Special Exhibit: WaterWays

The Frontier Culture Museum has a new and exciting opportunity available for students and families this Fall, and everyone is invited!  The Museum will be hosting the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street exhibit, Water|Ways, from October 21st until December 3rd.

The Water/Ways exhibit explores the following questions:

• How do Americans use water? How is water represented in our society? In what ways do we use water as a symbol?
• How does water unite communities? How does conflict over water emerge and how do communities resolve it?
• How does water affect the way we live, work, worship, create, and play?
• How do we care for water and sustain it for the future?

The Water/Ways exhibit is located in the Museum’s Welcome Center and is FREE to all visitors from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm.

Special Program Days

Water/Ways is located in the Museum’s Welcome Center.  Special water ways programs will be conducted on four selected weekend days while the exhibit is at FCMV. The goal for these programs is to emphasize water as a critical ingredient, tool, or means to an end in the daily life and work of the cultures we represent here at the FCMV.

Laundry Day on the German Farm

Saturday, October 21 (Opening Day)

• West African Farm:  18^th century water collection and transportation in tropical climate
• English Farm:  17^th century English laundry ways
• German Farm:  18^th century German flax processing; Protecting the source: communal well and water transportation
• Ganatastwi:  Native American water transportation: making a dug-out canoe; Making choices: Settlement patterns based on water sources
• 1820’s American Farm:  19^th century wool processing
• 1850’s American Farm:  19^th century chemistry: from water to chemicals–Lye making demonstration; Protecting the source: diverting water to the spring house

The Protected Spring House in 1850’s America

Saturday, November 4

• West African Farm:  18^th century water collection and transportation in tropical climate
• German Farm:  18^th century German flax processing; Protecting the source: communal well and water transportation
• Ganatastwi:  Making choices: Native American settlement patterns based on water sources
• 1740’s American Farm:  Making choices: Colonial settlement patterns based on water sources
• 1850’s American Farm:  19^th century American laundry ways; Protecting the source: diverting water to the spring house

Shaping a Dugout Canoe in Ganatastwi

Saturday, November 11

• English Farm:  17^th century English laundry ways
• Irish Farm:  18^th century Irish flax processing
• German Farm:  18^th century German beer brewing
• Ganatastwi:  Native American water transportation: making a dug-out canoe; Making choices: Native American settlement patterns based on water sources
• 1740’s American Farm:  18^th century colonial beer brewing; Making choices: Colonial settlement patterns based on water sources

Brewing Beer on the German Farm

Sunday, December 3  (Closing Day)

• West African Farm:  18^th century water collection and transportation in tropical climate
• English Farm:  17^th century English beer brewing
• German Farm:  Protecting the source: communal well and water transportation
• Ganatastwi:  Native American water transportation: making a dug-out canoe; Making choices: Native American settlement patterns based on water sources
• 1740’s American Farm:  18^th century colonial beer brewing; Making choices: Colonial settlement patterns based on water sources
• 1850’s American Farm:  19^th century chemistry: from water to chemicals–Lye making demonstration; Protecting the source: diverting water to the spring house