LATEST NEWS!
June 25th, 2009
WCHS Announces their 1st Annual Photo Contest!
Help
the Wright County Historical Society preserve the present by photographing Wright County today! Entries will be added
to our existing photo archive of historic images for future generations to view.
This year’s photo contest
theme is Summer in Wright County. Photographs must be taken within Wright County,
Minnesota, between June 25 and August 3, 2009. All entries will be judged on photograph quality and future historic
value in these categories: Recreation & Events, Places & Nature, Structures & Objects, and Everything Else!
The contest is open to everyone, regardless of place of residence, and qualifying entries will be displayed during the Wright
County Fair. Public judging will occur between Friday, August 14 - Sunday, August 16, with winners notified on Tuesday,
August 18th.
For more information and guidelines on the photo contest, please check out
our EVENTS page and download the form, or call Sally at 763-682-8945.
Click here for category examples and photo contest submissions!
WCHS Awarded the Smithsonian Exhibit JOURNEY STORIES
The Wright County Historical
Society was recently awarded JOURNEY STORIES, a travelling exhibit specifically designed for rural historical societies and
museums. Thanks to a grant written by our curator, Erin Storc, WCHS was chosen as a finalist to receive this exhibit.
After a site visit and extensive interview process, WCHS was informed of the success of their application and work has already
begun! JOURNEY STORIES will come to Wright County late January 2011 and move on early March 2011. Thanks to the
Minnesota Humanities Center for bringing this great exhibit to Minnesota and to Wright County!
Here's
a description of the exhibit:
Journey stories – tales of how we and our
ancestors came to America – are a central element
of our personal heritage. From Native Americans to new American
citizens and regardless of
our ethnic or racial background, everyone has a story to tell. Our history is filled with
stories of
people leaving behind everything – families and possessions – to reach a new life in another
state, across the continent, or even across an ocean. The reasons behind those decisions are
myriad. Many chose
to move, searching for something better in a new land. Others had no
choice, like enslaved Africans captured and relocated
to a strange land and bravely asserting
their own cultures, or like Native Americans already here, who were often pushed
aside by
newcomers.
Our transportation history is more than boats, buses, cars, wagons, and
trucks. The
development of transportation technology was largely inspired by the human drive for freedom.
The
Museum on Main Street exhibition Journey Stories will examine the intersection between
modes of travel and Americans’
desire to feel free to move. The story is diverse and focused on
immigration, migration, innovation, and freedom. It
is accounts of immigrants coming in search
of promise in a new country; stories of individuals and families relocating
in search of fortune,
their own homestead, or employment; the harrowing journeys of Africans and Native Americans
forced to move; and, of course, fun and frolic on the open road.
The story of the intersection between
transportation and American society is complicated, but it
tells us much about who we are – people who see our
societal mobility as a means for asserting
our individual freedom. Journey Stories will use engaging images with audio
and artifacts to
tell the individual stories that illustrate the critical roles travel and movement have played in
building our diverse American society.
WCHS now a FamilySearchR Affiliate Library
of the
Genealogical Society of Utah!
Thousands
more family research microfilms are now available to our library patrons! The Wright County Historical Society prides itself
on providing the most up-to-date and thorough environment for your family research needs. Call or drop in for more information
on this very exciting partnership with the Genealogical Society of Utah's Research and Library System.
