Presidents' Day

Happy Monday when we conveniently have a long weekend and a celebration of the birthdays of George Washington (who was born February 22, 1732) and Abraham Lincoln (who was born on February 12, 1809).  No one much seems to notice that two other US presidents were born in February -- William Henry Harrison and Ronald Reagan -- and perhaps for good reason.  

Washington is replete with memorials and monuments to presidents and today's honorees have plum spots on the National Mall with the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Both are worth introductory and repeat visits, but there are also two other local spots where one can soak in the history of these two men:  Mount Vernon and the Lincoln Cottage. Interestingly, neither of these are owned or managed by the National Park Service (so be prepared to book ahead and pay for tickets) and both take a little bit of effort to visit.  But don't let that dissuade you from doing so. 

Mount Vernon sits on the banks of the Potomac, some 17 miles south of Washington and about 10 miles south of Old Town Alexandria, which was a bustling port in Washington's time.  It is owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, and the first time I visited, the interpretation was about what you might expect from a group with such a name. But some time in the mid 2000s, the ladies upped their game, bringing in professional curators and historians so that the site now provides a more robust educational experience. While there is definitely a tone of hero worship here, there is now more context for his life and work, including the operations of the plantation which was maintained by hundreds of enslaved people. The setting is stunning and the grounds provide an enjoyable stroll through woodlands and farmland. The house is elegant but surprisingly small, especially in comparison to the residences of European royalty at the time. 

The Lincoln Cottage is in Washington proper although in Lincoln's day, it was considered out of town and he used it as a retreat, close enough to the White House to allow a daily commute but removed enough to be away from the noise and odors of the city and to catch a coolish breeze on a hot summer night.  Built  in 1842 on the site that ten years later became the Soldier's Home, it today abuts Rock Creek Church Cemetery (which is worth a visit as well). The guided visit takes about an hour and you may learn some things that were absent from your high school history lesson. Notably, the organization that owns and manages the site has made a major commitment to education, using Lincoln's life and work as a springboard to contemporary discussion about liberty, equality, and social justice. (But you can also rent it for your wedding or corporate retreat.)

Both sites are open daily but it's probably smart to book ahead. 

The Future of Orchids

I've always found February to be a rather grim month. Even though all that January snow melted and the days are getting longer, the skies seem perpetually gray and the sun is still low on the horizon.  

Fortunately, the Smithsonian Gardens have come through with an exhibit, The Future of Orchids, that will lift the spirit while we wait for spring. Presented in the Kogod Courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, this display of 350 plants includes both spectacular live varieties and more fanciful imagined ones, the work of Baltimore-based artist Phaan Howng. With apologies to the curators, I'll admit that I didn't spend much time on my visit reading the signage; I was simply too dazzled by the orchids (both real and faux) themselves.

I love this courtyard, a wonderful respite from the hustle and bustle of the neighborhood.  There's a cafe if you want a bite to eat, but if you brown bag it, or bring in something from other eateries, no one seems to care. Whenever I go, there's always a toddler or two eager to be set free from their strollers, small groups of colleagues engaged in discussion, and plenty of singles -- eating, reading or just enjoying a moment of peace.

The day I was there last week, there were preparations underway for some kind of evening event but the setting was still serene and welcoming.  Those who have visited the British Museum in London will note that this is the work of the same architect, Norman Foster.

The orchids are on display until April 28th. The building is open daily from 11:30 am to 7:00 pm.  As always, admission is free.

And a few more orchids......

Monument Monday

When the world went into lockdown in March 2020 and many of us shifted to working from home, I started sending an email every morning to the staff of the small federal agency where I was executive director. My "good morning team" messages were meant to keep us connected to each other. Sometimes I tried to be uplifting; other times, I took a more prosaic approach,  wishing happy birthdays; sharing information and resources of observances such as Hispanic Heritage Month or Juneteenth; eliciting comments on podcasts, books, and TV shows; and asking people to post picture of their pets and their summer vacations.  Pet content always elicited the biggest response -- alas, I have no pets.

As it turns out, having something to say every single damn day is harder than it sounds. As the weeks dragged on, I scrambled to keep it fresh. Out of desperation, I started the Monument Monday contest in which I would share a photo of what I thought was a somewhat obscure local monument, awarding points for the first correct answer.  While I thought this might encourage people to get out and about at a time when there was little else to do, it turns out that it simply taught folks how to use Google image search.

At any rate, in the spirit of Monument Monday, today's post is about a monument that I had no idea existed until I stumbled upon it during the Beyond Granite: Pulling Together exhibit in August.  The memorial to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence is on a small island in Constitution Gardens (on the north side of the Mall, between the Vietnam Memorial and 15th Street).  Conceived as part of the many Bicentennial celebrations that took place in 1976, it wasn't actually authorized until 1978 and not completed until 1984.

As monuments go, it's pretty modest, consisting of a series of smooth granite blocks etched with the actual signature of each signer, plus their state, hometown, and profession. There's no additional signage or commentary on the events that led to the declaration or the back stories of these men, whom history now tells us were both visionaries and deeply flawed individuals. In any case, the setting provides a wonderful spot for quiet contemplation, whether your thoughts run to evaluating the success of the American experiment or considering what's for dinner.

Capital Jewish Museum

It's Yom Kippur, the most sacred day of the year in Jewish calendar, and I should be fasting. But I'm not.  Fasting doesn't make me look inward. It just makes me cranky. And since there are other things I can do to be a good Jew, I'm going to focus on those instead.

Learning and study are high on the list of mitzvot (obligations) for Jews, making a visit to the Capital Jewish Museum both a nice way to educate oneself about the history of the Jews in Washington, DC and a nice diversion from a book. The museum is built around the original Adas Israel synagogue which was dedicated in 1876 with President Ulysses S. Grant in attendance.  The congregation decamped in 1908 for the building that is now Sixth and I and later moved to Cleveland Park. Over the subsequent years, the building was home to multiple churches and retail establishments. Thankfully the building was never torn down and was actually moved several times until it reopened earlier this year at 3rd and F Streets NW, with new exhibition space and other facilities wrapped around it.  

The history of Washington's Jewish community follows a path similar to other localities. Its original members were relatively prosperous Sephardic Jews followed by middle class German immigrants post Civil War and those from Eastern Europe arriving later and into the early years of the 20th century. But since Washington was basically a small town until the New Deal and World War II dramatically expanded the size of the federal government and was under direct control of the US Congress until the 1970s, the story of the Jewish community is one of shopkeepers and artisans with few big personalities or stories. 

This changed over time, and the second gallery features 100 accomplished Jewish Washingtonians who have distinguished themselves locally and nationally through careers in arts, science, political advocacy, commerce, and other fields. This and other exhibits touch on important and sometimes sensitive subjects such as race, reproductive freedom, human rights, and environmental justice, with a clear intention to promote reflection and action. There are buttons to push and other interactive features that will keep kids happy while the grownups stay busy with lots of text.

Right now you can also visit The Notorious RBG, an exhibition focused on Ruth Bader Ginsburg's life and work, created by the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. It's light on DC content (other than that she served on both the DC Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court) but full of interesting objects and successfully turns judicial decisions into visual displays for the non-lawyers among us (me included).

Museum entry is free although there is an additional fee for the RBG exhibit.

Beyond Granite: Pulling Together

The National Mall is such an iconic spot, the beating heart of tourism in DC and known to millions more through television and film. It's also been the site where news has been made including Marian Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after being barred from the DAR's Constitution Hall due to her race, and Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech" delivered during the March on Washington 60 years ago today.  In addition to the monuments honoring those who died in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, it's been the place where the AIDS quilt was first displayed in 1987 and where a sea of white flags memorialized the hundreds of thousands who had died of Covid as of October 2021.

More joyous moments have also taken place here, including the Fourth of July Fireworks and the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival. For the locals, it's an inviting space to ride a bike; take a run; and play frisbee, softball, volleyball, and even polo (on the adjacent Potomac Park grounds). Countless engagement photos have been taken among the cherry trees, particularly at the DC War Memorial tucked between the Reflecting Pool and Independence Avenue.

But surprisingly it has not been used for curated installations of public art, that is until now.  Pulling Together, an exhibition of six large works stretching from the Lincoln Memorial to 12th Street, is the first. Billed as an effort to bring untold stories to the Mall, it's part of a larger initiative, Beyond Granite.

To be honest, I often let laziness keep me away from the Mall. Although it's only about 5 miles from my house to the Lincoln Memorial by car, it's not that easy to access on public transportation and parking is pretty scarce. (That said, access to the Capitol, Smithsonian museums, and the Washington Monument are an easy Metro ride plus short walk away.) But last week, I took advantage of a spectacular, rare August day with moderate temperatures and low humidity to take a look. It wasn't easy to capture all the pieces with an iPhone but here's a sampling of what I saw.  

First up was Of Thee We Sing by vanessa german, a Black queer artist, whose work focuses on "the healing realms of intimacy, tenderness, and human wholeness."  This evocation of Marian Anderson is made of resin and steel, her skirt fashioned from blue bottles, with mirrored hands rising up to support her.  At its base, we see the audience of Black Washingtonians who came out that Easter Sunday to hear her sing.

Wendy Red Star's The Soil You See is nestled in Constitution Gardens, on the Mall's north side. The glass thumbprint is covered with the names of indigenous tribal leaders who ceded their lands, not with their names but with a thumbprint or X.  The leaders here are from Red Star's own Apsaalooke (Crow) Nation.  The setting, next to a small monument to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, makes a statement as well.

Derrick Adams' America's Playground is just that -- a fully operational playground that evokes Black joy as well as the desegregation of DC's own public playgrounds in 1954 using archival photos of children playing in previously all-white Edgewood Park. On my visit, I saw two sisters enjoying themselves -- climbing on bars and playing a xylophone, a welcome respite from all the other nearby spaces where visitors are advised not to touch, and certainly not to climb.

Pulling Together continues through September 18.  The exhibition website is rich with information about the artists and their work. You can also find out more about the history of the Mall itself.  If you're local, get yourself down there soon.

Tudor Place

Washington has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to tourist sites. The monuments and memorials, the Smithsonian museums, the Capitol, and the White House can keep you busy for a weeklong visit. Next there is the second tier of places to see:  Arlington Cemetery, Mount Vernon, Great Falls, and myriad other museums off the Mall such as the Phillips Collection, Hillwood, and the Kreeger. 

And then there's Tudor Place, one of dozens of historic sites that, in the Michelin Guide parlance, is probably not "worth the detour" but maybe "worth a stop." This historic home, which occupies almost a full city block in Georgetown (with an entrance on 31st Street between Q and R Streets), was designed for Martha and Robert Peter by William Thornton, an amateur architect who won the first design competition for the U.S. Capitol. Mrs. Peter was the granddaughter of Martha Washington and the house's furnishings include many items from Mount Vernon.  It stayed in the family until 1983 when the last Mr. Peter died, after having set up a foundation to keep the property intact and open to visitors.

The mansion houses a somewhat eclectic collection of furniture, artwork, china, crystal and other items that date from the Federalist period to mid 20th century. Plus there are the grounds with formal gardens, a garage with a Pierce Arrow roadster, and an expansive lawn that once allowed the residents to see all the way to the busy port on the Potomac (trees and other buildings now impede that view). The guided tour nods to the site's original residents -- members of the Piscataway/Nacotchtank tribes -- and is forthright about its slaveholding past although offers few details on the lives of the dozens of enslaved people who lived there. The narrative mostly focuses on details of the Peter family's history, especially Britannia Peter Kennon, who lived from 1815 to 1911, many of those years onsite. There are colorful anecdotes about the explosion of the USS Princeton in 1843, Confederate cousins playing spy, and use of the property by Union officers during the Civil War.

I wouldn't drop everything to book your visit, but if your wanderings take you to Georgetown to shop, stroll, or dine, consider adding Tudor Place to your itinerary.  

Leonardo at MLK

We don't have free universal health care or higher education but one thing we do have in Washington are plenty of free museums and exhibitions. Although you may be thinking of the various Smithsonian museums (and you should -- they are great!), there are multiple other venues with intriguing and thought provoking offerings.  For example, at the MLK Library, the flagship of the city's public libraries, you can now view 12 original drawings from Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus, a collection of the great man's drawings and notes done between 1478 and 1519.  These are small pen and ink or pencil works detailing various mechanical works. It's a tiny gem of an exhibit that will make you wonder at the man's genius and marvel that he once held these pieces of paper in his hands.  And while you are there, check out the other exhibits as well as the beautifully refurbished building designed by Mies van de Rohe.

Imagining the Future is open to the public seven days a week through August 20th.

The Library of Congress

It's been years since I last visited the Library of Congress and to be perfectly honest, had I not had an urgent need for a pit stop while in the neighborhood recently, it might have been many more years before I got around to visiting again.  It's all too easy in a city full of monumental buildings to forget just what those buildings are all about.  In case you're wondering, although the institution itself dates back to 1815, when retiring President Thomas Jefferson donated over 6,000 of his own books to start the collection, the building that stands today across from the Capitol and the Supreme Court dates from the end of the 19th century.    Since that time, the facilities have expanded to include several more buildings to hold its massive collections.  According to the LOC Web site, "The collection of more than 144 million items includes more than 33 million cataloged books and other print materials in 460 languages; more than 63 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America; and the world's largest collection of legal materials, films, maps, sheet music and sound recordings."

Despite numerous past visits, to see the beautiful reading room or to take in the ever changing exhibits, I had forgotten just how lovely it is.  But don't take my word for it; see for yourself.

 

And if you're wondering where the picture of the famous dome might be, let me inform you that the main reading room is off limits to amateur photographers.  But there's plenty of snapping going on in the gallery.

My visit that day only allowed for a visit to two exhibits: one featuring objects and manuscripts belong to George and Ira Gershwin, and another of 19th century lithographs of Paris.  But there's lots more to see and with plenty of cold days ahead, I'll be back.

A Little Memorial to a Big Man

Americans aren't known for being understated thus it is all the more remarkable that one of our nation's greatest presidents (and truly one of the great leaders in global history), Franklin D. Roosevelt asked that any monument to him be no larger than his desk.  Specifically in September 1941, he instructed Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter:

If any memorial is erected to me, I know exactly what I should like it to be. I should like it consist of a block about the size of this (putting his hand on his desk) and placed in the center of that green plot in front of the Archives building.  I don't care what it is made of, whether limestone or granite or whatnot, but I want it plain without any ornamentation, with the simple carving, "in memory of ___________."

FDR's friends and relatives made good on his wishes some 20 years after his death.   But the American people couldn't leave well enough alone, particularly as the National Mall began to fill up with other symbols and places to commemorate both ordinary Americans and national leaders.  The FDR Memorial, dedicated in 1997, now occupies some 7.5 acres of West Potomac Park, just off the Tidal Basin, and perhaps a bit of a hike for the average tourist.  While I like the new version (and hope to blog more about it at some point), happily the original memorial remains in place by the Archives just as FDR imagined.

A Capital Sight

I moved to Washington straight out of college and spent my first five years here, both living and working on Capitol Hill.  The thrill of working as a congressional staffer wore thin after awhile, the crazy hours, the ridiculous pace, the never ending stream of mail from irate constituents, the struggle to keep up with intricacies of amendments to legislation I couldn't begin to master but which required quick judgments on whether I should tell my boss to vote yes or no.  But one thing always made my heart stop:  the sight of the U.S. Capitol, particularly at night.when its lit dome seemed to glow against the sky, both weighty and somehow graceful, awesome in its symbolism as a beacon of democracy.

The majesty of the Capitol and the monuments still thrill me, particularly when I can share the sight with visitors from out of town.  And while the grass on the Mall can look a bit ratty, perhaps not sufficiently dressed to suit the Capitol's grandeur, the nice thing is that they actually let you sit on that grass. It's the people's grass after all and you can bring a picnic or your frisbee and no one will chase you away.

If you're feeling fed up with the gridlock that's marked congressional politics of late, I understand.  Thankfully, somehow the squabbling within never diminishes the grandeur of the building itself. 

Julia's Kitchen

I love my iPhone but the camera leaves a lot to be desired.

The Smithsonian museums are sometimes referred to as the nation's attic.  Fair enough if your attic includes the Hope Diamond, the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star Spangled Banner, and thousands of other objects and documents.  There's no admission so what are you waiting for?  What's better is that the design of the exhibits is almost uniformly well done.  This is an attic with no dust, no must, and something for every interest. 

Over the weekend, my older child and I made a visit to the National Museum of American History and almost immediately gravitated to Julia Child's kitchen, donated in its entirety by the great chef when she retired from Cambridge, Massachusetts back to her home state of California just a few years before she passed away.  The pots and pans, hung on a pegboard, were donated to another institution which has since folded and the whole mess has been recreated at the Smithsonian.  Although you can't step past the glass, it's easy to imagine her washing dishes at the sink, chopping up a storm, and sitting down at that long table for a delicious meal.  In addition to the kitchen itself, the exhibit describes the major milestones in her cooking career and documents her impact on American food ways and educational television.  Plus there are a lot of great video clips, many from her various shows as well as interviews conducted in 2001.

I can't imagine anyone who could resist Child's good humor and enthusiasm for food, but the videos and physical objects all mean so much more to me now that I've spent time in Paris, the spot where she first began to cook in earnest.  There are the pots from Dehillerin, her diploma from Le Cordon Bleu, and photos of her apartment, stuck under the rafters on rue de l"Universite.  Thankfully you don't have to be in Paris to love good cooking.   Just visiting the exhibit inspired me to get out her cookbook again and start dreaming up menus.   Hmmmm....now what should we have for dinner tonight? 

Honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.

With Hurricane Irene headed for the East Coast, plans for the formal dedication of the new memorial honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. are in flux.  The big gala has been cancelled and the formal dedication postponed indefinitely.  But while the dream of having the formalities co-incide with the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington (where King made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech) has been dashed, the dream of having an actual monument on the National Mall has been achieved.

Earlier this week, I trekked downtown to take a look for myself.  And to be honest, I can't say that it was my cup of tea.  The subtle beauty of the Vietnam War Memorial, the understated outdoor rooms of the FDR Memorial, even the graceful lines of the Jefferson:  that's what I like.  And so while I am proud that the National Park Service found a place to honor King and his message of peace, the monument itself feels too big, too crude, and too glaringly bright.  But who knows?  Perhaps with time and the weather, the stones will soften in appearance.  Or maybe it will just grow on me.  In any case, if you're visiting Washington, DC or especially if you live here, go on by and see for yourself.   And even if you don't care for the design, King's words, inscribed on the arching walls that bound the memorial, are timeless and inspiring.

 "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."