American History Museum - Americana, Presidential Assassinations, and First Ladies

Jenn: 00:00:00

So you can imagine like that's why they're trying to preserve this.

Jenn: 00:00:03

So you can go in the room, you can see it.

Jenn: 00:00:05

It is, it is really neat to see.

Jenn: 00:00:07

And walking in there, they'll give you the history of it and then

Jenn: 00:00:10

walking out, they give you the history of the preservation of it.

Jenn: 00:00:13

So that's probably the biggest.

Jenn: 00:00:17

Artifact, but I, I think there's one that's right up there with it.

Jenn: 00:00:21

What was that?

Scott: 00:00:31

Welcome to Talk with History.

Scott: 00:00:33

I'm your host Scott, here with my wife and historian Jim.

Scott: 00:00:36

Hello.

Scott: 00:00:37

On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired world travels

Scott: 00:00:41

YouTube channel journey, and examine history through deeper conversations

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with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.

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Now tonight we are gonna talk about a complex of 21 museums.

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Established with funds from James Smithson lived from 1765 into

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1829, a British scientist who left his estate to the United States

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to found an establishment for the increase in diffusion of knowledge.

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The specific museum we're gonna talk about today is, has a mission statement

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of empowering people to create.

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A just and compassionate future by exploring, preserving, and

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sharing the complexity of our past.

Scott: 00:01:25

So Jen, what are we talking about

Jenn: 00:01:26

today?

Jenn: 00:01:27

We're talking about one of the Smithsonians That's right.

Jenn: 00:01:29

The American

Scott: 00:01:30

History Museum.

Scott: 00:01:31

This wasn't like our typical museum video.

Scott: 00:01:33

Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:01:34

I didn't get to tag along.

Scott: 00:01:35

But you got to go through the American History Museum, um, which

Scott: 00:01:39

you could probably see go to 10 times and still not see everything.

Scott: 00:01:42

Yes.

Scott: 00:01:42

So what, tell us about some of the things that you got to see while

Jenn: 00:01:45

you were there.

Jenn: 00:01:46

Oh my gosh.

Jenn: 00:01:47

So the American History Museum is very beside the, uh, new,

Jenn: 00:01:52

uh, African American museum.

Jenn: 00:01:53

That's right.

Jenn: 00:01:53

So if you can't get tickets to the African American Museum, because that is the new

Jenn: 00:01:57

museum, it's right beside there and it doesn't seem to be as popular and crowded.

Jenn: 00:02:03

Like you said, it's one of the Smithsonians and there's many of

Jenn: 00:02:07

them in DC Air space is a big one.

Jenn: 00:02:10

Uh, natural History Museum is a big one.

Jenn: 00:02:13

And this is American History Museum.

Jenn: 00:02:16

I will say the biggest artifact that is the draw in that museum is the

Jenn: 00:02:21

actual original Star Spangled Banner.

Jenn: 00:02:23

From the war of 1812, that Francis Scott Keysaw above Fort McHenry that

Jenn: 00:02:29

causes him to write dip poem that will become on national anthem.

Jenn: 00:02:32

Yeah,

Scott: 00:02:32

that's one of the things I looked up some just interesting

Scott: 00:02:34

facts about the museum, um, that I'll share a little bit later.

Scott: 00:02:38

So hang out with us, but that's one of the ones that they specifically call out.

Scott: 00:02:41

There's, as I was doing, just.

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Kind of like pull on my, do my own very brief research on, on the museum,

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there's a couple items that they specifically call out over and over

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on various different websites as you look, look at, uh, as you kind of read

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about the American History Museum.

Scott: 00:02:56

Um, and that was definitely one of the ones that kind of got

Scott: 00:02:59

repeated across different websites.

Jenn: 00:03:00

And you can tell.

Jenn: 00:03:01

That is a protected artifact.

Jenn: 00:03:04

Oh yeah.

Jenn: 00:03:04

It is In a in glass closed room.

Jenn: 00:03:07

It is under no light.

Jenn: 00:03:09

It is in a dark room.

Jenn: 00:03:10

You're not allowed to video it or photograph it, and you have

Jenn: 00:03:13

to look at it under black light.

Jenn: 00:03:15

Really?

Jenn: 00:03:16

Mm-hmm.

Jenn: 00:03:16

They're protecting the colorization.

Jenn: 00:03:18

They're protecting the threat.

Jenn: 00:03:19

And it is ginormous.

Jenn: 00:03:22

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:03:22

It

Scott: 00:03:23

sit, it's like 30 feet by

Jenn: 00:03:24

34.

Jenn: 00:03:25

It is a huge flag.

Jenn: 00:03:26

I mean, if you can imagine.

Jenn: 00:03:29

Seeing it and I, you can watch our video from Fort McHenry when I talk about

Jenn: 00:03:33

this, the huge flagpole that it's on, first of all, above Fort McHenry , and

Jenn: 00:03:38

then you got key out in the harbor.

Jenn: 00:03:41

Looking at it, I can see why it would strike awe in you,

Jenn: 00:03:45

because it's a huge banner.

Scott: 00:03:47

Yeah, it's probably one of those, like if you ever drive around

Scott: 00:03:50

certain parts of the south, I always noticed it, like you, uh, you drive by

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those car dealerships that have these just massive, huge American flags.

Scott: 00:03:57

Huge American flags.

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Yeah.

Scott: 00:03:58

It's

Jenn: 00:03:58

like that, like one of those, like one of those, uh, and it's hand zone.

Jenn: 00:04:03

So you can imagine like, that's why they're trying to preserve this.

Jenn: 00:04:06

So you can go in the room, you can see it.

Jenn: 00:04:08

It is, it is really neat to see.

Jenn: 00:04:10

And walking in there, they'll give you the history of it and then

Jenn: 00:04:13

walking out, they give you the history of the preservation of it.

Jenn: 00:04:16

So that's probably the biggest.

Jenn: 00:04:20

Artifact, but I, I think there's one that's right up there with it.

Jenn: 00:04:24

What

Scott: 00:04:24

was that?

Jenn: 00:04:27

It's the hat that Lincoln was wearing.

Jenn: 00:04:29

The nineties.

Scott: 00:04:29

That's so, so we made it, we kind of made an ad hoc video with this.

Scott: 00:04:33

Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:04:33

Cuz Jen took a bunch of, uh, Video with like her phone.

Scott: 00:04:35

Mm-hmm.

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And so I, I tried something a little bit different from a video

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perspective of trying to, I put a much shorter video together, um, just

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basically a bunch of, kind of shorter clips, but that was one of the ones

Scott: 00:04:45

that

Jenn: 00:04:46

I thought was cool.

Jenn: 00:04:46

It blew me away.

Jenn: 00:04:47

I was like, this is the actual top hat that Abraham Lincoln was wearing.

Jenn: 00:04:52

To Ford's Theater the night.

Jenn: 00:04:54

He was shot in April of 1865, and it's so neat.

Jenn: 00:04:59

You can see the beaver skin on it and the wear, and you can see there is a.

Jenn: 00:05:05

Red ribbon, a red ribbon, a black ribbon around it, a morning ribbon, because his

Jenn: 00:05:10

son had died while he was in office, and he keeps it on because of all the men

Jenn: 00:05:15

that are killed during the Civil War.

Scott: 00:05:17

Now it looked like, was it like cast in bronze or was it, what was I

Jenn: 00:05:20

looking at there?

Jenn: 00:05:21

That's, that's the beaver skin.

Jenn: 00:05:23

Oh, it's just that column.

Jenn: 00:05:23

Mm-hmm.

Jenn: 00:05:24

It's, it's, it's.

Jenn: 00:05:25

Starting to fade.

Scott: 00:05:26

Okay?

Scott: 00:05:27

Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:05:27

I didn't,

Jenn: 00:05:28

I didn't realize that.

Jenn: 00:05:28

So another thing, you know, we, I talk about this stuff as a museum professional,

Jenn: 00:05:33

how much do we protect the artifact?

Jenn: 00:05:35

Because your whole job is to protect the artifact for future generations.

Jenn: 00:05:39

That's your job as a Houston museum, conservator and archivist.

Jenn: 00:05:43

But it's also to educate the current public of the past.

Jenn: 00:05:48

Through the artifact, through the story.

Jenn: 00:05:50

So you have to weigh both.

Jenn: 00:05:52

You're trying to show it and keep, so again, the, it's encased.

Jenn: 00:05:57

It's in a no light, natural light room, and.

Jenn: 00:06:01

Trying to keep it again under, it's probably under some kind of humidity.

Jenn: 00:06:05

You always have to worry about humidity.

Jenn: 00:06:06

Right.

Jenn: 00:06:07

Uh, and temperature.

Jenn: 00:06:08

And so there's usually a little gauge inside there, but it,

Jenn: 00:06:12

they want you to see it too.

Jenn: 00:06:14

I mean, you could protect it forever in a dark room and in, but who, yeah.

Scott: 00:06:18

Nobody would see it.

Scott: 00:06:18

No.

Scott: 00:06:18

See, that's interesting.

Scott: 00:06:19

And I didn't realize that because even though I made the vi, I made the video

Scott: 00:06:24

based on your, your phone video footage.

Scott: 00:06:26

That's, that's what I thought I was looking at, was.

Scott: 00:06:28

Was they had like casted in bronze or was something like that, but it was

Scott: 00:06:31

just that color had, it had faded, so it was no longer that dark black.

Scott: 00:06:34

Yeah.

Scott: 00:06:34

It was almost, again, on the video it kind of, it looks like this almost

Jenn: 00:06:37

copper.

Jenn: 00:06:38

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:06:38

The beaver skin is fading.

Jenn: 00:06:39

Yeah.

Scott: 00:06:40

So it's that kind of lighter brown, mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:06:41

Type type color.

Scott: 00:06:43

Um,

Jenn: 00:06:43

so they had the hat and they had a.

Jenn: 00:06:45

Flag that was laid on his coffin.

Jenn: 00:06:47

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:06:47

So those are the two things.

Jenn: 00:06:48

But they have an, a interesting area, which I, this is the area,

Jenn: 00:06:53

uh, it's located in kind of a president assassination area.

Scott: 00:06:57

Yeah.

Scott: 00:06:57

They have a whole.

Scott: 00:06:59

That, that's kind of like one of the, I'll call it a wing or, or section.

Scott: 00:07:02

Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:07:02

Was like a whole presidential history section.

Scott: 00:07:05

Yes.

Scott: 00:07:05

Area.

Scott: 00:07:05

Yes.

Scott: 00:07:05

Yes.

Scott: 00:07:06

And that's why you were there.

Scott: 00:07:07

And then we'll talk a little about some of the first lady stuff that you got to see.

Scott: 00:07:10

Yes.

Scott: 00:07:10

Um, so, but, but so they had like a whole presidential assassination.

Jenn: 00:07:13

So they had the cuffs that the Lincoln conspirator swore.

Jenn: 00:07:16

That's right.

Jenn: 00:07:17

And it shows you like the spacing that they put between them.

Jenn: 00:07:19

They have the big key that they use for their cells.

Jenn: 00:07:24

And one of the things that I thought was really neat is for President Garfield,

Jenn: 00:07:29

uh, Alexander Graham Bell was brought in to find this kind of magnetic

Jenn: 00:07:35

device to find the bullet in him, and it kept giving false readings because

Jenn: 00:07:42

he was laying on a metal spring bed.

Jenn: 00:07:45

And so it wasn't quite working.

Jenn: 00:07:47

And they have that device Yeah.

Jenn: 00:07:49

In there.

Jenn: 00:07:49

So that was neat for me.

Jenn: 00:07:51

Cause I had worked at the James Garfield house and they have the bed that he was

Jenn: 00:07:54

laying on at the James Garfield house.

Jenn: 00:07:56

But it was neat to see the actual device that Alexander Bell used.

Jenn: 00:08:00

Uh, and then they have, um, other little things like they have the.

Jenn: 00:08:05

The playbill from our American cousin.

Jenn: 00:08:09

Yep.

Jenn: 00:08:09

So the show that Lincoln had seen that night, and they had some things

Jenn: 00:08:13

from John Wilkes Booth and some, some of that other artifacts as well.

Jenn: 00:08:18

But the whole president's section, like you said, had a

Jenn: 00:08:22

whole wing for the first ladies.

Jenn: 00:08:26

And in that wing for the first ladies, there is a dress

Jenn: 00:08:29

from, uh, Mary Todd Lincoln.

Jenn: 00:08:30

So you could kind of see what, yeah.

Jenn: 00:08:32

We showed that in the video, her size and what she looked like.

Jenn: 00:08:34

But most of the gowns they have are the, uh, um, inaugural ball gowns that

Jenn: 00:08:39

the first ladies would wear that night.

Jenn: 00:08:41

And that's

Scott: 00:08:41

what, that's what most, I mean, 99% of people, if they think of like,

Scott: 00:08:45

Hey, you know, the, the first lady in a dress, that's what they're gonna think of.

Scott: 00:08:49

Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:08:49

Right?

Scott: 00:08:49

Because that's kind of the most public they're likely ever gonna be.

Scott: 00:08:53

Yes.

Scott: 00:08:54

So,

Jenn: 00:08:54

and I always like looking at gowns.

Jenn: 00:08:56

I, same thing when we saw Princess dies gowns in England.

Jenn: 00:09:00

You get the, a good sense of the size of the person.

Jenn: 00:09:02

Sure.

Jenn: 00:09:02

Right.

Jenn: 00:09:03

So we got to see like Barbara Bush's gowns and Hillary Clinton's gown and Michelle

Jenn: 00:09:09

Obama's gown and Melania Trump's gown.

Jenn: 00:09:12

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:09:12

So you could really kind of see the Laura Bush's gown was there

Jenn: 00:09:15

and the different colors that they had chosen for that night.

Jenn: 00:09:19

Yep.

Jenn: 00:09:19

And kind of the designers they used and what they looked like.

Jenn: 00:09:23

So I thought that was very cool.

Jenn: 00:09:25

They also had their China.

Jenn: 00:09:26

Yeah, that

Scott: 00:09:27

was interesting.

Scott: 00:09:27

And I know that's like.

Scott: 00:09:29

Well, I, that's like a thing every, it is because you so many state dinners, every

Scott: 00:09:33

first lady has to go in and kind of pick the theme and kind of the design mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:09:36

And all this stuff.

Scott: 00:09:37

So

Jenn: 00:09:37

you can definitely see influence there.

Jenn: 00:09:40

You can definitely see, uh, I think president, uh, lady Bird Johnson, his very

Jenn: 00:09:45

southern looking, uh, Nancy Reagan with the red, Republican Red like, so you can

Jenn: 00:09:51

definitely see an influence in the China.

Jenn: 00:09:54

Uh, and you know, since then we've talked to some people, some.

Jenn: 00:09:57

Times China is taken as a memento that you ate at the pres, the president's house.

Jenn: 00:10:02

So that's why the ladies usually have to come in and replace China.

Jenn: 00:10:05

Oh, I didn't know that.

Jenn: 00:10:06

Because when they come in, there's usually not much China left.

Jenn: 00:10:09

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:10:09

Cuz people have taken China or it's been gifted or something as a souvenir.

Jenn: 00:10:12

Something like that.

Jenn: 00:10:13

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:10:13

Mm-hmm.

Jenn: 00:10:13

Oh, interesting.

Jenn: 00:10:14

So that's got another reason why first ladies have to come

Jenn: 00:10:16

in and, and replace China.

Jenn: 00:10:18

But I, there's a whole Americana section.

Scott: 00:10:24

Yeah.

Scott: 00:10:25

I was surprised that you didn't.

Scott: 00:10:26

Cover more of that, because that's one of the things that you even

Scott: 00:10:29

talked about before you went in.

Scott: 00:10:31

Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:10:32

Right?

Scott: 00:10:32

And, and one of the things that they, they brought up, um, so some,

Scott: 00:10:35

some interesting facts about that.

Scott: 00:10:37

I looked up about the, the vast Smithsonian kind of system.

Scott: 00:10:42

So across, uh, for, I think for the American History Museum and specifically

Scott: 00:10:47

it says that, um, that it's responsible for the acquisition care and preservation

Scott: 00:10:51

of more than 1.8 million objects.

Scott: 00:10:55

And three shelf miles of archival collections, like three miles of shelves.

Scott: 00:11:01

Like picture that Indiana Jones movie, but not a warehouse.

Scott: 00:11:04

Just rows and rows and rows of, of, you know, artifacts.

Scott: 00:11:09

Of, of artifacts.

Scott: 00:11:10

So the things that, that they, all the websites call out?

Scott: 00:11:13

Well, they've, they've got.

Scott: 00:11:14

Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers.

Scott: 00:11:16

Yes, that's a classic one.

Scott: 00:11:17

Um, I think you even mentioned the Archie Bunker's chair.

Scott: 00:11:20

Archie Bunker's chair is there all in the family.

Scott: 00:11:22

They've got Muhammad Ali's gloves.

Scott: 00:11:24

Yes.

Scott: 00:11:24

Um, they've got all, all sorts of stuff now across all of

Scott: 00:11:28

the Smithsonian collections.

Scott: 00:11:29

Like all 21 different, you know, museums that they have there.

Scott: 00:11:34

The total number of objects of work and art, uh, and specimens at the Smithsonian

Scott: 00:11:39

is estimated nearly 157 million.

Scott: 00:11:42

Oh my gosh.

Scott: 00:11:43

Now, uh, About 148 million of that is force is scientific specimens.

Scott: 00:11:48

Oh.

Scott: 00:11:49

At the National Museum of Natural History.

Scott: 00:11:51

Okay.

Scott: 00:11:51

So, so the Museum of Natural History, little Rocks and Yeah.

Scott: 00:11:53

To Little Rocks and bugs and, and all the, all the stuff.

Scott: 00:11:57

Okay.

Scott: 00:11:57

Right.

Scott: 00:11:57

But still, that's, that's a mind blowing amount of, of artifacts that they're.

Scott: 00:12:02

Responsible for maintaining It

Jenn: 00:12:04

is.

Jenn: 00:12:04

And I was blown away cuz you walk in and there's like R

Jenn: 00:12:06

two D two and to C three po.

Jenn: 00:12:08

Yeah, that's so cool that they're right there.

Jenn: 00:12:10

So you get to kind of see again, their size and what they look like.

Jenn: 00:12:15

Um, and I thought it was neat to see, uh, the map pole from mash.

Jenn: 00:12:21

That's right.

Jenn: 00:12:22

You know where all the distances are from

Scott: 00:12:25

all the cities.

Scott: 00:12:25

Is that, is that, was that near the helicopter?

Scott: 00:12:27

No.

Jenn: 00:12:28

That you saw?

Jenn: 00:12:28

No, no.

Jenn: 00:12:29

That was all in the Americana section.

Jenn: 00:12:31

Okay.

Jenn: 00:12:31

So all the Americana section had everything from the film

Jenn: 00:12:34

and movies and things like that.

Jenn: 00:12:36

You have Rocky Balbo as the Italian stall.

Jenn: 00:12:38

Yep.

Jenn: 00:12:39

Jack was there.

Jenn: 00:12:40

Um, Mr.

Jenn: 00:12:41

Rogers's sweater.

Jenn: 00:12:42

Sweater was there.

Jenn: 00:12:43

You actually have Ali Wong.

Jenn: 00:12:45

Her standup dress was there.

Jenn: 00:12:48

Really?

Jenn: 00:12:48

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:12:49

Oh, that's so funny.

Jenn: 00:12:50

You love that stand.

Jenn: 00:12:50

I did.

Jenn: 00:12:51

So I was like, oh my gosh.

Jenn: 00:12:52

Ellie Wong's dress.

Jenn: 00:12:53

Um, So they have all this kind of little pieces of Americana in there.

Jenn: 00:12:58

Uh, stuff from Prince Sure.

Jenn: 00:12:59

Michael Jackson.

Jenn: 00:13:00

You know, it was very neat to see all of these things that you kind of remember

Jenn: 00:13:04

from, uh, TV and movies in there.

Jenn: 00:13:07

Uh, and I, I really appreciated seeing, um, Maya Angelou, Maya Angel.

Jenn: 00:13:13

They have Maya Angelou typewriter there, which I thought was

Jenn: 00:13:17

amazing cuz I like her books.

Jenn: 00:13:19

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:13:19

And I like her poem.

Jenn: 00:13:20

So that was neat to see that.

Jenn: 00:13:22

And.

Jenn: 00:13:23

There's another artifact there, the ship Philadelphia, and we'll talk more about

Jenn: 00:13:28

that in a separate podcast, but that blew me away cuz that artifact is one of the

Jenn: 00:13:32

oldest ships, uh, that we have in America.

Scott: 00:13:37

Yeah.

Scott: 00:13:37

It is made before the USS Constitution.

Scott: 00:13:39

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:13:40

So it, it's neat to see in that it's a pretty.

Jenn: 00:13:43

Solid artifact.

Jenn: 00:13:44

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:13:44

And it's in one big room.

Jenn: 00:13:46

So that was a really neat thing.

Jenn: 00:13:47

That's

Scott: 00:13:47

pretty wild.

Scott: 00:13:48

So where was that?

Scott: 00:13:49

The hel the Vietnam helicopter.

Jenn: 00:13:51

So that's on a different floor and they go into the war.

Jenn: 00:13:55

So it's like America at war.

Jenn: 00:13:56

So it tells a bunch of different stories.

Jenn: 00:13:58

It's gonna tell Civil War, it's gonna tell, and, and

Jenn: 00:14:01

it's gonna roll into Vietnam.

Jenn: 00:14:03

And that was part of the Vietnam story.

Jenn: 00:14:05

So they have a, a entire.

Jenn: 00:14:07

Huey Army, Huey Helicopter from Vietnam.

Jenn: 00:14:10

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:14:10

Which was amazing to see.

Jenn: 00:14:11

But they have the war posters and they have, I think they

Jenn: 00:14:16

have Thomas Jefferson's desk.

Jenn: 00:14:17

They have George Washington's trunk.

Jenn: 00:14:19

They have, they're trying to bring different things from,

Scott: 00:14:21

and, and, and even for kind of history nerds like us, you

Scott: 00:14:24

know, all the, all the stuff we do.

Scott: 00:14:25

Like, I feel like if, once I finally get there, cause I've never been.

Scott: 00:14:29

Um, I, I would have to not bring my camera cuz I would

Scott: 00:14:33

just wanna walk around and just

Jenn: 00:14:34

take it all in.

Jenn: 00:14:35

That's how I felt because it's, it's so many amazing things.

Jenn: 00:14:39

Like you and for the Civil War, you have Sherman's horse,

Jenn: 00:14:42

like his entire horse is there.

Jenn: 00:14:44

Yeah, it's stuffed.

Jenn: 00:14:45

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:14:45

And then you have the chairs from the surrender of the Civil

Jenn: 00:14:49

War, from the McClean house.

Jenn: 00:14:51

That's right.

Jenn: 00:14:51

Like all, so they're housing these pretty.

Jenn: 00:14:54

Big artifacts in the glass and then telling the story.

Jenn: 00:14:57

I mean, a horse, so.

Jenn: 00:14:59

You're walking through.

Jenn: 00:15:01

They don't have, there's things I appreciate and things I don't,

Jenn: 00:15:05

they have to tell quick stories.

Jenn: 00:15:06

Yep.

Jenn: 00:15:06

Right.

Jenn: 00:15:07

It's quick stories about Revolutionary War, quick stories about the Civil

Jenn: 00:15:10

War, because they have so much story to tell and that's what I thought was

Jenn: 00:15:14

interesting about American History Museum.

Jenn: 00:15:15

I'm like, what story are they telling here?

Jenn: 00:15:17

Because there's so much story to tell.

Jenn: 00:15:20

So they bring out the big artifacts and kind of tell that story, but

Jenn: 00:15:25

it's quick, it's a quick story.

Jenn: 00:15:27

You could go to a World War II Museum and see a lot more.

Jenn: 00:15:29

You could go to a Civil War museum and see a lot more.

Jenn: 00:15:32

They're bringing out the big things that they have to tell that story quickly.

Jenn: 00:15:37

Um, they even have on the bottom floor a, a low rider.

Jenn: 00:15:41

So they're showing you Yeah, it's all kind of airbrushed too.

Jenn: 00:15:46

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:15:46

Like, you know, and they're kind of showing you even more Americana

Jenn: 00:15:49

like it's, and so I find the American History Museum interesting

Jenn: 00:15:53

cuz like what part of Americana of America's past are we telling here?

Jenn: 00:15:59

Are we preserving here?

Jenn: 00:16:00

What story?

Jenn: 00:16:01

And there's so many stories to tell us.

Jenn: 00:16:03

You can tell how they.

Jenn: 00:16:06

Pick and choose their exhibits.

Jenn: 00:16:07

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:16:08

And what, and I'm sure they rotate stuff.

Jenn: 00:16:10

I'm sure they do.

Jenn: 00:16:10

Cause they probably have, they have to, I mean, millions of things.

Jenn: 00:16:13

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:16:14

Uh, but I I, it's neat.

Jenn: 00:16:15

It's neat to get in there and really look at things and, uh, no, that,

Scott: 00:16:19

that makes me smile that they got a, a, you know, an airbrush Lowrider re

Scott: 00:16:22

reminds me of home in Southern California.

Jenn: 00:16:25

It does.

Jenn: 00:16:26

It totally does.

Jenn: 00:16:27

It was, and they have like the clothing of that time and they tell stories about.

Jenn: 00:16:32

Companies in America.

Jenn: 00:16:34

I think they had like singer sewing machines and things like that.

Jenn: 00:16:37

And they tell the story of transportation, I think at Low

Jenn: 00:16:40

Rider was part of that exhibit.

Jenn: 00:16:42

Gotcha.

Jenn: 00:16:43

And so they had like they were talking about trains and bicycles and things

Jenn: 00:16:45

in motorcycles and so it's just a very interesting how the American

Jenn: 00:16:50

History Museum picks and chooses what.

Jenn: 00:16:53

Stories they're telling and when B, based on what artifacts they have.

Jenn: 00:16:57

But it was definitely neat.

Jenn: 00:16:58

You have to see it.

Jenn: 00:16:59

It's free.

Jenn: 00:17:00

And I think it was very good for kids.

Jenn: 00:17:03

Yeah, they have very, they have a hands-on area for kids and so it's

Jenn: 00:17:06

a great place to bring your family.

Jenn: 00:17:09

Uh, and I think.

Jenn: 00:17:10

All of the museums in DC are free.

Jenn: 00:17:12

So it's just one that has a lot of cool stuff that I think

Jenn: 00:17:16

the whole family can enjoy.

Scott: 00:17:17

Yeah.

Scott: 00:17:18

Well, I, I think we may need to, to make another concerted effort for

Scott: 00:17:21

us to, to bring our family up there, uh, before the Navy pulls me away to,

Scott: 00:17:26

to somewhere else, whenever that is.

Scott: 00:17:28

Um, because there's so many museums up there, whether it's the spy museum

Scott: 00:17:32

or it's the air and space, or it's the American history or whatever it is.

Scott: 00:17:35

Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:17:35

Um, you know, I, I.

Scott: 00:17:38

I would be doing myself, even myself, a non-story nerd, um, a disservice

Scott: 00:17:42

if I didn't get to a couple of the museums, you know, one or two more

Scott: 00:17:45

times before, before we leave.

Scott: 00:17:47

Yes.

Scott: 00:17:47

So again, uh, for those listening, thank you for listening to the Talk with

Scott: 00:17:51

History podcast and please reach out to us, our website, talk with history.com.

Scott: 00:17:55

But more importantly, if you know someone else that might enjoy this

Scott: 00:17:57

podcast, please share it with them.

Scott: 00:17:59

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Scott: 00:18:02

a text and tell 'em to look us up.

Scott: 00:18:04

We rely on you, our community to grow and we appreciate y'all every day.

Scott: 00:18:08

We'll talk to you next time.