Press Release

New Exhibits, Right on Time: Three Shows at History Colorado Center

#HistoryColorado

Denver, Colo. (January 11, 2020) — There’s more for Coloradans to safely explore in this brand new year.

PRESS CONTACT
John Eding, Communications & PR Manager
303-866-3670 | john.eding@state.co.us

The History Colorado Center, downtown Denver’s only Smithsonian-affiliate museum, opens Apron Chronicles: A Patchwork of American Recollections on Saturday, January 23. Borderlands of Southern Colorado also opens February 2. Both are preceded by a powerful limited-time exhibit now on view through January 19, as Americans approach inauguration day: E Pluribus Unum / Out of Many, One. More than a dozen in total, all exhibits at the History Colorado Center are included in general admission. Advance reservations are required via historycolorado.org/welcome.

E Pluribus Unum features one of History Colorado’s most treasured artifacts, the priceless and rarely seen Appomattox Inkwell. Consider today’s political flashpoints from a new and powerful perspective as you view this tiny and treasured relic that helped conclude the Civil War, with a stroke of a pen, following the loss of more than 600,000 American lives. The deadliest conflict in American history ended in 1865, but the Civil War remains forever in our midst. Protests against racial inequality and debates over the federal government’s role in American life, for example, are part of its modern legacy. E Pluribus Unum offers insights on conflict, loss, and reunification through January 19. 

Apron Chronicles is a traveling exhibition that will complete its remarkable sixteen-year journey as a cultural phenomenon with its final showing at History Colorado. It features captivating photography, personal narratives, and one-of-a-kind aprons that hold histories from the kitchen and far beyond. When it premiered in 2005, its primary focus was to transport us to a simpler time. Today, as we contemplate how to move forward from a turbulent and disrupted present, Apron Chronicles gives us the opportunity not to escape reality but to see it in a different light, and to add our own stories to the experience. Told from the healing perspective of connectivity, Apron Chronicles explores humanity through aprons of hope, survival, achievement, regret, and liberation from January 23 through May 31.

Presented in English and Spanish, Borderlands of Southern Colorado explores the shifting geopolitical history of an area known for unique and resilient forms of cultural connection. An international border crossed over the people in this region when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo moved a portion of the US–Mexico border from the Arkansas River—which flows through the middle of Colorado—down to the Rio Grande in 1848. The exhibit opens February 2 on the 173rd anniversary of the treaty’s signing. Centering Chicano, Indigenous, and Mestizo perspectives, Borderlands reflects more than seven years of research and collaboration and evolves from two ongoing sister exhibits in Pueblo and Trinidad. A full press release, including details about the Borderlands speaker series, is available here.

About History Colorado
History Colorado is a division of the Colorado Department of Higher Education and a 501(c)3 non-profit that has served more than 75,000 students and 500,000 people in Colorado each year. It is a 141-year-old institution that operates Colorado’s oldest museum, nine additional museums and historic sites, a free public research center, the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, and the History Colorado State Historical Fund (SHF), which is the nation’s largest preservation program of its kind. The SHF currently administers more than 280 grants across Colorado, of which more that 70% are allocated in rural areas.

History Colorado’s outlets are publishing Black voices and confronting entrenched racism in historic preservation. Beginning in 2019 History Colorado has added curators of Latino Heritage and LGBTQ+ History to its staff, and added a full-time position to its Museum of Memory team, which works proactively to incorporate underserved communities and voices into its contemporary collecting initiative and other efforts. The History Colorado Center is the nation’s first state history museum to display a monument toppled last summer with new, inclusive interpretation. History Colorado now shares anti-racist grounding virtues in all of its job postings, and asks all applicants to describe how these principles show up in their work.

History Colorado’s eight museums around the state were among the first cultural institutions in Colorado to reopen to visitors under new safety protocols. The swift return to in-person service in June and December followed an agile reorganization in response to Covid-19 that catalyzed new avenues for youth education, full-length episodes of its podcasts, and a weekly digest with over 25,000 subscribers. It has also ramped up safe, affordable child care and remote-learning support for families experiencing school disruptions.

History Colorado’s mission is to create a better future for Colorado by inspiring wonder in our past. We serve as the state’s memory, preserving and sharing the places, stories, and material culture of Colorado through educational programs, historic preservation grants, collecting, outreach to Colorado communities, the History Colorado Center and Stephen H. Hart Research Center in Denver, and nine other museums and historic attractions statewide. History Colorado is one of only six Smithsonian Affiliates in Colorado. Visit HistoryColorado.org, or call 303-HISTORY, for more information.