Category: Museum News

Some quick facts:

 Books in our Special Collections Library:  651

Folios of first-hand memories: 220

Original Letters Home dating from WWI to present: 115

As we look back at our museum’s accomplishments for 2017, we are grateful for the support we have had over the past year, and we are also amazed at what we have accomplished with our very small, but determined all-volunteer Board of Directors.

2017 Accomplishments:

• Built and dedicated a memorial honoring military families
• Compiled and published 3 anthologies
• Created SHOUT/Inside Out exhibit
• Hosted the War Child/Battlefield Home weekend of reflection
• Designed and constructed our Victory Garden and Brat-Hood project
• Dedicated our Flagpole
• Hosted 3 Naturalization ceremonies
• Hosted 2 Open Houses
• Presented Vietnam: A Tale of Two Wars
• Conducted a transformative paper making workshop for women veterans
• Started the 5^th Thursday programs
• Hosted a Leadership class retreat
• Coordinated the New Mexico Midway leg for Run for the Wall

2018 is looking just as busy—we plan to do the following:

• Get an AV system for the memorial
• Continue the 5^th Thursday program
• Participate in the Veterans’ winterfest weekend in Angelfire
• Present a second exhibit: STILL SHOUTING!
• Healing & Recovery Journey workshops and exhibits
• Host quarterly Naturalization ceremonies
• Valentine-making workshop for children
• Create and publish a Christmas graphic novel
• Film a short documentary
• Create a stage play based on stories from SHOUT!
• Collaborate with the Love-Armor Project for an event in Santa Fe

The museum counts on grants and small donations from community members to bring these events free of charge to the public. We are active on Facebook, Twitter, our 3 Podcasts and 7 blogs. You can link to all of them through our webpage at: www.militaryfamilymuseum.org.

 Please consider donating to MAMF to ensure its continued success and the preservation of military family history—any amount is greatly appreciated!

 Physical Donations:  We are especially looking for:

Letters from troops to their families (originals and copies)

Memory stories from military spouses, parents and children (e-mail or snail mail)

Memory stories from DODDS Teachers (e-mail or snail mail)

Books by spouses and brats for our library

Family member memorabilia (anything)

Your military story written on a postcard.

Our mailing address is:

Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center

PO Box 5085

Albuquerque, NM 87185

 

Email:

militaryfamilymuseum@comcast.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are physically located in Tijeras and are currently open Saturday and Sunday 12:30-5:00, but hope to expand our hours as we have staffing.

We are a unique museum and special collections library dedicated to telling the story of America’s military families. In addition to four exhibits, our museum has published two anthologies (more in progress) and has produced several theatrical and arts programs. We have a robust social media presence, three podcasts, and have traveling footlocker displays. We could use volunteers who are creative, social media savvy and who like to interact with people. We have a variety of projects that we could use help with.  We are also seeking stories and memory pieces from military family members.

Volunteers should contact: Circe Olson Woessner, Executive Director, Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center  (505) 504-6830 or email: militaryfamilymuseum@comcast.net.

 Our Vision:

The Museum of the American Military Family and Learning Center is where people with shared and converging paths come together as community, inspiring a sense of place and history. As a repository for their stories, we shape the future by preserving our heritage, recording its evolution, and inviting dialogue by sharing our experiences with the world.

Our Mission:

The Museum of the American Military Family and Learning Center brings together people with shared experiences showcasing and honoring those who also served–America’s Military Families.

 

By Allen D. Olson

The tools, musical instruments, garments, art work, and personal effects gathered by Dorothy Alonzo Cox from Libya, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and England are on display in Tijeras at the Museum of the American Military Family (MAMF) and open to the public for the first time as part of a holiday open house in the Museum.

Visitors can tap out a tune on a Filipino Tallentang – eight brass gongs — and examine a leather camel whip. They can see a Victorian bug collection from England and a carved skull used for after-dinner drinks and the skin of a tiger shot by a police officer in India. There are brass trays, camel saddles, Coptic containers, and paintings of Arab and African village scenes and craftsmen. The Cox Collection has a little something for everyone.

Dorothy Cox lost her husband in the Korean War and decided to dedicate her teaching career to the Defense Department (DoD) Schools around the world; and just before her death in August 2016, she made it known she wanted to share her collections in a way where other DoD teachers and students, as well as the general public, could enjoy them, and her family presented them to MAMF.  They are now on display in the MAMF Library right next to Schooling with Uncle Sam, a permanent exhibit tracing the history and evolution of  the DoD schools, which includes descriptions by teachers and students about studying art with the Louvre in your front yard, or receiving your high school diploma in a Roman amphitheater, or making school field trips to Hiroshima or the Berlin Wall.

The history of the American military family is shown in a series of information panels spaced around a real house furnished just as a military family would have it – pictures on the mantel, starch and ironing board at the ready, uniforms handy, a wheel chair, cabinets loaded with beer steins, coffee cups, and tee shirts betraying where the family has been, and scrapbooks and photo albums from World War I to Iraq.

Other MAMF exhibits include panels depicting the sacrifice and service of military families, perspectives of military family life, and “G.I. Jokes,” which features a humorous look at military life through the pens of noted cartoonists and the characters they created.

The MAMF library also archives more than 500 books by and about military family life and folios of first-hand stories recounting events and experiences of the mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, spouses, and others who have loved and supported a member of America’s armed forces. MAMF has provided historical and personal material about third-culture children to university researchers, filmmakers, and historians from California to Germany and hosts discussion programs enabling civilians and Veterans to share thoughts and insights about the effects of war on family life.

Those effects of war are visible in an intimate memorial to a 14-year-old Vietnamese girl shown in a painting by an American soldier who watched her die as a result of a cross-fire and lamented that he was unable to help her. At the Museum entrance is a model bamboo cage like those used for prisoners of war in Vietnam, serving as a further reminder of the effects of war.

MAMF has published four anthologies: From the Frontlines to the Home Front – New Mexicans Reflect on War; War Child – Lessons Learned from Growing Up in War;  SHOUT! Sharing Our Truth; and Home Front Hearth, a collection of favorite recipes gathered from around the world by military families. The books are for sale in the museum gift shop.

The December 10 Holiday Open House runs from 12:30 to 4:30 and is free to the public. Attendees are invited to bring a military or international Christmas ornament to help decorate the MAMF holiday tree.

MAMF is a volunteer 501 c 3 entity with no paid staff. It has a Board of Directors and  liaison contacts with military-related organizations as well a writer and an artist-in-residence. It has memberships and partnerships with a number of museum associations. The MAMF

website is http://www.militaryfamilymuseum.org.

MAMF is at 546B State Route 333 (Old Route 66), right next to Molly’s, in Tijeras. Normal hours are 12:30 to 5:00 Saturdays and Sundays or by appointment. For information: Tel: (505) 504-6830. info@militaryfamilymuseum.org. Admission is free.

 

 

At the museum, we are thankful for all the support we have received from military families around the world–we could not create this museum without them…as military families, we have celebrated holidays far from loved ones, and when we are together, that makes the holiday so much sweeter.  From our family to yours-we wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Photo: Jim Branson