BELLE FOURCHE—Have you ever thought about being a philatelist? You know, one who has an interest in stamps, postal history, postmarks, stamp designs or anything stamp-related? If so, then the Tri-State Museum’s new Mini Exhibit is one you will want to check out! It is “All About Postage Stamps.”
The latest exhibit opened to a daylong reception on June 27, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., featuring creative cupcakes from the Red Onion Marketplace. There were either strawberry lemonade cupcakes topped with edible postage stamps and freeze-dried strawberries or vanilla cupcakes featuring edible postage stamps and garden-fresh mint to choose from throughout the day, along with refreshments to enjoy.
There is so much to learn in the exhibit. All the answers to who invented the stamp, what is a stamp collector called, do other countries use stamps, what are the state stamps and what makes stamps collectible, plus many more answers to many more questions, can be found in the “All About Postage Stamps” mini-exhibit. After you spend time learning all there is to know in the display, you can test your knowledge on an electronic touchscreen quiz.
There is also an activity packet for kids to take home and work on and books to read about stamps.
A lot of the display comes from the Tri-State Museum’s own archives. “We got a donation of that green stamp book and some sheets of stamps, so we thought, hey, we could do stamps,” explained Jean Maher, assistant director.
Putting together the museum’s mini-exhibits takes a team effort. Jada Udager pulls together all of the artifact collections, Kristi Thielen does all of the research and writing of the storyboards, Jean Maher takes care of the exhibit photo collation mounting and Kim Reausaw puts together the kids’ activities.
The mini-exhibit “All About Postage Stamps” runs through September 18, when the “I Spy A Spider” mini-exhibit comes creepy crawling into the museum.
See more pictures and read the full issue of the Belle Fourche Beacon by clicking here.
