Daily Archives: 1 July, 2017

Ford’s Theater (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

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Ford’s Theater, site of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination

The Late Victorian-style, 3-storey, 24 m. (78-ft.) high Ford’s Theater, restored by National Park Service architect Charles W. Lessig, is famous for being the site of the assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln by actor and Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. The site, originally a house of worship, was constructed in 1833 as the second meeting house of the First Baptist Church (with Obadiah Bruen Brown as the pastor) of Washington.

On December 10, 1861, after the congregation moved to a newly built structure, the former church was leased (and later bought) by Baltimore-based theatre entrepreneur John T. Ford (a family friend of the Booths) who, on February 28, 1862, renovated it into a theater, first calling it Ford’s Athenaeum.

Inaugurated on March 19, 1862, it was destroyed by fire on the evening of December 30, and was rebuilt and reopened as a 1,500-seat theater on August 27, 1863 as Ford’s New Theater.  Lincoln first attended the theater on May 28, 1862 and, up until 1865, attended the theater eight more times, five times in 1863 (he even watched John Wilkes Booth in “The Marble Heart” on November 9) and three times in 1864.

On April 14, 1865,Good Friday, just five days after General Robert E. Lee‘s surrender at Appomattox Court House, the 56-year-old Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary attended a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater. The famous actor John Wilkes Booth, desperate to aid the dying Confederacy, made his way into the presidential box and shot Lincoln with a Derringer pistol. Booth then jumped down to the stage, and escaped through a rear door. This event was witnessed by many, including 5-year-old Samuel J. Seymour who lived to 1956, becoming the last witness to the Lincoln assassination.

After Lincoln was shot, doctors had soldiers carry him into the street in search of a house in which he would be more comfortable. A man on the steps of Petersen House, the house of tailor William Petersen, beckoned to them. They took Lincoln into the first-floor bedroom and laid him on the bed (diagonally because of his unusual 6’-4” height). Throughout the night, many people came to visit him before he died the following morning at 7:22 AM.

Following the Lincoln assassination, the United States Government appropriated the theater, (the US Congress paid Ford US$88,000 in compensation) and an order was issued forever prohibiting its use as a place of public amusement. Between 1866 and 1887, the theater was taken over by the U.S. military, serving as a facility for the War Department.

Records were kept on the first floor, the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office on the second floor, and the Army Medical Museum on the third. In 1887, when the medical departments moved out, the building exclusively became a clerk’s office for the War Department.

Later, the theater was used as a warehouse and office building and, on June 9, 1893, a 40-ft. section of the front part of the building collapsed, killing 22 clerks and injuring another 68, leading some people to believe that the former church turned theater and storeroom was cursed.  After repairs, the building was used as a government warehouse until 1911.

Until 1918, it languished unused but, in 1928, the building was turned over, from the War Department Office, to the Office of Public Buildings and Parks of the National Capital. In 1932, Ford’s Theater and the Petersen House (purchased by the U.S. government in 1896) were designated as a National Historic Site and, on February 12, 1932 (Lincoln’s 123rd birthday), a Lincoln museum opened on the first floor of the theater building.

In 1964, restoration of Ford’s Theater was begun and, on January 21, 1968, the restored theater was dedicated by Vice President Hubert Humphrey and 500 others. On January 30, 1968, the theater reopened with a gala performance but the presidential box was never occupied.

It was renovated again during the 2000s, opening on February 11, 2009, in commemoration of the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. Today, this 0.12-hectare (0.9-acre) theater has a current seating capacity of 661. On February 12, 2012, a related Center for Education and Leadership (next to Petersen House) opened its museum experience. On October 15, 2013, the theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP reference no. 66000034).

The Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site is administered by the National Park Service (administration transferred here in 1933). However, the programming within the theater and the Center for Education and Leadership is overseen separately by the Ford’s Theatre Society.

Center for Education and Leadership.  On the building’s right is the Petersen House where Lincoln was brought after his assassination

The Ford’s Theater Museum, located beneath the theater, is run through a partnership with the National Park Service and the private non-profit Ford’s Theater Society.  Containing portions of the Olroyd Collection of Lincolniana, its collection includes multiple items related to the assassination, including the Derringer pistol used to carry out the shooting, Booth’s diary and the original door to Lincoln’s theater box.

Also on display are a number of Lincoln’s family items such as his coat (without the blood-stained pieces), some statues of Lincoln, several large portraits of the President plus the blood-stained pillow from the president’s deathbed.

In addition to covering the assassination conspiracy, the museum also focuses on Lincoln’s arrival in Washington, his presidential cabinet, family life in the White House and his role as orator and emancipator. The museum also features exhibits about American Civil War milestones, the generals and about the building’s history as a theatrical venue.

The Petersen House (the “House Where Lincoln Died”), the federal government’s first purchase of a historic home, has been operated as a historic house museum since 1933.  The rooms are furnished as on the night Lincoln died.

Ford’s Theater: 511 10th St., NW Washington, D.C. 20004. Tel: +1 202-347-4833. E-mail: boxoffice@fords.org. Website: www.fords.org. Coordinates: 38°53′48″N 77°1′33″W.

St. Patrick’s Church (Washington, D.C., U.S.A.)

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Our second mass that we attended in the US was held in St. Patrick’s Church in Washington, D.C. We have just finished hanging around the National Mall and looking at museums and, it being a Saturday, we needed a spot nearby for mass, so we all proceeded here, arriving in time for the 5:30 PM service.

St. Patrick’s Church

St. Patrick’s Church, the oldest parish in the Federal City of Washington, D.C., was founded in 1794 to minister to the needs of the Irish immigrant stonemasons building the White House and the U.S. Capitol. One of the first church buildings in the new Federal City, the initial structure on the present property was a simple frame chapel/residence. Its first pastor was Irish Dominican Fr. Anthony Caffry.  The multi-talented Fr. William Matthews, the first American to be ordained a priest in the United States, was named its pastor in 1804.

Historical plaque

The second church, built with brick and reputedly a design of parishioner James Hoban, the architect of the White House, was dedicated in 1809. In 1814, British soldiers attended Sunday mass here when they invaded the Capital and burned its public buildings. The brick church was embellished with the city’s first pipe organ, a gift pulpit from Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil, and a painting from Charles X of France.

The church interior

The present grand Gothic-style church was begun in 1872, under fourth pastor Fr Jacob Walter’s direction, and finally dedicated in 1884. In 1895, the church was the venue for the First National Eucharistic Congress. In 1904, the present English Gothic-style rectory and school building were completed by Fr. Denis Stafford and dedicated by Cardinal James Gibbons and Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. On September 24, 2015, Pope Francis visited St. Patrick’s Church during his tour of the United States.

The pipe organ at the choir loft

St. Patrick’s Church: 619 10th St NW, Washington, DC 20001. Tel: (202) 347-2713. Website: www.saintpatrickdc.org. Mass schedule: weekdays (12:10PM), Saturdays (12:10PM and 5:30PM) and Sundays (8AM, 10PM and 12 noon).

How to Get There: the nearest metro is the Gallery Pl-Chinatown

Smithsonian Castle (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

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Smithsonian Castle a.k.a. Smithsonian Institution Building

The grand, church-like Smithsonian Castle (formally the  Smithsonian Institution Building), is located near the National Mall in Washington, D.C., behind the National Museum of African Art and the Sackler Gallery. Housing the Smithsonian Institution‘s administrative offices and information center, the building was built in the Norman Revival style (a 12th-century combination of late Romanesque and early Gothic motifs) to evoke the Collegiate Gothic atmosphere of such venerable colleges such as Cambridge and Oxford in England and the ideas of knowledge and wisdom.

North facade of Castle

The building had its beginnings in 1846 when a building committee held a nationwide design competition and selected the design of 28 year old architect James Renwick, Jr.  by unanimous vote. The first Smithsonian building designed by Renwick (his other works include St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, also in Washington D.C.), a cardboard model of his winning design survives and is on display in the Castle.

James Renwick’s original model of the Smithsonian Castle

Renwick was assisted by Robert Mills, particularly in the internal arrangement of the building. The committee also selected Gilbert Cameron as the general contractor. Construction funds were sourced from “accrued interest on the Smithson bequest.” 

Check out “St. Patrick’s Cathedral (New Your City)”

Using elements from Georg Moller‘s book Denkmäler der deutschen Baukunst (Milestones in German Architecture), James Renwick, Jr. designed the Castle as the focal point of a picturesque landscape on the National Mall.

He also originally intended to detail the building with entirely American sculptural flora (in the manner of Benjamin Henry Latrobe‘s work at the United States Capitol) but the final work, instead, used conventional pattern-book designs. The plan allowed for expansion at either end, a major reason for the informal Medievally-inspired design (which would not suffer if asymmetrically developed).

Initially intended to be built in white marble, then in yellow sandstone, the architect and building committee finally settled on Seneca red sandstone (from the Seneca Quarry in Montgomery County, Maryland) which was substantially less expensive than the granite, marble and light Aquia sandstone used by other major buildings in Washington, D.C. and, while initially easy to work, was found to harden to a satisfactory degree upon exposure to the elements.

Statue of Joseph Henry

Here is the historical and construction timeline of the building:

  • On May 1, 1847, the cornerstone of the Castle was laid in a grand Masonic ceremony
  • In 1849, the East Wing was completed and occupied by Secretary Joseph Henry and his family. Later the same year, the West Wing was completed.
  • In 1850, a structural collapse of partly completed work raised questions of workmanship and resulted in a change to fireproof construction.
  • In 1852, the Castle’s exterior was completed
  • In 1855, Cameron’s interior work was completed.
  • In 1865, despite the upgraded fireproof construction, a fire caused extensive damage to the upper floor of the building, destroying the correspondence of James Smithson, Secretary Joseph Henry‘s papers, two hundred oil paintings of American Indians by John Mix Stanley, the Regent’s Room and the lecture hall, and the contents of the public libraries of Alexandria, Virginia and Beaufort, South Carolina, confiscated by Union forces during the American Civil War.
  • From 1865-67, renovation was undertaken by local Washington architect Adolf Cluss. A third and fourth floor were added to the East Wing while a third floor was added to the West Wing.
  • In 1883, further fireproofing work was also done by Cluss (who, by this time, had designed the neighboring Arts and Industries Building).
  • In 1895, electric lighting was installed.
  • Around 1900, the wooden floor of the Great Hall was replaced with terrazzo and a Children’s Museum was installed near the south entrance. A tunnel connected to the Arts and Industries Building.
  • From 1968-70, a general renovation took place to install modern electrical systems, elevators and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
  • In 1987, the Enid A. Haupt Garden and Renwick Gate (also built from Seneca red sandstone retrieved from the demolished D.C. Jail), facing Independence Avenue, were dedicated.
  • On January 1, 1965, the Castle was designated as a National Historic Landmark.
  • On October 15, 1966, it was included in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP reference no. 66000867)

Check out “Enid A. Haupt Garden”

A Castle of Curiosities Exhibit

The building, comprising a central section, two extensions (or ranges) and two wings (East and West), has four towers containing occupiable space and five smaller and primarily decorative towers (although some contain stairs).

The principal tower, on the south side is 28 m. (91 ft.) high and 11 m. (37 ft.) square. On the north side are two towers, the taller one 44 m. (145 ft.) high. A campanile, at the northeast corner, is 5.2 m. (17 ft.) square and 36 m. (117 ft.) high.

The few surviving personal possessions of James Smithson

The central section, as constructed, contains the main entry and museum space (now the Great Hall), with a basement beneath and a large lecture room above.

Two galleries, on the second floor, formerly used to display artifacts, is now the Visitor’s Information and Associates’ Reception area, with interactive displays and 3-D maps pinpointing and detailing the 17 Washington DC-area Smithsonian Institution properties, including museums, galleries and the National Zoological Park.  Here, computers electronically answer most common questions.

Earliest known photograph of the Castle

The first floor of the East Range contained laboratory space with research space on the second floor while the East Wing contained storage space on the first floor and a suite of rooms on the second (as an apartment for the Secretary of the Smithsonian). Currently, this space is used as administrative offices and archives.

Welcome to the Smithsonian Exhibit

The one storey West Range was used as a reading room while the West Wing, known as the chapel, was used as a library. Today, the West Wing and Range are now used as a quiet room for visitors to go.

A crypt, just inside the north entrance, houses the tomb of French-born, British-raised scientist James Smithson. There’s also a coffee and snack shop and a large seating area with free Wi-Fi.

James Smithson Crypt

A Castle of Curiosities exhibit delves into the history of the castle and the little that is known of James Smithson’s life. The Welcome to the Smithsonian exhibit, in high-ceilinged rooms, displays art and artifacts representing all of the institution’s members in old, gleaming wooden display cases. The National Zoo’s “panda cam” shows popular bears and ancient Buddhas from the Sackler Gallery.

Museum Store

Smithsonian Castle:   1000 Jefferson Dr SW, Washington, D.C. Tel:  +1 202-633-1000. Coordinates: 38°53′19.49″N 77°1′33.59″W

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington D.C., USA)

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Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, an art museum  sited halfway between the Washington Monument and the US Capitol, anchoring the southernmost end of the so-called L’Enfant axis (perpendicular to the Mall’s green carpet), is part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Interior court and fountain

Conceived as the United States’ museum of contemporary and modern art, it currently focuses its collection-building and exhibition-planning mainly on the post–World War II period, with particular emphasis on art made during the last 50 years. The museum has a budget of US$8 million, which does not include the US$10 to US$12 million in operational support supplied by the Smithsonian Institution.

Geometric Mouse, Variation I, Scale A (Claes Oldenburg, 1971)

The museum was initially endowed, during the 1960s, with the permanent art collection of more than 6,000 items of Joseph H. Hirshhorn (who enjoyed great success from uranium-mining investments), started  in his forties, which consisted of works from classic French Impressionism as well as those by living artists, American modernism of the early 20th century, and sculpture brought from the Hirshhorns’ Connecticut estate and other properties.

Subcommitee (Tony Cragg, 1991, steel)

Here is the museum’s historical timeline:

  • In 1966, an Act of Congress established the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Most of its funding was federal, but Hirshhorn later contributed US$1-million toward its construction.
  • On July 1967, an original plan, with an elongated, sunken rectangle crossing the Mall with a large reflecting pool across the Mall, designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft, was approved.
  • In 1969, groundbreaking takes place on the former site of the Army Medical Museum and Library (built in 1887) after the brick structure was demolished.
  • On July 1, 1971, after excavation was started, a revised design, with a smaller footprint, was approved. The revised design, deliberately stark, using gravel surfaces and minimal plantings to visually emphasize the works of art, also shifted the garden’s Mall orientation from perpendicular to parallel and reduces its size from 8,100 sq. m. (2 acres) to 5,300 sq. m. (1.3 acres).
  • In 1974, the museum was opened with three floors of painting galleries, a fountain plaza for sculpture, and the Sculpture Garden. In the first six months, one million visitors saw the 850-work inaugural show.
  • In the summer of 1979, the Sculpture Garden was closed.
  • In September 1981, the Sculpture Garden was reopened after a renovation and redesign by Lester Collins, a well-known landscape architect and founder of the Innesfree Foundation. The design introduces plantings, paved surfaces, accessibility ramps, and areas of lawn.
  • In 1985, the Museum Shop is moved to the lobby, increasing exhibition space at its former location on the lower level.
  • On December 1991, the Hirshhorn Plaza is closed.
  • In 1993, Hirshhorn Plaza is reopened after a renovation and redesign by landscape architect James Urban. The 11,000 sq. m. (2.7-acre) area around and under the building is repaved in two tones of gray granite, and raised areas of grass and trees are added to the east and west.
  • In 2013, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden drew around 645,000 visitors.
  • In 2014, the Museum Shop is moved back to the lower level.

Museum Shop

Here are some technical information on the museum:

  • The building and its walls were surfaced with precast concrete aggregate of “Swenson” pink granite
  • The building has a diameter of 231 ft., 115 ft. for the interior court and 60 ft. for the fountain.
  • The building is 82 ft. high and elevated 14 ft. on 4 massive, sculptural piers.
  • The museum provides 5,600 sq. m. (60,000 sq. ft.) of exhibition space on three floors inside and nearly 4 acres outside in its two-level Sculpture Garden and plaza for a total of 197,000 sq. ft. of total exhibition space, indoors and outdoors.
  • It has a 274-seat auditorium at the lower level.
  • There are 2.7 acres around and under the museum building.
  • The 1.3-acre Sculpture Garden, across Jefferson Drive, was sunk 6–14 ft. below street level and ramped for accessibility.
  • The second and third floor galleries have 15-ft. high walls, with exposed 3-ft. deep coffered ceilings.
  • The lower level includes exhibition space, storage, workshops, offices while the fourth floor includes offices and storage.

Pumpkin (Yayoi Kusama, 2016)

The building, an open cylinder elevated on four massive “legs,” with a large fountain occupying the central courtyard, itself is an attraction.  The new federal museum’s modern look and intrusively expansive sculptural grounds is a striking contrast to everything else in the city.

Still Life with Spirit and Xtile (Jimmie Durham, 2007)

At the museum entrance is the deceptively simple Still Life with Spirit and Xitle , one of the most well-known works of art by artist Jimmie Durham (a sculptor who is known for his sense of humor and irreverence), features a slapstick disaster scene (intended to capture the clash between industrial and ancient spirits) of a 1992 Chrysler Spirit being crushed by a 9 ton red basalt boulder with a comical smiley face painted on it.

Woman Verso Untitled (Willem de Kooning, 1948)

Woman Before an Eclipse With Her Hair Disheveled by the Wind (Joan Miro, oil on canvas, 1967)

Notable artists in the Hirshhom collection include Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, Henry Moore, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Hans Hofmann, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, John Chamberlain, Francis Bacon, Willem de Kooning, Milton Avery, Ellsworth Kelly, Louise Nevelson, Arshile Gorky, Edward Hopper, Larry Rivers, and Raphael Soyer among others.

Sleeping Muse I (Constantin Brancusi, 1909-1910, marble)

The Master Works from the Hirshhorn Collection, on view from June 9, 2016 to September 4, 2017, is a new rehanging of the permanent collection galleries at the third-level.  It features more than 75 works in virtually all media, highlights of Joseph Hirshhorn’s original gift, alongside some of the newest additions to the collection.

Untitled – Big Man (Ron Mueck, 2000, pigmented polyester resin on fiberglass)

They include several major artworks returning to view after more than a decade (such as Candian painter Jean-Paul Riopelle’s 1964 Large Triptych), as well as in-depth installations devoted to some of the most important artists in the collection.

Large Triptych (Jean-Paul Riopelle, 1964, oil on canvas)

Dog (Alberto Giacometti, 1951-57)

Exhibited are more than a dozen paintings and works on paper by Dutch abstract expressionist artist Willem de Kooning alongside sculptures by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti, two of the 20th century’s greatest figurative artists.

Eleven A.M. (Edward Hopper, 1928, oil on canvas)

The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire (Ed Ruscha, 1965-68, oil on canvas)

Other cornerstones of the collection on view are Constantin Brancusi’s Sleeping Muse I (1909–10), Edward Hopper’s Eleven A.M. (1926), Edward Ruscha’s The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire (1965–68), French-American artist Louise Bourgeois’ Legs (1986/cast 2008) and Australian sculptor Ron Mueck’s Untitled (Big Man) (2000).

Window (Gerhard Richter, 1968, oil on canvas)

The End of Ending (Eduardo Basualdo, 2012)

In an adjacent room is The End of Ending (2012), a massive sculptural installation by Argentinian artist Eduardo Basualdo which occupies all but a sliver of walkable space in a gallery. R.S.V.P. X (1976/2014), the performative sculpture  by African-American Senga Nengudi (among a group of artists in 1970’s Los Angeles who explored conceptual art in their pursuit of a distinctly African-American aesthetic), also appears at the museum for the first time.

Spearfishing (Peter Doig, 2013)

Siren of the Niger (Wilfredo Lam, 1950, oil and charcoal on canvas)

The exhibition is augmented by a special loan of Scottish painter Peter Doig’s painting Spearfishing (2013), which hangs alongside richly colored canvases by British figurative painter Francis Bacon, American painter Richard Diebenkorn and Cuban artist Wifredo Lam.

Field for Skyes (Joan Mitchell, 1973, oil on canvas)

1962-D (Clyfford Still, oil on canvas)

Some of the most recent additions to the Hirshhorn’s collection are represented by new cultural histories. O Abuso da História  (The Abuse of History, 2014) is a video, by Brazil-based Mexican artist Héctor Zamora, of a riotously destructive group performance at São Paulo’s historic Hospital Matarazzo.

From Continent to Continent (Mario Merz, 1985)

Cuban artist Reynier Leyva Novo’s 5 Nights (2014), from his series “The Weight of History,” in the Lerner Room (overlooking the National Mall), maps revolutionary 20th-century manifestos by Vladimir Lenin, Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong, and Muammar Gaddafi to conceptual monochromes, based on the amount of ink spilled in the writing of each text.

Iris, Messenger of the Gods (Auguste Rodin)

During our visit to the museum, we also explored three ongoing temporary exhibits – the “Markus Lupertz: Threads of History” Exhibit, the “Linn Meyers: Our View From Here” Exhibit and the “Ai Weiwei: Trace at the Hirshhorn” Exhibit.

Check out “The Markus Lupertz: Threads of History Exhibit” “The Linn Meyers: Our View from Here Exhibit” and “”The Ai Weiwei: Trace at Hirshhorn Exhibit“

The Sculpture Garden, outside the museum, features works by artists including Auguste Rodin, David Smith, Alexander Calder, Jean-Robert Ipoustéguy, Jeff Koons, and others. A permanent installation and a major attraction, since 2007, in the Sculpture Garden is Yoko Ono‘s famous Wish Tree for Washington, DC.

Are Years What? (Mark di Suvero)

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: 700 Independence Ave SW & 7th St SW, National Mall, Washington, D.C. 20560, United States.  Website: www.hirshhorn.si.edu. Admission is free.  Open daily, 10 AM – 5:30 PM.

National Air and Space Museum (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

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National Air and Space Museum

The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a must-see for visitors to Washington, DC. Established August 12, 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened at its main building on the National Mall near L’Enfant Plaza in 1976.

It is a center for research into the history and science of aviation, spaceflight, planetary science, terrestrial geology and geophysics. Allow at least 2-3 hours to explore the exhibits.

Continuum of the late Charles O. Perry

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this museum:

  • It holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world.
  • In 2014, the museum saw approximately 6.7 million visitors, making it the fifth most visited museum in the world.
  • It is the largest of 19 museums included in the Smithsonian Institution.

Lockheed F-104A Starfighter at the second floor concourse

The museum features 22 exhibition galleries, displaying hundreds of artifacts. Many of the exhibits are interactive and great for kids. Almost all space and aircraft on display are either originals or the original backup craft.

Boeing Milestones of Flight – the main hall of the museum

Designed by St. Louis-based architect Gyo Obata of HOK , the museum, its mass similar to the National Gallery of Art and using the same pink Tennessee marble, was built by Gilbane Building Company and opened on July 1, 1976 at the height of the United States Bicentennial festivities.

The Mercury Friendship 7 and Gemini IV capsules

It has four simple marble-encased cubes containing the smaller and more theatrical exhibits, connected by three spacious steel-and-glass atria which house the larger exhibits such as missiles, airplanes and spacecraft. The west glass wall of the building, used for the installation of airplanes, also functions as a giant door. On display outside is “Continuum,” a curving metal map of the universe one by the late Charles O. Perry.

Bell X-1

The Boeing Milestones of Flight Gallery, the museum’s main hall, was reopened in July 2016. This expanded exhibition traces the interconnected stories of the world’s most significant aircraft, rockets, and spacecraft in history, milestones which have made our planet smaller and the universe larger, with digital displays and a mobile experience in a new design that stretches from one entrance to the other.

Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis

North American Aviation Inc. X-15A 56-6670 hypersonic research rocketplane

SS-20 and Pershing II ICBM Missiles

They also tell tales of ingenuity and courage, war and peace, politics and power, as well as society and culture.

Bell XP-59A Airacomet

Mock-up of Lunar Module

The displays, taking full advantage of the atrium’s two-storey height, includes the huge Apollo Lunar Module; the Telstar satellite; the model of the “Starship Enterprise” used in the Star Trek television series;, the Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis  (where Charles Lindbergh’s made his solo trip across the Atlantic); the Bell XP-59A Airacomet (the first American jet aircraft); the Bell X-1 (in which Chuck Yeager first broke the mythical “sound barrier”); the North American X-15 (the fastest aircraft ever flown); the Mercury Friendship 7 capsule (flown by John Glenn); the Mariner, Pioneer, and Viking planetary explorers; and SpaceShipOne (the first privately-developed, piloted vehicle to reach space). You can even touch a Moon rock.

The author touching a piece of the Moon

Jandy with the model of the Star Trek Starship Enterprise

The Space Race Gallery tells about that U.S.-Soviet Union space rivalry and its aftermath, from the military origins of the Space Race, through the race to the Moon and the development of reconnaissance satellites, to cooperative ventures between the two former rivals and efforts to maintain a human presence in space.

German V2 Rocket

Yuri Gagarin’s Space Suit

John Glenn’s Space Suit

Hubble Space Telescope

Some of the items on display include a German V-1 “buzz bomb” and V-2 missile, Soviet and U.S. spacecraft and space suits, a Skylab Orbital Workshop, and a full-size test version of the Hubble Space Telescope.

1970 Northrop M2-F3 CN 1

Apollo–Soyuz Test Project

V-1 Buzz Bomb

The Apollo to the Moon Gallery has an unparalleled display of artifacts from the Apollo and earlier missions with displays that range from a huge F-1 rocket engine, a scale model of the Saturn V rocket, spacesuits worn by Apollo astronauts on the Moon to space food and personal items that astronauts took into space.

Saturn V Rocket Engine

Lunar Roving Vehicle

The America by Air Gallery, exploring the history of air transportation in the United States, shows how the federal government has shaped the airline industry, how improvements in technology have revolutionized air travel, and how the flying experience has changed.

The nose section of a DC-7

Boeing 747 Forward Fuselage

Highlights include a Ford 5-AT Tri-Motor, Boeing 247, and Douglas DC-3 airliners; a cockpit simulation of an Airbus A320; and a nose from a Boeing 747 jumbo jet that you can enter.

Ford 5-AT-B Trimotor

Douglas DC-3

Boeing 247-D

The Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery, having to do with people who pushed the existing technological or social limits of flight, contains an impressive, eclectic assortment of aircraft and exhibits, each representing an unprecedented feat, a barrier overcome or a pioneering step.

Douglas World Cruiser Chicago

Fokker T-2

Things to see here include the Fokker T-2 (the airplane that made the first nonstop, coast-to-coast flight across the United States); the Douglas World Cruiser Chicago (which completed the first round-the-world flight); a Lockheed Model 8 Sirius (flown by Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh), a Lockheed Vega (flown by Amelia Earhart); the Explorer II high-altitude balloon gondola; and “Black Wings,” an exhibit on African Americans and aviation.

Lockheed Model 8 Sirius

Explorer II high-altitude balloon gondola

Lockheed Vega 5B of Amelia Earhart

The Explore the Universe Gallery shows how our ideas about the Universe evolved as we developed new astronomical instruments. It presents the Universe as discerned by the naked eye, then shows how the telescope, photography, spectroscopy, and digital technology revolutionized our view. The largest section describes what astronomers today think about the nature of the Universe. Among the many amazing treasures on display are an Islamic astrolabe from 10 centuries ago; the actual telescope tube from William Herschel‘s 20-foot telescope; the observing cage from the Mount Wilson Observatory‘s 100-inch Hooker Telescope; and the backup mirror for the Hubble Space Telescope.

World War II Aviation Gallery

Supermarine Spitfire HF.MK.VIIc

The World War II Aviation Gallery focuses on land-based fighter aviation.  Fortresses Under Fire, a Keith Ferris mural filling an entire wall, features  a B 17 Flying Fortress, with contrails streaming behind it, roaring out of a clear blue sky. 

Mitsubishi A6M5 Reisen (Zero Fighter)

North American P-51D Mustang

The mural serves as a backdrop for five fighter planes – a British Supermarine Spitfire, German Messerschmitt Bf 109, Italian Macchi C.202 Folgore, U.S. North American P-51 Mustang and a Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 G (1)

Aeronautica Macchi C.202 Folgore

Also on exhibit are engines, bombs, armament, ammunition, aircrew and service uniforms from several nations, and personal memorabilia.

Artist Soldiers Exhibit

The Artist Soldiers exhibition, a collaboration between the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and National Museum of American History, examines this form of artistic expression from two complementary perspectives – one from professional artists who were recruited by the U.S. Army and served in the American Expeditionary Force (the first true combat artists) and the other from soldiers who created artwork.

Together, these works of art of soldiers shed light on World War I in a compelling and very human way by first-hand participants.

The Exploring the Planets Gallery takes you on a tour of this remarkable realm, as seen and sensed by the Voyagers and other robotic explorers. Initial sections present some historical highlights and show the various means we use to study other worlds. Sections devoted to each planet form the core of the gallery.

The author with the Blériot XI monoplane

The gaily decorated Early Flight Gallery, celebrating the first decade of flight, evokes the atmosphere of the fictitious Smithsonian Aeronautical Exposition of 1913, an aviation exhibition from that period. The gallery is crammed with fabric-covered aerial vehicles, some fanciful, most real, along with trade show–style exhibits featuring cutting-edge technology of the day.

Swedenborg Flying Machine

The Chanute Gliders

They include a rare 1894 Lilienthal glider; Samuel P. Langley’s Aerodrome #5 and Quarter-Scale Aerodrome (powered, unmanned vehicles that successfully flew in 1896 and 1903); the 1909 Wright Military Flyer (the world’s first military airplane, it is the most original and complete of the museum’s three Wright airplanes); a Curtiss Model D “Headless Pusher,” an Ecker Flying Boat, and a Blériot XI monoplane.

Curtiss D-III Headless Pusher

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Gallery, made possible through the generosity of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., showcases six modern military UAVs that represent a variety of missions and technologies.

Boeing X-45A

They range from large vehicles that can carry offensive weapons to a miniature system whose components are light and compact enough to be carried in a Marine’s backpack.

AAI RQ-7 Shadow UAV

The Golden Age of Flight Gallery features the 1920s and ’30s, the period between the two world wars that saw airplanes evolve from wood-and-fabric biplanes to streamlined metal monoplanes. The military services embraced air power and aviation came of age. Air races and daring record-setting flights dominated the news and aircraft displayed here include planes used for racing and record setting such as Howard Hughes‘ sleek, record-setting Hughes H-1 Racer, the Wittman Buster midget racer (hanging near the entrance) and the Curtiss J-1 Robin Ole Miss (which stayed aloft for 27 days).  There are also planes for business travel (Beechcraft C17L Staggerwing) and exploration (the Northrop Gamma 2B Polar Star, which traversed Antarctica).

MQ-1L Predator A

The How Things Fly Gallery, devoted to explaining the basic principles that allow aircraft and spacecraft to fly, emphasizes “hands-on,” with dozens of exhibits inviting you to push, pull, press, lift, slide, handle, touch, twist, turn, spin, bend, and balance. Here you can discover for yourself answers to things you’ve always wondered about flight. You can explore the nature of gravity and air; how wings work; supersonic flight; aircraft and rocket propulsion; flying in space; and more.

1903 Wright Flyer

The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age Gallery  celebrates the centennial of the Wright brothers‘ historic flights.  It has, as its centerpiece, the 1903 Wright Flyer, the world’s first successful airplane and historic craft that ushered in the age of flight, displayed on the floor. 

The first part of this exhibition tells the story of how Wilbur and Orville Wright invented the airplane—who they were, how they worked, and what they accomplished.

The second part shows how their monumental achievement affected the world in the decade that followed, when people everywhere became fascinated with flight. The exhibition includes many historic photographs and cultural artifacts, along with instruments and personal items associated with the Wrights.

The Moving Beyond Earth Gallery, an immersive exhibition, places visitors “in orbit” in the shuttle and space-station era to explore recent human spaceflight and future possibilities. An expansive view of the Earth as viewed from the space station drifts over one gallery wall, while a fly-around tour of the International Space Station fills another wall. A presentation stage for live events, broadcasts, and webcasts at the center of the gallery serves as the platform for Space Flight Academy, a group quiz game where visitors can test their space smarts and become “flight ready.”

Time and Navigation Gallery

Lockheed 5C Vega – Winnie Mae

The Time and Navigation Gallery explores how revolutions in timekeeping over three centuries have influenced how we find our way.

Model of USS Enterprise

The Sea-Air Operations Gallery, at the quarterdeck of the mythical aircraft carrier USS Smithsonian, a scaled-down re-creation of a hangar deck bay, has surrounding structures and equipment that are from actual aircraft carriers.

Douglas SBD-6 Dauntless

You can poke around in a ready room, a combined living room and briefing area, or go upstairs and visit the navigation bridge and PriFly, the ship’s air traffic control center. From these two rooms you can watch “cat shots” and “traps” (takeoffs and landings) filmed on a U.S. Navy carrier.

Douglas A-4C Skyhawk

Balconies overlook the four carrier aircraft in the hangar bay – a Boeing F4B-4 biplane, Grumman F4F Wildcat, Douglas SBD-6 Dauntless, and Douglas A-4C Skyhawk. Also here are exhibits on carrier warfare in World War II and on modern carrier aviation.

Boeing F4B-4

The Looking at Earth Gallery, exploring the technology of aerial and space observation and its many uses, displays aircraft and spacecraft and examples of the photographic and imaging devices used on them.

Lockheed U-2C

De Havilland DH-4

Throughout the exhibition are countless images taken from above, some are historic; others show scientific, military, or civil applications; others are simply beautiful. All allow us to examine the familiar from unfamiliar perspectives.

GOES Weather Satellite

Highlights include a De Havilland DH-4 (a World War I aircraft used for aerial observation and photography); a Lockheed U-2 (designed for Cold War aerial surveillance); personal objects of Soviet-captured U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers; and several generations of weather satellites. A “What’s New” section displays frequently updated images of current interest taken of our planet from space.

US Pilot Survival Kit

The Lunar Exploration Vehicles Gallery displays a constellation of vehicles used for lunar exploration. Dominating the space is a real lunar module, the second one built for the Apollo program. The orbital test flight of the first lunar module proved so successful that a second test flight was deemed unnecessary. The lunar module displayed here was used instead for ground testing. Six more like it landed astronauts on the Moon.

Engineering Model of Clementine

A series of unmanned lunar spacecraft preceded the manned missions. These robotic explorers transmitted images of the Moon, inspected its surface, and searched for Apollo landing sites.

Ranger Spacecraft

Examples of the three types of space probes involved in that effort—Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter—hang above the lunar module, along with a more recent lunar explorer: the Moon-mapping spacecraft Clementine.

Lunar Orbiter

The Legend, Memory and the Great War in the Air Gallery reexamines aviation during World War I and contrasts romance with reality, with displays of popular culture showing how some of these myths were passed on.

German Aircraft Factory

Model of the Hindenburg

Other exhibits examine the many new roles aircraft played during the war, from battlefield reconnaissance to strategic bombing.

Pfalz D.XII

Albatross D.Va

Fokker D.VII

The gallery features several rare airplanes such as the German Pfalz D.XII, Albatros D.Va, and Fokker D.VII fighters; a British Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe fighter; and a French SPAD S.XIII fighter and Voisin VIII bomber.

Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe

Voisin Type 8

Spad XIII Smith IV

The Jet Aviation Gallery traces the development of jet technology and features many important turbojet engines introduced over four decades, along with three airplanes that helped usher in the jet age – the German Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1a Schwalbe (the world’s first operational jet fighter),  the Lockheed XP-80 “Shooting Star” Lulu Belle (the prototype for the first full-production, operational U.S. jet fighter) and McDonnell FH-1 Phantom (the first jet fighter used by the Navy and Marine Corps).

McDonnell FH-1 Phantom

Lockheed XP-80 “Shooting Star” nicknamed Lulu Belle

Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1a nicknamed Schwalbe (German for “Swallow”)

The Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater, with its five-storey-high screen with six-channel digital surround sound, take you on a journey through space or to natural and manmade wonders of the world.

Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket on display outside of the Lockheed Martin IMAX® Theater

The Albert Einstein Planetarium, with its high tech dual digital projection system, Sky Vision, takes you on a 20-minute tour of the universe. The museum’s three-storey gift shop is a great place to find memorable souvenirs and gifts. A food court- style restaurant is open daily from 10 AM to 5PM.

Museum Shop

National Air and Space Museum: 600 Independence Ave. at 6th St. SW, Washington, D.C. 20560, USA.  Tel: +1 202-633-2214. Open aily (except December 25), 10 AM – 5:30 PM. Website: www.airandspace.si.edu.

General Admission: free.  The 4-minute flight simulator rides cost US$6.50 per ride. IMAX movies and the Planetarium each cost US$9 per adult or US$7 per child. Shows often sell out, so purchase your tickets before viewing the rest of the museum. Tickets can be purchased in advance at (877) WDC-IMAX. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, new security measures have been created, with extensive queues  extending outside the building.

How to Get There: The closest Metro stations are Smithsonian and L’Enfant Plaza.

National Museum of the American Indian (Washington DC, USA)

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National Museum of The American Indian

From the Botanic Garden, Jandy and I proceeded to the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), the first national museum in the country dedicated exclusively to Native Americans.  Part of the Smithsonian Institution, it is committed to advancing knowledge and understanding of the past, present, and future of Native cultures of the Western Hemisphere, through partnership with Native people and others.

Museum entrance

Aside from this museum,  the National Museum of the American Indian also has two other facilities – the George Gustav Heye Center (a permanent museum in Lower Manhattan, New York City) and the Cultural Resources Center (a research and collections facility in Suitland, Maryland).

 

Though it was a weekend, there wasn’t a long line of visitors wanting to enter the building (although the museum had 2.4 million visitors in 2004, the year it opened, it has averaged only 1.4 million in the years since due to its exhibits that feel “disjointed and incomplete”) but we were still all subjected to a security check.

Indian canoes at the lobby

The five-storey, 23,000 m2 (250,000 sq. ft.) curvilinear building, set in a 17,200 m2 (4.25-acre) site, is clad in golden-colored Kasota limestone, designed to evoke natural rock formations shaped by wind and water over thousands of years, and is surrounded by simulated wetlands.

Oculus of the dome

Fifteen years in the making, the museum was inaugurated on September 21, 2004 with an audience of around 20,000 American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, the largest gathering of indigenous people in Washington D.C. to its time.

The museum’s design architects are GBQC Architects of Philadelphia and Severud Associates was the structural engineering firm chosen for this project. Project architects are Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects Ltd. of Seattle and Smith Group of Washington, D.C., in association with Lou Weller (Caddo), the Native American Design Collaborative, and Polshek Partnership Architects of New York City. The landscape architects are Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects Ltd. of Seattle and EDAW, Inc., of Alexandria, Virginia.

ImagiNATIONS Activity Center

Aiming to create a different atmosphere and experience from museums of European and Euro-American culture, Native Americans, in general, have filled the leadership roles in the design and operation of the museum.

Indian Chief motorcycle, 1948 at “Americans” exhibit

Canadian Douglas Cardinal, the museum’s architect and project designer, is Blackfoot.  During construction, disagreements led to Cardinal’s removal from the project, but the building retains his original design intent and, during the museum’s construction, he provided continued input.  Architect John Paul Jones is Cherokee/Choctaw while Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi) also served as design consultant. Donna E. House (Navajo/Oneida) was the botanist who supervised the landscaping.

Our Universes – Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World

The museum’s sweeping curvilinear architecture, its indigenous landscaping, and its exhibitions were also all designed in collaboration with tribes and communities from across the hemisphere, combine to give visitors from around the world the sense and spirit of Native America.

Nation to Nation exhibit

The landscape flows into the building and the theme of organic flow is reflected by the interior of the museum, whose walls are mostly curving surfaces, with almost no sharp corners. The museum’s east-facing entrance, its prism window and its 37 m. (120-ft.) high space for contemporary Native performances are direct results of extensive consultations with Native peoples.

Bald Eagle feather, ca. 2000

The museum’s collection, assembled by George Gustav Heye (1874–1957) during a 54-year period (beginning in 1903, he traveled throughout North and South America collecting Native objects), became part of the Smithsonian in June 1990.

Andrew Jackson’s pistol (ca. 1840)

Approximately 85% of the holdings of the NMAI, it includes more than 800,000 objects (one of the world’s largest and most diverse collections of its kind), as well as a photographic archive of 125,000 images. The collection is divided into the following areas: Amazon; Andes; Arctic/Subarctic; California/Great Basin; Contemporary Art; Mesoamerican/Caribbean; Northwest Coast; Patagonia; Plains/Plateau; Woodlands.

Celebrations

Pana and Qolla

The museum currently has 5 exhibits.  Americans (January 18, 2018–2022), highlighting the ways in which American Indians have been part of the nation’s identity since before the country began, features pervasive, powerful and, at times, demeaning American Indian images (from the Land O’Lakes butter maiden to the Cleveland Indians’ mascot, and from classic Westerns and cartoons to episodes of Seinfeld and South Park), names (from state, city, and street names to the Tomahawk missile) and stories (historical events of Pocahontas’ life, the Trail of Tears, and the Battle of Little Bighorn) that reveal the deep connection between Americans and American Indians as well as how Indians have been embedded, in unexpected ways, in the history, pop culture, contemporary life and identity of the United States.

Inka bowl, tumi (ritual knife), armbands and ornaments with human figure design

The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire (June 26, 2015–June 1, 2020) explores the foundations of the more than 20,000 mile long Inka Road (which stands as one of the monumental engineering achievements in history) in earlier Andean cultures, technologies that made building the road possible, the cosmology and political organization of the Inka world, and the legacy of the Inka Empire during the colonial period and in the present day.

Maya calendar

Crossing mountains and tropical lowlands, rivers and deserts, the Great Inka Road, recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage site in 2014, linked Cusco, the administrative capital and spiritual center of the Inka world, to the farthest reaches of its empire and continues to serve contemporary Andean communities across Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.

Shan Goshorn (Eastern Band of Cherokee, b. 1957). Pieced Treaty Spider’s Web Treaty basket, 2007. Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations (September 21, 2014–Through 2021), curated by Indian rights activist Suzan Shown Harjo, is built around the 1613 Two Row Wampum Treaty which, as museum reviewer Diana Muir Appelbaum points out, is, in fact, a modern forgery. ” It is the story of that relationship between Indian Nations and the United States, including the history and legacy of U.S.–American Indian diplomacy, from the Colonial Period through the present, as well as about the equally important and influential Native diplomats and leaders of Indian Nations.

Ceremonies of Spring

Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World (September 21, 2004–September 2020) focuses on indigenous cosmologies (world views and philosophies related to the creation and order of the universe) and the spiritual relationship between human kind and the natural world. Organized around the solar year, the exhibition introduces visitors to indigenous peoples from across the Western Hemisphere who continue to express the wisdom of their ancestors in celebration, language, art, spirituality and daily life.

Pueblo plates

The community galleries feature eight cultural philosophies—those of the Pueblo of Santa Clara (Espanola, New Mexico, USA), Anishinaabe (Hollow Water and Sagkeeng Bands, Manitoba, Canada), Lakota (Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, USA), Quechua (Communidad de Phaqchanta, Cuzco, Peru), Hupa (Hoopa Valley, California, USA), Q’eq’chi’ Maya (Cobán, Guatemala), Mapuche (Temuco, Chile), and Yup’ik (Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska, USA).

Dance and Drama

The design of these galleries reflects each community’s interpretation of the order of the world.The exhibition also highlights the Denver (Colorado) March Powwow, the North American Indigenous Games, and the Day of the Dead as seasonal celebrations that bring Native peoples together.

Family Meals and Feasting

Preparing and Storing Food

At the ongoing compact exhibition Return to a Native Place: Algonquian Peoples of the Chesapeake educates visitors on the continued Native presence in the region, and provides an overview of the history and events from the 1600s to the present that have impacted the lives of the Nanticoke, Powhatan, and Piscataway tribes.

Harvesting From the Land and the Ocean

Music and Song

You will meet the Native peoples of the Chesapeake Bay region (what is now Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware) through photographs, maps, ceremonial and everyday objects, and interactive displays.

Southeastern Ceramics

Music and Song

The imagiNATIONS Activity Center, a fantastic interactive experience for families, allows visitors to explore genius innovations made by Native tribes, from transportation solutions (snowshoes, skateboards) to tipi-building and basket-weaving.

Native Glass

Potawatomi blouse (ca. 1890, Wisconsin)

The Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe (which translates to “Let’s eat!” in the language of Delaware and Piscataway Natives) is divided into Native regional sections such as the Northern Woodlands, South America, the Northwest Coast, Meso-America, and the Great Plains (the only Native American groups not represented in the café are the south eastern tribes such as the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee and Seminole, many of which supported the United States throughout the tribes’ histories).

Museum Store

National Museum of the American Indian: Fourth Street and Independence Avenue, Southwest, National Mall , Washington D.C.. Tel: 202-633-1000. TTY: 202-633-5285. Email: nmai-groupreservations@si.edu.  Website: www.nmai.si.edu/visit/washington.  Open daily, 10 AM–5:30 PM, closed on December 25. Exhibition spaces and the store begin closing at 5:15 PM. The Mitsitam Cafe is open daily, 11 AM–3 PM (closed on December 25); the Mitsitam Espresso Coffee Bar is open daily, 10 AM–5 PM; while the imagiNATIONS Activity Center is open daily 10 AM–5 PM, closed on Mondays. Admission is free. The building is accessible to people with disabilities. The museum does not have parking. Parking is available by meter on the surrounding streets and in local paid parking garages. Visitors should be prepared for a security check upon entrance to the museum. On busy days, there may be a line to enter the building. The museum offers a range of exhibitions, film and video screenings, school group programs, public programs and living culture presentations throughout the year. 

How To Get There: The National Museum of the American Indian is located between the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum and the U.S. Capitol Building.

Metro: L’Enfant Plaza (Blue/Orange/Green/Yellow lines), exit Maryland Avenue/Smithsonian Museums

Bus: Lines 30, 32, 34–36—Friendship Heights/Southern Avenue. There are 9 bus drop-off only spaces on Maryland Avenue accessible from 3rd Street.