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Smithsonian traveling exhibit
Between Fences
and the companion exhibit
Good Neighbors: Fences in
Montgomery County
March 11 - April 30, 2011
In the Betty Mae Kramer Gallery and Music Room,
Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans Plaza
Gallery open: M-F 9:00am to 9:00pm, Saturdays by appointment
(call 301-340-2825 to schedule an appointment)
Click here to view programs related to these exhibits.
The Historical Society is pleased to coordinate the Montgomery County visit on the Maryland tour of Between Fences, an exhibition created by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. In addition to this display, which looks at the national importance of fences, barriers and borders in American history, MCHS has created a companion exhibit, Good Neighbors: Fences in Montgomery County, which will look at fences and land use in Montgomery County, particularly in regards to (and in reaction to) the development of suburbia in the 19th and 20th centuries. Both exhibits will be on display in the Betty Mae Kramer Gallery and Music Room, in the Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans Plaza.
Between Fences
We live between fences. We may hardly notice them, but they are dominant features in our lives and in our history. Thousands of types have been invented, millions of miles have been produced, and countless rivals have seized post, rail, panel, and wire to stake their claims. In 1871, the Department of Agriculture estimated the total value of fences in the United States at 1.7 billion, a sum almost equal to the national debt. Our past is defined by the cutting point of barbed steel and the staccato rhythm of the white picket. Built of hedge, concrete, wood and metal, the fence skirts our properties and is central to the American landscape.
The United States as we know it could not have been settled and built without fences; they continue to be an integral part of the nation. Fences stand for security: we use them to enclose our houses and neighborhoods. They are decorative structures that are as much part of the landscape as trees and flowers. Industry and agriculture without fences would be difficult to imagine. Private ownership of land would be an abstract concept. But fences are more than functional objects. They are powerful symbols. The way we define ourselves as individuals and as a nation becomes concrete in how we build fences.
Good Neighbors: Fences in Montgomery County
Good Neighbors: Fences in Montgomery County, is a companion exhibit to Between Fences. Good Neighbors takes the same themes discussed in Between Fences - that the fence both functional and symbolic feature in our lives - and examines Montgomery County's story of gradual transition from a rural to suburban community. This exhibit looks at the ways in which the county, from the government down to the individual homeowner or renter, divides and uses the land and discusses the changes (and constants) in the economy, demographics, politics, and culture related to the "fences" in our community.
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