Thomas & Friends™: Explore the Rails!
2019-05-25 10:00 - 2019-09-08 17:00 (America/New_York)
What began in a young boy’s imagination in 1911, evolved into a bedtime story, a long running book series, one of the most successful children’s television programs of all time, and an international traveling exhibition. Today Thomas & Friends reaches 110 million households across the United States and an even larger audience through internet streaming, DVDs, and toys.
Thomas & Friends: Explore the Rails, an interactive, bi-lingual (English and Spanish) exhibition featuring the favorite engines, characters, and destinations of this beloved children’s classic, will delight Upstate fans when it makes a stop at the Upcountry History Museum, May 25 – September 8, 2019.
Designed by HIT Entertainment, a subsidiary of Mattel, Inc. Fisher Price, the 1500 square foot immersive exhibit combines hands-on learning with important concepts in science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM), with an emphasis on developing 21st century skills. These ideas are woven and layered throughout the exhibit, creating an experience that speaks to a diversity of interests, age groups and learning styles.
Visitors will find themselves on the Island of Sodor surrounded by iconic locations, including Knapford Station and the Sodor Steamworks. Large interactive models of Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends, combined with STEAM challenges, remind children ages 2 through 7 and their caregivers, how “really useful” we all are.
With the series’ major characters being modes of transportation, the world of Thomas is a launch pad for STEAM exploration. STEAM-based learning is visible as children identify problems, ask questions, seek answers, and explore tools and materials. Selling tickets and fixing the train schedule, building train routes, fixing Percy’s wobbly wheels and loading him encourage children to think about the technology and creativity behind steam engines.
The exhibit’s combination of STEAM-based learning and timeless lessons – bolstered by the series’ enduring popularity and multi-generation appeal –support adult/child engagement and a child’s growth in 21st century skills laying a foundation for success in school, work and life.

Locally Sponsored by: Prisma Health, WSPA News Channel 7, Spinx, Quality Business Solutions, C&S Family of Companies, Publix Charities, and the Greater Greenville Association of Realtors

Down the Rabbit Hole: Imagining Alice's Wonderland
2019-06-15 10:00 - 2019-10-20 17:00
The Upcountry History Museum in partnership with Walt Disney Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Walt Disney Family Museum, Charles M. Schulz Museum, Daura Gallery at Lynchburg College, and renowned artist Charles Santore, will invite visitors to fall down the rabbit hole to discover an immersive enchanted world that draws together a remarkable collection of original Alice In Wonderland materials.
Inspired by real events and a real child, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was dreamt up on a summer’s day in 1862, by Charles Ludwidge Dodgson, who later assumed the pen name Lewis Carroll. It is said that Carroll’s Alice books were the origin of all later children’s literature. In Alice, for the first time, readers found a realistic child taking part in a story whose intention was entirely fun. Both children and adults loved them at once, and 157 years’ later have never stopped doing so. It was not only Lewis Carroll’s words that captured readers’ imaginations; John Tenniel’s illustrations brought the story to life and remain in our collective consciousness to this day. Tenniel’s artwork provided the original image of Alice along with the amazing characters that she met in Wonderland.
Down the Rabbit Hole: Imagining Alice’s Wonderland, a 1,200 square foot exhibition, organized by the Upcountry History Museum, will explore the kaleidoscope of artistic re-imaginings of Alice from the 1860s to the present. Original Alice paintings, drawings, illustrations, set designs, puppets, film costumes and props will reflect diverse artistic interpretations. From Tenniel’s original Victorian illustrations to costumes, props and sets from Walt Disney Pictures Academy Award winning live action film Alice in Wonderland, the exhibition will examine multiple perspectives of one of literature’s greatest paradoxes that continues to inspire imagination, creativity, and discussion. Rich with visual interpretation, the exhibit will take visitors on Alice’s journey through the cultural, technological and societal shifts that have compelled artists, filmmakers and fans to return to the Alice tales again and again.
Sponsored by: WSPA News Channel 7

Love a Vet: Honoring Our Military Veterans
2019-07-06 10:00 - 2020-01-05 17:00
Since its inception in 1983, the Upcountry History Museum has committed to honoring the sacrifices, courage,
and patriotism of the men and women who have worn a military uniform. Dedicated to collecting, preserving,
and disseminating the legacy and dignity of all United States military veterans, the museum shares the stories of America’s conflicts.
The Museum annually honors those who served and their families through military exhibitions, recording and
preserving local veteran’s oral histories, participating in the national Blue Star Museum program, delivering
military history lectures, and hosting Veteran’s Day and Armed Forces Day events.
The Museum, in partnership with the Hunterdon Healthcare Foundation and the 52 Reasons to Love A Vet
charitable organization, will host the national traveling exhibition Love A Vet: Honoring Our Veterans, July 6,
2019 – January 5, 2020.
Through art and artifacts the Love A Vet exhibition, and its related programming, will encourage the public to
appreciate the sacrifices made by veterans and their families and educate on the challenging issues that
veterans face upon their re-entry into civilian life.
The exhibit features 40 paintings, drawings, and prints by a diverse group of contemporary illustrators; many of
whom have been involved in the military themselves. Nationally recognized artists represented in the exhibit
include Gail Anderson, art director for Rolling Stone magazine; Steve Brodner, political cartoonist; and Mike
Wimmer, illustrator for Disney’s Lion King. Upstate artist Tina LeMay, is featured in the exhibition. A Clemson
University Alum and Creative Director for Student Affairs at Clemson University, LeMay’s contribution to the
exhibition is dedicated to the sacrifices made by military personnel and their families.
The Love A Vet project was founded by Ella Rue, an award-winning graphic designer and artist, whose son is a
veteran of both the Iraq and Afghan wars. Ms. Rue established the 52 Reasons to Love a Vet nonprofit and its
companion traveling exhibition to generate awareness and to help veterans further their education and assist
with medical, dental, or mental health resources following their return home.
A primary goal of the project is to raise an additional $10,000 specifically for underwriting museum admission
for veterans, active duty military personnel and their families during the exhibit’s 6-month display.

Imprinting the West: Manifest Destiny, Real and Imagined
2019-08-31 10:00 - 2020-02-16 17:00
Throughout the nineteenth century as Americans pushed west toward the Pacific, they were fascinated by westward expansion in North America. Printed imagery – lithographs and engravings – played an important
role in the dissemination of knowledge and understanding about the West and its inhabitants.
Imprinting the West: Manifest Destiny, Real and Imagined, a special exhibition organized by ExhibitsUSA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, explores the potent imagery of these popular prints, produced in the decades following President Thomas Jefferson’s acquisition of 828,000 square miles from Napoleon, King of France in 1803. Known as the Louisiana Purchase it set the stage for great exploration and discovery,
migration and settlement, in addition to struggle and conflict.
Western expansion was one of the most transformational elements in American life throughout the 19th century. Convinced that God wanted the country to extend to the Pacific coast – an idea called “Manifest Destiny” – many American citizens, including painters and printmakers, moved west.
The Imprinting the West exhibition includes over 48 works of art that examine westward expansion. Prints and engravings created by artists, including George Catlin, Frederic Remington, John J. Audubon, Albert Bierstadt and many more, shaped perceptions of the West and its Native American inhabitants, some of whom were dislocated by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Several artists documented the so-called “vanishing race,” while others portrayed the western landscape. Much of this imagery was created with an east coast or international audience in mind, and it both drew and promoted fantasies about Native Americans and the west as much as it documented reality.
Whether real or imagined, these images and the exhibition examine the birth of the West as an idea in American popular culture.
Sponsored by: Dr. Jeffrey and Mrs. Mary Lawson and Mr. Hayne and Mrs. Anna Kate Hipp and WSPA News Channel 7
