A SMITHSONIAN AND AZTEC MUSEUM
SPECIAL EXHIBIT - JOURNEY STORIES
August 13 to September 23

Schedule of Events

A Most Mobile Nation!
A mobile people in a vast land:
Some of us were here already,
Some of us came hoping for a better life,
Some of us came in chains, …

And all of us are still in motion.
We all have Journey Stories …
Each of us has a powerful journey story deep in our personal heritage. It may be a story of a family uprooting itself in order to stay together, or of sons and daughters moving to another land, or of a distant ancestor, perhaps unknown ….

Americans have always been intensely mobile, and we still are. Farmers, mechanics, entrepreneurs, immigrants, and slaves have built American society over four centuries. Travel over roads, rails, rivers, and trails — even the skies — has shaped the American cultural and economic landscape.

Do you have a journey story? It may be included in the exhibit of local "Journey Stories".

PRESS RELEASE
Show Date: August 13 to September 23

The Smithsonian exhibition, "Journey Stories", will come to Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village this summer, August 13 - September 23, 2011.

"Journey Stories" examines the intersection between transportation and American society by providing individual stories which illustrate the critical roles that mobility and travel have played in our country's history over time.  The Museum on Main Street staff worked with the Office of Exhibits Central (OEC) to design and fabricate five copies of the 600 square foot, free-standing exhibit, which began touring rural America in May 2009.  Audio components; objects including clay jugs, courie shells, and hurricane lanterns; cut-out figures; and engaging graphics supplement the compelling text. 

The exhibit focuses on "how our ancestors came to America," with a specific look at how the advancements in transportation affected people, and the “trips” they were able to make. From Native Americans to new American citizens— regardless of our ethnic or racial background— everyone has a story to tell. Our history 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. Many chose to move, searching for something better in a new land. Others had no choice, like enslaved Africans captured and relocated to a strange land and bravely asserting their own cultures, or like Native Americans already here, who were often violently removed by newcomers.

“Journey Stories” is part of the new Mexico Humanities Council’s Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program, a partnership between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and state humanities councils nationwide. MoMS serves museums, libraries, and historical societies in towns of fewer than 30,000 residents by bringing them Smithsonian-quality exhibitions.  For more information about this exciting exhibition, call Sue Tilley at the Aztec Museum (505)334-9829.

Aztec Museum is open Tues-Sat. 10:00 am-4:00 pm. Admission by donation.