American History's Greatest Hits Play In a New Venue
Sometimes a good de-cluttering is just what the home of an insatiable collector needs. In the case of the National Museum of American History, its curators have taken a hard look at their millions of objects and set out just 150 of the best in an illuminating display.
The extreme culling was needed because the museum on the Mall closed Sept. 5 for a two-year renovation. It has borrowed a rambling gallery at the National Air and Space Museum for a new exhibit called "Treasures of American History."
During its official opening yesterday, every case appeared to evoke the same reaction: "They have that?!"
"That" includes Albert Einstein's briar pipe, Muhammad Ali's red Everlast gloves, Irving Berlin's upright piano, the telephone designed by Alexander Graham Bell, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's radio microphone, Benjamin Franklin's gold-capped walking stick, a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth, Julia Child's handwritten recipe for sandwich bread, and Jim Henson's Kermit the Frog.
The show is not only a reminder of the museum's depth but an experiment in how it could better tell stories about the American experience. The museum has been criticized in the past for being a jumble of interesting things that needed to be connected to broader themes on what makes the United States unique.
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The extreme culling was needed because the museum on the Mall closed Sept. 5 for a two-year renovation. It has borrowed a rambling gallery at the National Air and Space Museum for a new exhibit called "Treasures of American History."
During its official opening yesterday, every case appeared to evoke the same reaction: "They have that?!"
"That" includes Albert Einstein's briar pipe, Muhammad Ali's red Everlast gloves, Irving Berlin's upright piano, the telephone designed by Alexander Graham Bell, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's radio microphone, Benjamin Franklin's gold-capped walking stick, a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth, Julia Child's handwritten recipe for sandwich bread, and Jim Henson's Kermit the Frog.
The show is not only a reminder of the museum's depth but an experiment in how it could better tell stories about the American experience. The museum has been criticized in the past for being a jumble of interesting things that needed to be connected to broader themes on what makes the United States unique.