Handy-Marchello speaking at Barnes Museum

The Barnes County Historical Society presents Barbara Handy-Marchello speaking on “The Fence in History And Contemporary Life” at 7 p.m. today at the Barnes County Historical Society Museum, Valley City, N.D.

“The Fence in History And Contemporary Life” is an interactive program on the use of walls, fences and other boundaries in world history and in everyday life. The audience will participate in a “quiz” and a game that will lead to discussion about the changing meaning of fences and boundaries.

Handy-Marchello is associate professor emerita of history at the University of North Dakota and an independent scholar of North Dakota history. She is author of Women of the Northern Plains (2006), and Army Officers Wives on the Great Plains (plainshumanities.unl.edu/projects/army_officers_wives/). She lives in Bismarck.

This presentation is a part of the Smithsonian traveling exhibit “Between Fences” now at the Barnes County Historical Society Museum through June 15 and is made possible by a grant from the North Dakota Humanities Council. The presentation is free and open to the public. Freewill donations are welcome.

According to the Smithsonian the United States could not have been settled and built without fences. They continue to be an integral part of the nation. Fences stand for security, used to enclose 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.

“Between Fences” will enlighten audiences who live surrounded by these familiar objects whose history and meaning they hardly suspect. They will discover how tightly the fence is entwined with politics, industry, and daily life. The ability to expose the unexpected within the familiar – while revealing to visitors something about themselves – will be the exhibition’s great strength. Between Fences encourages visitors to feel the significance of a crucial aspect of their personal and national heritage. Fences, like barns, are tools that embody a culture and its values. By understanding both historic and contemporary fences, we can better understand ourselves as Americans. 

The exhibition will engage children and adults while providing a setting for family communications and interaction between unacquainted visitors. The subject of the exhibition — boundaries, place, and space — will be central to the visitors’ physical experience, as they walk between fences and through gateways. Each fence will be selected to represent a theme and tell a story that illustrates its theme in provocative ways. In addition to objects and images relating to the exhibition stories, fence materials will include tools, photographs, and publications including product literature, journals, postcards, and posters.

Tags: museum, lecture, barnes, county