Category: Museum News

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:

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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.

On Sunday, April 14, between 11:00-4:00, please join us for the opening of two new exhibits –  “Military Kids’ Lives” and “Together We Serve: The Modern Military Spouse” — and the official opening of our renovated and expanded space. 

Besides the two new exhibits, you can re-visit updated permanent exhibits, see artifacts from around the world provided by former teachers in the Defense Department School System, and our Special Collections Library of books and first-hand stories of military veterans and military family members.

546B State Route 333 (Old Route 66) Tijeras (Next to Molly’s Bar) I-40 exit 175

By Allen Dale Olson 

In 2014, the museum created “Sacrifice & Service: The American Military Family,” an exhibit illustrating a broad overview on the military family lifestyle and describing the entire military family– the parents, the spouses, the service members, the children, and most of the spouses who had contributed that material  from World War II wives through those of the 1990s. 

While some things have remained the same, much has changed for modern military spouses, so museum Director Dr. Circe Olson Woessner, who is an Army wife, wanted to create a new exhibit about military spouses with input from spouses who are currently part of active duty families, so she could compare and contrast their experiences with those of spouses from past generations. 

And so, Together We Serve: The Modern Military Spouse was born. 

Together We Serve became a collaboration between the museum, Andria Williams, founder of the Military Spouse Book Review, and Terri Barnes at Elva Resa Books, the publishing company which produced “Stories Around the Table: Laughter, Wisdom and Strength in Military Life,” and 38 other authors and organizations. 

Husbands and wives sent Woessner their thoughts about what it’s like to be married to the military–some asking for anonymity–some not–but all describing the special challenges and achievements of those married to the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard. Spouse bloggers and authors sent in quotes, poems, and excerpts from their works to be featured on the panels. Children sent in items such as their mother’s jewelry or wedding cake topper—or even decorated potholders honoring their military mothers. One woman contributed a poem painted on an apron crafted from her husband’s ACUs. 

What had been planned to be a small, informal exhibit morphed into a bigger one consisting of nine large panels focusing on themes, such as community, career, home, and “balconies” and “basements.”  It also took on a decidedly literary theme.

Professor Deborah Cohler and Woessner created the educational text, Army veteran Dominic Ruiz of Dominic Ruiz Photography in Albuquerque, designed the panel graphics, arranging the quotes and poems around the themes, enabling viewers to be drawn directly into the messages.

Some of the books featured in Together We Serve are: Sacred Spaces: My Journey to the heart of Military Marriage by Corie Weathers; Surviving Deployment: A Guide for Military Families by Karen Pavlicin-Fragnito; Right Side Up: Find Your Way When Military Life Turns You Upside Down by Judy Davis; and Seven Wings to Glory by Kathleen M. Rodgers.  

Bloggers Julie Provost, Soldier’s Wife, Crazy Lifeand Lisa Smith Molinari, The Meat & Potatoes of Life: One Mom’s Search for Meaning in the Minutia of the Modern Worldprovided quotes as well. 

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The Kirtland  and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Spouses Clubs, Home Depot, GCC, the Parnall Law Firm, as well as private donors co-sponsored or donated artifacts to the exhibit.

Together We Serve is a permanent exhibit at the museum and will be on display starting in mid-April. To learn more about the museum, visit www.militaryfamilymuseum.org,  or like it on Facebook.  The museum is located at 546B State Highway 333 (Old Route 66), Tijeras, NM 87059. Phone: (505) 504-6830.