Fred Culp book sale to benefit museum projects

Culp book sale to benefit museum projects

By Logan Watson

This week’s tent sale at Westwin will offer a more than just shirts and shoes.

If you go past the racks and into the back room, you’ll be able to peruse and purchase items from the personal library of beloved PHS teacher and Gibson County Historian Fred Culp.

“This is only part of his collection,” said Nancy Hall, the curator of the Fred Culp Historical Museum, as she looked over the tomes of Civil War history and biographies of Abraham Lincoln. “We’ve got lots of books on history, particularly Tennessee history.”

On the wall: shelves filled with more boxes of books about everything from Davy Crockett to Jack Daniels.

Mr. Culp had a love of history, but there are many other things that interested him, including Americana, poetry and fiction. All of which can be found at this week’s tent sale at Westwin.

Hall said that the proceeds of the sale will go toward the purchase of a new historical marker downtown honoring local author Peter Taylor, the winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his book, “A Summons to Memphis.”

There are other projects in the works, but with no room inside the archives, museum or the Gibson County Memorial Library, Mr. Culp’s collection has to be downsized, giving other history buffs an opportunity to own special editions, collections and other items he deemed worthy of studying.

The Westwin tent sale will take place this Thursday and Friday, May 9 and 10, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1032 S. High Street in Trenton.