photo by: John Young/Journal-World

Thomas Trower, better known as the "Honk for Hemp" guy, holds his sign on the corner of 11th and Massachusetts Street on Sunday, May 26, 2013.

The Watkins Museum of History is hosting an exhibit featuring the efforts of a longtime Lawrence hemp activist and the fight to legalize marijuana locally.

The exhibit, “Honk for Change,” created by several University of Kansas museum studies students, examines how national hemp and marijuana legalization efforts have shaped local activism and policy in Lawrence, paralleling the advocacy of the late Thomas Trower.

Trower, who died in 2021 at age 70, was well-known in Lawrence for regularly standing at the northeast corner of 11th and Massachusetts streets dressed head to toe in hemp with a large green and white sign reading “Honk for Hemp.” The sign and Trower’s enthusiasm elicited a familiar cacophony of car horns on weekends in downtown Lawrence for decades. For each honk, he would wave another sign in the shape of a large thumbs-up.

Trower, who retired from Del Monte Foods in Lawrence, continued to stand at the corner even after hemp was legalized in Kansas. He said that his activism was not just about hemp but to support the legalization of all cannabis plants.

He told the Journal-World in January of 2019 that he planned to continue his picketing until he could legally enjoy the recreational use of marijuana.

He said of his picketing: “It’s a futile and symbolic gesture, but someone has to do it until it’s fully legal. I want the right to grow my own — any variety I want.”

The graduate student curators said their exhibit analyzes “how Trower’s actions and decisions helped shape Lawrence, illustrating how individual activism can create lasting local icons and influence community identity.”

The exhibition will open to the public on Dec. 10.