It's a party, a parade, a traveling sideshow. It came out of Washington, D.C., invited the nation to attend - and it's free.
Unlike other offerings from the nation's capital during an election year, those displayed in "America's Smithsonian," celebrating the venerable institution's 150th anniversary, are pure entertainment, education and fun.The exhibition, scheduled to tour the nation for two years, is a movable feast assembled from the nation's attic - which the Smithsonian is often called.
The Smithsonian Institution is actually a complex of 16 museums, galleries, research facilities and the National Zoo, which all contributed to the 300-plus objects on display.
It is, according to project director J. Michael Carrigan, "the largest exhibition the Smithsonian, or any institution, has ever put on the road."
Coming from so many homes, the exhibition retains the feel of the attic, full of surprises.
Where else would you find a sculpture by Henry Moore more or less rubbing elbows with a photograph of Georgia O'Keeffe, a Chinese Ming Dynasty jade vase, a late-16th-century Iranian manuscript and a chair designed circa 1920 by Frank Lloyd Wright?
These are a few of the offerings in the Imagining Gallery, one of the three major divisions, or galleries, of the exhibition.
Visitors first enter the introductory Smithsonian Garden area, with kiosks and videos from such organizations as the National Zoo and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
There is also information about the Smithsonian itself. When its founder, an Englishman named James Smithson, got Congress to accept his offer to build the institution in 1838, he shipped 105 bags of gold sovereigns across the Atlantic.
From the garden, visitors pass through a 22-foot-high model of the Castle, the original Smithsonian building, to find a working carousel like the one outside the Castle on Washington's Mall.
Surrounding the carousel (which can be ridden for $2) are entrances to the three galleries.
The Discovery Gallery features specimens from the natural world and artifacts from technology that have expanded the frontiers of discovery.
Here you can find meteorites, dinosaur bones, mollusk shells, a compass from the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Wright brothers' "Vin Fiz" airplane (named after a grape drink) that was the first to fly across the United States, and Amelia Earhart's flight suit.
The Imagining Gallery celebrates imagination and creativity. There are works by renowned artists Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt and Edward Hopper, among others.
There are also wonders such as famous gems: an ancient Maya jade pendant, for example, or the Star of Bombay, one of the world's great sapphires given once by Douglas Fairbanks Sr. to his wife, Mary Pickford, or the Mackay Emerald Necklace, an Art Deco diamond-and-platinum pendant designed by Cartier about 1930.
The Remembering Gallery includes portraits, inventions, relics of famous people or momentous events and icons of popular culture.
This collection defines eclectic with its six sections: "Ancient Cultures," with relics and rituals from around the world; "Leading in the U.S.," with displays relating to presidents and first ladies; "The Civil War"; "Celebration of Community," highlighting time-honored customs; "American Inventors and Inventions"; and "American Pastimes," featuring artists and writers.
There is a baseball signed by Babe Ruth, Dizzy Gillespie's B-flat trumpet and case, the signpost from the famous "M*A*S*H" television series, the fur coat worn by Marian Anderson and a portrait of her in it during her 1939 concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. There are inaugural gowns worn by first ladies Jacqueline Kennedy and Patricia Nixon.
There are also the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland when she played Dorothy in the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" and a note with this little-known fact: The soles are made of felt to muffle the sound of her footsteps along the Yellow Brick Road.
"America's Smithsonian" opened in the Los Angeles Convention Center in February and, because of its size, is traveling to cities that have similarly large exhibition spaces.
Venues for 1996 are:
- H. Roe Bartle Hall, Kansas City, Mo., April 10-May 19.
- The Coliseum, New York City, June 12-July 24.
- Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, R.I., Aug. 17-Sept. 19.
- Oct. 11-Nov. 14, city to be announced
- George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Dec. 7, 1996-Jan. 12, 1997.
There will also be six sites for 1997, all to be announced.
Tickets are free, but must be reserved in advance. Check local listings for further information or contact the Office of Public Affairs, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560; phone 202-357-2627; fax 202-786-2377.
*****
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Information on Web
More information about the Smithsonian's traveling 150th anniversary exhibition is available through the Smithsonian Home Page on the World Wide Web: (http//www.si.edu).
Also, in case you miss the real thing, throughout 1996, CBS television has scheduled a series of prime-time Smithsonian Minutes to be presented by a news correspondent or celebrity from the world of politics, entertainment or literature.
The "minutes" (at least 25 will be broadcast) include "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace with Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves; Kermit the Frog with a teddy bear named after President Theodore Roosevelt; and first lady Hillary Clinton next to a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Dolly Madison.
- Maturity News Service