There’s still plenty of time to visit two special, on-going exhibits at Oswego’s Little White School Museum, one honoring the community’s war dead and the second recognizing the contributions of women inventors.
The Museum is at 72 Polk Street (Polk at Jackson), just two blocks from Oswego’s downtown district.
“Salute to Service: A Memorial Day Tribute,” is currently on exhibit at the Museum featuring the stories of Oswego soldiers killed in action in conflicts from the Civil War through the Vietnam War. It is held in collaboration with the Oswego appearance of the Middle East Conflicts Wall of Honor in Oswego.
The Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club, in conjunction with the Village of Oswego, is sponsoring the Oswego appearance of the Mideast Conflicts Wall of Honor through May 31, Memorial Day. It includes 33 panels, each measuring close to seven feet tall, with 104 names on each side of the panel. Two of the panels list the Wall’s major sponsors and information explaining the long history of the Middle East’s conflicts.
Visitors are invited to stroll through the Museum’s special Smithsonian Institution exhibit on women inventors, “Picturing Women Inventors,” a poster exhibition that explores the inventions of 19 highly-accomplished American women. Astronauts, computer pioneers, and businesswomen join athletes, engineers, and even teenagers in this remarkable group of inventors.
The exhibition highlights stories of inventors including Marilyn Hamilton, who after a hang-gliding accident in 1978 left her paralyzed, invented a lightweight wheelchair that was easier to maneuver. Diversity of background and age are showcased including inventor Alexis Lewis, who at the age of 12 in 2011 was inspired to adapt a traditional Native American sled, called a travois, by adding wheels to create a simpler way to transport families and their belongings in Somalia.
The exhibit was loaned to the museum by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and is sponsored by Lyda Hill Philanthropies IF/THEN Initiative and Ericsson.
Visitors are urged to tour the museum gallery where numerous exhibits explain the fascinating story of Oswego’s history from prehistoric times to the 21st Century.
Museum hours are Thursdays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday mornings from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; and Mondays from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. The museum is closed to visitors on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Admission is free, but donations are gratefully accepted.
For more information, call 630-554-2999, E-mail info@littlewhiteschoolmuseum.org or visit the museum web site at www.littlewhiteschoolmuseum.org.
—Little White School Museum