A Celebration of Monsters, Superheroes, and Villains in traveling museum exhibitions!
SuperMonster市City! traveling exhibits are derived from co-founder David Barnhill’s private collection of an estimated 200,000 toys, posters, games, books, films, and more. Co-founder Stephen Rueff curates the objects in social and political contexts through reflective and informative texts, artist profiles, and commentary. Barnhill and Rueff bring new insights to America’s iconic mythical figures from America’s Golden Age of toys.
2025 Exhibition Dates:
Spies and Space: Toys of the Cold War Era is an exhibition reflects on how the drama and intrigue of real-world espionage, and the fascination with outer space, seeped into American and Russian popular culture during the Cold War Era. Follow the links below for more info!
Wright Museum of World War II
Wolfeboro, New Hampshire,
June 1 – September 1, 2025
EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 31!
For the first time in its history, the Wright Museum hosts a one-of-a-kind exhibit covering the Cold War Era. This exhibit explores how WWII laid the groundwork for the tension-filled decades that followed.
The exhibit features objects on loan from the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, as well as the dynamic ‘Spies and Space: Toys of the Cold War Era’ pop-culture exhibition from SuperMonsterCity! This exhibit runs during the busiest part of the museum’s 2025 season.
Many thanks to our hosts at the Wright Museum of WWII including: Executive Director Peggy Hennelly-Maniates, Curator Justin Gamache, Donna Hamill, Administrative Manager and Volunteer Coordinator; Gail Schulz, Guest Services; Mike Mead; and the other staff, interns, volunteers, and Board members, all of whom made is feel welcomed and made the installation easy and the results look spectacular! Thank you all!
On May 28 SuperMonsterCity! co-founders David Barnhill (Collector) and Stephen Rueff (Curator) made a special presentation to over 60 museum patrons to share the history of toys and pop culture from the U.S. and Soviet Union during the Cold War Era.
2025 Exhibition Dates:
This exhibition explores how American monsters, superheroes, and villains impacted American culture from the 1960s to the 1990s and became iconic characters reflecting America’s changing values and social tensions. Through this unique display of hundreds of toys, posters, media, and text panels, this exhibition has been enjoyed by thousands of people in cultural institutions across the U.S.
Follow the links below for more information!
Chippewa Valley Musuem
Eau Claire, WI October 6 – December 28, 2025
The Chippewa Valley Museum tells surprising, entertaining, and authentic stories revealing the larger story of America.
Testimonial:
The St. Louis Public Library Director of Marketing and Events
Cathy Heimberger endorses our exhibitions!
“As the director of marketing for the St. Louis Public Library I am tasked with bringing exhibits to our Central Library that are unique and have a broad appeal. I met David and Stephen while attending an American Association of Museums conference and I knew immediately that I wanted to work with them and bring this one of a kind experience to St. Louis. They didn’t disappoint.
“Our exhibit consisted of more than 500 items from David’s personal collection and attracted visitors of all ages and backgrounds. The exhibit was a natural fit for the library as monsters and villains have lived on the shelves of public libraries from our earliest days. We saw a spike in our graphic novel checkouts during the four month run of the exhibit. I highly recommend bringing this exhibit to your organization.”
Check out these pictures from the St. Louis Public Library
Exhibited October 2022 – January 2023
Video Testimonials!
Goldstein Museum of Design Director
Lin Nelson-Mayson interview and exhibition images
Historic Duluth Depot Program Director
Briana Johnson interview and exhibition images
Video: Attendees share their thoughts on our exhibitions
Click this LINK for interviews and installation images (if asked, password is SMC)
SuperMonster市City! exhibits strive to be carbon neutral!
As a proud member of TerraPass, we offset 100% of CO2 emissions from shipping and related travel.
We inform host institutions of the amount of CO2 emissions upon request for use in their sustainability reports.
For more on SuperMonster市City!
Contact email: Stephen@SuperMonsterCity.com
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Toy photos above by Steve Zerby
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SuperMonster市City
SuperMonsterCity! celebrates monsters, superheroes and villains in traveling exhibitions and more!
A wild and incredible bag of random toys. Palmer monsters, MPC monsters, spooky kookies, rubber guys, spiders, skeletons, and more. Let’s walk down memory lane with a miscellaneous mismatched army of some of my favorites. Tell me what you think and please enjoy. #supermonstercity #monstertoys #vintagetoys #MonsterKid #spookystuff
Party stunts from 1935. Let’s look at a crazy game that I found in my grandmother’s back closet. It takes a while to look at all the really cool cards but I think it’s worth it. This is fun and excitement from 90 years ago. Tell me what you think. #supermonstercity #partygames #vintagegames #ephemera #vintagefun
Hoarder house treasure!!! Let’s take a look at two different items of treasure that were given to me by friends. They were cleaning out hoarder houses. I feel grateful and blessed that these pieces have come to me. They are safe for now until someday they clean out my house. What have you rescued?? #supermonstercity #coolstuff #stampcollecting #hoarders #treasures
Our incredible Pop-Culture Exhibit of Monsters, Heroes and Villains opens in 1 month down in Eau Claire. Over 300 fantastic toys, posters, comic books & film clips. This exhibit is full of the iconic, the rare and the forgotten. We cover all sorts of amazing toys from the early 60's to the present day. This are our modern day mythology. I will be there opening day in my Superman outfit telling tales. It is fun for the whole family, nostalgic Multi-generational, something for everyone! #supermonstercity #vintagetoys #superheroes #monsters #chippewavalleymuseum #eauclaire #MuseumExhibits
Here are some pictures of our exhibit that is currently up in New Hampshire. This exhibit has been extended for two months because of popular acclaim. Go to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire and see incredible toys, posters and film clips that cover the history of the Cold War the space race, and the arms race. This is a fantastic entertaining and historical exhibit go check it out. It is up until October 31. 
Here is part five of Elliot’s inquisitive tour through the Crypts of SuperMonsterCity. Ruth was our fearless camerawoman and Elliot wandered through the manor and we ended up talking about how I became the collector and obsessive hoarder that I am now. If you wanna know more about how I became who I am, take a look.#supermonstercity #toycollector #MonsterKid #vintagetoys
Below are the logos to some of the cultural institutions that have hosted our exhibitions
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