Students who stop by the HUB Formal Gallery will get an educational blast from America's musical past. Rhythm and Blues: Black American Popular Music, 1945-1955, a Smithsonian traveling exhibit, is on display until Feb. 18.

The exhibit -- which visited the Robeson Cultural Center three years ago --features descriptive text and 51 photographs, along with records and instruments from the era. It focuses primarily on the early dance halls and theaters, ballad and blues singers, street corner groups, black records and radio, and the pop charts.

Isabel Farrell, coordinator of the HUB Galleries, said this exhibit could not have come at a more appropriate time.

"This is the month of Martin Luther King's birthday and black history month is coming up,"she said. "The exhibit will initiate the public to the fact that rhythm and blues grew out of the black community, and it was the foundation for what rock 'n' roll is today."

Farrell said she is very enthusiastic about this exhibit.

"I think it's appealing to the mass population at State College," she said. "It's very appropriate because the same criticism that's used for heavy metal today was used on this music 40 years ago."

The exhibit was brought here by funds from the Student Activities Office and the Equal Opportunity Planning Committee. Farrell said the HUB Galleries is a regular participant in Smithsonian's science program.

"We plan a few years in advance which (exhibits) we'd like to have at Penn State," she said. Farrell said she is not certain when this exhibit was set up because she has only been coordinator for two weeks.

Music historian Jerry Zoltan will speak at a panel discussion from 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow in the HUB. He has been an avid collector of "R & B records and paraphernalia" for over 30 years, he said.

"I started collecting records when I was about 13," said Zoltan, a professor of speech communications at the Altoona Campus. "I was living in Pittsburgh where there's a huge R & B scene -- it was sort of the 'in' music for the white kids around town. I found it infinitely more interesting and more real than what was going on in Top 40 radio."

When asked about the connection between rock and R & B, Zoltan offered a simple explanation.

"Rock 'n' roll IS rhythm and blues," he said. "It's what they called it when white folks tried to do what R & B singers were doing all along. Everything that is rock 'n' roll started as R & B."

In addition to providing all of the records for the exhibit, the Penn State graduate donated a vintage guitar, amplifier and microphone from his vast collection of "artifacts." He also produces local concerts and is a faculty adviser for the University Concert Committee.

Zoltan plans to keep Wednesday's discussion simple.

"I'm going to talk about key types of music that ultimately came together for what we call rock 'n' roll," he said. "I'll also be showing videos by various famous and non-famous people."

He is quite happy with the exhibit, he said.

"It's a quick and illuminating glimpse at the R & B past," he said. "If you're fascinated with performers and music, then you're going to see some important ones."

The HUB Formal Gallery is open from noon to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 5 p.m. Friday and Sunday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. A lecture / discussion will be held at 7 p.m. tomorrow.