Smithsonian’s ‘Between Fences’ exhibit to debut in Nogales

NOGALES — The first barrier, which stood from the late 1920s through the early 1940s, was a simple chain-link fence.

The Smithsonian Institution, funded by the U.S. Congress and the Knight and Hearst Foundations, has produced a program of traveling exhibits known as the Museum on Main Street.

These exhibits include the upcoming Between Fences exhibit made available in Arizona for a six-city tour through Arizona Humanities Council.

The opening in Arizona of this probative exhibit was awarded recently to the Pimeria Alta Historical Society and is scheduled Oct. 14, 2007.

Between Fences provides a cultural history of fences and land use. Among the many uses of fences within the United States, the exhibit explores the implications of fences at the U.S. borders of Canada and Mexico.

For almost a century, a fence has divided the single community of Nogales. Indeed, in 1880 the first name given our then undivided community was “Line City” when the line was just that, a line.

At the annual meeting of the Pimeria Alta Historical Society to be held at the Americana Hotel at noon Saturday, Feb. 10, the implications of barriers at the border will be examined as an introduction to the Between Fences exhibit.

Fences and Walls, Ambos Nogales, the Smithsonian and Beyond will be presented by professor emeritus Edward Williams, formerly of the Department of Political Science at the University of Arizona.

For decades, Williams has maintained an in-depth study and research of Mexico and the borderlands and will be a consulting scholar to the Pimeria Alta Historical Society in presenting the Smithsonian’s Between Fences exhibit.

The meeting is open to the public and reservations may be obtained by calling the PAHS at (520) 287-4621.