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Exhibitions

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Exhibitions at Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center

Location: 10209 Main St.
Phone: 703-385-8414
Hours: Click here for hours
Free admission

Hamill Gallery

Permanent Exhibit: The Fairfax Story

Come explore The Fairfax Story  through artifacts, maps, images and fun facts telling the story of the people who have called Fairfax home. 

Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center Fairfax Story Exhibit

Gano Gallery 

Oct.  18, 2024 to Jan. 22, 2025 — Reimagining America: The Maps of Lewis and Clark

This traveling exhibition uses large-scale reproductions of historic maps, photos, and explanatory text to show how America looked before the journey of Lewis and Clark, and what it looked like after.

 

2025

 Feb 1  to Feb 28 -- Frederick Douglass: Advocate for Equality

Explore the full trajectory of Douglass’s epic life from 1818 to 1895. In this traveling exhibition, viewers can learn about Douglass’s escape from slavery, his work as an abolitionist, and his tireless fight for equality for all individuals in the Jim Crow era. This exhibition explores Douglass’s impact and his life through his own words and in photographs and documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

 

April 7 to May 17 — Lantz Mills Deaf Village

Explore the history of the Lantz Mills Deaf Village in Shenandoah County, Virginia. Between 1740 and 1970, Lantz Mills, Virginia, was home to many families with a mix of hearing and deaf parents and at least one or more deaf siblings. This six-panel traveling exhibition features the history of prominent deaf villagers such as the Hollar and Christian families, deaf members’ involvement in local businesses, and even a budding romance within the community. Each panel includes a QR code that links to ASL interpretation of the text featured.

June 16  to July 28 — Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619-1865

This traveling exhibition explores the lives of free Black Virginians from the arrival of the first captive Africans in 1619 to the abolition of slavery in 1865

Sept. 15 to Oct. 27 — Virginia & the Vietnam War

This traveling exhibition explores the choices, perspectives, and experiences of Virginians during the Vietnam War era to help facilitate untapped understandings about this tumultuous time.

 

2026 

March 16 to April 27 — We the People

This traveling exhibition explores the diversity of the immigrant experience and the profound impact immigrants have had on Virginia’s history and identity.

April 27 to June 8 — Give Me Liberty

 This traveling exhibition explores the unique and essential Virginia people, events, and sites that helped bring liberty and democracy to a nation. Commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this exhibit will highlight the complex, diverse, and inspiring Virginia history which is, in fact, America’s story.

Events

A Material World: Photographs of the 1980s

  • Date: -  
  • Location: Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center
    10209 Main Street
    Fairfax, Virginia 22030
  • Introduction: Richmond Times-Dispatch photographs featured in "Material World" were important when they appeared in the 1980s as evidence of news being reported at the time. They help us understand today’s culture shaped by ’80s kids who are bringing that decade’s values, worldviews and attitudes back.

Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center, Gano Gallery.  Free.

“’Cause we are living in a material world, and I am a material girl.”  Madonna, 1984

From hair to defense budgets, shoulder pads to tax cuts, the 1980s were BIG.

After a defeat in war, disillusionment, advances in civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s, and disco, Americans became status seekers and shopaholics—the “Me Generation” was born and Madonna’s “Material Girl” was their anthem. The Eighties are remembered by many as a time of excess and extremes. But this materialism was not embraced or experienced by all Americans, and many pushed the boundaries of what was conventional.

Photographs from the Richmond Times-Dispatch are featured in the A Material World: Photographs of the 1980s exhibition from the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. They were important when they appeared in the 1980s as evidence of news being reported at the time. Today, they make real what has become legend to a generation who know the events of the decade were important without knowing why. They also help us understand today’s culture, which is being shaped by ’80s kids who are bringing that decade’s values, worldviews, and attitudes back.

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Exhibitions at Historic Blenheim and the Civil War Interpretive Center

Location: 3610 Blenheim Blvd.
Hours: Click here for hours
Phone: 703-591-0560
Free admission

Permanent Exhibit: Blenheim's Civil War Soldier Signatures: A Diary on Walls
Civil War Interpretive Center Gallery

First explore the timeline of major Civil War battles along with local events from 1861 – 1865.  Learn about the wartime travails of the Willcoxon family, whose home was used by Federal soldiers in 1862 and 1863. Ponder the experiences of those soldiers far from home who wrote on the house walls.  The gallery features the full-size replica of the Historic Blenheim House attic that shows the untouched signatures, unit names and hometowns, and pictographs found there.

Blenheim Attic Replica
Full-sized replica of the house attic.

 

Exhibitions at Ratcliffe-Allison-Pozer House

Location: 10386 Main St.
Open Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m. May through September
Free admission

Kitty Barrett Pozer: A Life to Honor

Who was Kitty Barrett Pozer? Explore the life of this fascinating woman who as a young bride drove an ambulance for wounded soldiers in World War I, later wrote articles on gardening and horticulture, and then galvanized the local historic preservation movement here in the 1970s. Save time to grab a sandwich or ice cream from an Old Town Fairfax eatery and then find a bench to enjoy the “Kitty Pozer Memorial Garden.”

To book a guided group tour, call 703-385-8415.

Kitty Pozer Exhibit
“Kitty Barrett Pozer: Serving Country and Community” section from Kitty Barrett Pozer : A Life to Honor” exhibit.