Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Monday was another trip to DC. Just amazing how much there is to see. After our last adventure at the Holocaust Museum, we were ready for something lighter today. And a museum that has Julie Child's kitchen in it seem to fit the bill. the National Museum of American History collects artifacts of all kinds—from gowns to locomotives—to preserve for the American people an enduring record of their past. The Museum has more than 3 million artifacts in its collection

the pictures above were from an exhibition called "Within These Walls". At the center of this gallery is a partially reconstructed house that stood for 200 years at 16 Elm Street in Ipswich, Massachusetts, about 30 miles north of Boston. The house and the exhibition that surrounds it tell the stories of five families who lived there over the years and made history in their kitchens and parlors, through everyday choices and personal acts of courage and sacrifice. Through their lives, the exhibition explores some of the important ways ordinary people have been part of the great changes and events in American. Other exhibitions were of the first ladies gowns, holiday decorations over the last few centuries, history of Abraham Lincoln and numerous others. You couldn't see it all in one day.

                                                                              

Abraham Lincoln Top Hat



Julie Child's Kitchen



Famous Red Shoes from Wizard of Oz



Section of lunch counter where African-American students sat at segregated counter in Greensboro, NC in 1960.
Normally blacks had to stand to eat. This protest grew and became common in the Civil Rights Movement that followed