Which bits of The Smithsonian we saw
In yesterday’s post, I outlined all the basic facts about The Smithsonian in Washington DC. If you were paying attention, you would have realised that ‘The Smithsonian’ in Washington DC actually consists of 17 museums/galleries and one zoo.
We had less than three days in Washington DC, and also had on our ‘to-see’ list for the city: The Capitol, The National Mall and all its monuments, Georgetown, The Whitehouse, The National Gallery of Art, and cherry blossoms in the basin (it was just a few days off peak week). So we knew we had to prioritise.
The most popular four of the Smithsonian Museums are: American History Museum, Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Museum and the National Zoo. So we took that as our starting point.
We crossed off Air and Space Museum, not because we didn’t find it interesting, but because we had visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida just days before…so felt that it would cover some of the same subject matter. Likewise Natural History Museum and the National Zoo – we thought that we have had other opportunities to see the kinds of items that would be included. We decided to focus on collections we couldn’t easily see elsewhere.
We all wanted to see Dorothy’s ruby slippers and Julia Child’s kitchen, and are all interested in history…so American History Museum went onto the list. The Poolboy and I were keen to see modern art…so we added the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Our third addition was the American Indian Museum which seemed logical from a routing perspective (we were walking right past it on the way to The Capitol) and was a unique opportunity to learn more about the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas.
American History Museum
The National Museum of American History collects a huge range of artifacts to create and preserve a record of the American people’s past. There are over 3 million items in the collection, a small proportion of which are on display at any one time.
We were particularly taken with a display of dresses worn by First Ladies, original Muppets puppets, the Greensboro lunch counter, Julia Child’s kitchen, a display of takeaway coffee cup lids (which I found bizarrely interesting), and of course, the ruby slippers. According to the museum’s website, its collections attempt “to reflect the breadth, depth, and complexity of the experiences of the American people, from social and cultural history to the history of science, medicine, and technology.”
I found the ‘The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden’ exhibition on the third floor really fascinating. This exhibition contains more than 900 objects which relate to the personal, public, ceremonial and executive actions of the 43 men who have been US President. I loved the items relating to their personal lives and families – candid photos of Presidents’ children, and items such as blue silk pajamas worn by Warren G. Harding and Chelsea Clinton’s ballet slippers.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden houses the art of our time in a cylindrical building and an adjoining plaza and sunken sculpture garden. The collection contains the works of modern masters, as well as emerging artists, edgy films, and sculptures by artists such as Rodin, Matisse and Henry Moore in the plaza and sculpture garden.
The bottom floor of the HIrshhorn currently contains a striking installation by Barbara Kruger called Belief + Doubt. The girls’ enthusiasm for the Hirshhorn had been flagging until we hit that floor. They decided it was the perfect location for taking 1001 selfies and portraits which were later Snapchatted, texted and/or uploaded to Instagram. Win-win.
American Indian Museum
The American Indian Museum contains a large and diverse collection of Native art and historical and cultural objects. More than 1,200 indigenous cultures throughout the Americas are represented, including almost all all tribes in the United States, most of those of Canada, and a significant number from Middle and South America and the Caribbean.
Many of the items on display were truly beautiful….intricate examples of beading, full feather head-dresses, jewelry, day-to-day artifacts…and all were very interesting.
The Mitsitam cafe at the American Indian Museum is worth a visit in its own right. “Mitsitam” means “Let’s eat!” in the Native language of the Delaware and Piscataway peoples. The cafe menu features Native foods sourced from across the Americas organised into five regional menus, and incorporates the flavours, ingredients and cooking techniques into both traditional and contemporary dishes such as buffalo burgers, and Cherokee bean bread, with candied squash and whipped cream. The (ever-important) coffee used at the Espresso bar is Tribal Grounds Coffee—organic, fair-trade coffee grown by indigenous farmers and imported, roasted, and provided to the museum by the Eastern Band of Cherokee.
