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Of Cables and Serpents

Why the transatlantic telegraph cable conjured dreams of sea monsters.

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MoMA’s first International Exhibition Three Centuries of American Art (1938)

With over 750 artworks on view in Paris ranging from seventeenth-century colonial portraits to Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie (1928) and spanning architecture, film, folk art, painting, prints, and sculpture, Three Centuries was the most comprehensive display of American art to date in Europe and a vital contributor to the internationalization of American art.

Paul Lester Wiener and an unidentified advisor for the U.S. Pavilion murals

Reversing the Erasure of Native Contributions to Muralism

One document in particular has occupied my thoughts in the months since my visit: a newspaper clipping showing two men shaking hands. The men stand in front of Ulreich’s mural Indians Watching Stagecoach in the Distance (1940), which he painted for the post office in Columbia, MO. The man on the left is named in the caption as the 1937 U.S. pavilion’s architect, Paul Lester Wiener, while the one on the right, appearing in a feathered headdress, is identified simply as, “a Navajo Indian who gave his advice on the vast murals depicting Indian life and thought which are being painted by Buck [sic.] Ulreich for the outside of the skyscraper tower.” My goal, ultimately, is to identify this man. Yet even without this man’s identity, the photograph highlights an oft-overlooked aspect of twentieth-century American art: the essential contributions of Native Americans to the mural movement that overtook the United States in the years between World War I and World War II.

Dresden Star Medallion Quilt” by Emma Russell. Object no. 2007.5001.0002 Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

These Quilts Are Richly Stitched with the Stories of the Women Who Made Them

When we think about art, what first comes to mind? Who is an artist? These questions guided my research as I gathered resources for a lesson exploring several quilts in the collection at the Anacostia Community Museum. Along the way, I uncovered some of the stories associated with the colorful designs, adding a layer of complexity to these pieces of art. What follows is just one example of the many ways we can explore how memory helps us engage with objects in museum collections.

Plunguian’s watercolor of Einstein in his Princeton office (Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives)

Einstein’s “Relatively” Surprising Test Results

Do you prefer low, well-upholstered furniture? Do you like to sleep nude? Do you have a poor poker face? These questions may sound like another kooky BuzzFeed quiz, but they are actually taken from a test entitled “Who Are You?” The test, developed by psychologist William H. Sheldon, categorized people into one of three different body types: endomorph (fat), ectomorph (thin), and mesomorph (muscular) based on their responses to questions about their daily habits, traits, and preferences.

Photograph of Grayce Uyehara at the Ten Women in Leadership Conference, 1987 (AC1480-0000001, Grayce Uyehara Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History)

Because of Grayce Uyehara’s Story: Accessing Asian American Activism in the Archives

The Smithsonian’s American Women’s History Initiative – Because of Her Story – marks an exciting moment for the Smithsonian Institution to intentionally engage with women’s history. Launched in 2018, the initiative is one of the largest efforts to “research, collect, document, display, and share the compelling story of women” through various educational programming across the museum campus. The initiative encompasses a digital focus to “amplify a diversity of women’s voices” across many of the Smithsonian Institution’s programs and sites, including at the National Museum of American History (NMAH).

Flyer

The Power of the Flyer

Flyers. Even in today’s increasingly digitalized society you still see them everywhere: clipped on light posts, spread out on the outside walls of buildings, handed out in corners, and so on. As we hold them in our hands or casually glance at them as we walk by, we seldom think of flyers as being keepers of history. But that is exactly what they can be, capturing and chronicling events that might have otherwise slipped through the cracks of historical archives.

Screenshot from the 1986

Of Mice and Marketing: A Story of Inclusion

Picture this: the year is 1983 and Disneyland has started dubbing some of its English commercials into Spanish in the hopes of reaching a wider audience. However, despite being surrounded by one of the largest Latino populations in the country, less than 15% of visitors were Latino.

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