The Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science, will host a series of programs in commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
On Saturday December 4, 6:00 PM, there will be a special screening of the 1953 classic movie From Here to Eternity. Starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, and Donna Reed living in Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. This drama romance won eight academy awards including for best motion picture. Retired EVSC film studies teacher Terry Hughes will provide commentary on the film’s place in cinema history. Popcorn will be provided before the movie. Tickets for the show are $10 per person. As seating is limited, please contact the Museum at 812-425-2406 to purchase tickets in advance.
Presented in Partnership with the Vanderburgh County Historical Society
Lecture
On the 80th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Tuesday, December 7, Dr. James MacLeod will present Evansville in the Era of Pearl Harbor at 6:00 p.m. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the city of Evansville became one of the most important cities in the country, manufacturing hundreds of ships, thousands of fighter planes and literally billions of other items that contributed hugely to the Allies’ victory. In this lecture, illustrated with scores of images, University of Evansville historian James MacLeod explains how all this industry came to be in Evansville, reveals the enormous impact that it had on social, economic, and cultural life, and analyzes how the city dealt with what was a time of astonishing transformation.
Dr. MacLeod chairs the History Department at the University of Evansville and teaches courses on the World Wars and British history. He is well-known for his research of local history his 2015 book Evansville in World War Two, and two-part documentary he co-produced on Evansville in World War II for WNIN television.
As seating is limited, please make your complimentary reservation by calling the Museum at 812-425-2406.
Presented in Partnership with the Vanderburgh County Historical Society
Gallery Talks
On Sundays, December 12, January 16, and February 13 at 2 p.m., Pearl Harbor collector Rex Knight will be present gallery talks in the Remembering Pearl Harbor exhibition at the Evansville Museum. Knight will discuss specific items with the exhibition and the collection in general whose stories share intimate details about the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Rex Knight has been a student of American military history since the age of 10. With more than 50 years of experience studying historical artifacts from the American Revolutionary War to World War II, Knight is an expert in evaluating and identifying historical military memorabilia. Knight has also written historical articles featured in World War II magazine and in 2001 authored the book Riding on Luck: The Saga of the USS Lang DD399. His collection of Pearl Harbor artifacts is among the most extensive and well documented in private hands.
Knight holds a Sociology Degree from Vincennes University and an Indiana State Certification as a grant administrator. Recently retired, he last served as the Project Coordinator for the Southern Indiana Development Commission, a state certified regional planning commission headquartered in Loogootee, Indiana.
About the Exhibition
From November 21, 2021-February 13, 2022, the Evansville Museum will feature the exhibition Remembering Pearl Harbor. This exhibition recalls the fateful day of December 7, 1941, that drew the United States into World War II 80 years ago.
Remembering Pearl Harbor provides an overview of the events surrounding the attack and shares personal stories of the era. Key to the telling of these stories is the collection of Rex Knight, a Hoosier who began collecting Pearl Harbor artifacts in 1999. The collection tells the lesser-known, intimate, and individual stories that occurred just before, during, and immediately following the attack. The Knight collection uses surviving artifacts from the attack to introduce some of these stories, of both Americans and Japanese. The collection is an ongoing study in matching a personal human history with a surviving artifact. Also key to the interpretation are items from the Indiana Military Museum in Vincennes, Indiana, and from the collection of the Evansville Museum.