History Museum Nominated for USA Today’s Best New Attraction
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— A panel of experts and 10Best editors have chosen Springfield’s History Museum on the Square as a nominee for USA Today’s 2019 10Best Readers’ Choice award for the Best New Attraction category. The contest launched on Monday, December 2. Voters are able to vote once per day until voting ends on Monday, December 30 at 11 am CT. The winners will be announced on Friday, January 10 at 11:00 am CT. Contest information can be found at https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-new-attraction/
“We are honored to be nominated with other great institutions across the country,” said museum executive director John Sellars. “We are also proud to announce that in the museum’s first four months of operation, visitors came from 40 states and 25 countries.”
Located within the 104-year old former Barth’s department-store building and the one adjacent, the museum has more than 18,000-square feet of space. There are three floors with eight dedicated spaces including a Welcome Center, six permanent galleries and the traveling exhibit space. The renovated basement houses staff offices, enlarged workrooms and space for volunteers and interns.
The History Museum on the Square’s six permanent galleries include
- Native Crossroads at the Spring
- Trains, Trolleys and Transportation: Children’s Education Area
- Pioneers and Founders at the Crossroads
- The Civil War in Springfield
- Wild Bill Hickok and the American West; and
- Birthplace of Route 66
Highlights of the museum include a transportation gallery with a time machine built into a replica of a trolley car, an immersive reenactment chamber of the Hickok-Tutt confrontation, interactive touchscreen maps of Springfield comparing vintage photos to contemporary depictions, and a 66-foot long timeline and map of the Iconic Mother Road. Perhaps one of the most dramatic features is a one-third scale Frisco locomotive engine that literally emerges through the upper mezzanine wall.