Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service's Blog

From Sea to Shining Sea in Your Town!

The NOAA/SITES poster set, From Sea to Shining Sea: 200 Years of Charting America's Coasts opened at 200 locations across the country in June 2007 and reports from the field have been pouring in!

Alongside the posters, the Pensacola Historical Society in Pensacola, FL, presented overviews of local maritime history, Pensacola hurricanes (ranging from the storm of 1906 to Hurricane Ivan in 2004), and historic artifacts from the collection including a sextant, a telescope, binoculars, a coastal chart from the 1940s, and a NOAA Hurricane warning flag.

In Kirtland, OH, the Lakeland Community College Library worked with the Lake County Historical Society to augment the posters with an exhibit about their local waterways, entitled When Water Was THE Way. The display features maps and pictures of local waterways and ports while highlighting their economic and recreational value.

The exhibition was part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Museum of Science History in Corpus Christi, TX. The museum supplemented the poster exhibit with two table top cases of surveying instruments from their collection and 1860s maps of the Texas coast made by Felix Blucher, an early surveyor in south Texas. Simultaneously, the museum presented a children's exhibit that included an interactive lighthouse and shrimp boat. On the day of their celebration, their visitor count was 2,123 compared with 382 visitors that same Saturday in 2006.

The Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur, TX, worked with the local Seafarers Center and Women's Maritime Club to promote the exhibit, which was augmented with surveying instruments, charts, and maps.

Thanks for the feedback, folks!

-Jennifer Bine, SITES Project Director

Farewell to SITES Project Director

To our utter dismay, SITES project director Larry Hyman will soon be leaving us to join the staff at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Hyman joined SITES in December 1997. During his tenure, he has directed the development and management of 18 traveling exhibitions featuring everything from ancient Chinese Jades to first ladies gowns, musical instruments, vintage photographs and modern art.

A Washington, DC-native, Hyman completed his graduate work in Art History and Museum Studies at Boston University and has worked for the Smithsonian for 12 years. Prior to joining SITES, Hyman worked at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.

"Larry is one of those people who has great intellect and organizational skills," said one of his SITES colleagues, "he's also the type of person who can recount 1980s music trivia and recall all of the first ladies' maiden names." Larry, of course, was the lead on the First Ladies exhibition and truly a Renaissance man.

Happy trails to Larry. See you across the Mall.

-Heather Foster Shelton, SITES Writer/Editor

Dateline: Nashville - Impressions of Hatch Show Print

I recently traveled to Nashville with some SITES colleagues to meet with our partners at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We’re collaborating on American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print. Hatch has been creating bold and distinctive posters for almost 130 years and a lot of that history is on display in a large store front in the heart of Nashville. These are my first impressions of the historical print shop.

The simple façade of the building doesn’t give a hint at the activity or the visual stimulation that lies just beyond the door. A few posters from recent concerts and events line the front window and a lone neon sign reading “Hatch Show Print” hangs above the door. As the door swings open, a cow bell announces our arrival. And now the problem: where do I look first?

In front of me is a long shop counter with display cases holding t-shirts, mugs, books and prints. The wall to the left has shelves stacked with posters. Both the left and right walls are filled with posters—Johnny Cash, Elvis, B.B. King, Airstream trailers, state fairs, the Grand Ole Opry—reaching to the 20-foot high ceiling.

Stepping beyond the counter I can start to feel it—the hum of activity. There are at least 10 artists creating new pieces. Selecting wood blocks for the floor to ceiling shelves that line the left wall. Sorting type at the drawers lining the right wall. In the center, there are a few folks huddled around a work table setting type and blocks into new designs. Not far away, someone rolls the ink onto a frame of blocks and type, places a sheet of paper on top, and pulls a roller across—printing one piece at a time by hand.

The shop stretches back another 30 feet to the back of the building. The space is filled with more shelves of hand-carved wood blocks and photo plates, drawers of type, printing machines, and projects.

These are my first two minutes at Hatch Show Print, and all I want to do is sit in a corner and soak it all in.

-Jennifer Schommer, Assistant Director of Public Relations

Can you see the Space Station from where you are?

Just got back from a week in Maine, where the sky is so clear at night that we could see the International Space Station. We found this link, which allows viewers to select their closest city to get the time and coordinates of the ISS's orbit: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/sightings/index.html

Watching a bright light cross the night sky for 3 minutes is very cool. So is SITES' exhibition, Earth from Space, which gives glimpses of what those satellites see from above. And the exhibition's website provides resources for parents, teachers, and visitors. Check it out at: http://www.earthfromspace.si.edu

-Andrea Stevens, Director of Strategic Communications

Elvis Lives!

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of Elvis's death, and the faithful descended on Graceland. Fans come from all over the world to witness the graveside procession that winds around the property. The crowds can be 40,000 thick in the week leading up to the ceremonies at Graceland, and if you're lucky, you can actually see what's going on.

If, however, you missed it all--stuck behind your computer, checking out customers, or playing with the kids--you can still catch Elvis on this side of the beyond. Although it's in the early planning phases, SITES is putting together an exhibition of early, pre-King images of Elvis. They're really stunning photographs artistically and offer a vision of this man that you didn't even know existed. Look for more in our next issue of SITELINE! Visit http://www.sites.si.edu/education/siteline.htm.

-Heather Foster Shelton, Writer/Editor