Cleveland Rocks! Go visit a museum!

I'm traveling again today (after the great summer vacation in Maine last week) - heading for the Society of American Archivists meeting in Cleveland, Ohio.  I will meet up with my archival friends, speak on a panel and take in some minor league ball (the Indians are out of town this week).

None of the museums on this list are in Cleveland (but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is - and I'll be going there) - but one should visit these, I've been to several already and will work on the rest in the coming years!

1. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - I've been here (at another conference).  The largest museum dedicated to a single artist in the United States, the Andy Warhol museum features works from throughout the career of the king of pop art. The museum is located in the North Side of Pittsburgh, which was Warhol’s hometown.
2. Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, California - I missed out on the SAA meeting in San Francisco and have yet to visit the city by the bay.  San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum features one of the largest and most comprehensive collection of art and handicrafts from throughout the Asian continent.
3. The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii - I've not been to Hawaii and don't have a whole lot of interest, unfortunately.  While Honolulu’s Bishop museum features several different exhibits ranging from Earth science to art, what really makes this museum unique is its collection of items of importance from the Hawaiian people and their culture, which is unparalleled, and visiting the Bishop Museum means you are in Hawaii, which is pretty excellent.
4. Chasing Rainbows Museum, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee - I've not been to Tennessee either, but might be able to be convinced.  Yes, that’s right, there is a museum that’s all about Dolly Parton, and, yes, you have to visit this all Dolly Parton museum that’s a featured attraction in Dollywood, the all Dolly Parton theme park located in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains.
5. Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock, Arkansas - Hey, it's a National Archives location! If you are in the mood for some 90s nostalgia, there’s really no better place on this planet today than Little Rock, the home of Bill Clinton’s presidential library and museum, which does a pretty nice job of breaking down the state of the world during the Clinton presidency.
6. Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York - I really meant to stop here on the way home from Rochester last year.  This could be done as a day trip or an overnight.  Located in the small Upstate New York town of Corning, which is also the home of the Corning Glass Works that founded this museum in the 1950s, the Corning Museum of Glass is part hands on science museum and part art/history museum focusing on the development of glass as a material and it’s many uses.
7. Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, Staten Island, New York - Wait, there's something other that landfill on Staten Island? Tucked in a suburban neighborhood on New York’s remote Staten Island is one of the world’s best collection of Tibetan and Himalayan art and artifacts. It’s a pretty interesting and quiet oasis in the middle of one of the world’s biggest cities.
8. National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New York - CHECK! While certainly an important stop for any fan of America’s Pastime, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum presents a succinct telling of American history through the lens of one of this nation’s most popular sports. It seems like today there is a hall of fame for just about everything, but Cooperstown is no doubt the best of the bunch.
9. National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee - Two museums from Tennessee on the same list?  Housed in the former Lorraine Motel in Memphis, infamous as the place where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in April, 1968, the National Civil Rights Museum takes a poignant look at America’s Civil Rights Movement from the 1600s through today.
10. National Cryptologic Museum, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland - I keep meaning to go, but I can never find it, plus I think it's password protected.  If you can believe it, the National Cryptologic Museum is a pet project of controversial National Security Agency (NSA). The museum is perfect if you are a fan of looking at the actual objects that inspired your favorite Bond gadgets, this museum is perfect for you. It’s perhaps best to turn off your phone before you enter though… just in case. 
11. New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts - Growing up on Long Island, I often would visit the Whaling Museum in Cold Spring Harbor.  That's not to say that I'm not prepared to branch out.  Before we discovered fossil fuels were capable of helping us generate energy while destroying the environment, people actually loaded up on sailing vessels and went out to harpoon whales to process their blubber as oil. The New Bedford Whaling Museum, located in what was once one of the biggest whaling ports in the world, looks at the history and culture of the whale fishing era, whale biology as well as the fight to help save these incredible creatures. 
12. Seashore Trolley Museum, Kennebunkport, Maine - We hit this one up just last week! With all the summers I spent in Maine, I had never been there.  Located in the small coastal Maine village of Kennebunkport, the Seashore Trolley Museum is home to the world’s largest collection of mass transit vehicles from street cars dating to the 1800s to busses and subway trains just decommissioned from their respective cities. Be sure to take a ride on one of their functioning cars for a bit of transit nostalgia.
13. Totem Heritage Center, Ketchikan, Alaska - I've not been to the Last Frontier State, yet. Tucked at the end of the scenic Alaskan Peninsula, Ketchikan hosts the worlds largest single collection of authentic totem poles in the Totem Heritage Center along with the Totem Bight State Historic Park and other nearby facilities.

101 Objects That Made America

Last week was the Fall 2013 MARAC Meeting in Philadelphia.  Many of my colleagues (including Mrs. BA) work at the Smithsonian, which has just come out with a list of items in their holdings that tell the American Story.

See what you think.  Items 2-10 are grouped under "Wild America," items 11-20 are listed as "Discovery," 21-34 in "Voice," 35-48 under "Power," next is "Invention" for items 49-60, followed by "Community" for items 61-70, then items 71-79 are under "Happiness," then "America in the World" for items 80-91, and finally "Freedom" for items 91-101.

1. The Star-Spangled Banner
2. The American Buffalo
3. The Duck Decoy 
4. The Bald Eagle
5. Coast Redwood
6. Stegosaurus
7. Audubon Plate
8. Passenger Pigeon
9. Life Preserver (from a Westward Exploration journey)
10. Bierstadt Painting
11. Neil Armstrong's Space Suit (didn't he just die?)
12. Lewis and Clark's Compass 
13. Gold Nugget 
14. Polio Vaccine 
15. Dark Matter Spectrograph 
16. Scopes Trial Photograph 
17. Benjamin Franklin's Experiments 
18. Burgess Shale 
19. George Catlin Paintings
20. [James] Smithson's Will 
21. Walt Whitman Photograph
22. Bell's Telephone
23. Remington Typewriter
24. Marian Anderson's Fur Coat
25. FDR's Microphone 
26. Nat Turner's Bible
27. Langston Hughes' 'The Colored Soldier'
28. Middle Mississippian Mask 
29. Chavez's Jacket
30. Andy Warhol's Michael Jackson 
31. Louis Armstrong's Trumpet
32. Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway 
33. Justice O'Connor's Robe 
34. Telstar
35. Lincoln's Top Hat
36. Appomattox Table and Chairs 
37. Gordon Photograph (a runaway slave, whose picture showed the multiple scars of many lashes)
38. George Washington: The Lansdowne Portrait 
39. Susan B. Anthony's Gavel 
40. Red Horse's Drawings of Little Bighorn 
41. Greensboro Lunch Counter 
42. Predator Drone 
43. Bell UH-1H Iroquois Helicopter
44. Enola Gay 
45. Wright Flyer
46. Wonder Woman Comic 
47. Colt Revolver 
48. White House Timber
49. Clovis Points 
50. Singer Sewing Machine 
51. Cotton Gin 
52. Levi's Jeans 
53. Eames Chair 
54. Eniac computer 
55. Edison Light Bulb 
56. Kodak Camera 
57. Morse Telegraph 
58. John Bull Locomotive 
59. Model T
60. Space Shuttle Discovery
61. Ration Ticket 
62. Pueblo Jars 
63. "This Land Is Your Land" 
64. Suitcase From Japanese Internment 
65. AIDS Quilt 
66. Emergency Money
67. John Deere Plow 
68. Stagecoach 
69. Negro League Baseball 
70. Psychedelic Signboard 
71. Barbie
72. Chuck Berry's Guitar 
73. Irving Berlin's Piano
74. R2-D2 
75. Ruby Slippers 
76. Teddy Bear 
77. Ali's Gloves and Robe 
78. Jordan's Jersey 
79. Richard Petty's Stock Car 
80. Spirit of St. Louis
81. Novus Orbis Map
82. "M*A*S*H" Sign
83. Fallout Shelter
84. World Trade Center Sign
85. Gas Mask (from World War I)
86. Pocahontas Engravings 
87. Giant Panda
88. U.S. Olympic Hockey Jersey 
89. Vintage California Wines 
90. USS Maine Bugle (blown up in Havana harbor, sparking the Spanish-American War)
91. USS Oklahoma Stamp (sunk in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor)
92. Stained Glass Shards (from the church in Birmingham Alabama)
93. Geronimo
94. John Brown Daguerreotype 
95. LBJ's Pen
96. Thomas Jefferson's Desk 
97. Piece of Plymouth Rock
98. Harriet Tubman's Hymn book 
99. "Clipper Flying Cloud" 
100. Stamp Act Proof
101. The Pill

The 12 Posts of Christmas (2012), volume VI

It's my birthday tomorrow.  It's been discussed here before that I have some reservations about December birthdays, especially those right before (or after) Christmas. In fact, Having a December Birthday is Hard.  In addition to my birthday, LBA will celebrate his on Christmas Day and SoBA will close out the year on December 30.

I'm working on my birthday tomorrow (something that LBA will never have to do) but will take Friday off to head for the Newseum with LBA - something I've wanted to do for a while.  Then in the evening, we will head to the University of Maryland for some basketball.

On Saturday, I would like to go to the movies with Mrs. BA, perhaps get dinner first (I have a free entree here).  I would like to see more movies.  This year (based on the mashup below), I think I got to four or five movies.  Saturday could be Lincoln, or maybe Skyfall.

No, Not Over, On the Moon

Here's some random moon news on the anniversary of the moon landing by Apollo 11. Of course next year we will observe the 40th anniversary of the moon landing (raise your hands if you remember - I was not yet two, but it's one of those events I feel like I remember but probably because I've seen footage of it so much since).

Two items crossed my radar screen recently concerning Earth's only satellite (in my book, man-made ones don't count, besides, they fall down - see Skylab to name one). First, from the source of all knowledge, kottke.org, there is evidently a museum on the moon. But it would seem that no one wants to own up to it as there may be porn involved. Greg.org has the story of a small art catalog of drawings that went up with the Apollo 12 mission.

The second story came to me first from strange maps, but then of course, kottke picked it up. The page shows the ground covered by the men of Apollo 11, superimposed on a soccer field. kottke also has a link to the same map superimposed on a baseball diamond.

It is noteworthy that much of the information for these maps came from the NASA history division and one assumes, their archives. And the first link is to a document from the National Archives regarding the flight plan for the Apollo 11 mission. I'm just saying.

The Arc de Triomphe Gets a Makeover

Sacre Bleu! Some time ago, I spotted this story about one of the many monuments to grace the City of Light, Paris. The Arc de Triomphe was started on the orders of Napoleon, who declared to his troops, "I will bring you back to France. You will pass through arches of triumph on your way to your homes!" This was in 1805, after Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz. Construction began the following year. However, after that, things began to go downhill for Napoleon and he, of course, was removed from power and sent finally to the island of St. Helena, where he died in 1821. (One of the greatest palindromes around - Napoleon's alleged words upon arriving for his first exile on the island of Elba, "Able was I ere I saw Elba.") The arch was not completed until 1836 and has served as a backdrop for Paris scenes ever since. The arch now serves as a memorial to the unknown soldiers of France. In 1840, the remains of Napoleon were returned to Paris and passed under the arch on their way to their final resting place at Les Invalides. The arch has served as the backdrop for two state funerals, Victor Hugo in 1885 and Marshal Ferdinand Foch in 1929.

When the arch was finished, it contained a small museum that never saw very much traffic (well there's traffic - on the circle that surrounds the arch. Almost all travel guides will inform you to not attempt to cross the traffic circle, there's a tunnel underneath the roadway) and was poorly maintained. As the story explained, finally that has changed. The museum has undergone an extensive renovation, installing a new multimedia exhibition in the arch.

The arch will be prominently featured tomorrow when France will celebrate Bastille Day, marking the day when the monarchy of Louis XVI was toppled and the prison at the Bastille was stormed.

I am of French heritage. My father was born there and did not come to this country until he was seven years old. My grandfather was returned there after his death. He had served in the French army in World War I. My siblings and I were all given the opportunity to travel to France when we were teenagers to spend time with our French extended family. My trip to France took place 25 years ago. I can't believe it has been that long. Excuse me while I go and drag out the pictures I took and reminisce. Vive la France!

The Dad-opedia

It's Father's Day. Do you have your facts straight? There was an article in yesterday's Washington Post, where the reporter shadowed some fathers and sons around the National Air and Space Museum here in Washington. He heard the following:

• "Charles Lindbergh was the first person to fly across the Atlantic (looking at the Spirit of St. Louis).
• John Glenn flew the little Mercury capsule to the moon (pointing to the Friendship 7).
• The Russian satellite (Sputnik) carried a dog into space.

The reporter watched another exchange where a 12-year old asked his father what the large, dark disks on the bottom of the Mercury capsule were made of. Without missing a beat, the father reported, "Steel." Um, sorry. It's actually a plastic-fiberglass composite.

We (fathers) seem to have an inability to say "I don't know" (see also, asking for directions when lost). When asked about the exchange a few moments later, the father admitted that he guesses "I make stuff up all the time."

For the record, Lindbergh did fly the Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic Ocean. He was not the first to do so, only the first to do it alone and non-stop. John Glenn used Friendship 7 to orbit the Earth. Sputnik (which the one in the museum is a replica) is only 23 inches in diameter. Laika, the Russian dog, went up later.

So, Dads, let's work on our image, OK? But stay away from Wikipedia, it's not trustworthy. Happy Father's Day!

Down (East) on Their Luck

As my faithful readers know, I do try to highlight archival content in my posts. I was reading Down East magazine recently (I love the state of Maine, having summered there every year growing up) and I came across the following article about the Maine State Museum.

The article starts off rather ominously, "The Maine State Museum has problems. A lot of problems." The problems are those that affect a great number of archives around the country, "it lacks attendance, money, staff, storage, and parking." Maine will celebrate its bicentennial in 2020. They need some help. Now, you may say that 13 years is a long way off, but those of us who work in government know that the wheels move slowly. The building that currently houses the Museum (and the state archives) is in need of renovation. The possibility of a relocation is also being debated in Maine.

The current director of the Maine State Museum arrived in 1992, just in time for Maine to be struck with a financial crisis. Layoffs ensued and the museum was forced to charge admission. Attendance dropped and continued to decline until the admission fee was revoked in 1996. Admission fees ($2/adults, $1/children) came back in 2003 and are still charged today. In 2006, attendance at the museum hovered at about 58,000 people. The museum's largest visitor bloc is (as might be expected) elementary school children. About half of the attendance figure are school groups.

The museum has a budget of about $1.7 million, which Director Phillips reports, "keeps the doors open" and supports its staff of about 20. Phillips has been successful at fund raising, bringing in about $3.5 million from private donors. State money is not available for exhibits, so the exhibits are installed and stay for many years.

The chair of the Maine State Museum Commission sums up the sorry state when she says, "Isn't it too bad that cultural areas seem to be the most superfluous government agencies."

When the current building opened in 1971, it allowed the memorabilia of Maine to come together under one roof. The building housed the museum, the library, and the archives. Prior to this, artifacts were scattered about the state. The ORIGINAL Maine State Constitution was stored in an abandoned elevator shaft. The handwritten reports by Joshua Chamberlain from the Civil War were in cardboard boxes in a DAMP POWDER MAGAZINE!

So, new building, everything better, right? Wrong. The new building was immediately obsolete. With the energy crisis of the 1970s, the concrete building had little insulation, nor was their adequate barriers to protect the state's treasures. The discussion of a new building (rather than renovating the existing one) carries a price tag of nearly $200 million. Maine recently built a new bridge over the Penobscot River for $85 million. The renovation plans would run about $58 million. While a new building would be nice, it's probably not going to happen, a fact that Phillips and his staff are fine with. They don't want to move.

So, my friends, go visit your local archives, libraries, and museums. Give 'til it hurts. We have the history and you'll be sorry when it's gone.

Washington Marks an Anniversary

News recently that Washington DC will be the site of the newest Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. The museum will fill the void left by the National Wax Museum, which closed in 1984. Currently the topic of discussion of who should be immortalized in the hall. One figure has been getting a fair amount of support. "Mayor for Life Marion S. Barry, Jr." Marion Barry, currently a DC Council member, served as DC's mayor until the "bitch set him up" in a drug raid that caught the mayor smoking crack in a DC hotel room.

Marion Barry was elected mayor in 1978, a year after he gained notoriety in an attack that occurred thirty years ago today. On this date, a group of Hanafi Muslim gunmen stormed three locations around the city, the Wilson Building, home to DC government and then called the District building, the B'nai B'rith International Center, and the Islamic Center, taking more than 150 people hostage.

At the District Building, Barry was hit by a shotgun blast as he stepped out of the Council Chambers. Already dead was Maurice Williams, a reporter for WHUR radio, the Howard University radio station. At ceremonies today, the press room at the Wilson Building will be named in Williams' honor.

The siege ended when ambassadors from Iran, Pakistan, and Egypt persuaded the gunmen to give up, with no further loss of life.

In an age where threats of terrorism are a part of daily life, this was an early reminder to a city that now lives with the specter of attacks nearly every day and a hint of what could happen again in an instant.

Bon Anniversaire to the Pompidou Center

Spotted in the Washington Post on February 1, 2007:
“The Pipe Dream Realized: Paris’s Pompidou Center Turns 30”

I’ll over look the second “s” in the headline for the moment to comment on the controversies surrounding the Pompidou Center in Paris when it was completed and what is rocking the French art world these days.

In 1977, when a new building opened in Paris, it attracted a great deal of controversy at the time for its avant garde design. In the city of light, a new museum decorated with brightly colored pipes rose in the “new Paris.” Here we are now, thirty years later, and the Georges Pompidou Center is celebrating its 30th anniversary. It has become one of Paris’ most recognizable monuments. It holds the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in all of Europe. It is France’s second most visited museum, after the Louvre.

The current controversy, now that Parisians have gotten past the building design, are plans to expand the Pompidou Center to Metz, a city in the northern part of France, and a center in Shanghai, China. These plans, along with plans for a “mini-Louvre” in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, has galvanized the French art world, with protests saying that politicians are “hijacking art for strategic and economic ends.”

As for the Center itself, it was conceived by French President Georges Pompidou (1969-1974), who envisioned a center that would become a magnet for the arts in Paris. The Center that bears his name also holds a library and a center for music research. And, despite the wailing of the French people when it was completed, was so popular that it had to be extensively renovated from 1997 to 1999. It had been designed to handle approximately 5,000 visitors a day and instead saw more than 25,000 a day. In the past 30 years, more than 150 million people have come through the doors.