Why do we travel? How do we choose the things we bring back as souvenirs? A new exhibit at Kingman Museum takes a look at both of those questions.

The exhibit “From Battle Creek to Bangkok” is open now through the end of September in Kingman Museum’s lower level exhibit space. Items collected from the around the world are on display, representing a variety of countries including Japan, China, Indonesia, India, Burma, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Scotland, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

The inspiration for “From Battle Creek to Bangkok” came from the collection of Carolyn Wicker, a Chicago native who travelled the world before settling down in Battle Creek in the 1940s. Before her death in 1945, Wicker donated a large portion of items from the countries she lived in to the MSU Museum in East Lansing. The MSU Museum in turn transferred a large number of Wicker’s artifacts to Kingman Museum in May.

Wicker’s collection represented many countries without artifacts in Kingman Museum’s collection and the huge variety of objects, ranging from decorative to functional, inspired museum staff to create an exhibit based around travel and souvenir-hunting in general.

The exhibit combines many items from Wicker’s collection with items from the museum’s collection and a few items on loan. The exhibit showcases pieces from the collection of Kingman Museum’s founder, Edward Brigham, Sr., as well as his son and grandson, whose penchant for collecting formed the backbone of the museum, as well as Edward Lyle, who was stationed in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Lyle’s mother, Isabella, donated a huge amount of swords, knives, spears and armor collected by her son to the museum.

Items on exhibit include a life-size carved man from Papua New Guinea, a functional repeating crossbow from China, a kilt with accessories from Scotland, sculpted figurines from the Mexican archaeological site of Teotihuacan, and Japanese daruma dolls made in Battle Creek’s sister city of Takasaki.

Visitors can also mark where they have travelled on a world map using pins, kids can design their own country flags, and videos on the science of travel, flag design and in-depth looks at the making of many artifacts in the exhibit will be playing on the exhibit’s video wall.

“From Battle Creek to Bangkok” was created to complement the Art Center of Battle Creek’s cultural exhibit, “Unity in Diversity: The Heartbeat and Ties of Many Cultures,” on exhibit now through August.