Highlighting private correspondence from almost every major conflict in U.S. history, new exhibition War Comes Home: The Legacy opens on April 5 at the Churchill County Museum. The traveling exhibition, rich with historic and contemporary letters, offers an intimate perspective into the thoughts and emotions of veterans and their families upon a soldier's homecoming.
War Comes Home: The Legacy is part of Cal Humanities' current War Comes Home initiative, a thematic program designed to promote greater understanding of veterans and explore how war shapes a community. The exhibition is based on the work of the Center for American War Letters (CAWL) and is presented by Exhibit Envoy. Andrew Carroll, the Director of CAWL and an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author, and John Benitz, associate professor in the Department of Theatre at Chapman University, co-curated the exhibition.
The exhibition explores the joys and hardships that returning soldiers and their families face during homecoming, as expressed through private letters and email correspondence. Spanning conflicts from the Civil War through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and displayed on 13 interpretive panels, War Comes Home: The Legacy explores the shared themes of wartime separation, the adjustment to life back at home, and the costs of war. As Staff Sergeant Parker Gyokeres writes, "Those of us coming back…are not looking for sympathy. We might be reluctant at first to talk about what we've been through…[but] your support has made this journey an incredible one…Thanks, above all, for listening."
This exhibition runs through May 29 and offers a space to write letters to currently deployed service members.
The Churchill County Museum is located at 1050 S. Maine Street in Fallon. The website is: ccmuseum.org, or by calling (775)423-3677. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, and has a $5 suggested donation.