Showcase for History -- 2010 Exhibit Schedule at the Powers Museum of Carthage, Missouri

The Powers Museum is dedicated to the concept of rotating exhibits. During the past twenty-two years of public service, over sixty exhibits, large and small, have been featured on local history as well as Missouri and regional history themes. Click here to see what you have missed.

This year, while the museum staff and volunteers continue to work on long-needed curatorial and collection management projects behind the scene, the main gallery will be presenting several smaller exhibits throughout the public season.

ENDED AUG. 1 --- "Symbols of Collective Memory: A Photographic Survey of Missouri Courthouse Architecture" courtesy of Missouri Alliance of Historic Preservation and The Sheldon Art Gallery of St. Louis, Missouri. Based on Dennis Weiser's book Missouri Courthouses: Building Memories on the Square, the museum's installation highlights the selected architectural styles of the courthouses with additional labels.

If you would like a copy of Weiser's book, the Powers Museum Gift Shop will have them during the run of the exhibit. Afterwards (or if you live elsewhere), please consult the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation website.

You may wish to consult the Missouri Digital Heritage website for Dennis Weiser's slide presentation on the book, available online.  Another recommended site for viewing Missouri courthouses is Show-Me Missouri's presentation of all 114 courthouses in their own photographic essay.

Left: Iron County Courthouse.  Right:  General view of three other courthouses formerly on display.

Thanks to Pat Bearden, Lee Carlson, Dan Mortimer, Gary Hansford, Sandy Crum, and McCune-Brooks Regional Hospital - Stepen Schneicket for their assistance getting museum gallery prepared for spring opening and with the installation of the Missouri Courthouse traveling exhibit.

Other mini-displays for spring and summer

Also on view hand-painted china of Marian Wright Powers and hand-painted furniture and artwork by Ida Chubb (historic Carthage artist and children's book illustrator).  Featured in the museum's meeting room and reference library is an 1895 large-scale map of Carthage, the 1891 Bird's-eye View of Carthage and a few items from the medical career of Dr. Everett Powers.  Closed as of August 17.

 
Eric Peer's NHD 2010 Project displayed during summer.

The museum will be closed August 17 (upon delivery of traveling exhibit which is coming earlier than expected) to set up "Lee and Grant."  The museum will also be closed October 21-30 to de-install the exhibit.

September 1 - October 20, 2010 will feature "Lee and Grant" courtesy the National Endowment for the Humanities, Virginia Historical Society, and Mid-America Art Alliance/ExhibitsUSA of Kansas City. Click here for more details on exhibit and sponsors. For special programs accompanying the exhibit, click here.

The museum's schedule beyond October 30 has not been determined yet. Please call 417-237-0456 or email powersmuseum@att.net for further information.

Online Exhibits  

Our newest online exhibit: "Riches from the Earth -- The Industrial Heritage of Jasper County" featuring the lead and zinc mines along with its limestone quarries (MDHI site version Riches from the Earth or full exhibit version).

Exerpts from past exhibits on Carthage or our collections with the links below.

Carthage in the 1860s–1870s

Carthage in the New Century: 1900–1909



Topsy Turvy Puzzles of the 1930s — Homegrown Fun

LOOKING AHEAD at the Powers Museum

2011  Special Civil War Sesquicentennial Exhibits

"Father and Son Go to War: Capt. William Wilberforce Wright and Curtis Wright"

"Stories of Jasper County Civil War Veterans"

"Songs My Mother Taught Me:  Civil War-era Music As Sung by Marian Wright Powers" [in her professional career as a coloratura soprano]

The museum will also display other collection items from the Civil War period in its collection including Dr. John Alexander Powers' war-era surgical kit along with other items from the pre- and post-Civil War years (such as cased photographs and textiles) that normally do not fit the museum's "local" - Carthage - history mission but which were part of the Wright-Powers-Winchester family collections and the original artifact/archival bequest to the City of Carthage for the Powers Museum.

Dates to be determined yet, but the museum will host in July the Missouri State Archives traveling exhibit entitled Divided Loyalties:  Civil War Documents from the Archives.  More informatin will be forthcoming.

 
2012 & 2013:  Suggestions ?????? Feel free to email your ideas to the museum.

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Image at top of page:  Jasper County Courthouse as photographed and copyrighted by Michele Newton Hansford.  Used with permission.