Survivor artifacts and memories: A detailed look at current plans for the new Sultana Disaster Museum in Arkansas, gallery by gallery

Banners for survivor reunions in the late 19th century (Sultana Disaster Museum)

A new museum remembering the steamboat Sultana maritime disaster will feature artifacts from the current two-room venue, recently collected items and professionally produced exhibits that will tell all facets of the Civil War story.

Gene Salecker (below), a Sultana author and lecturer, said renovated and expanded space in the old high school in Marion, Ark., will be much larger and in a more prominent spot in town. Groundbreaking was held Friday, on Veterans Day.

The Sultana exploded and caught fire in the Mississippi Rover not far from Marion on April 27, 1865. About 1,200 passengers and crew perished. Hundreds of Federal soldiers, many recently freed from Confederate prisons, including Andersonville and Cahaba, were on their way home, a cruel fate after enduring months or years of privation.

The school’s gymnasium-auditorium will be largely gutted, though crews will try to preserve as much of the original floor as possible. “In addition to the renovations of the existing structure, a new addition will be built onto the south side of the building, which will house the main entrance, ticketing station, museum store and … the auditorium and orientation theater,” said Wyley Bigger, director of special operations and projects for the Sultana Disaster Museum. (The groundbreaking was held in the old gym)

Section-by-section look at museum experience

The Picket asked Salecker, who has donated many items to the museum, to provide details on the experience for visitors once the new location opens. Some responses have been edited for brevity.

Q. I need a big picture description, please, of what all will be in the museum, how the visitor flow will go and the principal themes. What should be the takeaway when someone leaves? 

Current floor plan for new museum in Marion (Sultana Disaster Museum, click to enlarge)

A. Our initial concept, and it may vary once we get heavily into the actual layout of the museum, is to have people enter the museum and see a short video explaining what the Sultana disaster is and how it impacted so many people -- survivors, families of the slain, rescuers, descendants and etc.

We plan on having people then walk through a section that will cover an overview of the Civil War and the importance of steamboating on the Mississippi River. Next, a person will enter a display on the building of the Sultana and on her first two years of service. The next section will be devoted to Civil War battle, capture and prisons. (Read about one former prisoner who kept memory of disaster alive to dying day.)

John H. Simpson was a passenger (photos courtesy of Gene Salecker)

Next will come a section devoted to Camp Fisk, the neutral exchange camp outside of Vicksburg where the prisoners gathered in hopes of being exchanged and sent home. Our next section will discuss the bribery and the greed and corruption that surrounded the three steamboats that carried the ex-prisoners northward. Emphasis will center on the Sultana.

From there we are hoping to immerse people into the loading of the Sultana by having a scale mock-up of the steamboat that people can board and see the boilers, the engines, perhaps the staterooms. Here will be stories of the loading and the overcrowding, and of the two day trip upriver.

The next section will explain the explosion, the fights for survival and the activities of the many rescuers. This section will include information on the hospitals, the rescue boats, the activities at Fort Pickering (the fort guarding the southern waterway approach to Memphis).

Our next section will include information on the aftermath of the disaster -- the (Capt.) Speed trial, the establishment of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, and the laws passed to prevent such a disaster from happening again.

The visitor to the museum will then step into an area showing our Wall of Honor, which will list every person on board the Sultana between April 24-27, 1865 as she made her way upriver from Vicksburg - ex-prisoners, guards, crew and civilian passengers. Where possible, we will have actual photos of the person. 

Photos of some on board Sultana are currently on exhibit (Sultana Disaster Museum)

The last two sections will feature the information on the reunions of the Sultana survivors, the current Sultana Association reunions, and on the various monuments and markers that have been put up to memorialize the greatest maritime disaster in American history.

The permanent museum will also contain a temporary exhibit area which will feature rotating exhibits on loan from other museums. These exhibits will not only be Civil War-related, but any and all American wars, as well as other interesting American displays. We will also have an auditorium that can be used for Sultana Disaster Museum seminars, events, and more.

Q. What will be the "signature" artifacts or constructed objects that will most grab a visitor's attention?

A. The signature artifacts, of course, will be that actual pieces of the Sultana that have been collected over the years or were carried by many of the survivors on board the Sultana. These pieces include:

Fire bricks (top) and shaker places from the furnace (G. Salecker)

-- Several pieces of fire brick and heavy metal shaker plates from the furnaces of the Sultana
-- Pieces of wood taken from the wreck years afterwards and given to survivors as cherished mementos
-- Wooden mallet made from the wood of the Sultana
-- Couple of buttons from the frock coat saved during the disaster by the captain of the guard unit
-- Couple of hand-made wooden combs (one below) carved by the prisoners while they were in a Confederate prison and carried aboard the Sultana

Carved comb made in a Confederate prison (Gene Salecker)

-- Cartridge box sling found along the shore of the Mississippi River shortly after the disaster
-- Cane made from the wood of the Sultana
-- Display board made from wood from the Sultana containing several small metal artifacts taken from the wreck
-- Knife made from a file and carried by one of the ex-prisoners aboard the Sultana
-- Steamboat engineer's wrench said to be from the Sultana
-- Cotton bale hook salvaged from the wreck of the Sultana

Additionally, our museum features dozens of items that were used at the many reunions of the Sultana Survivors’ Association -- reunion ribbons, numerous flags, a welcoming banner, an embroidered eagle banner, metal adjutant collection box, journals, minutes, envelopes with Association letterhead, lap desk from the association secretary, and a few wall plaques.

Curios crafted by survivor William Lugenbeal (Sultana Disaster Museum)

One of the most remembered survivors was Pvt. William Lugenbeal, who survived by slaying the Sultana's pet alligator and floating to safety in its sturdy wooden crate.

Our museum has two canes from Lugenbeal, one pipe, one napkin ring, and a curio box all decorated with the image of an alligator and inscribed to the man who was "saved by a alligator." 

And, since we will also be a museum that discusses the importance of steamboats on the Mississippi River, we also have many 1850-1860 steamboat memorabilia -- an 1857 first class steamboat ticket, an 1858 second-class deck passage ticket, a main saloon meal ticket from the 1860s, a hand-written menu from an 1860s steamboat (exceedingly rare, at left), an 1858 steamboat pilot's license and an 1854 steamboat engineer's certificate.

After the disaster, not only were the pilots and engineers required to be licensed but also the captain and first mate. We, therefore, have an 1881 steamboat captain (master) license and an 1889 first mate's license.

And, I would be remiss if I forgot to state that we have an actual 1840 engine from the steamboat LeRoy.

Q. Are all items/artifacts in the current museum going to be displayed on Military Road? Are there some in storage that will debut at the new site? If so, what are they?

A. Hopefully, we have room for all of the items currently on display in our interim museum -- and in the back room -- to go on display in our permanent museum. Any item that we do not have space for will be rotated with items on display so that all of the items will eventually have their moment to shine! We have a couple of pieces that are not on current display in the interim museum because of space limitations. One is the actual 1840 steamboat engine from the steamboat LeRoy and the other is another 14-foot model of the Sultana, this one depicting that moment after the disaster with the hole blown in the middle of the boat, the smokestacks down, the pilothouse gone, the decks collapsed on top of one another, and tons of steam escaping through the blast hole.

The current museum has only two rooms; it is off a side street

All of the artifacts that I owned in 2020 were donated to the museum at that time. I am imagining that all of them will be put on display in the permanent museum if space allows. If not, then they will be rotated with other items a few times a year. About 85-90 percent of the pieces in the museum come from my collection.

There are some items that I picked up in 2021 and 2022 that have not been donated to the museum. I am hoping that they will have their debut when the permanent museum opens.

Gym site provides nostalgia for local residents

Wyly Bigger, the director of projects for the Sultana Disaster Museum, said “that while constructing a brand-new building (as first envisioned) may have allowed for more freedom in architecture and exhibit design, I believe having the museum in this historic space adds a new element to the museum that can enhance the experience for history lovers.”

Photo by Mark Hilton, HMdb.org

The building (above) was completed in 1938-1939 during the New Deal era by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (later known as the Public Works Administration). It hosted exhibition basketball games by the University of Arkansas and Louisiana State University.

“In addition to the history, it is a place of fond memories for a lot of locals who attended school and played ball there. By preserving this building and giving it a use where it had none, we’re combining its history with that of the Sultana and creating a rich collective of histories in one place,” Bigger said.

Retired John Fogleman, head of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society, told the audience at the groundbreaking of the role of the disaster survivors.

“This museum idea did not begin with us. The seed for the idea of a museum was planted by the actual survivors. Not for a museum. All they wanted was a monument" along the Mississippi River. That effort never came to fruition. Now is the time to rectify that, Fogleman said.

Former US Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater discussed the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln nearly two weeks before the Sultana exploded. Slater said Lincoln stressed that no soldiers died in vain during the war and all men were created equal. He asked the crowd to bless the memory of the disaster's victims

Haizlip Studio rendering of exterior includes mock smokestacks (Sultana Disaster Museum)