COLUMBUS, Ga. – The “Greetings from Midtown” exhibition will be on display through June 15in the Galleria Cases at the Columbus Museum, which is capping off its 60th year.

This exhibition celebrates the distinctive houses, schools, businesses and public landmarks that comprise Midtown. In addition to historic postcards, the exhibition features furniture, household items, clothing, games and other pieces that tell the story of each particular location.

Historic postcards present miniature idealized portraits of life in a community. Particularly in the early decades of the 20th century, they were most often purchased not by tourists, but by local residents “showing off” their town while writing to friends or family. Lovely and intriguing to view, the images in the exhibition also provide a window into architectural styles, leisure activities, dress, prominent residents and businesses, and the landscape of a fashionable Columbus suburb.

Visitors are encouraged to share their Midtown memories, both past and present, in the postcard-inspired interactive space in the exhibit. After strolling down memory lane, visitors can send a postcard to posterity or mail one to a friend or family member highlighting their most found memories of Midtown. Those postcards deposited into the exhibition “mailbox” will be displayed in the gallery and shared with virtual Museum visitors on the Greetings from Midtown Pinterest board. In addition, visitors are asked to share historic photographs or pictures of themselves at their favorite places, business, or homes in Midtown on the Museum’s Instagram page, @museumcolumbus, using the hashtag #greetingsfrommidtown.

As an American art and regional history museum, and the second largest general museum in Georgia, the Columbus Museum offers a diverse collection to the public. For more information about the Columbus Museum or the “Greetings from Midtown” exhibition and the educational programming associated with the exhibit, visit www.columbusmuseum.com.

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NEW YORK – Widely acknowledged as one of the most talented photographers of the 19th century, Charles Marville (French, 1813–1879) was commissioned by the city of Paris to document both the picturesque, medieval streets of old Paris and the broad boulevards and grand public structures that Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann built in their place for Emperor Napoleon III. “Charles Marville, Photographer of Paris” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art presents a selection of around 100 of his photographs.

The exhibition will be on view Jan. 29–May 4.

Marville achieved moderate success as an illustrator of books and magazines early in his career. It was not until 1850 that he shifted course and took up photography – a medium that had been introduced just 11 years earlier. His poetic urban views, detailed architectural studies, and picturesque landscapes quickly garnered praise. Although he made photographs throughout France, Germany, and Italy, it was his native city – especially its monuments, churches, bridges, and gardens – that provided the artist with his greatest and most enduring source of inspiration.

By the end of the 1850s, Marville had established a reputation as an accomplished and versatile photographer. From 1862, as official photographer for the city of Paris, he documented aspects of the radical modernization program that had been launched by Emperor Napoleon III and his chief urban planner, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann. In this capacity, Marville photographed the city’s oldest quarters, and especially the narrow, winding streets slated for demolition. Even as he recorded the disappearance of Old Paris, Marville turned his camera on the new city that had begun to emerge. Many of his photographs celebrate its glamour and comforts, while other views of the city’s desolate outskirts attest to the unsettling social and physical changes wrought by rapid modernization.

Haussmann not only redrew the map of Paris, he transformed the urban experience by commissioning and installing tens of thousands of pieces of street furniture, kiosks, Morris columns for posting advertisements, pissoirs, garden gates, and, above all, some 20,000 gas lamps. By the time he stepped down as prefect in 1870, Paris was no longer a place where residents dared to go out at night only if accompanied by armed men carrying lanterns. Taken as a whole, Marville’s photographs of Paris stand as one of the earliest and most powerful explorations of urban transformation on a grand scale.

By the time of his death, Marville had fallen into relative obscurity, with much of his work stored in municipal or state archives. This exhibition, which marks the bicentennial of Marville’s birth, explores the full trajectory of the artist’s photographic career and brings to light the extraordinary beauty and historical significance of his art.

The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Concurrent with “Charles Marville, Photographer of Paris,” a related installation in the adjacent Howard Gilman Gallery will be on view at the Metropolitan Museum. “Paris as Muse: Photography, 1840s-1930s” (Jan. 27–May 4) celebrates the first 100 years of photography in Paris and features some 40 photographs, all drawn from the Museum’s collection. The installation focuses primarily on architectural views, street scenes and interiors. It explores the physical shape and texture of Paris and how artists have found poetic ways to record through the camera its essential qualities.

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INDIANA, Pa. (AP) – For a time it looked like the Jimmy Stewart Museum wasn’t going to make it.

It’s in the actor’s hometown of Indiana, Pa., – an hour’s drive from Pittsburgh and off the radar of many fans who might want to attend. And the pool of fans is shrinking as those who grew up during the era of Stewart’s films die out.

The number of tour buses that made special trips to the museum began to decline in 2009 and 2010, said Timothy Harley, the museum’s director. “The situation became very dire. That caused some pretty considerable concern,” he said.

But the outlook has improved, at least of the next few years he said, thanks to loyal fans who began sending donations as the word got out about the plight of the museum.

It turned out that many people still had warm feelings for the star of It’s a Wonderful Life, the 1947 Christmas classic that featured Stewart considering suicide, but being talked out of it by a guardian angel named Clarence.

The donations ranged from small to substantial, Harley said. One was in an envelope containing a single dollar bill and a return address of “Clarence.” And last year, Ken and Carol Schultz, a San Diego couple originally from western Pennsylvania, began making yearly $25,000 donations, which matches what the Stewart family gives.

Harley said the donations have stabilized funding problems for the small museum with a limited staff and budget. But they’re not a long-term fix, he said.

The museum isn’t fancy, which is partly why Stewart gave his blessing to the project before he died in 1997. It’s full of displays not just about movies, but about Stewart’s service as a bomber pilot in World War II, his well-to-do ancestors, and his family life.

Stewart flew more than 20 combat missions over Europe even though he was initially too thin to qualify for the military. Harley said Stewart’s no-nonsense military service resonates with many young people who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Stewart was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, The Air Medal, and the French Croix de Guerre, and by the time the war was over, he had risen from private to the rank of colonel.

Pauline Simms, president of the museum’s board of directors, said the displays that go beyond Hollywood are part of the attraction.

“The museum isn’t just about the man, it’s about the whole era. If fact, it’s why some people come,” said Simms, a native of the town who remembers getting Stewart’s autograph at the end of World War II.

Still, there’s plenty in the museum to satisfy movie fans. Harley notes that Stewart didn’t just play the nice guy in some early films. “He played the heavy or the gangster” in some of the 1930s films, Harley said, and the museum has dozens of movie posters on display.

There’s also a re-creation of Stewart’s boyhood bedroom, and items from the hardware store his father ran until his death 1961.

The J.M. Stewart & Co. hardware store was founded in 1848, and Harley said Stewart’s father was attached to the business even after his son became a world-famous Hollywood star.

Harley said the family’s practical, small-town roots played a role, too.

Stewart’s father, Alexander Maitland Stewart, wasn’t ever entirely sure the movie business would work out for his son, so keeping the store made sense.

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