Humanities Tennessee presents The Way We Worked, a Museum on Main Street exhibit tour project in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution's Traveling Exhibition Service. The Way We Worked uses large-scale images, audio/video recordings, and artifacts to explore the history and meaning of work in American society across regions and over time. Adapted from an original exhibition developed by the National Archives, The Way We Workedexplores how work became a central element in American culture by tracing the changes that affected the workforce and work environments over the past 150 years.
Our work takes place everywhere—in mines and on farms, in factories and on the streets, in skyscrapers and on space stations. Just as diverse are the tools we use in our work, and our workplace responses to ever-changing technologies. Access to professions has also undergone dramatic changes as people topple barriers based on race, gender, class, and ethnicity in the demand for equality. Work is also a key way in which we identify ourselves, each other, and our communities—badges, uniforms, and of The Secret City.
Tennessee and its people are central and enduring in powering American society. Thus, The Way We Worked offers multiple opportunities for exhibit hosts to link their own collections and local history to launch a variety of concurrent programs such as community research projects, companion exhibits, or book/film discussions. The project can also help launch programs that probe challenging, new perspectives of community history, such as women in the workplace, postindustrial employment, historic cycles of local booms and busts—and future trends.
The exhibit tour will occur September 10, 2011–June 2, 2012, and be hosted by the following:
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September 10–October 22, 2011
Dyer County Historical Society, Dyersburg -
October 29–December 3, 2011
Melrose Center for Cultural Enrichment/Orange Mound Civic Organization, Memphis, 901/576-7266 -
December 10, 2011–January 21, 2012
Beech River Cultural Center & Museum, Lexington, 731/967-0306 -
January 28–March 3, 2012
Elkton Historical Society, Elkton -
March 10–April 21, 2012
Cowan Railroad Museum, Cowan -
April 28–June 2, 2012
Sergeant York Patriotic Foundation, Jamestown
In addition to the exhibit itself, The Way We Worked will engage the public in new ways—by traveling with an iPad or iPhone app that records visitors' stories about work, and uploads them to the Smithsonian's Stories from Main Street website, and by including eight points within the exhibit that correspond, via cell phone, to further information about Tennessee history, and where viewers may also leave audio comments.
We will continually add program and event information to this website so check back often for The Way We Worked updates. For more information, or to ask if your museum is eligible, please contact: Melissa Davis, melissa@humanitiestennessee.org, or Paul McCoy, paul@humanitiestennessee.org or call 615-770-0006.
