PEOPLE OF INTEREST
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understand you’re getting married. You think your bride would
like a wedding gown made of silk?’ It was beautiful!”
Probably Wrigley’s most challenging and important task at
the museum has been creating a records system that identifies
and locates the Elliott’s entire collection. In 2006, she began organizing
and packing up its 33,500 items into storage, preparing
for the demolition of the old museum’s building in 2011.
“We’d take items off of the shelves and pack them away and
make a list,” she explains. “When they went home, I’d take that
list and type a label from that list. Everything had a label on it.
I would have a continuing record of everything. And that’s my
value now. I know what we have, where it is, and how to find it.”
As collections manager since 2016, Wrigley has acted as both
curator and registrar for its vast collection. At 92, she’s still on
staff and is ready to hand over the reins to the Elliott’s new curator,
Linda Geary.
“She knows the history of the museum,” Geary notes. “If
you want to know something about the collections, you go to
LaVaine. She can tell you where it is and all about it.”
For more than 20 years, Wrigley has found great satisfaction
preserving records and artifacts so area residents and visitors can
appreciate history. For her, the Elliott is special because it educates
and entertains, while visitors stroll the rooms of the museum.
“It’s a wonderful place to spend time with your children and
grandchildren because it covers so much,” she explains. “Whatever
your interests are, there’s something in the Elliott Museum
for you. The art, the exhibits, the antique cars — and the baseball,
Sterling Elliott and early Americana collections. Sometimes, I see
people walking around and they say, ‘I’ve never been here before.
I cannot believe all the stuff that you have!’ People can’t. They
have no idea.”
Hours: Weekdays 8am - 5pm, Saturday By Appointment, Sunday Closed
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www.CentralMarineStuart.com | 200 Northwest Alice Ave. | Stuart, FL | Phone: (772) 692-2000
DONNA CRARY
The Elliott Museum’s extensive baseball memorabilia collection includes
600 autographed baseball cards.
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