Thanks to Cindy Kinder, Directory of The Kaminski House Museum for this blog post!
Several years ago, an astonishing find was uncovered at the Kaminski House Museum. This find is still talked about today; in fact it is one of the favorite stories told by the docents at the Museum. This astonishing find was just a simple, but elegant broach.
In 1996, the Museum received a grant from the Institute of Museum Services to hire a Registrar, a temporary position. A registrar’s job is to catalog the artifacts in a museum. This means numbering and writing a description of an artifact for inventory purposes. In 1997, Michelle Parks, the registrar at the Museum was cataloging the artifacts in Julia Kaminski’s Bedroom, specifically the dressing table located in that room. In order to catalog this dressing table correctly, Michelle had to take the skirting off of the table and when she did, pinned to the underside of the skirting was a dusty broach. Michelle dusted it off, examined it and concluded that is had to be just a piece of costume jewelry that Mrs. Kaminski had hidden behind the skirting.
This broach was in the Museum for about a week. The staff at the time enjoyed wearing it, and wondered where it came from. Finally, Michelle brought it down to the jewelers to have it cleaned. While she was at the store, she called up the then Director of the Museum, Ralph Calhoun, and told him that they might have a problem with the broach. As it turned out, this broach was made up of 13 old mine cut diamonds, each being a different karat weight totaling 13 karats with the biggest diamond being 2.55 karats. To top it off, the diamonds were set in 14-karat white gold. The problem was, what would the Museum do with such a beautiful and one of a kind piece?
The Kaminski House Museum kept the broach; it had no choice. When Julia Kaminski died in 1972, she left her house, the contents and the grounds to the City of Georgetown to be a Museum in honor of her late husband, Harold and his mother, Rose. Her will is very specific about how her gift to the City was to be used and who the governing body should be. It also states that if the City of Georgetown wanted to sell any piece from the collection, the proceeds from the sale would go to the Seeing Eye Dog Foundation. This means that the Kaminski House Museum had to think about how to secure the broach since it could not sell it.
- Julia and Harold
Today, “the pin”, as it is called, is in a secure place and only comes out for very special occasions. When it does come out in public it is well guarded by Georgetown’s finest.
This broach brought up another question. Where did it come from? When the broach was first found there were all sorts of stories about how Julia Kaminski attained the broach. All of the stories, although juicy, were not true. The broach, like most of the antiques in the Museum, came from Julia’s mother-in-law, Rose Kaminski.
When this story is told during the tours of the Kaminski House Museum, the next question that is usually asked is how did the Kaminskis acquire their money to afford such jewelry and antiques? The answer to this question is simple: the American way, through hard work.
It all started with Harold Kaminski’s father, Heiman Kaminski. Heiman Kaminski was born in Posen, Prussia, which is now Poland, in 1839. He emigrated from Prussia in 1854 to Charleston where he worked in a mercantile house. During the Civil War, Heiman served in the Confederate Army. After the War ended Heiman came to Georgetown and started working in a local hardware store. In 1867, Heiman started the H. Kaminski and Company Hardware Store. This store was very successful and expanded into dry goods. He later was able to expand his holdings into about five other businesses, including a shipping company.
In the late 1800’s the country was in the mist of a major recession, especially in the south. Along with this recession, Georgetown County was suffering the beginning of the loss of the rice culture that had made this county extremely wealthy. It is believed that Heiman Kaminski would extend credit to these one-time wealthy rice planters excepting furniture for payment of the supplies they needed. This is how the Kaminskis amassed such a fine collection of priceless antiques and incredible wealth.
The only way to see these antiques and to hear many more stories about the Kaminskis, is to take a tour. The Kaminski House Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM the guided tours are $10.00 per person. Call for tour times. The Kaminski House Museum is located at 1003 Front Street in historic Georgetown. For more information call toll free 843-546-7706.
