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To explain in terms of music Rent, 131,487,300 minutes – how do you measure, measure 250 years? Especially in a country heading into an election year filled with division and disagreement on key issues?
That is the problem they are facing Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington DC as it marks the semiquincentennial of US independence.
The answer consists of 250 items that describe the American story, ranging from a a revolutionary wartime gunboat to the gloves worn by the “Miracle on Ice” hockey player, from Thomas Jefferson’s desk to Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” hat.
“How do you organize a memorial, a celebration and a time of reflection?” he asks Anthea Hartigmuseum director. “What we came up with were times when people or communities fought to be recognized and independent in their creative work and become part of the United States. But we also wanted to play.”
Hartig describes the US as “strange, beautiful, difficult”, and mentions the American American writer Portrait of James Baldwin This fascinating fact states: “American history is long, vast, varied, beautiful, and more terrifying than anyone has ever said about it.”
Opening on May 14, In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness it will display 250 objects covering 250,000 sq ft on all three floors of the museum. They range from old to new, large to small and common.
Seventy-six of them – the majority of which are invisible or have never been seen by the public – will be concentrated in the entrance halls, while the rest will be included in the museum of the past, connected by a “ribbon” to guide tourists in the search for great treasures. Each is accompanied by an action verb confirming Hartig’s view of democracy as a “participatory game”.
He also said: “We believe that this anniversary is very important not only for the country but also for the whole world, and that the last 250 years are so full of history that a whole museum is needed to do it justice.”
Some of the star attractions are in Philadelphiaa 53ft wooden boat, flat, built in the turbulent, cold summer of 1776.
Behind the windows that allowed the public to see the work in progress, two security guards wearing headlamps and respirators were carefully using soft and dry brushes, toothpicks and wooden sticks to remove the lacquer that had run off from the rusty metal cannon and surrounding wood.
Quickly built in Skenesborough, New York, by a labor of freedmen and slaves under the leadership of Benedict Arnold, Philadelphia was part of an elaborate attempt to stop British forces on Lake Champlain. It didn’t take long. At the time of Battle of Valcour IslandPhiladelphia was hit by a British 24lb cannon near her bow and sank to the bottom of the freezing sea.
The eagle suffered there 159 years earlier Lorenzo Hagglundan experienced lifeguard and historian, he pulled the dock up and lifted it to the surface in 1935, still with its equipment and many scattered artifacts. Today, this 16,000lb relic is the only US-built yacht left from the revolutionary era.
Peter Fix of Texas A&M University, director of the gunboat preservation project, says that the original wood is now only three-fourths of its original thickness, having been eroded by underwater bacteria over the centuries. Pathogens eat the wood that was used to fasten the metal to the boat, leaving the wood behind. However, due to advanced science, Fix believes that the stored material will last for “another thousand years”.
The ship also offers new secrets that disrupt history. When the Philadelphia was raised, it was found that one of her guns had a shot in the muzzle and two other shots ready to be fired. Jennifer Jones, who is in charge of the project, said: “It was like three shots from the same cannon so it sounded like they wanted the shooting to end quickly.”
The crew list states that 44 men were sent to the boat, a known truth that historians are trying to pin down. However, on pay day after the war, only 33 men showed up. The fate of the other 11 remains a mystery.
Jones adds: “There are about 600 to 800 things that came with the boat. These include things like cannons, containers, wheels, trucks. We have a pot and a melting pot. There was a patch full of pitch and tar. We have fasteners from shoelaces; The team found, while they were cleaning, a leather button, which may have been from someone’s breeches..”
Nearby, a new reality promises to transport visitors back to the boat building site of 250 years ago. In other parts of the museum, visitors can see the desk where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Star-Spangled Banner that inspired the national anthem, and George Washington’s military uniform.
But what is placed on the same level are the things that capture the vivid, fresh and realistic images of everyday life. There is a sparkling pearl necklace Abigail Adams wore it in the middle of the 18th apostles. The “pearls” are actually finely ground glass covered with fish scales to mimic the shimmer of the real thing.
Hartig says: “I like the idea that John (Adams) was not able to buy the pearl but in a way he is also living in a time of revolution where he is identifying as British but still looking for a new identity and a new way of governing himself as a free people – John more free than Abigail.“
The show leans happily into American weirdness and intelligence, including absurdity surfboards used by Native Hawaiian athlete Duke Kahanamoku in 1928. There is a 1970 National Day flag, wearing gloves By Phil Verchota on the “Miracle on Ice” hockey victory in 1980 and the steel helmet recovered from the damage caused by the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The Nintendo console will serve as a reassuring reminder to an entire generation that their childhood is now a distant past.
There is also a cabinet minister who used to be a trailblazing comedian Phyllis Diller. Megan Howell Smith, head of the museum’s archival development, says: “It has more than 52,000 handwritten comics, each on a separate note card. He said when he used it, what day it was, how he received it, if there were any changes he made – some of them just get lost.
Then there’s Coney Island hotdog cooker from 1904, which has six vertical cylinders and uses an electric current that passes between electrodes at the end of a straight dog. Howell Smith laughs: “It represents the ways in which our freedom has helped promote the advancement of technology and it represents people trying to find a good hotdog.” Now, whether the hotdog that comes out of there is good is for someone else to decide.”
Yet the show doesn’t shy away from the many brutal themes of the American story. The renovation includes the Greensboro lunchroom, a 1960’s civil rights site. Guests will find a card deck carefully crafted from old paper Joan Trumpauer MulhollandA young white Freedom Rider who was incarcerated in the notorious Parchman prison in Mississippi.
Howell Smith said: “When you come across that, and if you don’t know what it is, you’re like: ‘Oh, it’s just scraps of paper. But it has such meaning and history.”
Managers have also deliberately placed things in dialogue with each other to reflect the push and pull of human development. In one striking display, two wedding cake toppers sit side by side: traditional husband and wife since 1957and two men since 2008.
When asked about the inclusion of the Maga hat, Howell Smith explains: “We’re trying to show all things, all sides.
Since returning to office, Trump has criticized the Smithsonian Institution for providing a poor record of US history and has called for a review of its exhibits. They also want to hijack the nation’s 250th birthday to offer a flag-raising celebration of America’s founding heroes and greatness.
The museum has been working closely with America 250The congressional commission is preparing for 250 years, and the White House. Hartig maintains that the Smithsonian has protected itself through rigorous, rigorous training.
“We struggle with our inner lives,” he said. “That doesn’t mean our work can’t be fun, engaging and inclusive; so it should also be academically oriented, so I feel comfortable doing that. We have something for everyone. That’s the beauty of a museum with 250 objects. The spread is fantastic.”
Hartig, the museum’s first female director, compares American history to origami. “Sometimes they overlap each other and you feel like the parts are related to past events.” Our task is to unfold an origami bird or a frog or whatever we have made – perhaps an eagle – and see how all those ears come together, and to know that we can learn from it and be helped by our future as we think and not the future.
“It is an exciting and exciting role that we are very grateful to serve and this will be a great year of service for the entire Smithsonian. I am confident and hopeful that we will look back and see that we are committed to helping all members of the community, and from around the world, reflect and celebrate and remember.”
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In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness opens at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Washington DC on the 14th of May
