Pioneer Museum adds special markers in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month
FLAGSTAFF — The “Resilience: Women in Flagstaff’s Past and Present” pop-up traveling exhibit continues through the end of September at the Murdoch Community Center, 203 E. Brannen Ave., Flagstaff.
Resilience is a collaborative project by the Arizona Historical Society (AHS) and the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University. The exhibit shares the powerful stories of twenty women who faced extraordinary challenges, and overcame hardships, painful legacies, and adverse environments.
The Murdoch Community Center is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. A closing reception will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29 at the center.
There are two ways to see “Resilience: Women in Flagstaff’s Past and Present.” One full set of panels is on display at the Pioneer Museum, 2340 N. Fort Valley Road
Flagstaff, along with awesome artifacts on loan from the women, non-binary people and their families.
The exhibit opened Aug. 23 with a pop-up display at the Flagstaff City Hall, coinciding with National Women’s Equality Day on Aug. 26. The exhibition will be on view in various locations throughout Flagstaff
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, special markers have been placed for the individuals in Resilience who are of Hispanic descent. Courtesy photo.
Women have shaped Flagstaff’s development as public figures, activists, business leaders, educators, and caretakers. The exhibition features: Rhoda Abeshaus, Jessie Jimenez Alonzo, Bonn Baudelaire, Mary Costigan, Rachel Tso Cox, Joan Dorsey, Coral Evans, Mary C. Hart, Marianna Herman, Kat Jim, Doris Martin, Procora Vergara Martinez, Meagan and Natalie Metz, Delia Ceballos Muñoz, Eunice Nicks, Shirley Sims, Annie Watkins, Emma Jane Wilson, Dew Yu Wong, and Noemi A.
Women have also played a pivotal role in the development of modern Flagstaff. They employed entrepreneurial skills when Flagstaff was still a railroad and lumber town, made it their home after arriving from as far away as China, navigated the economic crisis of the 1930s, helped to integrate the town in the 1960s, embraced diversity, and created opportunities for the less-fortunate. Visitors can trace changes in American society through the experiences of people in a small town of America’s Southwest.
Bill Peterson, Vice President of Collections and Education at the Arizona Historical Society shared, “We all face challenges in life, sometimes these challenges are severe, sometimes quite minor. Can we look to the past for encouragement, to see ourselves and our challenges reflected in the mirror of time and in the experiences of those who have gone before us? Can those past experiences of other people provide us with the ability, strength, and courage to face and overcome our own challenges?”
Peterson explains, “The women in this exhibit all have something to teach us about overcoming challenges, standing up for ourselves and our communities. Their experiences, their resilience, their stories are the focus of this exhibit. We believe their powerful stories will have incredible meaning for people today.”
Björn Krondorfer says, “Students from NAU worked with us for a full year on this exhibit, doing primary research, assisting in documentation, and participating in oral interviews. Together, we discovered richly textured lives of women in Flagstaff’s past and present. It is time for the community to take note of them.”
The Resilience r esearch team consisted of students from Northern Arizona University and faculty/staff from the Martin-Springer Institute and the Arizona Historical Society.
In 2018, the AHS Pioneer Museums exhibit, Todos Unidos: The Hispanic Experience in Flagstaff was awarded both a Viola Award for Community Impact by the Flagstaff Arts Council and a national Award of Merit by the American Association for State and Local History. That exhibition’s purpose was to tell untold stories in Flagstaff’s history and Hispanic community. Resilience aims at continuing that mission; it reflects the idea that Arizonans are making history every day.
For more information, please visit https://arizonahistoricalsociety.org/museum/pioneer-museum/ or call 928-774-6272.
About Arizona Historical Society
Mission: Connecting people through the power of Arizona’s history.
Founded in 1864, the Arizona Historical Society (AHS) is the state’s oldest and most prestigious historical organization, dedicated to collecting, preserving and sharing Arizona’s rich history. The stories of the people, places and events that have shaped Arizona – are told through museum exhibits, programs, events and outreach. The Arizona Historical Society is proud to serve as the steward of Arizona’s history. Our collections, housed in AHS museum facilities throughout the state, number in excess of three million objects. Our artifact and manuscript holdings offer opportunities for public programming, educational outreach, and exhibitions, as well as academic and community-based research. National History Day in Arizona is a signature program of AHS and a year-long academic program focused on historical research, interpretation and creative expression for middle school and high school students.
For additional information, visit www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org
Arizona Historical Society Administration: 949 E. 2nd St. Tucson, AZ 85719
About the Martin-Springer Institute
The Martin-Springer Institute brings the experiences of the Holocaust into sharp focus in order to understand those events in the context of today’s concerns and crises. Through public presentations, exhibits, teacher training, symposia and special events, we seek to use insights and lessons from the past to address current conflicts—including the treatment of refugees, mass violence, and genocide. Our programs promote the values of moral courage, tolerance, empathy, reconciliation, and justice. Founded by Ralph and Doris Martin, the Institute fosters dialogue on local, national, and international levels.