Supplemental to the Lucy Comedy Fest activities this weekend, a collection of Dezi Arnaz artifacts will be on display at the historic Jamestown train station.

The exhibit, curated by Allison Rabent of the Lucille Ball Dezi Arnaz Museum, takes guests through a timeline of Arnaz’s life and displays a handful of important artifacts from the actor’s life, including: letters to and from former presidents of the United States, props from his time playing Ricky Ricardo and some of his favorite books from his personal library.

The timeline of Arnaz’s life begins by documenting his childhood in Santiago, Cuba. He was born into an aristocratic family; his father was the youngest mayor in the history of Santiago, and his maternal grandfather was the cofounder of the Bacardi Rum Company. Fostering his lifelong love of horses and horseback riding, he spent his childhood on his family’s three farms. However, in 1933, at the age of 16, revolution came to Cuba, and Arnaz’s posh lifestyle came to an end.

The ABC, Cuba’s radical opposition movement, sought to overthrow everyone associated with Cuba’s president, Gerardo Muchado, including Arnaz’s father. He was imprisoned, but escaped to Miami in 1934, and had Arnaz and his mother sent there to meet him. Arnaz and his family were forced to start over from nothing in a new country.

During the beginning of his time in America, Arnaz and his family lived a life of indigence in an old warehouse, taking odd jobs such as cleaning canary cages to help his family eat. At age 19, he was introduced to Buddy Rogers, who gave Arnaz his first shot in show business as the guitar player in a small rumba band. Arnaz caught the eye of Xavier Cugat, and left for New York to perform with him.

During a gig in 1938, Arnaz was discovered by comedy writers Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, who were looking for a Latin American boy to play in their new Broadway musical “Too Many Girls.” He received the role, and was asked to reprise his role on the big screen, where he met costar Lucille Ball. The couple eloped on Nov. 30, 1940, just months after they met.

In the following years, Arnaz felt it his duty to help America in the war effort, despite not yet being an American citizen. He was eventually drafted, but severely injured his knee playing baseball shortly thereafter. He was assigned to infantry in the Army, but being injured, he served as a reading instructor to illiterate soldiers. In 1945, he was discharged from the military as an American citizen.

Arnaz and Ball went on to form Desilu Productions, and “I Love Lucy” first aired on Oct. 15, 1951. The company went on to produce shows such as “The Twilight Zone,” “The Untouchables” and “Star Trek.” Arnaz passed away on Dec. 2, 1986 in Del Mar, California.

According to Rabent, most of the artifacts on display came from the collection at the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum, although a few originated from a collection from Universal Studios. Those artifacts came into the Lucy Desi Museum’s possession when its museum closed.

Rabent noted that, although every artifact on display this weekend is important, there is something particularly interesting with Arnaz’s correspondences with former presidents.

“The correspondence between himself and the presidents are really something to see,” said Rabent. “He tended to give a lot of advice to government officials, which is rather interesting to read. He was really quite a political person.”

The exhibit runs now through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information please visit www.lucycomedyfest.com.