Changing Exhibitions
100 Years of Design
May 17, 2008 - January 4, 2009
100 Years of Design features upscale fashions dating from the 1830s to the 1930s from the Center for History’s heralded costume collection. The exhibit, set against backdrops of period furnishings also from the museum’s collections, offers a look at a century of history in South Bend and surrounding communities. Visitors can learn about “polite society,” a culture in which fashions of the day were found in homes designed by leading American architects. They will find themselves transported to an era where the elite donned top hats and tails, and designer gowns and furs to attend gala events at places like South Bend’s Oliver Opera House. The exhibit also explores the economics that drove the area’s success as a Midwestern manufacturing complex in America’s Industrial Revolution, thereby providing many local families the buying power to be active in international society.
R.I.P. - Victorian Mourning Customs
April 19 - October 31
Leighton Gallery
Extravagant funerals and prolonged periods of mourning were essential elements of Victorian grieving. Memorial photographs, mourning garments, funeral invitations and salesmen’s sample tombstones are shown in the exhibit. more...
Lost Landmarks: Then and Now
February 3 - October 31
Carroll Gallery
Buildings that were once local landmarks, but are no longer standing are showcased in this exhibit. Shown alongside, courtesy of the South Bend Tribune, are photographs showing the current landscape, giving visitors the opportunity to compare “then and now.” Over forty images are shown in this perennial favorite. more...
Rockne: A Notre Dame Legend
Opening August 31, 2007
Explore how Knute Rockne skyrocketed the Notre Dame football program to national fame and became a man who will never be forgotten. By popular demand, many of the components of the 2006 exhibit, Rockne: Crossing the Last Chalk Line are showcased in this exhibit.
Women Who Played Hard Ball: The Real "League of Their Own"
Through 2008
Photographs, uniforms and equipment of the 14 teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League are showcased in this story of the women who played professional baseball from 1943-1954. more...
1918 Milburn Electric Car
permanent exhibit
located in the Carriage House
Few can resist taking a closer look at the 1918 Milburn Electric Coupe, Model 27, now on view in the Carriage House. more...
