UC History Alum Opens Veteran s Art Gallery Exhibit in Florida

Scott “Mack” Macksam, a 1992 McMicken College of Arts and Sciences history alum who was commissioned into the Army as part of the SROTC program, recently opened a veteran’s art gallery exhibit in St. Petersburg, Fla. 

The American Soldier Exhibit is the first of its kind in Florida and is currently being held at the St. Petersburg Museum of History from now until July 13. 

The exhibit travels around the country each year and has previously been held in the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus, the History Colorado Center in Denver, and many other cities. All together the exhibit houses 116 poster-sized photographs of United States service members from the Civil War to current operations. 

“This is a tribute to the past and present through combat photography,” says Macksam. “Each photo shows the emotion of servicemen, family members and other cultures young and old.” 

Macksam first saw the exhibit at Fort Knox when he was visiting the Frazier Arms Museum in Louisville, Ky. Since then, he has made it his mission to bring the exhibit to Florida where he is a member of the St. Petersburg Museum of History Board of Trustees. 

Now Macksam hopes that people who visit the museum will be impacted, as he was, by the emotion in the photographs.

“Foremost, I emphasize the young to visit to understand and be educated on these photographs,” he says. “I strongly feel that our new generation is forgetting our past and this exhibit is a tool to assist in that.” 

For more information about the exhibit, visit the website at http://www.american-soldier.com/about/ or view its Facebook page.