Where better to celebrate America鈥檚 250th birthday and the country鈥檚 rich history than the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in D.C. A new exhibit, which opened Thursday, tells the United States’ 250-year history with 250 objects.
Visitors will see the museum mainstays like the original American flag that inspired the 鈥淪tar Spangled Banner鈥� and the desk where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, but the new exhibit will also show some artifacts never before displayed.
鈥淎 surfboard that was used by Duke Kahanamoku, who is a Native Hawaiian surfer who really popularized surfing to the world. He was an Olympian and we have his massive, 9-foot surfboard that he shaped in Southern California in 1928,鈥� said Theo Gonzalves, a curator at the National Museum of American History.
The exhibit covers the history of the nation through political action, including a sweater worn by a young woman during a school walkout during the Civil Rights Movement and a Tea Party sign from the 2010s.
It also delves into military history with the Revolutionary War鈥檚 gunboat “Philadelphia,” and a uniform worn by Gen. George Washington.
Pop culture, lifestyle and entertainment are also front and center.
鈥淲e have a Nintendo game set and so there are folks that are looking at their at that Nintendo game set, and they’re thinking, ‘I can’t believe that that’s now part of history,’鈥� Gonzalves said. “I’m old enough to realize what Nintendo was for our generation, but it is part of American history.鈥�
Megan Smith, the head of experience development at the museum, said a seemingly mundane object is one of her favorite artifacts in the museum.
鈥淗idden in a kind of boring looking exterior, which is a file cabinet that contains over 52,000 jokes written by Phyllis Diller,鈥� she said. 鈥淧hyllis Diller was one of the first female stand-up comedians in America. It’s just an ordinary filing cabinet, but it’s filled with her career basically, and her creative process and all of her knowledge.鈥�
Scientific and technological achievement throughout American history is also celebrated, including the first radiocarbon dating machine from the 1950s.
Anthea Hartig, the Elizabeth MacMillan director of the museum, said staff at the museum had to whittle down nearly 2 million artifacts to 250 artifacts that define American history.
鈥淭o take 2 million to get down to 250, and the curators did a beautiful job. The whole team did a lot of thinking about what are those objects that help show us in action as a people? Help understand the dreams that we’ve put into the declaration, how it’s expanded, who it includes,鈥� she told 海角精品黑料.
She said the exhibit is the brainchild of over three years of curation work.
The National Museum of American History is open every day but Christmas.
鈥淚 hope people see themselves reflected in our work and in these objects,鈥� Hartig said.
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