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Aluminum tree museum moves to Asheville
This week’s news brings us word that the world’s only museum dedicated to vintage aluminum Christmas trees will shift operations from Brevard to Asheville for the 2005 holiday season.
The Aluminum Tree and Aesthetically Challenged Seasonal Ornament Museum and Research Center, which has been located in the Transylvania County seat since its 1998 inception, will pick up its shiny roots and head north to join this year’s Christmas Celebration at the Smith-McDowell House, Asheville’s oldest surviving structure.
The collection includes more than 50 vintage aluminum trees, color wheels, revolving tree stands and thousands of aesthetically-challenged ornaments, according to curator Stephen Jackson. This year’s theme is “Snap, Crinkle, Pop: American Popular Culture during the Aluminum Tree Era,” featuring trees that celebrate mid-20th Century pop icons, including Marilyn Monroe, Star Trek, Elvis, classic cartoon characters, and Tammy Faye (Bakker), Jackson said.
Aluminum trees, manufactured by more than 40 companies in the United States, Canada and even Australia during the late 1950s through the early 1970s, are the centerpiece of Jackson’s collection.
“In addition to authentic research into the manufacturing and marketing of these metal trees, the more gullible guests are also treated to displays of pure conjecture that show the growth habits of these trees, a look at possible old-growth aluminum tree forests, and unique exhibits such as the world’s only aluminum bonsai tree,” Jackson said.
I’ve been to see Jackson’s impressive collection, and I have to say it’s one of the most enjoyable holiday experiences I’ve had in years.
Of special interest to a former botany major like me were the rare, colored species that Jackson and his fellow researchers have painstakingly classified according to Linnaeus’s system of binomial nomenclature.
The genus Silvercus was the most common and was represented by premium specimens of S. slenderii, S. sapphire, S. pinii holidaeus, S. pompomie and S. unknownus. Also fascinating were the unusual Rosarium rarie pinkie, which, as its name suggests is both rare and pink, and the golden Aurea obscurus.
Botanical purists may be somewhat taken aback when they see species names incorrectly capitalized on museum markers, but Dona (my sidekick for the 2001 aluminum tree excursion) and I refused to let that hinder our enjoyment of Jackson’s kitschy collection, which is replete with tacky 1950s accessories.
While I was fascinated by a recently-arrived, yet-to-be-classified teal and silver tree (Cyanosilvercus bicolor, perhaps?), Dona stood transfixed before a small sculpture titled “Giggling Buddha Releasing Golden Pigeon of Happiness in the Forest of Aluminum Tranquility.” The statue was delivered personally by scarlet-robed Buddhist monks, who, Jackson noted, fortuitously arrived in Brevard on the day of the 2000 Christmas parade “so no one paid any attention to them.”
The Buddha’s story was told on an adjacent plaque:
“From the Far East comes this ancient legend regarding the aluminum tree as the symbol of tranquility that leads to true inner happiness. It is believed that the Buddhist monk, Ah Lu Min, upon achieving ‘alumination’ in the shining forest was visited by a golden pigeon who deposited his inner peace upon the monk’s smooth dome. Catching the bird, the monk is thought to have exclaimed, ‘A bird in hand leaves no residue,’ then sat and chanted the chant that’s repeated every year: Ah Lu Min Om.”
I do remember that it was hard to drag Dona away. She said she could feel the peace and tranquility traditionally associated with the aluminum forest.
“You’ve never seen anything like it,” she said later as she described the experience to an Etowah friend, Larry Whiteside. “The pink tree was my favorite, after the Buddha.”
While the journey to Brevard was part of the charm of our pilgrimage four years ago, I’m glad to think that Jackson’s collection will now have an opportunity to charm a new audience.
Admission to the Smith-McDowell House (283 Victoria Road on the Asheville-Buncome Technical College campus) includes the opportunity to view the aluminum tree exhibit. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m., through Friday, Jan. 6.
For more information, call (828) 884-6219 or visit Jackson’s aluminum tree Web site, www.aluminumtree.com or the Smith-McDowell House Web site, www.wnchistory.org.
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