Museum on Main Street: The Way We Worked
Lifting Turbine with a crane, Golden, Colorado, April 2011
Photograph by Warren Gretz, National Renewable Energy Laboratories
Beginning in September 2012, Minnesota will host a new traveling Smithsonian exhibit titled
The Way We Worked. The traveling exhibit explores how work became such a central element in American culture by tracing the many changes that affected the workforce and work environments over the past 150 years. The exhibition focuses on why we work and the needs that our jobs fulfill. Our work takes place everywhere – on the land, on the streets of our communities, in offices and factories, in our homes, and even in space. An exploration of the tools and technologies that enabled and assisted workers also reveals how workers sometimes found themselves with better tools, but also with faster, more complex and often more stressful work environments. Finally, the exhibition shows how we identify with work – as individuals and as communities. Whether you live in “Steel Town, USA” or wear a uniform each day, work assigns cultural meanings and puts us and our communities in a larger context.
Click here for more information on the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and The Way We Worked.
SCHEDULE
Minnesota’s Machinery Museum, Hanley Falls
September 8 – October 20, 2012
Wright County Historical Society, Buffalo
October 27 – December 8, 2012
Winona County Historical Society, Winona
December 15, 2012 – January 26, 2013
Steele County Historical Society, Owatonna
February 2 – March 16, 2013
Hosted by the
Virginia Area Historical Society at the B’nai Abraham Synagogue, Virginia
March 23 – May 4, 2013
Hosted by the
Depot Preservation Alliance at the Baudette Depot, Baudette
May 11 – June 22, 2013
The Way We Worked is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Minnesota Humanities Center. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.
For more information, please contact Elizabeth de Soto, Assistant Program Director, 651-772-4263 or toll free 866-268-7293, ext. 263.
elizabeth@mnhum.org
