Visitors to our museums have the opportunity to see hundreds of historic objects that help tell hundreds of stories about Colorado’s past, present, and future. But how these objects get collected, organized, interpreted, and ultimately shared is a story that often goes untold.
This year, we posed the question to you: If you could ask a curator anything, what would you ask? What they do day-to-day? How they prepare objects for exhibit? Something else?
Now’s your chance to find out! We're excited to give you a peek at what goes on behind the scenes at our museums across the state.
The History Colorado Center’s exhibit Zoom In: The Centennial State in 100 Objects highlights the history of Colorado through the stories behind a hundred objects drawn mostly from the History Colorado collection. At the end of the exhibit, visitors are asked to fill out a card telling us what they think the 101st object should be. In this blog post we share about visitors’ 101st object suggestions and how we’re responding to them.
I’m about to look in the window that Dad pointed out when my sister jumps back, screaming. There in the window, inside the replica of a trading post by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, is a large black bear poised to attack! I’m immediately reminded of surprise snakebites delivered to pioneers while traveling through The Oregon Trail: Classic Edition computer game. My sister, age 5, was so scared she ran back to Dad, still screaming, the tail of her real raccoon-skin hat flying behind her. She’d picked up the hat from a reenactor playing Jim Bridger, the original host of the trading post and purveyor of items for people headed to Oregon City by way of the Oregon Trail. Sadly, she couldn’t keep the hat, but she still remembers the feeling of playing trader Jim; something that wasn’t conveyed while playing The Oregon Trail.
This summer, don’t settle for just traveling to another place, seek to travel to another time. These road trips are sure to inspire wonder for anyone looking to explore both.
Pick one or more of the five trips described here based on the time you have to travel or the places you wish to visit!
PLATTEVILLE, Colo. (May 11, 2018) – Fort Vasquez Museum, a Community Museum of History Colorado, debuted a new exhibit, More than Mud, on the history of adobe on Friday, May 11, 2018. The exhibit focuses on the history of the construction method in Colorado and the West.
PUEBLO, Colo. (May 23, 2018) – Two Regional Advisory Councils of El Pomar Foundation assisted in bringing the original Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to Pueblo. Funding from the Southeast and San Luis Valley Regional Partnerships Councils supported the costs for security, temperature and humidity control and other technical requirements necessary to host such an important and rare document.
History Colorado is gathering and sharing memories that celebrate our state’s rich Hispano culture. Here, Anthony Garcia shares the fifth in our monthly series produced exclusively withThe Weekly Issue/El Semanario.
Agriculture plays a central role in the history of Colorado. The families who've farmed and ranched in our state for over a century remind us that the story of our connection to this land continues to today. Through our Centennial Farms & Ranches program we recognize families like the Neallys, Karns, and Masons.
History Colorado is gathering and sharing memories that celebrate our state’s rich Hispano culture. Here, Larry Apodaca shares the fourth in our monthly series produced exclusively withThe Weekly Issue/El Semanario.