Thrift Finds in the Museum Collection
Since 1939, the Historical Museum has been actively collecting and preserving artifacts central to telling our local history’s stories. These artifacts are acquired in a number of ways, including purchases from local thrift shops. Thrift Finds in the Museum Collection features objects fortunately discovered by Museum staff at local thrift
Portraits From the Museum Collection
The urge to create or possess a visual representation of a specific person – a portrait – is present throughout history. Portraits are created for many reasons: from sentimental to celebratory, for public or private viewing, as memorials, and as icons. Until the introduction of photography in the 1840s, portraits
Window Exhibit: Post No Bills!
The “Show Poster” was an essential form of advertising for public events throughout the United States during the 20th century. The overuse of posters led to city ordinances restricting their placement. Ordinances were emphasized by official signs reading “POST NO BILLS.” The Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum recently acquired a collection
Victorian Cottage Christmas
A featured exhibit of the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum includes “A Wichita Cottage.” This exhibit authentically recreates a typical middle-class Wichita home of the late 19th century complete with Victorian adornment and the emerging technology which would soon change domestic life and society in general. Seven individual rooms compose this
Miniature Christmas Trees
Starting with the Wreath Festival and lasting through to the New Year, the Museum maintains its holiday decorating tradition with garlands and ornaments strewn over the stairs and through the second floor. There, visitors will find an exhibit of miniature Christmas trees, created by Wichita artist Sylvia Jackson. With incredible
Moore Family Toy Santa Collection
In the lobby of the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, from the Wreath Festival through the New Year, visitors will find the Moore Family Santa Dolls on display. As a yearly tradition that’s continued for the last 17 years, the Museum has exhibited a small selection of the Moores’ collection —
Thrift Finds: Thrifted Treasures from the Museum’s Collection
Thrift Finds: Thrifted Treasures from the Museum’s Collection Museums acquire objects in many ways, including purchases from thrift stores. Thrift stores sell donated used or second-hand items to the public at moderate prices, often as a way to support charitable organizations or causes. By promoting green practices, encouraging the re-use
Thrift Style
Thrift Style explores the reuse of feed sacks to make clothing and other household objects and illuminates how the “upcycling” of these bags mutually benefitted twentieth-century consumers and businesses. With forty-one works from patterns to garments, it serves as an example of past ingenuity that can inform today’s efforts towards
Small Expressions
Small Expressions is an annual juried exhibition showcasing contemporary small-scale works using fiber techniques in any media. Small in scale but visually compelling, HGA’s Small Expressions exhibit features work that speaks to the intricacy of expression, intimacy of design, thoughtful communication, and visual excitement. The artists in this exhibit create
Being Modern
This exhibition follows (and is directly patterned after) the Museum’s previous exhibit Art Deco on the Plains. It takes the timeline forward to explore modern design experienced locally in the 1950s and 1960s. The exhibition is a feature of the Lois Kay Walls Local Visual Art History Series. Wichitans desired