Institute for Human Science and Culture, 73 S College Street, Akron, OH (2021)

11/05/2021

It’s here: Hower House Museum’s Magical Holiday Homecoming, the time of year when every room of the historic Hower home is decorated to the nines!

We’ve joined the fun this year, bringing artifacts from the Institute for Human Science and Culture and Cummings Center for the History of Psychology collections to the portrait room on the third floor (right at the top of the stairs). Come visit the bags, postcards, and psychology artifacts - all themed for the holiday season.

Hower House Museum is open Friday-Sunday for self-guided tours. They recommend RSVPing ahead of your visit.

Image description: A decorated Christmas tree stands in the corner of a room with green wallpaper surrounded by a sea of gift bags stuffed with white tissue.

11/03/2021

Godzilla vs. the Flamingos! To celebrate the 67th anniversary of the release of the original Godzilla movie, here's one of our favorite postcards from the David P. Campbell Collection.

Image description: Postcard featuring a plastic toy Godzilla surrounded by plastic pink Flamingos. Godzilla holds a Flamingo in one hand and a plastic human figure in the other. Scene is set against a hot pink background with black and white triangles.

11/01/2021

Our students taking the Museums and Archives Studies Certificate are deep into the fall semester. At the moment they are learning about archives by processing one of our collections.

Image descriptions:
1. Two students sit at a desk reading through papers in a folder. A gray archival box sits between them.
2. A room filled with pairs of students wearing face masks and reviewing papers in folders lying on their desks. A gray archival box can be seen in front of each pair of students.

10/30/2021

Happy Halloween weekend! It’s a great day for a visit to the Institute Galleries, costumes encouraged. We’re open our usual Saturday hours: 11am-4pm.

Images from the Lee L. Forman Bag Collection.

Image descriptions:
1. Paper bag featuring orange and white stripes with a black and white pumpkin person dancing between the words “Trick or Treat.”
2. Brown paper bag featuring the words “Yo, Candy. Now.” in bright bold lettering.
3. Shiny paper bag featuring a giant carved pumpkin with tall, slanted eyes and a scary, toothy grin.

10/27/2021

It's now easier to send Institute for Human Science and Culture a message.

10/23/2021

What’s going on here?

Explore Halloween traditions from years gone by next Wednesday, October 27th from 6-7pm with the Akron Postcard Club and make a card of your own to send. Details at https://uakron.edu/chp/institute/postcard-club

Image description: Vintage postcard featuring two children leaning in to bite an apple hanging from a string. A black car and carved pumpkin look on. The words “Happy Halloween” run across the card.

10/21/2021

"Music is important in our family. My husband Mike and I have been together since we were teenagers and we went to lots of shows together. Now we take our kids to shows and we listen to a lot of music at home. I think a lot of families have a band that is “their family’s” music. John Prine is that for us. This is John Prine’s debut, 1971 self-titled album. Mike listened to this record with his family growing up and now we listen to it on our turntable with our kids. It has our theme song, “Spanish Pipedream”:

“Blow up your TV
Throw away your paper
Go to the country
Build you a home
Plant a little garden
Eat a lot of peaches
Try an' find Jesus on your own”

We were lucky enough to see John Prine live a few times including with Mike’s parents and his sister and our brother-in-law. In fact, Mike’s sister and our brother-in-law got us this copy of the record (they have Mike’s parents’ original copy) and tickets to that Pittsburgh show as a Christmas gift. Unfortunately, we never got to see John Prine with our kids before he died of COVID-19 in April of 2020. It was the first death of someone I didn’t know in real life that really affected me. When I heard the news, I put on this record, made a Handsome Johnny (vodka & ginger ale), and laid on my kitchen floor and sobbed. This record is really important to our family and the lyrics of “Spanish Pipedream” are words we truly live by." - LRB

Is there music that you associate with home? What about other sounds? Help shape our "Home" exhibit by sharing an object, photograph, recipe, or story with us. Instructions at https://www.uakron.edu/chp/institute/home

Image description: Photograph of a John Prine record and sleeve. The sleeve features John Prine dressed in blue jeans with blue jean shirt, sitting on a bale of hay. An acoustic guitar sits to the side of the hay. The image is centered in a red frame that features the words "Home" at the bottom.

10/20/2021

This Friday: join us for the closing reception of Intersections: Archives Inspiring Art. Free event runs 4-7pm. Details and RSVP at https://uakron.edu/chp/about-us/intersections

Image description: Corner of a gallery space with framed artwork on the walls and a banner with a hooded figure in black leotard. A bench sits in the middle of the floor.

10/15/2021

We expected to find ghouls, goblins, & ghosts in the Halloween binder of the David P. Campbell Postcard Collection – instead we found vintage tricks to learn about your one true love! Explore with us on Oct. 27th from 6-7pm: https://www.uakron.edu/chp/institute/postcard-club

Image description:
An arrangement of Halloween postcards. They depict: a couple kissing; a woman seeing a man in her mirror; and a couple leaning toward opposite ends of a candlestick hanging from a string. On one end of the candlestick is a lit candle, on the other is an apple.

10/14/2021

We sometimes take bags for granted: they carry our groceries, hold our possessions, and reveal our interests, politics, and cultural norms. Learn more in Cultural Carry-on: America’s Literal Baggage, on display now: https://www.uakron.edu/chp/whats-on/cultural-carry-on

Image descriptions:
Two people looking at a wall of political campaign bags. One person is pointing toward a bag that reads "I Like Ike".
A person looking at a wall of reusable and environmentally conscious bags.

10/13/2021

Join us Oct. 22 from 4-7pm ET to celebrate the artists of Intersections: Archives Inspiring Art. Artists took inspiration from photos in the Richard D. Walk papers, depicting emotions via body language. Details & RSVP: https://www.uakron.edu/chp/about-us/intersections

Image descriptions:
A person looking at abstract artwork and a photo on the wall of a gallery. The photo depicts a silhouetted figure posing expressively.
A person silhouetted in a black bodysuit posing expressively on one foot with their arms raised.

10/12/2021

Take a closer look: while restoring a 15ft totem pole, artist Claire Heldman collected the old paint chips & gave them new life in her sun, moon, & star paintings. See these paintings and more, on display now in Lakota Wiá: https://www.uakron.edu/chp/whats-on/lakota-wia

Image descriptions:
A person looking at Claire Heldman’s painting “Sun” that shows a circular pattern of blue and grey flakes against a bright yellow background.
A close-up photograph of Claire Heldman’s painting “Sun” that shows paint chips in varying shades of blues and greys (with pops of red) against a bright yellow background.

10/11/2021

“This is the recipe for my Grandma Royer’s breakfast casserole aka Christmas Casserole. When I was a kid our whole family would gather at my grandparents’ on Christmas morning and she always served this. When Mike and I bought the family farm in 2013 I started making this casserole. I have eaten this casserole every single Christmas morning for my entire 40 years on planet Earth. You prepare it the night before and then bake it Christmas morning, so you smell it cooking while opening presents. It tastes like Christmas and it tastes like home and you simply cannot have Christmas without it.” - LRB

What memories, stories, and objects remind you of "Home"? We're collecting object loans from the community to create a new public exhibit about the many definitions of "Home" - instructions to help you get involved are available at https://www.uakron.edu/chp/institute/home

Imagine description:
Scanned handwritten recipe card, reading “gma’s breakfast casserole. 1 lb. cooked/drained sausage, 6 eggs lightly beaten, 2 c. milk, 1 tsp. Salt, 1 tsp. dry mustard, 2 slices day-old broken bread, 1 c. grated cheddar, 2 Tbl. chopped onions. Mix all ingredients and let sit overnight in a 11 x 17 baking dish. Bake @ 350 degrees for 45 min.”

10/07/2021

The run of our “Intersections: Archives Inspiring Art” exhibit was interrupted by pandemic closures. Join us so we can celebrate the contributing artists properly with a closing reception!

Friday, October 22 - details and RSVP at https://uakron.edu/chp/about-us/intersections

Image description: A mannequin cloaked in a dark fabric stands in an exhibit space. The back wall features a collage of abstracts at the center with two figure silhouettes on banners on either side.

10/04/2021

This weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Linwood Tall Bull of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of Eagle Butte, SD and representatives of the The Lippman School for a tour of Claire Heldman’s new exhibit, Lakota Wià, and a behind-the-scenes look at the Oak Native Ethnographic Collection.

North American First People’s Day activities continue today with a teach-in for students in the Akron Public Schools system followed by a panel discussion this evening at the Akron-Summit County Public Library main branch (attend in-person or virtually).

To learn more about these educational initiatives, visit Walk Portage Path.

Image descriptions:
1. Four people in face masks and white gloves stand talking alongside metal shelving that holds Native American objects in a storage area.
2. A person wearing a face mask and white gloves holds up an axe in a museum storage area.
3. A person wearing a face mask leans over to look at a series of Native American objects lining a metal shelf in a museum storage area.

10/02/2021

Installing Lakota Wià

Lakota Wià, an exhibit showcasing the artwork of Claire Heldman, is now open to the public! Visit today for FREE ADMISSION in recognition of North American First Peoples Day. Open 11am to 4pm.

Details about the exhibit at https://www.uakron.edu/chp/whats-on/lakota-wia

Video description: Time lapse video of two people installing an art exhibit.

cc. Cummings Center for the History of Psychology; Walk Portage Path