As part of the Smithsonian Institution, Museum on Main Street (MoMS) is a unique alliance of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, state humanities councils, and cultural organizations in small, rural communities.Coming in 2026 is Spark! Places of Innovation.
The story of human history is written in inventions and innovations. People are problem- solvers. Sometimes we invent. More often, we innovate—we introduce a fresh idea or an invention into use in some way that creates a new way of doing or thinking.
Invention can happen anywhere and it’s happening right now in small towns across America. Rural Americans are creating new products, taking risks, meeting challenges together, and seizing upon exciting opportunities that change local life and sometimes reach far beyond.
Since August 2023, MHC toured Crossroads: Change in Rural America, a Museum on Main Street exhibition. Crossroads takes a broad look at the characteristics of rural America by exploring the historical importance of rural communities, their connection to land, and how change has transformed rural America and how rural Americans are evolving for the future.
This tour of Crossroads was generously sponsored by the Tennessee Valley Authority. It visited six Mississippi communities from August 2023 through June 2024.
Museum on Main Street’s exhibitions focus on broad topics of national history and give host museums the opportunity, with support from state humanities councils and guidance from the state scholars, to create their own educational programs, cultural activities, and exhibitions that center on their local heritage. Exhibition support materials and “how to” training workshops are provided to venues hosting the exhibitions.
Since 2001, the Mississippi Humanities Council has toured ten MoMS exhibits including “Produce for Victory” (WWII America on the Home Front), “Key Ingredients” (America by Food), “Between Fences” (Boundaries, Borders and Bridges in America), “New Harmonies – Celebrating American Roots Music,” “Journey Stories” (Immigration, Migration and Settlement in America), “The Way We Worked,” “Hometown Teams,” “Water/Ways,” and “Crossroads: Change in Rural America” (2020-2021) and “Voices and Votes.”