Pleasanton's Museum On Main Opens First Virtual Exhibit

Press release from Museum on Main: On May 14, Pleasanton’s Museum on Main opened its first virtual exhibit, A Great Frontier Odyssey: Sketches of the American West on its Facebook and You Tube channels. The exhibit features 40 prints by Paul Frenzeny and Jules Tavernier who were hired by Harper Brothers’ Weekly to document frontier life. After the opening of the Transcontinental Railroad, which went through Pleasanton, there was a public clamor for images of the newly accessible American West. They traveled from New York to San Francisco in 1873-74 and depicted newsworthy places and events that favored the view of the common man living in the frontier.

Since the Museum on Main has been closed since mid-March due to the CoVid 19 outbreak, the staff have been working on different ways to engage with the public. There have been daily posts during the week on different historical subjects on its social media platforms of Facebook and YouTube. With no reopening date set yet, the Museum wanted to make this exhibit accessible to as many people as possible. Curator Ken MacLennan has put together an exhibit overview that documents the highlights of this exhibition and it will remain online indefinitely. The Museum hopes that it can reopen before the physical exhibit closes on June 28.

This is a traveling exhibit sponsored by Exhibit Envoy, a non-profit organization that offers traveling exhibits to museums across the country, and was curated by Dr. Claudine Chalmers based on her book, “Chronicling the West for Harper’s: Coast to Coast with Frenzeny & Tavernier in 1873-1874.” (University of Oklahoma Press)

Pleasanton’s Museum on Main is located at 603 Main Street in downtown Pleasanton and is closed at the moment because of the CoVid-19 pandemic. A reopening date has not been set yet.

This press release was produced by Museum on Main. The views expressed here are the author's own.