Jul
02
2026
Ideum has had the privilege to present some of the nation’s most treasured landmarks, including our last battleship and beautiful national parks, for current and future generations. In honor of our heritage, we are reflecting on a handful of the special exhibitions that commemorate the people and places that make America beautiful.
Some of our earliest collaborations began with none other than America’s first president, George Washington. In 2013, we partnered with Mount Vernon to create two unique exhibitions: Take Note and Gardens and Groves. These projects featured a bespoke multitouch table with a one-of-a-kind finish designed to reflect the aesthetic of Washington's era, alongside digital applications that showcase his private estate, books, and newspapers. The most prestigious book in the collection is the Acts of Congress, which includes the Constitution and Bill of Rights. At the same time, we produced Surveying George Washington for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
In 2017, we added another Presidential application to our roster when we had the pleasure of partnering with the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery to create an interactive for their revamped America’s Presidents exhibit, which hosts the nation’s only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House. Ideum designed custom software, installed on an early Reader Rail Kiosk, that allows visitors to explore portraits of each president in greater detail than ever before, including hundreds of pieces not on public display. We helped organize and present collection items and related materials based on both the presidents’ lives and the artists who captured them on canvas.
Moving from DC and out to Williamsburg, VA, we stepped away from presidents and into colonial life at the largest living history museum of its kind. In 2021, we collaborated with the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg to create an interactive map explorer as part of the Promoting America: Maps of the Colonies and the New Republic exhibit. In a similar manner as with Mount Vernon, the museum’s design team built elegant custom tables that match the period furniture and evoke the era, while seamlessly accommodating an Ideum Inline display.
Not all of our work celebrating America is based in political history. From the heart of the nation to the edges of the frontier, Ideum has had the chance to work on a wide variety of projects that celebrate what makes this country so special.
We’ve returned to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans time and time again to honor the individuals who make it possible to call the USA land of the free and home of the brave. Our latest project saw us partnering with StoryFile in 2023, with whom we developed interactive oral history stations. These stations give visitors the opportunity to ask questions and receive video responses in the veteran’s own words for We Were There, Our War Too, and Fighting for the Right to Fight. Comprising hundreds of inquiries into the subjects' lives and personal journeys, these interviews serve to amplify the voices most often marginalized.
Ideum continued this work more recently with the Battleship Missouri Memorial to interview seven of the eight surviving crew members as part of the interview station featured in the Pathway to Peace: USS Missouri’s World War II Experience. Our team also designed custom exhibit cases to display artifacts and fit into the contours of the ship. A traditional Hawaiian blessing was performed at the opening, and afterward, participants and their guests received a preview of the finished memorial. This was the first time some of the veterans had returned to Pearl Harbor since World War II. The exhibit invites visitors to step into the history of the “Mighty Mo” through interactive media, artifacts, and immersive environments that bring the museum ship back to life.
As a company deeply rooted in the West, we are also very proud of the work that we’ve done with The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and are currently working on their renovation of the American Rodeo Gallery. This gallery houses the Rodeo Hall of Fame, which, as the museum states, “honors and memorializes the men and women who have, through their exemplary lives, careers, and achievements, embodied and perpetuated the heritage of the American West.” Our latest installation in the Dickinson Research Center contains a series of interactive displays that provide access to the museum's archival collections. At Ideum, we consider transforming historical artifacts and sites into immersive, interactive experiences a true passion project.
America is defined not only by its citizens and human history, but by the physical land itself. New Mexico is home to some of the country's most diverse national monuments and parks, and our location in the heart of the state gives us a unique view of the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts and the snowy peaks of her monumental mountains. Over the course of last year, the team at Ideum prepared a 12-foot topographic relief map, now installed at the Valles Caldera National Preserve, upon which interactive animations are projected. The map is accompanied by two digital docent systems that allow guests to explore detailed park maps, read FAQs, check real-time alerts, and even access a live seismograph feed for the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The new Volcano Discovery Center includes motorized roller shades that darken the room every hour for the signature volcanic eruption sequence, transforming the exhibit hall into a fully immersive, cinematic environment, which you can see for free on the 4th of July.
We believe President Franklin D. Roosevelt put it best when he said that “there is nothing so American as our national parks…the fundamental idea behind the parks… is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in the process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.” Through projects like these, Ideum continues its mission of bridging the past and present chapters of America’s history and heritage, and looks forward to honoring the elements that make our home a place worth celebrating.
