By David Markham
If you haven’t seen it yet, or if you want to see it again before it leaves, the train-related special exhibit at the Johnson County Museum, “TRAINS: Transportation and the Transformation of Johnson County” will be closing in mid-January.
The museum’s 2023 holiday exhibit, “Jewish Holidays in the All-Electric House,” is also in its final weeks and will close on Jan. 6.
“TRAINS” opened May 13 and will run through Jan. 13, so there’s limited time left to visit or revisit the exhibit, which examines how everything changed after the railroad came through Johnson County for the first time in 1867. The exhibit is included with regular museum admission. Museum hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, and $4 for children. The museum will be closed on Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.
“Many guests have visited the museum specifically to see “TRAINS,” and they often relay stories of family members who worked for the railroad, or their own experiences with traveling by train,” said Curator of Engagement Lindsey Arnold Seevers. “It’s also been a great intergenerational museum experience, as grandparents and parents share their railroad-related stories with their kids.”
Curator of Interpretation Andrew R. Gustafson said visitors are often surprised to learn through the exhibit how the railroad influenced the development of some towns, and the demise of others.
“Because the suburbs are so often thought of as the space for automobiles, I think the importance of the railroads in history gets overlooked,” he said. “And since most people do not directly interact with trains often anymore, it might not be common knowledge just how important the railroads remain to Johnson County’s economy and how many of them run across the landscape each day.”
Visitors’ favorite parts of the exhibit include: a working N-scale model train which depicts scenes of rural depots similar to the type that existed in Johnson County; the large floor map showing Johnson County towns along the railroad, and what they produced; and a telegraph where visitors try their hands at Morse code.
One visitor even discovered some family history in the exhibit.
“One of the best parts of being a county history museum is when people see themselves and their stories in our exhibits and artifacts…and sometimes that’s literally,” Arnold Seevers said “A family photo of Luz and Eladio Valdez is featured in the “TRAINS” exhibit. Eladio worked for the Santa Fe Railroad in Argentine. Eladio Valdez Jr., his youngest son, visited the museum with his family and we were able to capture three generations of the Valdez family in one photo!”
Another example is that the exhibit also features a photo of Rosalio Padilla working on the railroad in Kansas. His granddaughter, Mary Padilla, now serves on the Friends of the Johnson County Museum’s board.
At about the same time the “TRAINS” exhibit opened, a new trolley playscape honoring the Strang Line commuter railroad opened inside the museum’s popular KidScape area, and it has proven popular as well.
“The trolley playscape has been very popular with families visiting the museum,” Arnold Seevers said. “Kids enjoy selling tickets, loading up the luggage, and taking riders on an imaginative journey.”
“Jewish Holidays in the All-Electric House” is a collaborative effort between the Johnson County Museum and the Michael Klein Collection at The Temple B’nai Jehudah. Through this exhibit, visitors can gain a deeper understanding of the rich heritage and traditions involved in celebrating Sukkot (a harvest holiday), Hannukah (a wintertime “festival of lights”), and Shabbat (a weekly Sabbath celebration). This exhibit opened Sept. 29 and will run through Jan. 6.
Coming up next in the museum’s special exhibit space is “Inside the Box: A 1951 Time Capsule.” This exhibit, which opens Feb. 3 and runs through March 30, will tell the story of a time capsule laid by Johnson County employees in 1951 inside the cornerstone of the then-new Johnson County Courthouse.
