The newest exhibit to open at the Finney County Historical Museum in Garden City has been designed to provide a colorful trip down Memory Lane – literally.
Entitled “In Living Color,” the display features 16 historic photographs from Finney County’s past, each converted from original black and white to color.
The collection includes two scenes from the Finney County Fair in the 1880s; Garden City’s horse-drawn streetcar heading south on Main Street, also in the 1880s; a steam tractor breaking prairie sod in the early 20th Century; the interior of the local sugar factory, which operated 1906-1955 as the community’s largest employer; an aerial view of Garden City about 1948 and 10 others. Those range from schools and streets to people, at least one private home and businesses with now-vintage Neon signage.
Each large-format color print is displayed with a smaller copy of the original black and white. Various small artifacts and period-correct objects accompany the images too.
The scenes were converted with an online artificial intelligence tool. The actual hues may vary somewhat from the true and unknown original shades, according to Museum Collections Manager Todd Roberts, since the AI technology makes digital “educated guesses” using the gray scale characteristics of the monochrome image. The results in the exhibit, however, offer perspectives on how things likely appeared as far back as 140 years ago to the community’s residents.
The Front Door Gallery is a small space near the museum’s exhibit entrance, where exhibits change repeatedly throughout each year. “In Living Color” is the first of those for 2026. Front Door Gallery exhibits are supported by the Steve Stone Memorial Fund.
The museum is located at 403 S. Fourth Street in Garden City’s Finnup Park, adjacent to Lee Richardson Zoo, and admission is always free. Winter display hours are 1 to 5 p.m. daily, with all other exhibits and the museum gift shop open simultaneously. Business hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.
“In Living Color” was originally a phrase NBC used six decades ago, during the early days of color television, to promote programs that had advanced past black-and-white technology. It was also the name of an early 1990s sketch and satire series on the Fox network.
