Renton History Museum Spring Speaker Series

Please join us at the Renton History Museum for our spring program series. Programs are free with regular Museum admission, a suggested donation of $3 per adult and $1 per child, and always free for members.

April 21st at 11:00 a.m.

• He Can, She Can, We Can by Naomi Baltuck. No job is too big, no hero too small, and brains overcome brawn in these empowering multicultural folktales. Award-winning author and storyteller Naomi Baltuck present folktales and personal stories to entertain, teach, and heal. Audience: children through adult.

May 10th at 5:00 p.m.

• Alien Encounters: Sci-Fi Movies and the Cold War Culture of the 1950s by Robert Horton. The term "flying saucer" was coined after a 1947 sighting near Mt. Rainier; the UFO craze that followed coincided with the dawn of the Cold War and with Hollywood's depictions of extra-terrestrials landing in the all-American landscape of the post-WWII boom years. Robert Horton will examine the underlying political and social anxieties that resulted in the alien-invasion scenarios of 1950s science fiction films, citing movies both thoughtful (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and silly (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers). Comparisons will be drawn with similar offerings today (including the 2005 War of the Worlds remake), demonstrating how pop culture always reflects its era. Appropriate for teenage audiences and up.