It’s been over a month since the Smithsonian Institute’s “Hometown Teams” exhibit departed the Mary J. Barnett Memorial Library in Guthrie Center. The exhibit that featured both national and local sports memorabilia, along with sports history, and trends drew thousands of visitors to the library.

According to the final sign-in logs, nearly 2,300 people walked through the exhibit while another estimated 1,200 participated in the programs and activities during its six-week stay. As for out-of-town guests, 29-percent of those visitors were from outside of Guthrie Center.

Library Director Pat Sleister feels it was a huge success. “It was an absolutely heartwarming experience and it did exactly what the Smithsonian wanted to do. It started people talking and remembering and giving us their memories of sports events. It was just a really good, good experience.”

Sleister says while she is happy for a break, she does miss some of the excitement the exhibit brought. Library staff are taking the down time in programming to prepare for the next set of projects.