[Exhibition]
Pause and Play: A Pop-Up Gallery

About This Event

Pause and Play, a temporary gallery, offers visitors a new space in the museum to see popular culture and math-related objects from the collections and partake in hands-on activities. Displays feature entertainment artifacts from the 1950s and early 1960s including a Superman costume, a Howdy Doody marionette, the Lone Ranger’s mask and silver bullet, puppets from Captain Kangaroo and characters from Sam and Friends, the precursor to The Muppets, including the first Kermit the Frog. Music items on display include one of Patsy Cline’s costumes; fan magazines featuring Elvis, the Beatles and Alvin and the Chipmunks; and 45-RPM records highlighting Little Richard, the Beach Boys, the Everly Brothers and Brenda Lee.

A case located at the entrance to the gallery features objects used to teach children arithmetic from the late 1890s to today. Objects include flash cards, early calculators and other math games and toys.

Visitors to the gallery are invited to watch 1950s and 1960s era commercials, try their hand at drawing their own comics on a “graffiti” wall, and play with toys from the same era, including Mr. Potato Head and Etch-A-Sketch. Visitors can also share with the Museum their childhood experiences by contributing family photos to the Pause and Play Flickr site.