The Idaho State Historical Society is proud to offer a variety of permanent, rotating, virtual, and traveling exhibits across all it sites to display portions of a collection of over 50,000 artifacts, 20,000 archaeological items, 10,000 maps, and countless archival documents and photographs.
Check back often for a traveling or virtual exhibit you can access from your community!
CONTACT US
(208) 334-2682
BROWSE EXHIBITS
Idaho State Museum
The Idaho State Museum features over 80,000 square feet of exhibit space with over 500 artifacts combined with immersive, innovative technology to tell the story of Idaho. From the lakes and forests of the north down to the deserts and canyons of the south, visitors can explore each space and understand the important relationship between Idaho’s land and its people and how they have shaped, and continue to shape each other over time.
The Museum’s two rotating galleries, Syringa and Treasures, provide spaces to expand on themes within the exhibits by highlighting additional artifacts from the collection and sourcing national exhibits for display.
See below for descriptions of each exhibit and current exhibits featured in the temporary gallery spaces.
CONTACT US
(208) 334-2120
Permanent Exhibits
The Origins gallery introduces you to Idaho’s five federally recognized tribes. The tribal theater illuminates each tribe’s Origin Story, while the rest of the gallery identifies tribal roles in contemporary land stewardship and provides an introduction to the diverse landscapes throughout Idaho.
Lakes and Forests: North Idaho
Learn the rich history of mining, forestry, and transportation and how some of Idaho’s natural resources are used around the world today. Watch a spark turn into the blaze that became the Big Burn of 1910, and how this historic fire continues to influence forest management today.
Mountains and Rivers: Central Idaho
Central Idaho’s mountains are a recreational paradise.
Experience what it’s like to ride a chairlift up Mt. Baldy, or sit around a campfire where you’ll learn about the first group to urge protections for our wilderness areas.
Deserts and Canyons: South Idaho
Discover the hard road travelers faced on the Oregon Trail, the challenges of developing agriculture in the desert, and Idaho’s atomic past and high-tech future. Take a virtual bike ride through historic Pocatello or downtown Boise.
The History Explorer Galleries encourage exploration into the process of doing history, connecting your story to the inspiring stories of Idahoans, and placing yourself in variety of professions.
Boomtown
Children of all ages will enjoy hands-on experiences based on early professions and trades in Idaho. You’ll also want to visit Deja Moo, the famous two-headed calf in the Penny Arcade!
History Lab
Have fun learning how to do history through activities you may encounter in your own life, such as organizing family photos or building a new home using historic architectural styles.
Stories from Idaho
Connect with the personal stories of Idahoans spanning our state’s history. Take a personality quiz to discover connections you may have with Idahoans
you learn about.
Rotating Exhibits
Courage and Compassion: Our Shared Story of the Japanese American World War II Experience
Open: March 4, 2024, through March 16, 2025
Go For Broke National Education Center’s traveling exhibit, Courage and Compassion: Our Shared Story of the Japanese American World War II Experience highlights the bravery, integrity and extraordinary support of Japanese Americans within communities across the country. Discover the origins of Idaho’s Japanese American communities, the legacy of the Japanese American soldiers, life in Minidoka War Relocation Center, and more. Immerse yourself in firsthand accounts by survivors, archival images and artifacts generously contributed by veterans’ families and the National Park Service. Special thanks to our local sponsors, Bob and Janet Komoto, Amalgamated Sugar, Judy and Steve Meyer, and the Foundation for Idaho History.
Exhibiting Curiosity
Open: November 18, 2023-December 8, 2024.
For over 140 years, the Idaho State Historical Society has collected artifacts that connect Idahoans with their past. Today, this collection spans over 50,000 objects that tell nuanced stories about life in the Gem State and beyond. How do these artifacts become a part of the museum? What do they say about our collective history? And for some, what are they in the first place!? Explore the collections that make us curious in Exhibiting Curiosity.
Online Exhibits
This curated selection of clothing and accessories reveals how culture, individual values, technology, and function combine to create fashions that help to visually define our lives. Using multiple levels of detailed photography and 3D modeling, this catalog makes viewing delicate textiles possible in ways not usually accessible to the public.
Old Idaho Penitentiary
The Old Idaho Penitentiary features nearly a dozen unique exhibits and interpretive panels throughout several buildings on the four and half acre site. Smaller exhibitions focus on the daily life of penitentiary residents, young offenders, building and architectural history, and biographies of former residents and employees. Exhibits explore the human experience of those incarcerated here and how Idaho’s system of incarceration evolved over time.
The J. Curtis Earl Weapons Exhibit is an additional exhibit which highlights historic arms and armaments from the Bronze Age through the Vietnam War era. From projectile points to Thompson (“Tommy”) sub-machine guns, the displays demonstrate technological advances in weaponry, as well as military experiences throughout the world. There is no extra cost for visiting this world-class exhibition. The J. Curtis Earl Exhibit is not related to the history of the Idaho State Penitentiary.
See below for more detailed descriptions of our largest, featured exhibitions.
CONTACT US
(208) 334-2844
Permanent Exhibits
Discover the stories and circumstances behind the major riots and disturbances at the Idaho State Penitentiary through new, locally designed graphic novel style artwork. Featuring over 60 illustrations and thought-provoking questions that ask visitors to consider how these events shaped the current state of corrections in Idaho, guests will decide whether those involved were disturbing justice, or if the justice system itself can be disturbing.
With generous support from the Boise City Department of Arts & History, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Explore the untold and often overlooked stories of people of color, different religions, various ethnic backgrounds, and more. While the Idaho State Penitentiary population was predominately white men, diversity has always existed in Idaho. We hope to demonstrate that everyone who visits will be able to see a part of their own past in this exhibit.
Highlights of “Faces” include inmates from each of the 50 states, inmates from 45 different countries, as well as the history of religious persecution and other discrimination in Idaho.
With generous support from the Idaho Humanities Council.
Open daily until 4:30pm.
Prepare to be amazed as you visit one of the nation’s largest collections of historic arms and military memorabilia at the J. Curtis Earl Memorial Exhibit: Arms and Armament through the Ages, located in the Old Idaho Penitentiary. The wide-ranging collection and dramatic settings illustrate the development of weapons throughout history. Visitors can walk through a World War I trench and begin to understand the difficulties soldiers faced during that conflict or they can experience the drama of an American GI sneaking up on German soldiers in a bombed-out European house. The collection includes ancient Luristan bronzes, medieval arms and armor, Revolutionary War firearms and swords, Civil War artifacts, and an 1883 Gatling gun on its original carriage. Pistols, rifles, machine guns, mortars, and cannons from many of the countries involved in World Wars I and II are also featured.
J. Curtis Earl dedicated the exhibit to “the memory of all those who served and fought, and especially those who paid the supreme sacrifice, in the defense of our great country in order to preserve our freedom and ideals as a free people.” Mr. Earl hoped his collection would encourage “kids both young and old whose insatiable curiosity and interest in ‘stuff’ and ‘things’ of God’s creation and man’s ingenuity will be an inspiration to collect, keep and preserve certain and varied special treasures for posterity.” He worked closely with Idaho State Historical Society staff members to ensure his gift would be of great educational benefit to the people of Idaho.
Between 1887 and 1968, the Idaho State Penitentiary housed 214 women incarcerated for Idaho crimes. Before 1905, the penitentiary kept female inmates in a cell house inside the main prison yard. The 1920 Women’s Ward, located outside the Old Idaho Penitentiary entrance, features a new exhibit chronicling the lives and crimes of Idaho women who found themselves at odds with the law. Discover scandalous stories and escape attempts, and learn about daily life for female inmates.
Idaho State Archives
The temporary exhibition space and A. Lincoln: His Legacy in Idaho exhibit is located in the Merle W. Wells Research Center at the Idaho State Archives. The exhibits in this space are curated and assembled by Archives staff to showcase the unique materials within our collections and educate visitors on various topics. The temporary exhibit space is rotated approximately three times a year, with each display in place for about three months. To encourage further research on the selected topics, Archives staff also assemble a collection of related readings available in the research center.
CONTACT US
(208) 334-2620
Permanent Exhibits
Abraham Lincoln: His Legacy in Idaho exhibition at the Idaho State Archives features over 200 artifacts and documents that reveal the intriguing and significant connections between the 16th president and the 43rd state. The exhibition opens with a recreation of Lincoln’s Cabinet Room where the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Galleries that follow illuminate Lincoln’s life from poverty to presidency and feature collections such as Lincoln’s signed appointments of the first territorial Chief Justice and second territorial Governor; Lincoln’s remarks to Congress in 1863 and 1864 reporting on the progress made in organizing Idaho Territory; and the Order of Procession for the President’s funeral parade in Chicago on May 1, 1865, listing the Honorable William H. Wallace of Idaho Territory as a Member of Congress in attendance.
Rotating Exhibits
The Idaho State Archives presents an immaculate
collection of original hand-drawn sketches, presentation drawings, elevations,
and photographs detailing a number of projects produced by the Hummel
Architectural Firm and it’s historical partnership, Tourtellotte & Hummel.
The collection has been recently acquired by the Idaho State Historical Society.
Visit the Research Center Tuesday through Saturday, 11 am to 4 pm for the next several months to see the history the Archives collects and preserves for future families to enjoy.
Traveling Exhibits
This exhibit is currently unavailable.
Idaho State Capitol
The Capitol Curation Program is the product of a partnership between the Idaho State Historical Society (ISHS) and Idaho Capitol Commission. The Capitol Curator preserves and promotes the historic character of Idaho’s statehouse and manages a collection of over 1,000 artifacts and historic furnishings connected to the Idaho State Capitol. Through permanent and temporary exhibits within the capitol, the program provides context for this iconic monument and the place of government in the lives of Idahoans.
CONTACT US
(208) 334-2120
Permanent Exhibits
Governing Idaho: How People and Policy Shape Our State, located in the Garden Level Rotunda, is the Idaho State Capitol’s signature permanent exhibit. In 2011, the project won the American Association of State and Local History Award of Merit. Learn how the Idaho State Capitol came to be. Explore the history of state government with interactive challenges. Become inspired to actively participate in leadership and governance of the Gem State. Brochures accompanying the exhibit can be found in the Idaho State Capitol Gift Shop.
Winged Victory of Samothrace was gifted to the state of Idaho by the people of France as part the Merci Boxcar Train following World War II. The statue is a magnificent replica of the Louvre’s 2,000-year-old marble masterpiece. Discover more about Winged Victory’s journey to Idaho and the Merci Boxcar Train at the 4th floor rotunda entrance to Statuary Hall.
The George Washington Equestrian Statue was presented to the Territory of Idaho by artist Charles Ostner in 1869. Learn about this Idaho pioneer and his iconic work at the 4th floor rotunda entrance to Statuary Hall.
The Lincoln Auditorium is a functional space within the capitol enriched by artifacts and ephemera connected to President Abraham Lincoln. Displays at the entrance and back of the auditorium were created in partnership with David Leroy to honor President Lincoln’s legacy in the Gem State.
Portraits of Idaho Governors and Legislators have been reproduced and displayed throughout the capitol. Governors’ portraits from 1890 to the present hang outside the 2nd floor entrance to the Governor’s Office. Legislative composite photographs can be viewed throughout the Garden Level East and West Wings, as well as the 3rd and 4th floors of the capitol.
Rotating Exhibits
Idaho’s Capitol building is truly the “People’s House.” Temporary galleries throughout the statehouse tell the story of the many ways Idahoans shape the Gem State.
Currently in Statuary Hall:
Check back soon for updates on upcoming exhibits at the Idaho State Capitol.