At Home & Abroad: South Dakota in World War II, a traveling exhibit from the South Dakota State Historical Society, will be at the Moody County Resource Center until January 12th with an open house on Tuesday, December 19th from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Everyone is welcome, but a special invitation is extended to any WWII veterans in the area. The traveling exhibit’s visit to Flandreau is sponsored by VFW Post 3351.
Eighteen text panels in six pop-up kiosks use historic photographs, documents, and object photos to tell the story of South Dakota’s involvement in World War II, both overseas and at home. At Home & Abroad covers joining the military, military units serving overseas, Battleship South Dakota, Sioux Code Talkers, and Doolittle’s 1942 Raid on Tokyo. On the home front, the exhibit discusses farm labor shortages, industries gearing up for military production, rationing, scrap drives, and victory gardens. Post-war South Dakota with its thousands of returning veterans, the GI Bill and its impact on the state’s colleges, and the beginnings of the Cold War with its missile defenses are also part of the exhibit.
“Every South Dakotan was touched by World War II,” said Jay Vogt, South Dakota State Historical Society Director. “Many of the state’s residents served in the military, and everyone at home pitched in by working on the farm or in the factories, dealing with rationed food, gas, and tires, or planting victory gardens. Everyone had a stake in the war.” This exhibition was funded by the South Dakota Heritage Fund and the State of South Dakota.
At Home & Abroad: South Dakota in World War II is one of ten pop-up kiosk exhibits available from the South Dakota State Historical Society. The other exhibits are: Lewis and Clark in South Dakota which tells about the animals, plants, and people that the Corps of Discovery encountered; Properties of History: Exploring South Dakota’s Historic Places features historic properties from across the state; Life Underground: Hard Rock Mining in the Black Hills examines the state’s rich mining history; Living Traditions: Dakota, Nakota, Lakota Art examines the artistic traditions of the Dakota, Nakota and Lakota people; South Dakota Communicates looks at early telephone communication in the state; A Capital Fight: Choosing South Dakota’s Capital City tells about the lively multi-year fight to permanently locate the capital; Drawn to the Land: Homesteading Dakota looks at the homesteading experience in Dakota; Marketing Dakota explores the hard sell used to draw settlers to the territory and the state; Fall In! Soldiering in Dakota examines frontier military life in the state.
For more information on the exhibit in Flandreau, contact the Moody County Resource Center at 605-997-3326.
