New Whatcom Museum Exhibition Celebrates Beloved Bellingham Broadcaster
The Whatcom Museum presents Elaine Horn: Broadcasting from Bellingham, the newest exhibition from the museum’s Photo Archive. Horn (1920–1998) was a broadcasting trailblazer with a career that spanned three decades, bringing her into homes from Canada to southern Washington State. The exhibition officially opens Saturday, September 6, 2025, in Old City Hall, but Access for All Free First Friday guests on September 5 will get a preview of never-before-seen images of Horn’s career behind the mic.
“It is our honor to showcase Elaine Horn’s story through more than 80 photographs that truly capture an era,” said Whatcom Museum Acting Executive Director Maria Coltharp. “Beyond her role as a dynamic TV personality, Horn was a career woman at a time when that was not a common feat, and she shared the spotlight by centering women in her work.”
Horn’s career began in radio in the 1940s, but by 1962, she had moved into television. In a year when Wagon Train and Bonanza ruled the television ratings, Woman’s World premiered on Bellingham’s KVOS channel 12 with Horn as its charismatic host. Woman’s World appealed to a daytime television audience of mid-century homemakers, making it among the earliest shows in the daytime-TV genre targeted to women. It quickly became one of the most popular shows of this region and beyond. With a reach extending north into Victoria and Vancouver, B.C., and as far south as Everett, the show—with Elaine as its spokesperson—presented a wide range of topics, guests, and products. Beloved locally, Woman’s World featured “pertinent tips and interesting sidelights” on everything from upcoming community events to fashion, cooking, cosmetics, childcare, home decorating, and entertaining.
[Image: Elaine Horn promoting toys that were available at Yaeger's Discount Toyland on Northwest Avenue in Bellingham.]
Woman’s World aired live, without edits or re-takes. Elaine faced a single, often stationary camera and addressed her audience without a script. The half-hour shows relied on Elaine’s gift for improvisation to carry the program. She was a skilled interviewer with poise and an endearing authenticity.
In 1984, KVOS-TV donated more than 400 original 4x5 negatives to the Whatcom Museum, offering a unique look into local broadcasting history. Captured between 1962 and 1966, the images chronicle Horn in the television studio, often joined by guests. She was both the Woman’s World host and the commercial announcer—a format that early television adapted from radio, merging advertisements into a program through a single, trusted voice.
Looking back on her career, Elaine told the Bellingham Herald in 1977, “One of the reasons I enjoy what I do is because of people. I like people. Everyone has a story.”
About the Whatcom Museum
The Whatcom Museum was founded in 1941 and overlooks Washington State’s Bellingham Bay. Notable projects have included the 2019 retrospective exhibition WANTED: Ed Bereal for Disturbing the Peace, featured in The New York Times; the award-winning, co-curated exhibition Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea, which traveled to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., in 2023; and Verdant: French Masterworks from the National Gallery of Art, which is on view through early 2027. Also on view are Mary Ann Peters' myself inside your story, Meander by Io Palmer, and A Pull to the Pacific: West Coast Lithography of the New Deal Era. The Whatcom Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
The Whatcom Museum campus in downtown Bellingham includes three buildings: the Lightcatcher, Old City Hall, and Old Fire Station No. 1. For more information about exhibitions and admission, visit whatcommuseum.org.
