Entertainment at the Smithsonian American History Museum

I read about it a while back. There is a new exhibit at the Smithsonian American History Museum called “entertainment.” Some of the articles on display are Judy Garland’s shoes from the Wizard of Oz, and Archie Bunkers’s chair. We have seen these items in the temporary exhibit space when we visited there many times before. Now they are a part of the new surroundings that are located on the third floor. So when we drove in to town yesterday for a morning walk we passed through the Tidal Basin and the cherry blossoms and then parked by the air and space museum on the National mall. Then we walked over to the history museum which was surprisingly empty - just the way I like it. While everyone was looking at cherry blossoms we were looking at an interesting array of Americana - it was quite nostalgic in many ways. It started with the Ringling Brothers circus posters and Tom Thumb. There were a lot of baseball items, R2D2 and C-3PO, and a 1950’s Kermit. Then there was Mae West, Babe Ruth, Superman and the Lone Ranger items. Diana Ross, Phyllis Diller and Mohamed Ali also were showcased. Who could forget Howdy Duty and Elmo? What about Rocky Balboa, Michael Jordan and Kristi Yamaguchi? The Sixty Minutes stop clock and Prince’s guitar were also favorites. All of the signage was in both English and Spanish. We didn’t see everything and will probably return again. I need to study the website and see what we missed. Afterwards we took a morning walk along Pennsylvania Avenue and saw a few cherry trees along the way. It’s always such a pleasant time whenever we visit our old neighborhood. 

American History Museum

My favorite Smithsonian museum is American history. The first time I visited was with my sister when she was in college in DC. I was in high school on a journalism trip to New York. I loved the First Ladies dresses and have visited this exhibit many times before and after we moved to DC. Last week we drove in to town for the purpose of taking photos for the 52Frames weekly challenge, and Edith Roosevelt’s dress photo turned out well. Aside from the First Ladies gems there are so many other things to see - White House place settings, President section, Judy Garlands ruby slippers, Julia Child’s kitchen, Carl Yastrzemski’s hat, a host of vehicles and water craft through the ages. When we left the museum we walked back to the car and stopped in the National Gallery sculpture garden. The fountain was dancing and the kids were having lunch with squirrels and ducks. After that we saw an albino squirrel on the national mall. You couldn’t miss him! It was a nice outing and we had a lovely time. Unfortunately I didn’t get to pay attention to my surroundings as much as I would have liked. It’s as if I have tunnel vision when I’m in search of the best photo op. It’s nice to know we can always come back for another visit.