NEWS RELEASE
March 23, 2016
For use: Immediate
Finney County Historical Society
Contact: Steve Quakenbush, 620-272-3664
“SIGNS OF THE TIMES” EXHIBIT OPENS AT FINNEY COUNTY MUSEUM
Front Door Gallery featuring collection of local advertising images from earlier decades
Entitled “Signs of the Times,” the display incorporates nearly two dozen advertising signs from Finney County’s past, ranging from vintage metal brand-name plates to signage hand-painted on wood, glass or other surfaces for specific local businesses. The exhibit will remain in place for the next couple of months, offering a glimpse into advertising from the community’s earlier decades.
The Front Door Gallery is located just inside in the museum’s main display hall, and admission is free. Exhibit hours are 1-5 p.m. seven days weekly, except March 27 when the facility will be closed for Easter. The gallery is designed to house smaller displays and collections that are changed periodically throughout the year.
The exhibit follows a showing of Native American images created by local resident Ron Smith, which were viewed by more than 3,000 visitors over the last nine weeks. The new display includes a gold-painted window from the office of Judge William Easton Hutchison, a pair of retail display thermometers that once advertised Ferris Hams and Orange Crush soda, and a room rental sign from the long-closed Grand Central Hotel on Garden City’s Main Street.
Additional signs in the exhibit, many with the wear and patina of age, once stood at Wiley’s Funeral Home, People’s State Bank, Townsend Photo, Schulman Hardware, Ted’s Market, the Garden Smoker, the community’s drive-in theater and a number of other businesses. The collection also includes a proudly-marked 80-year-old bass drum from the Garden City Municipal Band, a pair of 1960s menu posters from the Woolworth lunch counter, and a five foot tall metal chicken, once festooned with neon tubes, that roosted for many years above the entrance of the Elite Cafe on Fulton Street.
Museum visitors may see various other long-term and changing exhibits too, ranging from the recently-updated “My Place in Time” display to a 19th Century kitchen, “Take Stock in Finney County,” “Spirit of the Plains,” “Garden City Then and Now,” “Celebrate Kansas” and “Buffalo Jones, Last of the Plainsmen.” The museum gift shop is open simultaneously with the exhibits.
While exhibits are open each afternoon, museum office hours run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, and information is available at 620-272-3664.
