Historical Documents and more...
Yesterday I went to the Smithsonian's National American History Museum and got to see the new Star Spangled Banner exhibit and the Gettysburg Address exhibit.
For the Gettysburg Address:
The room they were showcasing the document in was delightfully understated. It really helped to convey the power of the words on the page. They had the address in large text for you to read, the story about the battle of Gettysburg, where this copy of the address came from, then the address itself in a glass case. It's only two and a little bit pages long! Past that is a book with Francis Scott Key's autograph in it, and the only other part I can remember is the interactive kiosk kind of thing where a voice actor read the address to you.
For the Star Spangled Banner, you walk up a ramp explaining the historical background of the flag itself, the battle for Fort McHenry, complete with a fragment of British Bombard for you to touch, and then Key's penning of our national anthem. Then when you turn to your left, you enter a dark tunnel with a glass window on the left. Behind this glass is the Star Spangled Banner, with some words of our national anthem on the far wall. It's huge! It's almost missing 8 feet of its original length. Past this is an interactive table, sort of like Microsoft's Surface letting you browse the work put in to restoring the flag. On the exit, you walk down a ramp past the flag's journey into the hands of the Smithsonian, then at the end is a video where the flag, or the decedents of that flag, represent our nation. From the flag raising at Iwo Jima to the Civil Rights movement, from our peace protests to rallies for the protection act, our flag was there. It's a really powerful symbol.
The other place we visited was the National Air and Space Museum, specifically for the 50th Anniversary of NASA exhibit. It was awesome, with interactive exhibits about space, our mission to the moon, how we'd set up a moon base, the equipment we once used, and so on. I got to touch a moon rock! An actual object that's from outside our terrestrial sphere! It's so cool!
For the Gettysburg Address:
The room they were showcasing the document in was delightfully understated. It really helped to convey the power of the words on the page. They had the address in large text for you to read, the story about the battle of Gettysburg, where this copy of the address came from, then the address itself in a glass case. It's only two and a little bit pages long! Past that is a book with Francis Scott Key's autograph in it, and the only other part I can remember is the interactive kiosk kind of thing where a voice actor read the address to you.
For the Star Spangled Banner, you walk up a ramp explaining the historical background of the flag itself, the battle for Fort McHenry, complete with a fragment of British Bombard for you to touch, and then Key's penning of our national anthem. Then when you turn to your left, you enter a dark tunnel with a glass window on the left. Behind this glass is the Star Spangled Banner, with some words of our national anthem on the far wall. It's huge! It's almost missing 8 feet of its original length. Past this is an interactive table, sort of like Microsoft's Surface letting you browse the work put in to restoring the flag. On the exit, you walk down a ramp past the flag's journey into the hands of the Smithsonian, then at the end is a video where the flag, or the decedents of that flag, represent our nation. From the flag raising at Iwo Jima to the Civil Rights movement, from our peace protests to rallies for the protection act, our flag was there. It's a really powerful symbol.
The other place we visited was the National Air and Space Museum, specifically for the 50th Anniversary of NASA exhibit. It was awesome, with interactive exhibits about space, our mission to the moon, how we'd set up a moon base, the equipment we once used, and so on. I got to touch a moon rock! An actual object that's from outside our terrestrial sphere! It's so cool!