Category: Exhibition

Growing up in a Mexican-American family, I have been immersed in our cultural traditions such as visiting panaderías to buy sweet bread and building alters for Día de Los Muertos. I always wondered why my family left Mexico to come to America to be sharecroppers, and why they eventually settled in San Antonio. My great-great-grandfather, …

One fall afternoon in 1939, two special passengers climbed aboard The Doodlebug in Montgomery and set off for Tuscaloosa. James Shields Gaskell Jr. and Dorothy Dale, my grandfather and grandmother, happened to sit beside each other on their way back to school. Dot was beginning her freshman year at Alabama, while James was beginning his …

As a child I remember attending my mother’s family reunions in Greeneville, Tennessee, and wondering how so many family members lived in such a small town in a rural area. During my ancestral research it became clear that this phenomenon did not occur over night, but rather was the result of almost 300 years of …

Though I have lived in New Mexico for the past eleven years, I was born in Florida. I spent the first six years of my life there, and I have returned to visit many times since leaving. Despite growing up surrounded by the juniper bushes and red rocks of the New Mexican high desert, I …

Since the early days of Colonial America, the Sutton family has been one dedicated to spiritual living, beginning with the practice of Quakerism. A Quaker is a member of the Religious Society of Friends, a Christian sect founded in 1650. The central belief of Quakers is the doctrine of the Inner Light. They reject formal …

Both sides of my family have been in America since the settlement of the American colonies—my mother’s side seeking religious refuge in the Massachusetts Bay Colony circa 1575, and my father’s side embarking on the journey to find economic opportunity in the Carolina Colony. Because my family has been in our country since its birth, …

It’s always enjoyable to come back from time traveling. If we use our imagination to give life to the memories of our ancestors, we can go back and experience events that they lived, even if we can only experience them to a small degree. The power and abilities of the imagination is just one of …

My mother’s side of the family came from Germany in the late 18th century. My ancestors began their life in the United States in Pennsylvania because it was home to many Lutheran German immigrants. Michael Kuntz was a farmer who decided to take his family further west in search of more opportunities. The Zane’s Trace …

After taking an Art History class my senior year of High School, my interest in the arts grew tremendously. I was thrilled to learn that my great great Uncle Henry was a fantastic painter throughout his lifetime. Born and raised in Vitebsk, Russia, shown to the right, Henry Landish came from a simple background. His …