One never knows what he or she will find when cleaning a basement. Will it be something unsavory like cobwebs or rats, or a jackpot like a rare antique or a baseball card worth thousands of dollars?

For the members of Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt., a thorough cleaning definitely revealed a jackpot, even if it doesn’t equal a huge payday.

About a year ago, a cache of posters was found during the cleaning of a storage area in the church’s basement. They turned out to be mint-condition Berean Sunday school posters from 1876 and 1877.

Fifty-two of the posters have been framed and put up for display at the church, which will have an open house from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday to dedicate the posters. It will also be the final day of the church’s weeklong art show.

“These wood-cut illustrations were really, really beautiful and dramatic,” member Julie Lesnikowski says of the posters, which measure 3 feet high by 2 feet wide. “They are such stunning pictures. … They have almost the effect of stained-glass windows.”

The event is free and open to the public.