Tidy exhibits showcasing artifacts from throughout the region fill the Northeast Georgia History Center in Gainesville.

And then there's the stuff you don't see, sitting in underground storage in the center at 322 Academy St., perhaps spread across tables or lying on shelves.

Often bearing at least some historic value, these items come to the center in a variety of ways, from residents loaning them out or folks just leaving them at the front door with no explanation or contact information.

"We are the community's basement," said Glen Kyle, the center's managing director. "If a museum is good, it's not (a place) where the collections remain flat. We are always trying to collect more that's relevant to our mission."

The center, which has been at Brenau University since May 2004, strives to preserve and share Northeast Georgia's history.

"We always try to keep that in the forefront of when we plan anything, and that also helps to lead our collections initiatives to try to get more objects," Kyle said.

For example, a coat worn by one of the area's pioneers could find its way into an exhibit.

However, if someone walks in "with the gavel that opened Los Angeles City Council's first meeting, that's not really our mission," Kyle said.

Instead of turning away the history-minded person, museum officials refer them to other places that would be interested in that object, he said.

And then there are items that are personally historic, such as love letters between a husband and wife during World War II.

"A good curator is going to see the big picture and realize what could be historically significant or even what may not be that significant historically but could help you tell a story that would help folks connect with the past," Kyle said.

The center's storage area features items from stacks of National Geographic magazines to spinning wheels, plows and rifles.

"It looks like absolute chaos," he said, while conducting a tour of the area. "It's actually organized chaos."

The museum is seeking a grant through the OneGeorgia Authority to "help us get organized and catalog better," Kyle said. "It will help us store more efficiently with better record-keeping ... and we'll be able to have seminars here on collection care and exhibit development."

Still, a walk through the basement is like snooping through a well-stocked attic or browsing through one of the region's many antique stores.

Many of the items are family heirlooms, while others don't have such a personal connection to history. A 1960s-era jukebox that belongs to John and Sara Crippen of Gainesville, for example, was bought from an antique store on Browns Bridge Road in the mid-1980s, Sara said.

"The history center has it because they borrowed it for a party," Crippen added.

Sometimes, an item may seem to hold significance in telling the story of rural life in the region - like a piece of rusty farm equipment - but it may be more common than people think.

"We don't have room in the exhibit space to display 40 plows," Kyle said. "It doesn't mean we shouldn't keep those plows. Museums not only preserve an exhibit item; we also need to have research collections."

Most museums have more items in storage than on display, he added.

Whether items are moved upstairs for the paying public to see, remain packed away in a container downstairs or belong in another museum, the collections and all their varied artifacts stir up excitement for Kyle.

It's a history buff's heaven.

"This is the reason a lot of the folks get into the field," Kyle said. "You realize ... there are so many stories, and you get excited about telling the stories."