Eastside Heritage Center Brings Smithsonian Exhibit to Crossroads Mall

The Eastside Heritage Center officially opened the Smithsonian Institution's Journey Stories exhibit at Crossroads Bellevue shopping center on Saturday.

The exhibit, which features interactive panels, pictures and audio recordings, focuses on migration, immigration and the movement of people throughout the United States.

The free exhibit will be at through July 10, and also will feature a "Journey Tunes" music night on Crossroads' stage from 5-9 p.m. June 30.

The heritage center will also provides free docents to help explain the exhibits from 2-4 p.m. on Tuesdays and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

Though the exhibit is about national migration, many of themes that influenced migration nationally resonate locally, said the center's executive director Heather Trescases.

"They could be talking about our community," she said. "A lot of the overarching themes could be the same -- immigration, innovation."

The Eastside Heritage Center also included in the exhibit several donated items telling the migration stories of Bellevue and Eastside residents -- passports, photos, and a letter of college acceptance. At the opening ceremony on Saturday, the Eastside Heritage Center invited attendees to add their own stories by adding a dot to a large map that is slated to be on display throughout the exhibit.

The Heritage Center will also feature a journeys display booth at the Strawberry Festival next month, Trescases said.

According to the Smithsonian Institution, the exhibit focuses on the people and reasons for moving and travel:

Our transportation history is more than trains, boats, buses, cars, wagons, and trucks. The development of transportation technology was largely inspired by the human drive for freedom. Journey Stories will examine the intersection between modes of travel and Americans’ desire to feel free to move. The story is diverse and focused on immigration, migration, innovation, and freedom. It is accounts of immigrants coming in search of promise in a new country; stories of individuals and families relocating in search of fortune, their own homestead, or employment; the harrowing journeys of Africans and Native Americans forced to move; and, of course, fun and frolic on the open road.

The exhibit was made available to the through Humanities Washington, a statewide organization, and 4Culture, a King County agency that focuses on culture.

For more information about the Journey Stories exhibit, check out the Smithsonian Institution's website for the traveling exhibit.

Journey Stories

Eastside Heritage Center