So that's how I ended up spending a rainy Saturday touring the Dr. John Harris Dental Museum in Bainbridge, Ohio. Less than fifteen minutes east of home on Route 50, Bainbridge is a less-than-hopping town of about 1,000 residents. We pass through it periodically on our way to Chillicothe. Major attractions include a Dairy Queen, an IGA, and Mystical Retreat Cheesecakes (they claim to have "Possibly the world's greatest cheesecake." I have yet to judge that for myself). I was going to call it a one stoplight town, but I think there might be two.
The museum on the day I stopped in (the tents and cars are there because a festival was going on in town).
And it's home, of course, to the Harris Dental Museum. Dr. John Harris lived here in the 1820s, and he operated the first dental school in the United States from his home. It was technically more of a preparatory school for students who planned to attend medical college and had an interest in dentistry. Two of his students went on to found the first official colleges of dentistry in the country. So the museum calls itself the "Cradle of Dentistry." They had the cringe-worthy old dental implements you might expect to find, but they also had several displays on prominent Ohio dentists. One of them, Dr. Levitt Ellsworth Custer, was from Dayton. And guess what? He invented some newfangled electric-powered dental devices. Those crazy Daytonians.
But one of the most interesting things I found out while interviewing the volunteer docent was the fact that the vast majority of patrons are from out of town. Few local residents bother visiting the museum. The docent said that we "tend to neglect what's in our own backyard." I think this can be very true, especially in small towns. I know I'm guilty of it. I've driven the 1 1/2 hours to Cincinnati to go to the Museum Center, but I've never checked out the local historical society. I've hardly been to any of the mom and pop stores and restaurants in Hillsboro and Bainbridge, despite having lived a few minutes away almost my entire life. And every time one of those businesses disappears, I end up saying the same thing: "That's such a shame. It's been there forever. I should have gone there when I had the chance." We know from both this public history course and the museums class how hard it can be for small historical institutions to keep themselves afloat. I think we should make an effort to visit and support the small, unique historic sites (and businesses) that contribute to a local sense of place and community identity, before they disappear due to lack of funds or interest.
I think with the Dental Museum, a lot of the locals might say "A museum about dentists? Um, thanks but no thanks." But if they took the time to visit, they would see that it's more than a collection of toothbrushes. It takes what might seem like an otherwise insignificant small town, and it shows how that town played a role in bigger historical trends , even if it is the history of a somewhat niche subject. Now, every time I drive through town, I'll think of the dentists of Bainbridge and the volunteers who manage to keep their odd little museum running. Then I'll try that cheesecake.
I completely agree that we ignore things that are in our own back yard, and this is just as true for those from big cities. I can remember countless conversations with people who asked me what I thought of major tourist attractions in London and were shocked to discover I've never been to them. My excuses are always based on cost and the amount of tourists or how there is always engineering work on the Tube at the weekend. So yeah, I think we should try to support our local cultural institutions if we can
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