I've already mentioned the highlights of the ruby slippers and the hat (which he was actually wearing when he was killed) but we also really loved seeing Kermit the Frog. To our great surprise, there were 2 frogs in residence.One was the very first Kermit that Jim Henson ever made as part of his "Sam and Friends" show. A 5 minute show that he produced with his wife twice a week. Apparently, Kermit was originally a lizard.
We think that's quite funny because now that he's a frog people are constantly calling him a lizard and he gets quite indignant about it.
We also saw the exhibit exploring the slave families that Jefferson owned at Monticello. It was a great exhibit that focused on the families and their various roles at Monticello contrasted with the ideals that Jefferson championed about ending slavery and the slave trade. There was also some talk about how Jefferson might have fathered children with Sally Hemmings-one of his slaves. When Jefferson died, he freed only 5 slaves-2 of whom where Sally's children. The other 130 were sold. Monticello has been putting together a project to track down the descendants of the families and gather their stories. They've started having yearly reunions at Monticello to honor their ancestors and remember their history.
Overall, I loved our trip to the American History Museum. I really enjoyed seeing Old Glory and the exhibit on the presidents and I thought the exhibits were well designed and thoughtful. However, I was really disappointed in the "First Lady Exhibit" that portrayed the First Ladies only has "The Nation's Hostess" and consisted of only their dresses, jewelery and platewear choices. I thought it was insulting to the women who have worked to make new policy, to educate, and to inspire the American public. And let me be honest with you. I enjoyed seeing their dresses and their plateware. But to write them off as only party planners is insulting to them, to the men who married them and it insulted me personally.
After the American History Museum we wandered up to the Portrait Gallery. We didn't have a lot of time there so we moseyed up to the Presidents Portraits. Not all of them are housed here. They're split with the White House but we enjoyed going through and looking a them. I think we both read every caption. It was fun to see their presidency summed up in 2 or 3 paragraphs and then a comment on how the artist decided to render them in respect to their time in office. I really enjoyed it. We both thought that Bill Clinton's portrait was a bit strange though.
We finished our Museuming with the video game exhibit. It was pretty fun but I was getting tired at the time. It focused on 4 major themes in video games, Action, Adventure, Target, and Strategy. Then they had a kiosk for about 20 different gaming systems and highlighted 4 games from each system-one for each category. In the second room they had games you could play. It was a lot of fun.
We ended our day with dinner at our friend Linda Forman Naval's hiuse. She's recently married so we had fun talking about all the excitement of starting a life-long committed relationship. She made us an excellent dinner of pasta, clams and asparagus in a white wine sauce! An excellent end to an excellent day!
