"Free to Be...A 1960s Fashion Revolution" is the current special exhibit at the Johnson County Museum. This groovy exhibition takes visitors on a captivating journey through the vibrant world of 1960s women's fashion via four distinct themes that symbolize the era's spirit of self-expression and cultural transformation. Our "Free to Be..." speaker series helps give historical context to the social movements of the 1960s, and the people who inspired change.
In 1943, a Swiss Biochemist named Albert Hoffman discovered a new drug, LSD, which he described as inducing a temporary state of psychosis. Physicians were fascinated by the potential of LSD to treat psychiatric disorders, in part because it appeared along with a whole host of other promising drugs, such as the antidepressants that are commonly used today.
Medical research into LSD flourished in the 1950s, but in the 1960s, it escaped the laboratory and clinic to become a popular recreational drug, especially for affluent, middle-class, white college students. This new drug culture produced strikingly new forms of music, fashion, literature, and lifestyles, which are still in evidence today.
The spread of hallucinogenic drugs and the culture they inspired provoked a dramatic backlash from American politicians, who outlawed the drug in 1968 and embarked on a decades-long war on drugs. Nevertheless, LSD marked a revolution in recreational drug consumption that had profound consequences for American society and culture, and in recent years, hallucinogenic drugs are once again being used for psychiatric treatments.
About the Presenter:
Dr. Matthew Warner Osborn is an Associate Professor of History at UMKC. He teaches a range of undergraduate courses on colonial America, the American Revolution, and the early American republic, as well as introductory courses in alcohol and drug studies. His graduate colloquiums focus on the recent historiography of early America and the Atlantic World.
Event Venue
8788 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS, United States, Kansas 66212
Tickets
