CONTACTS:
Lauren Saul
Director of Public Relations
215.409.6895
[email protected]
Sarah Fergus
Public Relations Manager
215.409.6759
[email protected]
THE 1968 EXHIBIT
EXHIBITION WALKTHROUGH
The year 1968 reverberates with an awesome power down to the present day. A year of
violence and upheaval, of intense political divisions, of wars abroad and wars at home. A
year of vivid colors, startling sounds, and searing images. A year that marked a turning
point for a generation coming of age. A turbulent, relentless cascade of events that
changed America forever.
The 5,000-foot exhibition is divided chronologically, by months of the year. Each month
is themed around key events to highlight the various political, military, cultural, and social
shifts that happened that year—from the height of the Vietnam War and the
assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, from the bitter 1968
presidential election to the Apollo 8 mission when humans first orbited the moon.
Visitors enter the exhibition gallery through a beaded curtain into an alcove that displays
each month of 1968 with a brightly-colored icon. Video footage plays while guests take
in famous quotes from the year, before entering into the first month.
JANUARY: “THE LIVING ROOM WAR”
The immensity of the Vietnam War came crashing into American living rooms in 1968 as
it never had before. On the night of January 31—during a cease-fire for Tet, the
Vietnamese New Year’s feast—North Vietnamese forces launched a series of bold
surprise attacks, striking hundreds of military and civilian targets throughout South
Vietnam, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. The Tet Offensive persisted well into
February and proved to be a turning point in the war and in American public opinion.
U.S. generals had been talking about “successes” and “progress” and “victories,” and
President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his January 17 State of the Union address, had
announced that “the enemy has been defeated in battle after battle.”
The Tet Offensive also led to a shift in coverage of the war in the U.S. media, especially
television. Graphic images of violence and bloodshed began to appear more frequently,
and the human cost of the war emerged as the dominant theme in newscasts and
reports from the field.
In this section of The 1968 Exhibit, visitors enter a quintessential ’60s living room. A
television plays news reports about the escalating conflict of the Tet Offensive and
Walter Cronkite casting doubt over the war effort. In the coffee table sits a compact
recorder used by the Spielmann family in Minnesota to send taped-recorded “letters” to
their son Bill, who had entered active duty in the U.S. Navy in June 1967. He served on
the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in 1968, where he worked as a machinist in the main
engine room.
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In the couch’s end table sits the Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Book, 1968
edition. This decorating book includes step‑by‑step instructions and photos on how to
arrange and decorate the modern home, including the embroidered pillow displayed on
the couch. The book’s suggestions inspired the décor of this “January 1968” living room
setting.
Overpowering the living room setting is a major focal point of the exhibition—a Bell UH-1
Helicopter—a representation of the war literally crashing through the television screen
into the homes of Americans for the first time ever. A multipurpose utility helicopter
famous for its use during the Vietnam War (its first combat operation), the UH-1,
commonly referred to as the “Huey,” was developed by Bell in the 1950s. Bell produced
more than 16,000 of the powerful helicopter between 1955 and 1976, over 7,000 of
which served in Vietnam.
This Huey, #66V01008, was manufactured by Bell in 1966, and used in Vietnam by the
U.S. Army from 1967 through 1970. The Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) purchased
it as a collection of scrap parts from Northwest Helicopter Service in Olympia,
Washington, in October 2010. It has been restored by a group of more than 20
volunteers, many of whom are Vietnam veterans with decades of experience in flying
and maintaining Army helicopters. Working with MHS technicians, these aviation
enthusiasts poured several thousand hours of time into repurposing this Huey to be
disassembled for shipping and reassembled for display.
A media display that relates combat stories from Vietnam War veterans is lodged inside
the helicopter for visitors to take in. Visitors can listen to oral histories from eight
individuals who served on both sides of the war, including: Donna-Marie (“DM”) Boulay,
who served in Vietnam in the Army Nurse Corps from February 1967 to March 1968; Dai
Vinh, who joined the South Vietnamese Army in 1963 at the age of 18 but ultimately
fought alongside American troops against the Viet Cong; novelist Tim O’Brien, who was
drafted into the Army after graduation from college in 1968; and Trudell Guerue, a
member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, who served in Vietnam as a captain in the
173rd Airborne Brigade.
A glass case inside the helicopter displays a collection of items indicative of service in
Vietnam, loaned from the military veterans who helped restore the Huey helicopter. The
items include a tape recorder, a C-Ration set, a can opener, an accessory packet, a Bia
Saigon beer can, a “Tiger-stripe” field hat, a KA-BAR knife and scabbard, and an
engraved Zippo lighter.
FEBRUARY: “WE’RE LOSING THIS WAR”
The American military force in Vietnam—which in 1968 numbered more than a half
million—was overwhelmingly made up of young men. Their average age was 22; more
than 80 percent of the deaths in Vietnam were men between the ages of 18 and 25. For
thousands in this generation, Vietnam marked a coming of age.
The U.S. military death toll in Vietnam in 1967 had nearly doubled from the previous
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year, from about 5,000 to more than 11,000. The figure would go even higher in 1968,
when the monthly death totals averaged more than 1,200. On February 18, the
Pentagon announced the war’s highest weekly death toll: 543 U.S. soldiers, lost in the
bitter fighting of the Tet Offensive. At the end of this bloody month, CBS News
anchorman Walter Cronkite gave a pessimistic assessment of the war during a special
report on national TV: “It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience
of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate” (“Report from Vietnam,” February 27, 1968).
Registering at age 18 for the Selective Service—“the draft”—had been a vital American
rite of passage for decades. But with the escalation of fighting in the war, and the call up
of tens of thousands of more troops, the prospect of being drafted and sent to Vietnam
became very real. The draft eventually raised more than 2 million men for service during
the Vietnam era. And millions more enlisted because of a “draft effect”: fear of adverse
assignments that awaited a draftee in the Army as opposed to an enlisted man.
Opposition to the war was often conflated with opposition to the compulsory service of
the draft.
A flag-draped coffin sits in this section of the exhibition, with soldiers’ memorabilia
resting on top: a “boonie” hat worn by Mike Maurer of the 82nd Airborne Division in
Vietnam who served from 1968 to 1969; a draft card belonging to Jon Walstrom, who
registered in 1960; and a letter from Tim Doble to his fellow marine who tragically died
aside him while learning to play guitar.
In memory of the deadliest week of the war—February 11–18—this section of the
exhibition houses a tombstone dedicated to the 543 U.S. servicemen killed that week, as
well as the more than 2,200 Americans killed in action in the month of February. The
tombstone was donated to the exhibition by the Memorial Rifle Squad Volunteers at Fort
Snelling National Cemetery.
MARCH: “THE GENERATION GAP”
Revolution was in the air in 1968: a worldwide movement of youth, liberation, and radical
change. Campuses and cities in all parts of the world exploded in protests—against the
status quo and against the war in Vietnam. Millions of young people were forging new
identities and breaking with the past by experimenting wildly in style, in sexual freedom,
in drugs, and in music.
Women of the baby boom generation (born 1946–64) began swelling college enrollments
by the mid-1960s. Nearly 700,000 students who entered college in fall 1968 were
women. Nearly 49 percent of girls who graduated from high school in 1968 enrolled in
college that fall—the highest rate ever up to that point. For young women, college meant
far more than just greater educational opportunity. It also led to a rise in status and
political consciousness as well as opened new avenues to personal freedom.
Exhibition visitors take in a re-created 1960s dorm room as the main framework for this
section of The 1968 Exhibit. The dorm features an open desk drawer displaying a variety
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of items, including, notably, a pack of Ovulen-21, an oral contraceptive first marketed in
1966. At first, most women who sought out the pill were married; in fact, there were laws
in some states prohibiting the distribution of any birth control devices or information to
single women. By 1968, however, the “sexual revolution” was in full swing, and millions
of young unmarried women were “on the pill.”
Also on display in the student’s desk drawer is a GE transistor radio box, a Kodak
Instamatic box, hippie glasses, rolling papers, a (fake) joint with a roach clip, and a
“Don’t Trust Anyone Over 30” button. Love beads, multi-colored beads that became a
standard part of the hippie wardrobe, also can be found in the drawer.
In November 1967, Minnesota senator Eugene McCarthy shocked the Democratic Party
by announcing his intention to run for the presidential nomination against the Democratic
incumbent, Lyndon B. Johnson. Massive numbers of high school and college students
surged to support his campaign, attracted by his anti-war stance. They promised to “get
clean for Gene” by cutting their hair, shaving off beards, and dressing “nicely” to appeal
to the mainstream voters. The energy of the young volunteers soon started paying off. In
the New Hampshire primary in March 1968, McCarthy came within 230 votes of
defeating Johnson.
Included in this section of the exhibition are photos of McCarthy student volunteers
receiving haircuts, as well as a campaign worker’s dress covered with “McCarthy” and
“Peace” designs, and various McCarthy campaign items such as scarves, campaign
buttons, and “flower power” stickers.
APRIL: “I HAVE BEEN TO THE MOUNTAINTOP”
In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most prominent figure in the struggle for civil
rights in America, as he had been since the 1950s. Just four years earlier, he had been
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.
In the last year of his life, King made several important shifts in commitments and
strategies. In April 1967, he began making impassioned anti-war speeches that drew
millions more to his side while infuriating millions of others.
In this section of The 1968 Exhibit, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and
its impact on the American people is told through a media presentation that includes the
words of Dr. King from his “Mountaintop” speech, given the day before his murder, as
well as oral history excerpts from individuals remembering King and his legacy.
Key items also include a communion plate and funeral program loaned from Ebenezer
Baptist Church, King’s home church. He served there as co-pastor with his father from
1960 to 1968. This was the site of King’s funeral on April 9, 1968.
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MAY: “I AM SOMEBODY”
After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his supporters continued to work
on his final goal—to bring the massive Poor People’s Campaign to Washington, D.C.
Reverend Ralph Abernathy took up the Poor People’s Campaign following King’s death.
On June 19—“Solidarity Day”—at the conclusion of the campaign, more than 50,000
people marched in Washington. Abernathy’s boots worn on that day are displayed in this
section of the exhibition.
Housing at Resurrection City on the National Mall was a combination of tents and quickly
erected plywood A-frames. A panel (reproduced in this section of the exhibition) with a
huge image of King formed part of one of these shanties. Curators from the Smithsonian
Institute salvaged it in June of 1968 as the encampment was being demolished by
federal authorities.
Although often described as a failure, the Poor People’s Campaign did much to focus
national attention on the widespread problems of poverty in America. The campaign also
brought many activist groups together for the first time, and—especially for MexicanAmericans—led to a heightened sense of empowerment and presence on the national
stage.
An item of note in this section is a short-handled hoe, courtesy of the Smithsonian
Institution National Museum of American History. The short-handled hoe represents
back-breaking labor for generations of Mexican and Mexican-American migrant workers
who sustained California’s booming agricultural economy. The state abolished the shorthandled hoe in 1975, ruling it an occupational hazard after a seven-year legal battle.
During this period of political mobilization, the migrant farm worker became the symbol
of the cycle of poverty that trapped many Mexican-Americans.
Visitors are also introduced to Cesar Chavez (1927–93), who began working to organize
migrant farm workers in California and the Southwest in the 1950s. By the mid-1960s,
his demands for justice and fair labor practices for farm workers, many of them poor
Mexican-Americans and Filipinos, had coalesced into a national movement. Chavez
promoted the use of non-violent tactics, such as strikes, sit-downs, and boycotts,
including a successful nationwide boycott of grapes harvested by non-union labor. In
February 1968, Chavez—by then a national figure—began a water-only fast to draw
attention to the boycott cause and to refocus attention on the use of nonviolent tactics. In
the company of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Chavez ended his fast at a huge rally and
outdoor mass.
JUNE: “THE DEATH OF HOPE”
On March 16, 1968, New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, brother of slain President
John F. Kennedy, announced his intention to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for
president The announcement stunned the sitting president, Lyndon B. Johnson, and
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Johnson’s most outspoken opponent, Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy. Kennedy’s
hopeful campaign ended just moments after claiming victory in the California primary on
June 5, when he was shot and mortally wounded. His death devastated a country still
reeling from the King assassination and its aftershocks.
This section of the exhibition contains items from Kennedy’s campaign, including
posters, brochures, buttons, images, and quotes—both about the campaign and the
dramatic reactions to Kennedy’s death. Also on display is a Nikon Nikkormat single-lens
reflex camera Time-LIFE photographer Bill Eppridge was carrying while he was covering
the Kennedy campaign in California. Eppridge was with the senator when he was fatally
shot in the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel kitchen. He is best known for the iconic
photograph of hotel worker Juan Romero cradling Senator Kennedy’s head that is on
display in the exhibition.
Kennedy’s funeral was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, after which his body
was buried at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia. A special train bore his casket slowly from
New York to Washington, D.C. All along the route, thousands of people turned out in
tribute. In a particularly poignant and emotional section of the exhibition, visitors take in a
slideshow of photographs from the train route, as if they were passengers on the train
carrying Kennedy’s body, with images of those paying their respects somberly looking
back at the visitors.
The presidential campaign of Hubert H. Humphrey is also presented in this section of
The 1968 Exhibit. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey threw his hat into the ring for the
Democratic nomination for president on April 27—a little less than a month after
President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not seek another term.
Humphrey had a tough uphill battle—to run as his own man, not as an echo of the
deeply unpopular Johnson and his failing policies.
Among the Humphrey campaign paraphernalia featured in the exhibition: a lunchbox,
campaign buttons, bumper stickers, a woman’s belt, and a woman’s rayon hat
emblazoned with the “HHH” motif of the campaign.
JULY: “LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT”
By 1968, a vast group of “Middle Americans”—mostly white, middle-class, and workingclass—was beginning to have a huge impact on electoral politics. The great social
upheavals of the ’60s felt like attacks on traditional values, and many were horrified by
what they perceived as the lawlessness of the anti-war and civil rights movements.
Former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace announced his candidacy for the
presidency, running on the American Independent Party ticket, in February. Wallace,
whose opposition to school integration had thrust him into the national spotlight in the
early 1960s, eventually won enough votes in November to carry five states, all in the
deep South.
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Through images and quotes from Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, George Wallace, and
a handful of “Middle Americans,” exhibition-goers in this section can explore the rise of
conservatism in America in the late 1960s. Objects include a George Wallace election
license plate, necktie, and campaign buttons.
This section of The 1968 Exhibit also features a picket fence, cooler, American flag, and
grill that represent a great American pastime— baseball. On July 9, baseball’s major
leagues played their annual All-Star Game in Houston’s air-conditioned Astrodome,
which had opened three years earlier and was billed as “the Eighth Wonder of the
World.” It was the first time the All-Star Game had been played at an indoor stadium.
Some of baseball’s legendary names were in the lineup: Willie Mays (named Most
Valuable Player), Hank Aaron, Carl Yastrzemski, Don Drysdale, Pete Rose, Harmon
Killebrew, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Bench, Felipe Alou, and Rod Carew. The final score
was a first-ever 1-0, with the National League coming out on top for the sixth time, in
what would prove to be an eight-year streak.
Powerful pitchers like the St. Louis Cardinals’ Bob Gibson made’ 68 the “Year of the
Pitcher.” On July 1, in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Gibson threw a wild
pitch, allowing Len Gabrielson to score. The run ended a scoreless streak for Gibson
that had lasted 48 and 2/3 innings, at the time, the third longest streak in Major League
history. The baseball Gibson threw to end this streak is on display in the exhibition.
AUGUST: “WELCOME TO CHICAGO”
For months leading up to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the buzz had
been building about a major show of force to shut down the convention and drive home
a message to “end the war NOW.” The Chicago police, jittery from the rioting on the
city’s west side after King’s assassination, braced for a battle.
And the battles came. First in the city’s Lincoln Park, when police used tear gas to clear
out protesters camping in the park, then even more brutally a few nights later, in Grant
Park downtown. Protesters chanted for the TV cameras: “The whole world is watching!”
Inside the convention hall, there were other battles—over rules, over planks in the
platform, over candidates. In the end, an anti-war plank was defeated, along with
“peace” candidates George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy. Although damaged by his
support for the war and by the violence on the streets, Vice President Hubert H.
Humphrey emerged the nominee.
These confrontations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago are explored in
this section of the exhibition, through news footage and recorded interviews with
convention-goers, protesters, reporters, and Chicago police. Items in this section include
a riot helmet, tear-gas canister holster, and police nightstick donated by Chicago
Policeman Mike Dillon, who had been on duty during the summer of ’68. Other items
include convention badges and political buttons from the Democratic National
Convention.
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This section also covers the Republican National Convention, held in Miami Beach from
August 5–8. Although the city was largely spared the violent protests that engulfed
Chicago later that month, there were several days of rioting in Miami’s Liberty City
community, an impoverished area long known as “Colored Town.” Delegates nominated
Richard M. Nixon on the first ballot.
SEPTEMBER: “SISTERHOOD IS POWERFUL”
A newly powerful feminist movement began to coalesce in ’68, from the first women’s
march for peace in Washington, D.C., in January to the first National Women’s
Liberation Conference in November. Women were demanding a national commitment to
equality in employment and wages, to equal access to education and political power, to
sexual liberation and reproductive freedom.
The most visible and notorious demonstration of the new wave of feminism took place at
the annual Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in September. The
protest included the display of a stuffed sheep wearing a prize ribbon, lampooning the
contest going on inside. The organizers also brought along a “Freedom Trashcan” and
filled it with what they called “instruments of torture” that were oppressing modern
women—high-heeled shoes, bras, girdles, hair curlers, false eyelashes, typing books,
and copies of Cosmopolitan, Playboy, and Ladies Home Journal. Women were
encouraged to “bring any such woman-garbage you have around the house.”
A re-created “Freedom Trashcan” is the focal point of this section of the exhibition.
Images of women in media and advertising and the increasing role of women in the
American workplace are also explored. Visitors can view a collage of advertisements
from ’68 targeting women and two iterations of the iconic Barbie doll modeling outfits that
were fashionable that year.
OCTOBER: “POWER TO THE PEOPLE”
This section of the exhibition focuses on three different civil rights movements that were
organizing and growing at this time: the Black Power movement, the American Indian
Movement, and the Chicano Movement.
The rise of “Black Power” in the mid-’60s ignited other movements for inclusion across
all racial and ethnic boundaries. Americans who had long been confined to society’s
margins began to demand that their voices be heard and their actions be counted.
The Black Power movement found its most memorable image at the Olympic Games on
October 16, 1968. In the 200-meter dash, Tommie Smith had won gold and John Carlos,
bronze. Australian sprinter Peter Norman had won silver. Standing on the podium while
the national anthem was played, the Americans raised black-gloved fists. The gesture
led to widespread criticism of the Americans’ actions, and to their expulsion from the
Games. In recent decades, however, both men have been honored for their courage.
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Items of note in this section of The 1968 Exhibit include: Mexico City Olympic Games
commemorative items, a participation medal, and the official Olympic torch used at the
games. The torch, made of cast white metal, was lit in Olympia, Greece, on August 23,
1968, then transported across the oceans to Mexico, where it was carried into the
Olympic Stadium in Mexico City on October 12. The final carrier of the torch was
Mexican runner Enriqueta Basilio, the first woman in the history of the Games to carry
the Olympic flame to its final destination.
The Black Panther Party was organized in 1966 in Oakland, California, under the
leadership of activists Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. By ’68, the Panthers had
5,000 members, and had become the best known of the many “power” groups that had
emerged in response to police brutality, poverty, and neglect in the nation’s inner cities.
Although the Panthers sponsored projects such as voter registration drives, free clinics,
and free breakfast programs, they were also involved in numerous violent confrontations
with police, including several fatal shoot-outs.
Black berets and leather jackets, occasionally emblazoned with insignias, became the
standard uniform of the Black Panther Party. The shotgun was another potent symbol of
Black Power, especially after a group of 30 Black Panthers, each carrying weapons, held
a demonstration on May 2, 1967, at the California State Capitol. They had taken their
lead from slain black liberationist Malcolm X, who had argued that because the
government was “either unable or unwilling to protect the lives and property” of blacks,
they had to defend themselves “by whatever means necessary.” A case in this section of
the exhibition houses a black leather jacket and a Mossberg 395KA 12-gauge shotgun.
Mexican Americans, now calling themselves “Chicanos,” launched a broad struggle for
civil rights in the late 1960s. Groups such as the Brown Berets formed to protest police
brutality in Hispanic neighborhoods, and went on to start free clinics and protest the
Vietnam War. In early ’68, Chicano groups organized the first “blow-outs” of MexicanAmerican students from inner-city public schools—walkouts in protest of discriminatory
educational practices. Also gathering strength was the United Farm Workers union, who
strongly identified with the Chicano rights movement.
The American Indian Movement (AIM), organized in ’68, was part of a broader national
movement to focus attention on the rights and identity of Native people. Led by urban
Indian activists, groups such as AIM in Minneapolis and United Native Americans in San
Francisco mounted protests focusing on issues such as housing discrimination and
police brutality. An AIM denim jacket, patches, and buttons are displayed here. All items
feature AIM’s distinctive logo, with a red-and-black profile of an Indian warrior and a twofingered “peace” sign.
NOVEMBER: “THE VOTES ARE IN”
The 1968 presidential election is considered one of the most significant in history.
Nixon’s win for the Republicans prompted a major political realignment. From 1933 to
1968, Democrats, riding the wave of New Deal liberal politics defined by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, won seven out of nine presidential elections. But from 1968 to
2008, Republicans won seven out of 10 presidential elections.
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In ’68, the Democratic consensus quickly broke apart over debates about civil rights,
“law and order” issues, “permissiveness,” and the conduct of the Vietnam War. White
southerners, once reliably Democratic, shifted decisively to Republican ranks. Hubert H.
Humphrey won less than 10 percent of the white Southern vote. From 1968 to 2008 only
two Democrats, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, were elected president, and both were
native Southerners. Not until 2008 was a Northern Democrat, Barack Obama, elected
president.
Nixon had served as vice president for eight years under President Dwight D.
Eisenhower but lost his own bid for president to John F. Kennedy in 1960. But in 1968,
Nixon ran a brilliant campaign for the Republican nomination, holding off challenges from
the more moderate Nelson Rockefeller and the more conservative Ronald Reagan. In
the general election, Nixon effectively outflanked George Wallace by appealing to
Southern whites with his “law and order” platform. Nixon narrowly edged out Humphrey
in the popular vote.
In this section of The 1968 Exhibit, visitors learn about the presidential candidates’
platforms on a touch screen monitor. A curtained voting booth complete with pull lever—
used in the’68 election—allows visitors to cast their vote for any individual who had been
a declared candidate in the race and compare their preferences with those of other
visitors on a monitor.
DECEMBER: “IN THE BEGINNING”
The year 1968—a year of shock and violence, horror and despair—ended,
unpredictably, on an uplifting note. Three American astronauts were successfully
launched into space and became the first humans to orbit the moon.
Visitors enter a similar living room from the beginning of the exhibition—but with a fullsized replica of the Apollo 8 Command Module. Television reports of the launch and
mission unfold while the image of the “Earthrise” is displayed, accompanied by audio of
the crew reading from the Bible’s Book of Genesis.
The original Apollo 8 Command Module is currently on exhibit at the Museum of Science
and Industry in Chicago. The model on display replicates the exact size and shape of the
module and its new lunar module docking assembly, as well as the pattern and width of
the reflective silver insulating tape. Since most of the actual module’s silver tape burned
off during re-entry, this replica reproduces the appearance of the module on Christmas
Eve 1968.
The “bubble” helmet and wrist-watch worn by astronaut Jim Lovell, Jr. (who would later
command the famous Apollo 13 mission), are also featured. The helmet is made of a
clear polycarbonate material and aluminum and locked into the top of a spacesuit. The
Omega Speedmaster Chronograph wrist-watch was chosen by NASA for the U.S. space
program for its precision and reliability. The program required a manual-winding wrist
chronograph that was waterproof, shock-proof, anti-magnetic, and able to withstand
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temperatures ranging from 0 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and accelerations of 12 G’s. A
three-ring booklet/checklist of tasks used by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders in his
capacity as lunar module pilot is also featured here. These artifacts are on loan from the
National Air and Space Museum.
LOUNGES
The exhibition also features four immersive, interactive “lounges,” dispersed throughout
the months.
TV & Movie Lounges
The movie “season” of 1967–68 marked one of the great turning points in Hollywood
history, a moment when boundaries were stretched and old assumptions challenged.
Westerns and big-budget musicals like Funny Girl and Oliver!, and stars like John
Wayne and Katharine Hepburn were still big at the box office. In the theaters, violence
was hitting the screen as never before, in movies like Bonnie and Clyde and Bullitt. The
“youth” movie was becoming smarter and edgier, as The Graduate and Petulia made
clear. New frontiers were opening for the horror and science-fiction genres, with such
diverse products as 2001: A Space Odyssey, the low-budget Night of the Living Dead,
and the scary-hip Rosemary’s Baby.
Younger visitors may be shocked to learn that in 1968 there was no cable TV, almost no
satellite-TV transmissions, and no home video-recorders. There were just three major
networks, a few obscure UHF channels, and a scattering of educational TV channels.
But television was changing. Homes with color TV sets in the living room jumped from 5
million in 1966 to nearly 14 million in 1968—almost none of them made overseas. News
programming took on special urgency in this turbulent year, perhaps signaled by the
debut of 60 Minutes.
The year marked the last full season for The Monkees, Star Trek, The Andy Griffith
Show, and the oft-censored Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Although the top-rated
show of ’68 was a new one, the crazily countercultural Laugh-In, the rest of the year’s
lineup is evidence of how predictable and “safe” much of ’60s pop culture actually was,
with shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, Family Affair, Gunsmoke, Here’s Lucy,
and Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.
In the TV & Movie Lounge, visitors settle into bean bag chairs to watch clips from TV
shows such as Laugh-In, Gunsmoke and The Monkees and films such as Bonnie and
Clyde, Funny Girl and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Highlights from the Olympic Games,
Super Bowl II, and the World Series are also shown.
Items found in this lounge include Mattel Co.’s talking “Mrs. Beasley” doll from the
television show Family Affair, a Super Bowl II football, a baseball cap worn by Catfish
Hunter during his no-hitter on May 8, the blue-grey sweater and blue shoes worn by
Fred Rogers in the TV show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Laugh-In View-Master slides,
a Laugh-In record album, and a “Sock it to me” t-shirt, made popular by Laugh-In.
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Style Lounge
While the boldness of pop art or the clean lines of European products found their way
into some textiles and graphics and consumer items, most American design remained
conservative.
Living rooms around the country filled up with “Mediterranean modern” furniture and
kitchens boasted appliances in colors like “Harvest Gold” or “Avocado.”
In the Style Lounge, visitors can explore the world of consumer goods from 1968,
including plastics—molded into furniture, stitched into clothing and shaped into
household goods—along with denim jeans, wood paneling, and shag carpeting.
Some key objects include patched blue jeans, a Munsingwear bathrobe, a glossy orange
purse, and a patent black and white tote.
Music Lounge
Between the “Summer of Love” in ’67 and the Woodstock Festival of ’69 came 1968—as
volatile and fractured a year in music as it was in the rest of society. Music of the
“counterculture”—psychedelic rock and hippie anthems—grabbed the headlines from
San Francisco to New York. Rock music was instantly drawn into national conversations
about youth, free love, drugs, and political rebellion. Rock and roll got louder, electronic
instruments made a big splash, and there were pop explorations of mysticism and sheer
noise.
In the Music Lounge, original albums are interspersed with shadow boxes displaying
concert tickets, programs, posters, and autographs from musicians of the era. Visitors
also can take a music quiz and make their own album covers that can be sent to their
personal email address for sharing.
This lounge also features a “Yellow Submarine” lunchbox from the Beatles’ popular
Yellow Submarine animated film.
Community Lounge
The Community Lounge was created by the National Constitution Center as a space
where visitors can share memories (through post-it notes) of subject matter including
politics, the Vietnam War, pop culture, innovation, and civil rights. The lounge also
features a special program titled Stories of ’68, where members of the public, local
television and radio personalities, and other well-known Philadelphians will be invited to
share their recollections of the extraordinary year with visitors in a discussion led by a
member of the museum’s staff.
The 1968 Exhibit brings to life one of America’s most colorful, chaotic, culture-shifting
years and illuminates the power of “We the People” to exercise and expand our
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ADD TWELVE/THE 1968 EXHIBIT WALKTHROUGH
freedoms. Open to the public from June 14 to September 2, 2013, the exhibit features
artifacts such as an actual Bell “Huey” helicopter used by the U.S. Army during the
Vietnam War; icons of space exploration including a full-size replica of the Apollo 8
command module; and original concert tickets, posters, and autographs.
The 1968 Exhibit is organized by the Minnesota History Center in association with the
Atlanta History Center, the Chicago History Museum, and the Oakland Museum of
California, and is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The 1968 Exhibit is included in the cost of general museum admission, which includes
the award-winning theatrical performance Freedom Rising, iconic Signers’ Hall, and The
Story of We the People exhibition. General museum admission prices are $14.50 for
adults, $13 for seniors ages 65 and over, and $8 for children ages 4–12. Active military
personnel and children ages 3 and under are free. Group rates also are available. For
tickets and information, call 215.409.6700 or visit constitutioncenter.org.
CBS 3 and The CW Philly are the official media partners of the exhibition. CBS 3 (KYWTV) and The CW Philly 57 (WPSG-TV) are part of CBS Television Stations, a division of
CBS Corporation.
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