The expansive galleries of the new Museum of Utah are filled with generations of Utahns’ stories.

Here, you’ll learn about Reva Beck Bosone, the first woman elected to Congress from Utah. You’ll be inspired by Japanese performer Sahomi Tachibana, who taught traditional dance to young girls while incarcerated at the Topaz Internment Camp.

You’ll see the faces of Utahns past who might have been forgotten, like Green Flake, one of three Black men enslaved by Mormon pioneers who arrived in Utah in 1847.

The Utah State Historical Society and the Department of Cultural and Community Engagement fit as much of the state’s history as they could into 17,000 square feet.

The people-forward storytelling approach is intentional, driven by curators who spent years traveling across the state to hear directly from Utahns about what they wanted from this museum.

“It’s the people’s museum in the people’s house,” Utah Historical Society director Jennifer Ortiz said.

An idea first floated more than a century ago, the museum — located inside the new, $320 million North Capitol Building — will open its doors to the public on Saturday morning.

Building and Inspiring Utah

From the stained-glass dome filtering sunlight into the lobby to the four robust gallery spaces, the museum invites visitors to linger.

It’s home to over 900 objects, just a small percentage of the history society’s total collection, which will be housed in the building.

Utahns will spot the state’s very first flag, an inhalator used by miners to clean out their lungs, and even a century-old canvas canoe owned by Dave Rust, who is considered to be one of the first commercial river guides on the Colorado River.

With almost 130 years of state history to choose from, museum director Tim Glenn said choosing exhibits came down to listening to people.

Over the last few years, museum curators attended 15 focus groups with more than 100 participants from across the state. There were also more than 30 meetings with 900-plus community stakeholders. They also received more than 250 survey responses.

“If we want people to see themselves, we better listen to what they’re telling us,” Glenn said of their philosophy.

The museum’s galleries are divided into themes: Building Utah, Inspiring Utah, Becoming Utah and Connecting Utah. From there, museum curators wanted to explore those themes through individual stories.

For example, the Building Utah gallery pays homage to Utah’s labor history by focusing on the workers who fueled those industries.

“I had a personal interest in seeing if we could create a community-based museum on a statewide level at this scale,” Glenn said. “It’s not about places or things; it’s the people who are attached to those.”

The Inspiring Utah gallery nods to the state’s film footprint, outdoors and Olympic history.

It’s also where the Mormon Meteor III is displayed. Olivia Ellison, a museum exhibit designer, was the last person to drive the custom-built racecar as they settled it into the museum. Ellison moved to Utah from Kansas seven years ago.

“When I was moving to Utah, the only thing I really knew [was] about the [Latter-day Saints] community,” she said. “It’s really cool to see [there’s] so much more history in Utah aside from that.”

In the same section, there’s an “Amazing Utahns” display, featuring the stories of 36 Utahns, including fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, suffragist Martha Hughes Cannon and Mae Timbimboo Parry, a Northwestern Band of the Shoshone historian.

Inspiring Utah is also home to an immersive theater with a large LED screen that wraps around the room.

On it, a narrated video features the voices of 100 Utahns. They speak about what they love about the state as clips of the outdoors, the Loveloud Festival and other historic images flash across the screen.

When a clip of the Bonneville Salt Flats takes over, it feels like you are standing on the salt yourself.

One voice in the video said: “No matter who you are, you can find yourself in our history.”

Becoming and Connecting Utah

In the Becoming Utah gallery, Utahns will find historical aspects they’re likely most familiar with: suffrage, statehood and Latter-day Saints culture.

A wide portion of this section is dedicated to those who were here long before the Mormon pioneers: each of Utah’s eight federally recognized tribes. The museum team worked with people from each tribe to make sure their history was accurately represented.

Elsewhere in the section, there is a display dedicated to the history of the Topaz Internment Camp.

Museum of Utah officials worked with various museums around the state, like the Topaz Museum in Delta, to feature local history through their We Are Utah installations.

“As a state history institution, our goal is to share [the] whole history. We tell the state’s history from soup to nuts,” Ortiz said. “Utah’s history is not a monolith, and that’s part of the work that this museum is doing: some of that myth-busting.”

Throughout the galleries, there are places where visitors can continue to leave their mark — like a notecard wall where people can write what brought them to the state.

In the final gallery, Connecting Utah, there’s an explosion of color and a focus on the state’s multifaceted traditions, arts and cultural groups.

In an interactive studio room, visitors can learn dance moves from Utah dance instructors — anything from a Ballet West ballerina to Indian classical dance.

Each gallery also has a ceiling motif that connects to the overall theme: blocks in Building, Olympic rings in Inspiring, ribbons in Becoming, and rainbow climbing cords in Connecting.

The museum also has a temporary gallery space that will change three to four times a year.

Currently, it’s dedicated to celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States. The exhibit is called “The Past is Personal” and will be up all year.

It features displays on the Genealogical Society of Hispanic America, rodeo queens and the local Cambodian American community. One wall features 15 different, diverse Utahns who share quotes about what it means to be a Utahn.

Utah is the second-to-last state in the nation to get a state history museum. It’s been a long time coming. But curators are proud of the work they have put in.

“The reason we have a collection is to help us tell those stories of the people who are here and who have done the work,” Ortiz said.

The Museum of Utah will have a grand opening celebration on Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The museum is free to visit and is located in the North Capitol Building, 450 N. State Street, in Salt Lake City. The museum also has a gift shop that will be open during the celebration.