Help the Museum Choose its Next Special Exhibit
Read the options below and click the button to vote.
Voting will be open until August 31
Exhibit will be on display from February until December 2023
1. Feelin' Alright
Medicine, Health, and Wellness in Orange County History
This exhibit will explore the different medicines, exercises, foods, and other procedures that people in Orange County have used to promote and improve health including allopathic, homeopathic, and osteopathic medicines. Visitors will see how preventatives and cures have changed over time from indigenous people through the end of the 20th century.
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Potential Artifacts to be Displayed:
Traditional medical and dental implements used by local doctors, microscopes, apothecary tools and recipes, nursing uniforms and tools, midwifery books and tools, nutritional charts, exercise equipment...
4. Hit the Road, Jack
A History of Travel in Orange County
This exhibit will explore the roads that have brought people to and through Orange County as well as the reasons for the travel and the methods of transportation. Visitors will see how the commerce that induced people to travel changed over time from indigenous people through the end of the 20th century.
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Potential Artifacts to be Displayed:
Maps, horse, ox, and mule shoes, harnesses and saddles, wagon wheels and carriage axles, blacksmith tools, hitching posts and singletrees...
2. Treasure Hunters
Orange County Collectors and their Collections
The Thrill of the Hunt! This exhibit will highlight the various treasures collected by people in Orange County – everything from airsickness bags to flue covers, lunch boxes to quilts, Revolutionary War memorabilia to Zippo lighters.
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Potential Artifacts to be Displayed:
Based on the significance of their subject matter and quality, artifacts will be solicited from personal collections. Collections will also be chosen with an emphasis on diversity, ensuring that all parts of the county are represented geographically, ethnically, and socio-economically. Interpretive signs will provide:
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Background information on the collection owner
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The total number of items in the collection
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Reasons why the collection is important
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Relevant connections to Orange County history
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Highlights of a few pieces
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Interactive questions (flip-up panels)
Additionally, videos could be shown presenting more community members what they collect, why they collect it, how long they have been collecting, and what their favorite piece is.
3. Workin' for a Livin'
A History of Trades in Orange County
This exhibit will explore the work of skilled craftsmen in Orange County. Visitors will see how the types of trades and the tools used have changed over time. Trades require physical skill, dexterity, and training. Tradespeople are carpenters and other workers involved with construction, auto mechanics or wheelwrights, electricians, plumbers, cobblers, millers, barbers and beauticians.
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Potential Artifacts to be Displayed:
Cobbler’s Tools and Shoes, Carpenter’s Tools, Clock, Watch, and Jewelry making/repair and Jewelry, Brickmaking and Bricks, Barbers and Beauticians, Seamstresses, Tailors, and Milliners and Clothes, Brewers and Distillers, Blacksmiths, Locksmiths, Loggers, Vehicle Making, Native American Tools, and Masons’ Tools...
5. Be the Change!
A History of Volunteering in Orange County
This exhibit will commemorate the achievements that volunteer groups have made to the community. Visitors will learn when and how the groups were founded in Orange County, some of the most impactful projects the groups have undertaken, and the equipment they have used in their work. Groups featured in the exhibit would represent the broad geographic, racial, and socio-economic diversity of the county such as:
Firefighters, Boy and Girl Scouts, Masonic Lodges, Schley Grange, Ruritan, Rotary, Kiwanis, Elks, Exchange Club, OBSN, libraries, El Centro Hispano, senior centers, Fairview Community, garden clubs, 4-H, Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, NAACP
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Potential Artifacts to be Displayed:
Uniforms, badges, gavels, membership cards, pins, and rings, flags and banners, books, trophies, ribbons, plaques, and recognition gifts, projects commissioned by groups like art shows and 4-H, photos and scrapbooks, firefighter helmets, hoses, and buckets...