Museum on Main New Exhibit: Gadgets Galore

Museum on Main Reveals Hidden Histories of Everyday Objects in new exhibit Gadgets Galore!
 
Possers, stereoscopes, and graphophones? At one time, each of these gadgets was a new invention – the latest and greatest item, and one everyone wanted to own. Uncover the histories of these strange objects, and how their invention led to the gadgets that are integral to our lives today, through traveling exhibition Gadgets Galore! Transforming the American Household, on display at Pleasanton’s Museum on Main from through Saturday, January 11, 2025.
 
A wide variety of gadgets, both recognizable and strange, will be on display in Gadgets Galore!, illustrating how industrialization transformed every American household in the 19^th-century. The invention of mechanical processes and the discovery of electricity and steam power would impact day-to-day life around the world. Mass production, faster communication, and more widespread transportation systems combined to industrialize the American household by inspiring the invention of the gadgets we rely on today.

Some of the most fascinating gadgets on display are almost unrecognizable today. However, as Gadgets Galore demonstrates, each gadget we use today can be traced back to the inventions and technology from this period of industrialization.
 
Museum on Main’s presentation of Gadgets Galore features household tools and appliances borrowed from members of the community as well as items drawn from the Museum’s own collections. A 1930s Kenmore washer originally owned by Pleasanton’s Cavestri family anchors the display of laundry technology, which also features a washboard and tub as well as a variety of flat, steam, and electric irons. Other featured gadgets include a Roomba lent by Tanya Daly, a 1930s Sunbeam toaster lent by Pat and Gary Kircher, and a variety of classic telephones from various lenders and donors, ranging from the 1920s candlestick model to early 2000s flip-phones.
 
“This show was originally developed for historic homes,” notes Ken MacLennan, curator at Pleasanton’s Museum on Main. “But it’s proved easy to adapt for our exhibit galleries.” The most challenging part, MacLennan adds, was making the scavenger-hunt activity work in the new display context. “The historic-home version invites you to find the predecessors of modern gadgets in the home’s own furnishings,” he notes. “Without an actual dining room, kitchen, and so forth to present that context, we grouped the items in cases and themed displays that would make the items too easy to find—but our permanent Pleasanton history exhibit displays several appropriate items without giving the game away so quickly.” Museum on Main’s scavenger hunt will thus ask visitors to find objects on display in the permanent gallery that reflect Gadgets Galore themes.

Exhibition Support
Gadgets Galore! Transforming the American Household is a traveling exhibition from Exhibit Envoy, a nonprofit, and Heather Farquhar. This exhibition is based on the initial iterations at the Hayward Area Historical Society and Los Altos History Museum.
 
About Pleasanton’s Museum on Main
Located under the arch on Pleasanton’s historic Main Street, Museum on Main is dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and sharing the history of Pleasanton and its surroundings. The Museum’s regular hours are 10 am to 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday. Its street address is 603 Main Street in Pleasanton. For further information you can call the Museum during business hours at 925/462-2766 or consult its website at www.museumonmain.org.
 
About Exhibit Envoy
Exhibit Envoy is a non-profit based in San Francisco, California. Their mission is to provide institutions with diverse and meaningful traveling exhibitions to strengthen their communities. Recent traveling and online exhibitions highlight topics as varied as the experiences of migrant farm workers, contemporary Native American artworks, African American histories in rural California, the impact of climate change on wildflowers, and voting rights in the Golden State. For more information, please visit exhibitenvoy.org.