What's Happening

Hop aboard for a journey through the history of railroad travel in Washington State! This exhibition of rail travel posters, schedules, tickets, and train-related objects provides a glimpse of how and why passengers traveled. Visit the History Museum for this new exhibition, and while you're here, see the state's largest model train layout on public view, too!

This exhibit highlights historical narratives of transgender people in the West and considers how westward migration provided opportunities for self-expression and fulfillment. Traversing unfamiliar territory, these individuals crossed both physical boundaries and the perceptual boundaries of their earlier lives. Join us in learning more about the history of gender, identity, and changing cultural perceptions in the West and the connections between transgender history and the LGBTQ+ community today.

IN THE SPIRIT is an annual celebration of diverse Native arts and culture. It includes a juried art exhibition at the Washington State History Museum with a wide range of selected works on view during July and August.

This exhibition from the NWMAC in Spokane celebrates three contemporary Columbia River Plateau women alongside historic objects and images from the NWMAC’s collection. The art of these cultures reflects traditional lifeways borne of a time-honored and interdependent relationship with the natural world. Women have been the primary makers of the functional forms necessary to everyday life.