The Butler County Historical Society is presenting an exhibit tied to next week’s Ice Fest 2019 celebration organized by the City of Sculpture.  The exhibit is free to the public and will open in the Emma Ritchie Auditorium of the BCHS on January 18 and run for two weeks until January 26.  

The display features vintage tools which were used to harvest natural ice for the many ice-making companies in Butler County during the 1880s and 1890s when the industry thrived.  Some of the items on view are ice saws, pikes, ice plows, ice tongs and smaller hand tools.  Several of the companies with ice fields along the Miami-Erie Canal and Hamilton’s hydraulic reservoirs will be featured in the exhibit.  

Also on view in the Emma Ritchie Auditorium will be the BCHS Victorian Christmas Village display.  This display features more than 60 porcelain lighted buildings, several horse-drawn carriages, over fifty trees and nearly 300 costumed figures that capture the colorful daily life of Victorian London, England in small scale.  It includes several churches, fire and police stations, three pubs, more than forty stores and shops and a special “museumland” that includes an opera house, museums of modern art, natural science, history and an observatory.