An exhibit opening next week at Omaha’s Durham Museum takes visitors month-by-month through 1968.
The 1968 exhibit opens next Saturday. It begins in a living room in January 1968, with a news broadcast about the Vietnam War. In the living room is a Huey Helicopter.
Jay Erickson, an exhibit technician with the Minnesota Historical Society, purchased and, along with volunteers, restored the helicopter. It was flown in Vietnam.
"The full-sized, full Huey helicopter, is a big metaphor for ‘what’s this helicopter doing in my living room?’ And the TV. And the point is, this is one of the first wars that was really observed or fought on television in your living room, so you could watch what was going on more closely than you could in Korea or World War Two, obviously."
The exhibit takes visitors through events such as the riots at the Democratic National Convention, a feminist demonstration at the Miss America pageant, and the election of President Richard Nixon. Along the way, it chronicles the music, fashion, and culture of 1968. It ends in the same living room on Christmas Eve, 1968, with a television broadcast of Apollo 8 images of the Earth.
More information is available at www.durhammuseum.org.