The museum of Idaho Falls opened their new exhibit “Discover Steampunk” on May 11.
Jeff Carr, Director of Public Relations of the Museum of Idaho, said the exhibit is how people in the 19 century envisioned the future.
He said steampunk isn’t a word people are very familiar but probably have seen it in movies, so to think of movies like Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. or Hugo.
The exhibit is organized around seven galleries which feature different inventors and authors from the Victorian era who made advancements in technology or in society.
“Some of them are famous authors like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne who wrote things that were science fiction then and have become science fact now,” Carr said.
He said people don’t know what to expect when they first enter the exhibit but he said the audience have enjoyed it.
“People don’t always know what to expect when they come in the door with something called “Discover Steampunk” but I think they have been pleasantly surprised with what they found,” Carr said.
The opening was the world premiere of the exhibit and will travel around the world after departing Idaho Falls.
“Our exhibitions director Rod Hansen, he has his finger on the pulse of what different exhibits are out there in the world and what we might want to get,” Carr said. “He [Hansen] found out about this one very early on in the process.”
Carr said the museum is multi-disciplinary which is something they try to do as much as possible in the museum.
One main idea that they want the audience to take from this exhibit is that imagination and creativity really matter.
“This exhibit lauds these wonderful from the past who use their imaginations to solve creative problems and to move society and technology forward,” Carr said. “We need that sort of person today as well, to tinker and try new ideas and to put things together that wouldn’t normally go together to create the next big thing.”
The exhibit will run through January 6, 2019. For more information about the exhibit you can visit museumofidaho.org.