The United States and its history are a patchwork of many tales, which have been woven over time from the voyages of peoples, both voluntary and involuntary, traveling from city-to-city, state-to-state, and around the world to find new opportunities. Whether by land, sea or air, travel has played a crucial part in the nation’s economic and cultural identities.
To highlight and explain the importance of migration and immigration, both locally and nationally, the Little White School Museum, 72 Polk Street, Oswego, has opened a new temporary exhibit, “Journey Stories,” with posters provided by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
The base exhibit includes a set of seven posters designed to encourage dialogue and engagement on how movement has defined the United States. The poster exhibit is enhanced by the exhibit of Oswegoland-related travel and immigration related artifacts, documents, and photographs from the Museum’s collections.
Visitors are invited to tour the special exhibit in the museum’s Roger Matile Room through February. Regular hours are Thursdays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Mondays, 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Museum is closed to visitors on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Admission to both the Museum and “Journey Stories” is free.
Especially developed to engage middle-school and high-school students, but including information of interest for all ages, “Journey Stories” explores how movement has shaped the nation’s history. The posters offer a broad look at American expansion and migration, from the arrival of the earliest European settlers and subsequent Native American displacement, to the effects of transportation advancements on modern mobility. Enhancements to the poster exhibit use artifacts ranging from a bear skin coat to stone tools manufactured by Native People to help tell the story how transportation has shaped the Oswego area, from prehistoric times to the area’s present-day population growth. Those themes are echoed in exhibits in the Museum’s core gallery exhibit.
The Little White School Museum, a restored Methodist-Episcopal church building and former one-room elementary school built in 1850, is a joint project of the Oswegoland Heritage Association and the Oswegoland Park District.
For more information on “Journey Stories” or the Little White School Museum, visit their website at www.littlewhiteschoolmuseum.org, call 630-554-2999, or send an E-mail to info@littlewhiteschoolmuseum.org.
—Little White School Museum