TEXARKANA, Ark. -On Saturday, at the P.J. Ahern home in downtown Texarkana, Jamie Simmons, curator, led groups of tourists through the home, introducing them to both the historical home and various technologies, showing their evolution through the years. The display, called "Then and Now: Evolution of Invention," ranged from radios, to music playing devices, to sound recording, to word processors to adding machines and more.
The exhibits showed those just how far technology has come, a thing people sometimes take for granted.
While winding up a Victrola and showing how records were played before electricity, Simmons said, "The basic concept is to show familiar technological concepts, with examples of what came before, to give visitors an idea of how we got to where we are today."
Many samples of the various devices on display - a mix of gadgets - were donated to this Texarkana Museum Systems property, such as the mid-'80s era Apple computer displayed with typewriters and other word processors, most of them still operational.
"I wanted this exhibit to have as much audio and visual components as possible, things you can see and hear," she said. "The original idea of this exhibit involved a considerable hands-on component. However, the current COVID situation has limited that somewhat."
The museum made available "make and take"projects, illustrating some of the concepts on display among the inventions. Mostly intended for kids, these kits gave the user a hands-on demonstration of
various concepts.
About 40 tourists came through on Saturday. The tours are a standard feature of the local museum system and are
designed to add to the attraction of the P.J. Ahern home,
and provide an educational component that still fits within the setup of the house.
"The P.J. Ahern home is of a particular era and we wanted some of the devices to reflect that," Simmons said. "At the same time, we wanted to show this easily illustrated progression of invention."
The next event for the P.J. Ahern home is in July and will be a "living history walking tour," reflecting the 1880s-1890s era of Texarkana, regarded as a bit of a "Wild West" era.
(For more about the P.J. Ahern home, visit its web site at texarkanamuseum.org or follow them on Facebook.)