On March 14th, I was in Washington, DC on the mall. I went, with high hopes and childhood memories, to the American History Museum. My hopes were satisfied, my memories were less so. Many of the long-standing exhibits, including the ones that covered the history of television and film, from Seinfeld's puffy shirt and Dorothy's red slippers to Oscar the Grouch's trash can, were under construction, and in their stead was a much smaller version of the same exhibit, lumping cultural artifacts from the colonial era just 20 feet away from Tony Hawk's skateboard and an old Apple II.
Regardless, the cultural importance of the items on display was great. There was a large exhibit about wartime America, which helped to connect me to the time of my grandmother's youth, as well as an exhibit on food culture in america, covering everything from the first drive-thrus to Julia Child's kitchen, remade in the museum's space. There was a large exhiibit on Edison's light bulbs, and on the invention of the Internal Combustion Engine, prompting me to give my girlfriend a long-winded explanation of why we need internal combustion engines powered by hydrogen, and how global warming wouldn't have happened if the Hindenburg never crashed...
Being in this muesum made me feel like the "American" identifier meant a little more than I'd previously felt. It was also pretty funny to see the exhibit on First Ladies, clearly written before the 2008 election, juxtapose the question "Who will be the First Lady to the first female president?" next to a photo of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
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