Our collection includes over 120,000 artifacts, including 60,000 pieces in the Horner Collection which was donated to the BCHS in 2008. The collection includes photographs, historical documents, textiles, quilts, clothing, domestic arts, farm implements, natural history, scientific instruments and personal possessions.

The Cockrell Quilts are a highlight of our collection, donated by Susan Cockrell and representing a spectrum of quilting styles and techniques from the Revolutionary to the Civil War.

The Meola Family Movies are a step back in time to a trip up the Oregon Coast in 1947.

• TRANSIT THEODOLITE

  The theodolite is a predecessor to today's transit instruments used for land surveying. It measures horizontal and vertical angles.

  August Oertlings company in Berlin made this theodolite for the survey of the Great Lakes in 1867.

  

• CIVIL WAR DRUM

  Drum Corps member James Plunkett arrived at Fort Hoskins about 1864 with the 4th California Infantry, a volunteer infantry regiment.

  Fort Hoskins was one of three forts built by the U.S. Army during the Civil War to monitor the Coastal Indian Reservation in Oregon.

  

• JOHN B. HORNER BRIEFCASE

  John B. Horner was one of the first graduates of Philomath College. The building that was home to Philomath College from 1867 to 1929 now houses the Benton County Historical Society and Museum.  When Mr. Horner died in 1933 a letter was found in his typewriter. It was a proposal to Henry Ford, requesting $1,000,000 to create the finest museum on the Pacific Coast.

  

• ERECTOR SET FERRIS WHEEL

  Native Oregonian A.C. Gilbert first conceived of the Erector Set in 1911. By 1935 he had sold 30 million sets!