The Cumberland Inn & Museum, located in

Williamsburg, Kentucky Williamsburg is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Whitley County, on the southeastern border of Kentucky, United States. The population was 5,245 at the 2010 census. Developed along the Cumberland River, the city was founded in 18 ...

, are owned and operated by

University of the Cumberlands The University of the Cumberlands is a private Christian university in Williamsburg, Kentucky. About 18,000 students are enrolled at the university. History University of the Cumberlands, first called Williamsburg Institute, was founded on Janu ...

. The facility opened in May 1994 as a way for Cumberland College to offer its students a positive work experience while promoting the college to visitors. The Robert O. Williams museum now contains over 7,000 crosses and

crucifixes A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

. The collection started when as a

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

in the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

Williams he became aware of the special symbolism the cross had for Christians and of the variety of forms that had been used to portray this symbol. The museum's collections were featured on

Kentucky Educational Television Kentucky Educational Television (KET) is a state network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is operated by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Kentucky state governm ...

References

External links

Cumberland Inn & Museum
Official website Museums established in 1977 Natural history museums in Kentucky Museums in Whitley County, Kentucky University museums in Kentucky 1977 establishments in Kentucky University of the Cumberlands Hotels in Kentucky {{Kentucky-museum-stub