Adirondack Experience (ADKX), formerly the Adirondack Museum, is set to host a free open house event and community collecting day on November 11th, from 10 am to 4 pm, in support of the ADKX 2020 seasonal exhibition From Wilderness to Warfront: The Adirondacks and World War II.

This exhibition, planned to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, is devoted to the connections between Adirondack people and the global conflict. From regional industry and tourism to first-person accounts, the exhibition will explore diverse stories — those previously untold as well as those well-remembered — of regional mine workers, Mohawk code-talkers, Tuskegee airmen, and the countless local men and women who bravely served on the homefront or abroad during the world’s deadliest conflict.

To help enhance the materials and stories featured in the exhibition, ADKX is reaching out to community members throughout the Adirondacks who personally remember the war and its impact on the region, or who have direct accounts from family members or others who were involved.

This Veterans Day the Museum invites people to bring materials (or photos of materials) and stories that may relate to this exhibition. Museum staff will review what is brought that day to determine if they may be appropriate for exhibition use. Materials should have a direct connection with the Second World War and the Adirondacks.

ADKX is particularly interested in featuring letters, photographs, scrapbooks, service documents and medals, WAC and USO records and materials, news clippings, uniforms, wartime industry records and reports, local hotel and tourism materials, and ephemera (both materials that were obtained within the Adirondacks as well as materials brought to the region from local personnel serving overseas).

The ADKX store will host a special sale and event for this day only, and the museum’s signature exhibition Life in the Adirondacks will be open for all visitors.

Anyone who provides stories or lends or donates objects that are accepted for use will be recognized in the exhibition and invited to a preview event in May 2020.

For information or questions, email ADKXWWII@theadkx.org. To make a gift to support this exhibition, call (518) 352-7311, extension 130.

Photo of World War Two uniform courtesy the Lanphear family.