During the Renaissance, European nobles acquired antiquities, oddities and artworks. The nobility displayed their collections in cabinets for the purpose of impressing visitors. While most museums still have some of these relics in their collection, these objects are now valued for reasons that the original donor would never have imagined. Today, museums collect not for the material itself but to understand the culture which produced it. A tavern lock from the 1790s may have survived because George Washington touched it but it is valued today for what it teaches us about the importance of taverns in colonial society, the technology required to forge such a lock and 18 th century building techniques.
Artifacts tell about the associations people form out of necessity and out of shared beliefs.
Governments provide structure to the dealings between people. Businesses provide goods and services that people cannot produce for themselves. Those with similar beliefs and interests join fraternal organizations, civic groups and clubs. Loyalty to one's community often was expressed in military service, the willingness to defend it at all costs. The diversity of Carroll County's communities is reflected in the variety of artifacts they have created.