicited other donations of historic objects and natural history specimens, and opened the Museum of the Oregon Country. It was the first museum in the mid-valley. Horner, a longtime professor of English, Latin, and history was the first curator of the museum. He gathered collections from around campus, including zoology, commerce, other OSU departments, and area collectors. The collection reflects an emphasis on prehistory, fauna, pioneer artifacts, and world travel.
Upon Horner’s death in 1934, the museum was renamed in his honor. It was maintained essentially as he had started it until the mid-1970s. The Horner collection remains one of the largest single collections in amount and degree of significance to Oregon. In addition, many of the objects in the Horner collection are of national significance. Annual visitation averaged 40,000 for the past five years it was open.
A new home for the Horner Collection
The Society’s role as a regional resource expanded significantly when it was offered the collection of the former Horner Museum, once located on the campus of Oregon State University. By the time OSU closed the Horner Museum in 1995 due to University-wide budget cuts, the collection had grown to nearly 60,000 objects.
This unique and important collection was kept in the former Horner Museum site in the basement of Gill Coliseum on the OSU campus for many years, while the Society raised money to build the downtown Corvallis location. While fundraising and renovation plans for the new museum proceeded, Society staff and volunteers had dismantled dozens of exhibits and improved recordkeeping and storage conditions of this immense collection. They moved it to a newly-built Johnson Collection Care Facility next to the Philomath Museum.
The 60,000 pieces of the Horner Collection are now a part of BCHS’s greater 140,000-piece collection.