America 250: MAC exhibit celebrates ordinary and historic objects from 1770s to today
At first glance, the objects in the exhibition appear to be random, with no connection from one to the next. But looking closer at the items on display, it becomes clear that these seemingly random items form a picture of America’s history, as experienced in the Inland Northwest, from 1776 to 2026.
In the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture’s exhibition “America at 250: 25 Decades of Collected Memories,” a single object represents each decade of America’s history since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
To represent the 1770s, the exhibit features a cane made from wood, antler and silver that was owned by Uriah Slack, a Revolutionary War militia member who is believed to have helped General George Washington and his troops across the Delaware River on Christmas Day in 1776.
There is also a 39-star American flag from 1889, the year Washington achieved statehood; a Mahjong set made in a Japanese internment camp between 1942 and 1944; Spokane activist Marion Moos’ political button bag from the 1970s; and a 1984 Apple Macintosh computer.
It’s a collection that shows how much has changed in the last 250 years while also making space to celebrate the present and look ahead to the future. “America at 250: 25 Decades of Collected Memories” runs through Feb. 14 at the MAC.
Ellen Postlewait, curator of history at the MAC, inherited this project when she stepped into the role two years ago. At the time, she remembers asking herself “How do we talk about 250 years of history from Washington in one room?”
But with a background in material culture studies and an interest in what museums collect and why, Postlewait was excited to answer that question.
Postlewait surveyed the 60,000 objects in the museum’s history collection, thinking of how she could make a story out of just 25 pieces. Seeing how old some of the objects were, many of which long predated the founding of the Eastern Washington State Historical Society in 1916, affirmed that collecting had been a priority for her successors.
“The people who were looking out at the community and going, ‘It’s the post-Civil War Great Migration of people, and everyone’s bringing these things that are important to them from their old life on the other side of the country and coming up here and intermixing with the cultures here and the building new cities’ and all different things,” she said. “These little pieces were deemed worthy to stay in the museum collection for various reasons.”
When reviewing the museum’s collection, Postlewait worked to include objects that showed the daily life of an average resident, including impeccable items that survived as long as they did because they were never actually used, as well as items representative of major historical events that someone in the region was somehow tied to.
There were some decades Postlewait had a lot to choose from while others presented more of a challenge. A previous museum director, for example, was interested in military history, so Postlewait had her pick of World War I and World War II history.
She also had a lot to choose from for the 1910s and 1920s, as that was the time the historical society was founded thanks to residents wanting to save their voice and experience as they got older.
“I have some really rich, interesting things from the ’20s, but then there’s these other decades where it’s a little bit less, but then sometimes the beauty of that is that that’s where some of those more personal stories were,” she said. “The quilt cover that was never finished, but this family saved because their mom made it, and so it was important, and they used it and kept it for over 100 years, because that she had anything to do with it made it important. Those are the stories that I feel like are really personal and can connect with so much.”
The exhibition ends with a basket made by Joseph Lavadour, brother of painter James, whose exhibit “Land of Origin” recently closed at the MAC. The basket is part of a collection of baskets gifted to the museum’s American Indian collection earlier this year.
Postlewait knew the turnaround would be quick, but she asked Tisa Matheson, the curator of the American Indian collection, if she could exhibit a basket in “America at 250.” Matheson agreed, and museum staff went “pedal to the metal” to get the basket processed and ready to be put on display.
“That one feels particularly special because it’s this new, beautiful gift, and it was made in ‘24 so it’s my 2020s decade object,” Postlewait said. “As I’m asking everyone, ‘What do you think will be saved to remember now?,’ I get to put a Joey basket on display.”
In the exhibition, Postlewait poses a lot of questions to visitors: How do you relate to this item? What would your version of this item be?
At the end of the exhibit, the questions turn to how we might look back on the present: What will be the objects that answer the future’s questions about now? What are the things that people think will be important to save?
Even in a virtual age, Postlewait said, there’s something enchanting about a handmade item.
“I really hope that it prompts (visitors) to think about how do we tell history through the things that we save,” she said.
In this semiquincentennial year, MAC Executive Director Wes Jessup believes this exhibit brings the history often read about in textbooks to life, helping visitors understand that history on another level.
Postlewait said visitors might feel as if they’re time traveling while moving around the exhibit, realizing how long but also how short 250 years really is. As they leave the MAC, Postlewait hopes their thoughts turn to their own treasured items.
“I hope it’s an interesting room that is thought-provoking, and maybe sends people home thinking about the things in their own life that they save or might consider saving,” she said.