WALLACE –– The Barnard-Stockbridge Museum Spring Fling Gala is just around the corner as tourism season begins in Wallace. 

The Spring Fling is the museum’s annual community day, where locals have access to the museum’s entire collection and get a chance to take in its featured galleries. 

This year, along with the wildly popular exhibits centering on the city’s famed red light district, the Barnard-Stockbridge Museum will be celebrating Wallace’s long-standing love of pet parades as well as continuing to add to mining exhibits.

“We are excited to showcase dozens of new high-resolution large format images reprinted from the digital archives of the Barnard Stockbridge collection,” said Museum Executive Director Tammy Copelan.

Also returning this year are the vintage cameras used by photographers Nellie Stockbridge and T.N. Barnard in their Wallace Studio from the 1890s to the mid-1960s as well as a vintage panoramic camera on loan from the private Virginia-based Shrewsbury Collection.

The Barnard-Stockbridge Collection has over 200,000 photos, meticulously cataloging life in the Silver Valley at the time, which helps local and regional historians better understand what the periods were like in those bygone eras. 

In 2019, the museum secured the collection from the University of Idaho, where the collection had been curated and housed since 1965. 

“We are also pleased to announce our partnership with the Northern Pacific Depot and Wallace District Mining museums in offering special one-ticket passes to all three venues,” Copelan said.

These other two museums offer in-depth looks at the mining industry and the importance of the railroad to Shoshone County. 

The Barnard-Stockbridge Museum’s Spring Fling Gala will be held at the museum May 5.

The museum is located at the former Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Wallace at 312 Fourth St., a historic building in its own right. 

The stone edifice was built in 1889 by famed architect Kirtland Cutter, the same man who designed and built the Davenport Hotel in Spokane.

Info: 208-512-0791 or barnardstockbridge@gmail.com