The Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum will open its exhibit, “[email protected] – eighty years of the amplified guitar,” with a free First Friday event on Friday, July 6, 2012.
The earliest documented performance of the electric guitar was right here in Wichita. Friday night, local guitarists will perform in the museum auditorium, and the electric guitar exhibit as well as the rest of the museum will be open from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Here’s more about the exhibit, which runs through November 11, 2012:
The Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum marks the 80th anniversary of the electric guitar with a special exhibit running through November 11th. The exhibit, created by the Museum, borrows from ten collections and includes 45 exceptional instruments, including what experts have recently agreed “may well be the most historically important guitar ever made . . . the first modern electric guitar.”
In fact, the earliest documented performance of the electric guitar was in Wichita when local guitarist and orchestra leader Gage Brewer introduced it with great fanfare in a series of concerts during October of 1932.
· This exhibit presents the stories behind Wichita’s role in electric guitar development.
· The origins of the instrument are explored as well as its history over the last 80 years.
The Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum is located in the old City Hall building, at 204 S. Main Street – it’s the one with the clock tower. Parking is available on the street, in a parking garage behind the museum, or possibly even in the Waterwalk parking garage (it’s a short walk down Main Street to the museum).
