Category: Museum News

Starting on July 14, museum visitors will enjoy “GI Jokes: A (Somewhat) Light-hearted Look at Military Life”, which will be on display in the museum’s education and performance gallery. GI Jokes is one of the museum’s rotating exhibits and will be on display through October. 

Created by historian and Army veteran Ron Panebouef and military spouse Stacy Parrott, the display includes works by more than a dozen prominent writers and artists. Panel art was designed by Army veteran Dominic Ruiz. 

Visitors, besides enjoying a smile or a chuckle or a nostalgic memory and perhaps shedding a tear, will also learn the origin of some of our most popular daily expressions and colorful military phrases. Comic book fans will appreciate the cover art, comics, and graphic novels on display.

The exhibit was sponsored by Kaufman’s West, Comic Warehouse, Rio Grande Credit Union, and TLC Books. 

The Museum of the Military Family is open Saturday through Wednesday 10:30-5:00

For Immediate Release

            NASHVILLE, TN—May 2019—The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) proudly announces that the Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center in Tijeras, New Mexico,  is the recipient of an Award of Excellence for  its short film, “Love Song for the Dead”. The AASLH Leadership in History Awards, now in its 74th year, is the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history. 

“Love Song for the Dead”is a short 10 minute-long documentary film which weaves together military family stories and original music, creating a compelling musical reflection of the sacrifices of New Mexico’s deceased service members. It was a collaboration between the museum and a film intern from Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM.

This is the second award in as many years for the museum. Last year it received the  2018 Albert B. Corey Award, which is “named in honor of a founder andformer president of the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH), it recognizes primarily volunteer-operated organizations that best display the qualities of vigor, scholarship, and imagination in their work. The Leadership in History Awards committee presents the Corey Award at their discretion.”

This year, AASLH is proud to confer fifty national awards honoring people, projects, exhibits, and publications. The winners represent the best in the field and provide leadership for the future of state and local history. Presentation of the awards will be made at a special banquet during the 2019 AASLH Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, on Friday, August 30. The banquet is supported by a generous contribution from the History Channel.

The AASLH awards program was initiated in 1945 to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history throughout the United States. The AASLH Leadership in History Awards not only honor significant achievement in the field of state and local history, but also bring public recognition of the opportunities for small and large organizations, institutions, and programs to make contributions in this arena. For more information about the Leadership in History Awards, contact AASLH at 615-320-3203, or go to www.aaslh.org.

The American Association for State and Local History is a not-for-profit professional organization of individuals and institutions working to preserve and promote history. From its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, AASLH provides leadership, service, and support for its members who preserve and interpret state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful to all people. AASLH publishes books, technical publications, a quarterly magazine, and maintains numerous affinity communities and committees serving a broad range of constituents across the historical community. The association also sponsors an annual meeting, regional and national training in-person workshops, and online training.

The Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center is an all-volunteer  501 (c) 3 non-profit entity and recognizes , honors  and serves the families who stand beside our nation’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guardsmen. It serves as a forum for the spouses, children, parents, grandparents, and others who have loved and supported a member of the military. It is a repository of stories, letters, documents, and photos of military family members throughout our nation’s history. The museum honors the countless men, women, and children who serve beside America’s service members. It tells their stories, which sees history through a different lens—and it draws attention to their unique culture and needs—and shows the good and the bad side of military life.  

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To register:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe-AZtJHrXevH8G2V948EJN0wKGHfAoZkwqvUZFGYCYqpt9_w/viewform

546B State Route 333, Tijeras, NM  87059

info@militaryfamilymuseum.org                (505) 504-6830                                

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center (MAMF)

For additional information: Dr. Circe Olson Woessner, Executive Director: 505 504-6830

April 28, 2019

Still Shouting – Memories from Inside the Closetopens in the MAMF Galleries at 10:30 am on Sunday, May 5 as a follow-on to the Inside Outexhibit which won the 2018 prestigious Albert B. Corey Award given by the American Association for State and Local History, gaining national recognition for the Tijeras museum.

Still Shoutingis the history of the LGBT military veterans before and after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” both while on active duty and upon returning to communities back home. MAMF has also published an anthology – SHOUT! Sharing our Truth –of first-hand stories  by LGBT veterans and veteran family members. A reader posted on the MAMF website that “This is an important collection of personal narratives… that are emotionally compelling… an important document of voices that matter.”  

Both exhibits have been created in collaboration with the Veterans Administration Medical Center LGBT Program offices , Sandia National Labs Pride Alliance, Kirtland AFB Gay-Straight Alliance and American Veterans for Equal Rights. 

Military uniforms, re-purposed into works of art, will be on display in the new MAMF Performance and Meeting Space, and, as the MAMF Director says, “the exhibit will share with the public unique stories that have not often been told.”

All seven MAMF galleries will be open during this show so visitors can see presentations on “A Military Kid’s Life,” “The Military Spouse – We Also Serve”; “Addiction and Recovery”; “Coming Home”; “Pride”; “Loss”; and “Schooling with Uncle Sam” – a look at the world-wide school system operated by the Department of Defense.

Admission is free, though donations are welcome. Hours are 10:30 to 5:00 Saturdays through Wednesdays. MAMF is on Old Route 66 (Central Avenue) seven miles east of Tramway (Interchange 175 off I-40), right next to Molly’s Bar.

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By Allen Dale Olson

We are not defined by ethnicity, religion, geography, or race. You cannot spot us in a crowd. But we, the children of warriors, have been shaped by a culture so powerful we are forever different, forever proud, and forever linked to one another.     -Mary Edwards Wertsch, Reflections on an Invisible Nation

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like if you had attended five or six different schools enroute to high school graduation? Or if you had lived in a foreign country by the time you reached third grade? Or during any of your elementary or junior or senior school years?

At the Museum of the American Military,  as a civilian, you can live that kind of life vicariously because of a new exhibit – Military Kid’s Lives–  or as a former military kid, you can reminisce about those memories of packing up every two or three years to move to schools in another state or another country. You can recapture the childhood pride you once had (and still have) in being a Brat or learn what it’s like to be a child growing up in a military family by reading exhibit panels including the stories of kids from the 1930s to the present.

The exhibit is a permanent part of the Museum’s collections, and contrasts and compares the experiences of Hudson Philips, a Brat in the 1930s and 40s with those of author Bernard Lee (1950s and 60s) and Dwayne Dunn (1980s and 90s) and the more recent reflections of Janine Boldrin. 

The museum is in Tijeras, New Mexico, on Old Route 66 just seven miles east of Albuquerque and is collecting and preserving the stories, documents, photos, and artifacts of the parents, spouses, and children of those who serve and have served in America’s military. It is also home to a special gallery focusing on the history of the Defense Department world-wide school system for military children with commentary by teachers and students going back to the 1946 founding of the system.

  Military Kids’ Lives, the story of what it’s like to be a military kid, is a compilation of information not only from those who grew up military, but also from some of the nation’s leading researchers on military kid life: Marc Curtis, founder of Military Brats Registry; Mary Edwards Wertsch, author of “Military Brats: Life inside the Fortress”; Donna Musil, producer of the documentary film, “Brats – Our Journey Home”; and the museum’s artist-in-residence, Lora Beldon, founder of Military Kid Art Project.

Elva Resa Publishing House and Military Kids Lives Magazine are also featured on panels discussing their military child-centric publications. Visitors will see artifacts, clothing, and books donated by people who grew up in military families – from Thailand to Texas, Norway to Libya, all over Europe, the USA, and the Far East. They can read first-hand stories of people who spent much of their lives in service to their country.

The exhibit was sponsored, in part, by Home Depot, Daisy BB guns, GCC, Rio Grande Credit Union and Chameleon Kids.  

MAMF is at 546B State Route 333, Tijeras, NM 87059, right next to Molly’s famous bar at the interchange of I-40 and SR 14, exit 175  (the Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway). 

Telephone (505) 504-6830. www.militaryfamilymuseum.org.