One Last Trip Through History

It was the fourth and final day of our Washington D.C. excursion. We decided to hit one more Smithsonian museum, the National Museum of American History. It's a fascinating and eclectic collection of artifacts from the country's earliest days, props from movies and television, signs from various political campaigns, and vehicles from every era of the nation. There are even a few trinkets of the past decade or two that you might not even think to put in a museum -- but if you pause for a moment and take a longer view from 50 or 100 years from now, would totally make sense to preserve in a museum.

Julia Child's kitchen from her hit cooking show stands in a gallery devoted to the evolution of food in the modern era. (And was an interesting thing to see, in light of also learning about Julia Child at the Spy Museum the day before.) The same gallery displayed everything from a collection of craft beer cans representing the explosion of that market to a fondue pot exactly matching one in my friend's cabinet at this very moment.

If a tour featuring items you might find in your own house doesn't sound impressive, then the second floor is probably more for you. That's where you will find the literal Star-Spangled Banner, the very flag that flew above Fort McHenry and inspired the poem that became the country's national anthem. The flag was known to be significant even in its time, which is why many pieces were cut off of it over the years as souvenirs. What remains is still an impressive enough 30 by 34 feet, and the efforts to preserve it now are so heightened that the flag is displayed in low lighting in a special room where photography is prohibited. There's something simultaneously awesome and uncanny about looking at it; you may eventually realize that the uncanny aspect is due largely to the fact that the flag has 15 stripes, not 13. Practice at the time was to add a star and a stripe to the flag as each new state joined the union; one can only imagine what the flag would look like today had that continued.

I mentioned that when we toured the U.S. Capitol, we saw a number of statues all throughout the building. One statue that used to be there and now resides in the American History Museum is one that was too weird to keep displaying where the government was trying to do business, this bizarre rendering of George Washington:

In the political campaigning section, you'll find all manner of protest signs, buttons and bumper stickers, and one of those Florida ballots that caused all the trouble in 2000. You can totally see how someone intending to vote for Al Gore might have voted for Pat Buchanan -- and how little chance of making a mistake you'd have trying to vote for George W. Bush. (And the sign nearby reminds you of this moment when everybody had to learn what a "hanging chad" was.)

The pop culture section was a feast for any fan of anything -- it boasts the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, one of Prince's guitars, an Alien egg, Captain America's shield from The Winter Soldier,  the original (not yet blue) Grover puppet, and so very much more. It even had two costumes from Star Trek: Discovery -- the Emperor's outfit from the Mirror Universe, and the Red Angel suit from season 2.

But soon we had had our fill of standing and admiring things, no matter how interesting. So we decided to sit for a leisurely lunch at a nearby pub, slowly passing the time before we needed to head to the airport for our return home.

There's a ton to see and do in Washington D.C. In talking about my trip, I've had many people tell me they recall going there as a kid -- and that totally makes sense. But I think there's probably even more to appreciate as an adult. I'm glad to have visited.