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Why Bennington Vermont is a Reason to Celebrate Summer’s Close

2015-10-09

As the fall approaches and the leaves begin to change from green to hues of yellow, orange, and red, I begin to look forward to my weekend trips to Bennington, Vermont. I make at least one trip to Bennington every fall but will go as many weekends as my schedule allows. There’s something to be …

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Patriots & History

Bringing the outdoors in . . . one squirrel at a time 2018-12-17

Squirrels seem to be everywhere until you need a few for your Buttermilk Fried Squirrel recipe.On stage at Smithsonian Food History Weekend, Chef Jason Flores and I shared Oklahoma-style cooking and storiesAs the Food History Team pondered the roster for the 2018 Food History Weekend cooking demonstrations, we knew we wanted to feature a chef […]

“Hyperlocal, ultraseasonal, uber-healthy, and utterly delicious”: Reviving indigenous food cultures 2018-12-17

When Chef Sean Sherman began speaking about his experiences growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, he shattered all-too-common stereotypes of indigenous life in 20th-century America. He jokingly noted that some people expect to hear how he hunted buffalo with his slingshot as a kid, but that romanticized myth of American Indian […]

The mock battle that ended the Spanish-American War 2018-12-17

George Dewey was promoted to the rank of rear admiral after the Battle of Manila Bay. Dewey was celebrated in American culture with songs, paintings, and public sculptures.The Spanish-American War ended with a fantastic performance. It starred an American hero, a veteran commander taking control of a crew of both fresh-faced and veteran sailors in […]

American history must-reads of 2018 2018-12-14

These are our most fascinating blog posts of 2018, according to our readers.When FBI agents showed up with a pair of sparkly, red shoesA single sequin was left at the crime scene. A pair of Ruby Slippers was stolen in Minnesota, then recovered 13 years later. The pair was brought to this museum for close […]

Happy 50th anniversary of no mumps! 2018-12-13

This year we celebrate 50 years of mumps vaccination in America, helping to make chipmunk cheeks and swollen testicles a thing of our nation's past.Mumps quarantine sign, from sometime after 1909Illustrations often comically portray the famous calling card of mumps—swollen jaw and cheeks. Because so many of us are now protected by the mumps vaccine, […]

Baseball in December: Leopoldo Martinez and the 1947 Amateur World Series 2018-12-07

Over seventy years ago, in 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American athlete to play in the World Series, having famously broken the color barrier in Major League Baseball earlier in the year. In another breakthrough, Leopoldo “Polín” Martinez, a Mexican American ballplayer, played in a world series that year as well—just not the […]

America's Kaiser: How a pigeon served in two World Wars 2018-12-04

Souvenirs from battlefields the world over can be found in our Division of Political and Military History. Unique among them is a mounted German pigeon. His name is Kaiser, and his story is unique in the annals of military homing pigeon history. He would become one of the longest-held prisoners of war in American history […]

The Ruby Slippers have company; Glinda's wand on loan for temporary display 2018-12-04

The museum's pair of Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz returned to display on October 19, 2018, after spending time in the museum's Conservation Lab.In a memorable scene from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West tries to retrieve the Ruby Slippers off the feet of her dead […]

Thousands of tiny red sequins bask in individual attention as part of the conservation of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers 2018-11-28

Wielding an adorably tiny vacuum, objects conservator Dawn Wallace peered through her stereomicroscope at thousands of 80-year-old red sequins. As the soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz drifted through the Conservation Lab, Wallace gently began vacuuming every single delicate sequin, carefully removing surface dirt with a soft brush and a pipette attached to a vacuum […]

A behind-the-scenes look at museum fundraising 2018-11-26

Most people don't realize that while the federal funding the Smithsonian receives supports its buildings and about 2/3 of its staff; exhibitions, programs, object care, and many positions are privately funded.Who better to learn from about Smithsonian fundraising than the head of the museum's Office of External Affairs, who handles private fundraising for the National Museum of […]