Sitting all alone now, I took my ticket to ride

[austin_dern]

I stumbled back out of the Metro where I started and considered bowing to the cosmic forces and spending the rest of the day at the Air And Space Museum, when I realized that technically speaking the Castle was open and it was possible for me to venture inside. I couldn't tell you when I was last there, which tells you something of when I was last there.

The first room was the ... resting place, I suppose; I'm not sure what to call it ... with the remains of James Smithson. Here I heroically managed not to jump on and start explaining things to the family whose male authority figure explained he was the guy who started the Smithsonian, an explanation that sounds logical enough that it risks people never finding out the whole weird story. I also resisted telling the guards that they really should correct the panel which explains how Smithson's body was brought ``back'' to the United States in the early 1900s (as Smithson had never set foot in the United States while alive and it's still a bit of a mystery why he donated his fortune this way).

While wandering around I developed the feeling that I didn't know where to find the really interesting stuff, since what I mostly stumbled into were rooms with plenty of space and a roped-off collection of Madeline Albright's ceremonial ... things, I'm not sure. They were roped off. But things improved when I found one of the main halls, and which seemed to be a teaser to all the various exhibits --- it showed off a souvenir chunk of the 1858 Trans-Atlantic Telegraph (with certificate of authenticity although, alas, no certificate certifying the authenticity of the certificate of authenticity), General James Doolittle's flying goggles, an Edison light bulb from around 1882, a cuff checklist from Skylab 4/3, an odometer used to measure Rural Free Delivery routes, stuffed birds, Matthew Brady studio photographs, Civil War-era revenue stamps, a chunk of the Wright Brothers' 1903 hangar a Gemini Reaction Control System motor ...

It's one room, but what a room. I can't guess how they decide what makes this museum-of-the-museum cut but it was a magnificent way to show off how much they had to show off in the other museums.

I also ran across something I didn't know existed, the Children's Room, a rather soothingly green room with reasonably elaborate paintings around the walls and ceiling. According to its labels the Children's Room had been opened in the late 19th and early 20th century as a place that kids could be dropped off and allowed to play with not excessively fragile toys and exhibits. I didn't get why it had closed or just when it had reopened but I did get the sense that its rediscovery was an accident. While I was present there were no children in evidence or much that children could do other than look at pictures of how had they been here eighty years before there might have been something to do, but you can't expect to have everything all at once either.

Trivia: The first place in New England where George Washington slept as President was the Sun Tavern in Fairfield, Connecticut, on his 1789 tour of the Eastern states. Source: The Old Post Road: The Story Of The Boston Post Road, Stewart H Holbrook, and by the way but Jack Benny's George Washington Slept Here is on Turner Classic Movies ... ah ... in five minutes. Sorry for the short notice. At 5:45 am Eastern they have a short, RFD Greenwich Village, described as ``a couple tours around New York in this promotional short for corduroy clothing'', which I imagine has to be accurate because who would string those words together for any other reason than they were the only words which could conceivably describe something?

Currently Reading: Conan Doyle: Portrait of an Artist, Julian Symons.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

When I visited in 1998, they had a very rare Dentzel "flirting rabbit" carousel figure on display. At the time it was just inside the front doors. Did you happen to run across it anywhere?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to say I did not notice it. It should seem hard to miss something like that if it is right inside the front doors, but thinking over my steps I believe I managed to pay attention to Smithson's crypt and to the wall of donor plaques and not actually notice things in the immediate entry way.

(It's also possible they relocated it. It seems like a natural fit for the Museum of American History, which I didn't visit, but I don't know. We'll have to go sometime and figure it out.)

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

I do greatly appreciate museums which allow that thorough randomness to things, showing off things that obviously someone thought important (and they were right!) without trying too hard to tightly focus this thing or that thing. The Liberty Memorial in Kansas City nicely shows off the contrast between those two aspects: The new museum is big, expansive, and very tightly ordered with wonderful and big things, but the older museum has urals, ahs smaller and personal things, and shows a very eclectic tough. Both together make for a great museum, mind.

I'd not know of the Children's Room either, but I likely haven't been to DC quite as much as you have.. given your family's current 3-hour advantage, and my growing up often in places much, much further from DC.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

The slightly random and borderline insanity of the collection is one of the things I like best about the Baseball Hall Of Fame. Last legally thrown spitball? Sure! Rickety seat from Griffith Stadium? Put it in! Actual locker, circa 1940s, from whats-its-name field where the Braves played? Hang on, we're clearing space for it!

Yeah, a thoughtful collection arranged with care is good, but museums are so much more inspirational when they allow a bit of serendipity and legacy to make sure the smooth flow of a narrative line is jumbled by something that just doesn't make sense. (``Minstrel-song recording about Brother Noah's baseball game? Absolutely, we've got a little space here after the Apollo 16 meal kits!'')