As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of Columbia, an exhibit at the Horowitz Center for the Performing Arts includes dozens of artifacts that illustrate Columbia’s last half century, including theater memorabilia, paintings and pottery. Photo Courtesy of the Rouse Company Gallery

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What do a vinyl recording of Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty,” a five-foot model for a towering fiberglass and gold leaf tree, and a photo showing then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey with heiress-businesswoman-philanthropist Marjorie Merriweather Post and real estate developer Jim Rouse have in common?

That’s right: They are among artifacts related to the many-months-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the June 21, 1967 founding of Columbia. They, and many other items. are on exhibit through July 17 at the Rouse Company Gallery at the Horowitz Center for the Performing Arts.

Part of Browne’s recording, one of the best-selling records of the 1970s, was made during a performance at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, the opening of which in 1967 is marked in the Humphrey-Merriweather Post-Rouse photo. The People Tree sculpture stands 35 feet tall in downtown Columbia, a “tree of life” symbol for the residents.