Students and staff from the Barry University Department of History and Political Science visited the HistoryMiami museum on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2014, to get a lesson in Beatlemania. The students whom attended were members of Prof. Tim Smith’s HIS 454 (America in the 1960s) course and Prof. Donna Thomas’s HIS 105 (The Meaning of History) course.
The “Ladies and Gentlemen…The Beatles!” exhibit features a collection of material on the influences and the background of the Beatles and materials related to their first visit to the United States, which included appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show both in New York and Miami and their first U.S. concert in Washington. Among the Beatles memorabilia is the jacket worn by John Lennon at the Shea Stadium concert in 1965 and the jacket worn by Ringo in the iconic photograph on the cover on the “Abbey Road” record album.
The exhibit included a hands-on opportunity that included playing a drum set with an accompanying video lesson by Beatles Ringo Starr.
The Beatles had a significant influence on musical and cultural changes in the United States and the world in the 1960s and this is also reflected in the materials on display, such as a glass case filled with Beatlemania products sold at Woolworths and a model teenage bedroom filled with Beatles memorabilia.