Museum on Main Street

Museum on Main Street (MOMS) is a partnership of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) and state humanities councils nationwide that serves the small-town museums and citizens of rural America.

In 2007-2008, the NHC will bring the MOMS exhibit "Between Fences" to Nebraska for a statewide tour of six communities and the State Capitol.

In 2005-2006, the MOMS exhibit “Key Ingredients: America By Food” toured six communities between May 2005 and March 2006. In 2003, The MOMS exhibit "Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future" toured six communities statewide from from March to December.

In 2001-2002, the Nebraska Humanities Council brought "Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon" to Nebraska for a statewide tour of 10 communities and the Nebraska State Fair. The exhibition toured from November 2001 to September 2002.

in 1996, "Produce for Victory: the American Homefront 1941-1945" toured five communities between May and November.

Museum on Main Street serves rural communities by circulating Smithsonian exhibitions that focus on broad topics of national history and culture. State humanities councils help small museums prepare exhibition-related events for and about their communities. The museums benefit from the project's professional training in educational programs, marketing and interpretation of local history.

Through these combines resources, Museum on Main Street provides high-quality cultural programs to underserved rural citizens and sparks lasting professinal improvement for small-town cultural organizations.

Learn more about Museum on Main Street at museumonmainstreet.org. The site has detailed information for the general public and members of the news media, including updated itineraries and educational resources for each exhibition. It is also used as a key administrative and assistance tool for state and local Museum on Main Street coordinators.

"Produce for Victory: Posters on the American Home Front, 1941-1945." Rural Americans have a chance to add their own WWII experiences to the nation's understanding of this critical episode in American history. Communities respond to the exhibition with USO recreations, scrap drives, victory gardens, and even Rosie the Riveter look-alike contests.

"Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon." The barn is explored as a cultural and agricultural icon. It brings record-breaking audiences to small-town museums and generates interest in barn preservation and historic barn restorations.

"Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future." A perfect vehicle for community planning and tongue-in-cheek technology predictions, this exhibition inspires lively activities, from invention fairs to design contests. It examines the ways that Americans in the past century envisioned our collective future.

"Key Ingredients: America by Food." Food on the American table is rooted in centuries of continuous borrowing and sharing between people across generations, cultures and the nation. Small-town museums can create fun activities and events such as cook-offs, oral history projects and folk demonstrations.

"Between Fences." We live between fences. We hardly notice them, but they are dominant features in our lives and in our history. This exhibition is a visual cultural history of fences and land use that examines how neighbors and nations divide and protect, offend and defend through the boundaries they build.

"New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music." This exhibit explores the cultural process that has made America the birthplace of more music than any other place on earth. It’s the story of people in a New World, places they have left behind, and ideas they have brought with them. It is the story of people who were already here, but whose world is remade.