Smithsonian Museum on Main Street Traveling Exhibits

Humanities Washington brings high-quality professional exhibitions to rural communities and small museums across Washington State with the goal of helping small museums build audiences and strengthen their organizational capacities. Host organizations are provided with program assistance and support for the technical, promotional and program components required to successfully present a traveling exhibition.

Humanities Washington is a partner in Museum on Main Street (MoMS), a collaborative project of the Smithsonian Institution and state humanities councils. Through MoMS, Humanities Washington brings Washingtonians access to prestigious Smithsonian exhibitions and first-rate educational programs.

Humanities Washington is pleased to bring the Smithsonian Exhibit Journey Stories to Washington State for a two-year tour. Between June 2010 and May 2012, the exhibit will visit 12 sites across the state.

Journey stories – tales of how we and our ancestors came to America – are a central element of our personal heritage. From Native Americans to new American citizens, everyone has a story to tell. Washington state is filled with stories of people leaving behind everything – families and possessions – to reach a new life in another state, across the continent, or even across an ocean.

Our transportation history is more than trains, boats, buses, cars, wagons, and trucks. The development of transportation technology was largely inspired by the human drive for freedom. Journey Stories will examine the intersection between modes of travel and Americans’ desire to feel free to move. The story is diverse and focused on immigration, migration, innovation, and freedom. It is accounts of immigrants coming in search of promise in a new country; stories of individuals and families relocating in search of fortune, their own homestead, or employment; the harrowing journeys of Africans and Native Americans forced to move; and, of course, fun and frolic on the open road.

So come on! Let’s get moving!