The year-long tributes to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence are wrapping up in D.C. Major exhibits at the Smithsonian, the National Gallery of Art and other institutions have already concluded or are preparing to close before the end of the year.
But the party’s not quite over yet: Celebrations of American art and culture continue in the city’s museums and galleries this fall and beyond.
‘Alive in Many Hands: The American Folklife Center at 50’
Library of Congress
For many people, the definition of “folklife” might include candle dipping or creating corn husk dolls at old-timey fairs — folksy crafts from centuries ago. But the American Folklife Center, created by Congress in 1976, believes that any activities, practices or living traditions that contribute to American culture are worthy of preservation.
Native American folktales, community parades, teenage skateboarders and recipes passed down from grandparents are all captured in “Alive in Many Hands,” an exhibit at the Library of Congress marking the American Folklife Center’s golden anniversary. Documentation plays a major role here: Items on display include a portable disc cutter, used to record traditional music in the field, but also diaries and letters written by servicemen during World War II. Video screens allow visitors to watch D.C. musician Christylez Bacon beatbox at the Library or hear an original poem about West Virginia.
By the end of the exhibit — after you’ve learned about sea shanties and Chicago blues joints, and seen sewing machines that assembled panels for the original AIDS quilt — you’ll really begin to notice that everything around you is folklife.
Open through 2027. 10 First St. SE. loc.gov. Free; timed entry tickets required for Library admission.
“American Stories: Artists’ Books from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives”
National Museum of American History
When is a book not a book? That’s the question visitors may ponder after touring a new one-room exhibit at the National Museum of American History. It pulls fantastic handmade books created by artists including Sol LeWitt and Ed Ruscha, where the construction of the book itself is as important as the stories and poems inside, if not more.
Because visitors can’t flip through these books, they are viewed as objects of art unto themselves. Amy Richard’s “The Mollusk” is a sculptural representation of a shell, open to reveal a wispy web of handmade paper representing the mollusk’s tissue. Some books are cleverly repurposed: “Please Wear This Book,” created by Tennille Davis Shuster as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, is composed of text on medical masks; “Smoke in My Dreams,” by Mark Wagner, features collages of discarded cigarette packets and descriptions of the tribulations of trying to quit smoking. Striking African textiles cover the pages of “O’Positive,” Suzanne Coley’s collection of poetry, open to a page that begins, “The Congo is in my blood.” You’ll wish you could pick it up and turn the pages.
The books on display deal with identity, forgotten history and underrepresented stories in subversive ways. For example, Laura Russell’s “Anything Helps” puts the text of cardboard signs inside thrifted wallets. In a museum where exhibits tend to be straightforward, this one is anything but.
On view indefinitely. 1300 Constitution Ave. NW. americanhistory.si.edu. Free.
‘Shaping American Identity: The Art of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’
The Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream
The Milken Center occupies the former Riggs Bank and American Security and Trust Company buildings on 15th Street NW, directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the Department of the Treasury. The center’s latest temporary exhibit, which opened in September, is a “collaboration” with its neighbor, the U.S. Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It’s a hodgepodge, both visually and thematically, that attempts to demonstrate how the Treasury has affected American life and culture, without really making its case. (“The art commissioned by the U.S. Treasury remains a mirror to the American spirit,” according to one especially rah-rah wall text.)
There are plaster-cast models of American coins, large-scale oil paintings of designs used on banknotes and a display of photographs of historic Treasury-designed buildings. A touch-screen display allows visitors to look at rare paper currency and the evolution of anti-counterfeiting technology, which was in use as far back as the American colonies.
Where the exhibit really comes into its own is a collection of art from Treasury-sponsored wartime fundraising campaigns, including James Montgomery Flagg’s Uncle Sam telling the public to “enlist in the army of war savers” in 1918 and a strong selection of World War II War Bonds posters (a portrait of Tuskegee Airman Robert W. Deiz among them). A modest grouping of modern art, including a 1934 Peggy Strong canvas of the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, don’t leave as much of an impression. Still, after all the inspirational messaging spread across the Milken Center, this Freedom 250-related exhibit provides a nice little detour.
Through Jan. 18, 2027. 1503 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. mcaad.org. Free; timed entry tickets required.
‘Opening the Vault: President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation’
The National Archives Museum
In October 1863, on the heels of victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg and a bloody defeat at Chickamauga, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation inviting American citizens “to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
Lincoln was not the first president to call for a national day of Thanksgiving — that would be George Washington, in 1789 — but his proclamation did set Thanksgiving on a fixed date every year. Thanksgiving became a federal holiday in 1941. Just in time for the annual celebration, the National Archives Museum is putting the original proclamation on display in its “From the Vault” exhibit area, near the museum’s Rotunda.
After you’ve seen one document in Lincoln’s hand, head into the Rotunda to see another: the original Emancipation Proclamation, which went on display alongside the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights earlier this year. The Emancipation Proclamation and the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, are the first two documents to be added to the Rotunda’s permanent display since 1952.
On view from Oct. 29 to Dec. 2. 701 Constitution Ave NW. archives.gov. Free admission; advance tickets recommended.
‘At Home in Space’ and ‘Modern Military Aviation’
National Air and Space Museum
After eight years of construction and closures, the National Air and Space Museum’s renovation is in the home stretch, with the final two of the museum’s 20 galleries opening to the public this fall.
“At Home in Space,” debuting Oct. 30, looks at how humans live, work and conduct experiments in low Earth orbits, whether aboard the space shuttle or a Space Station. Major artifacts on display include a space shuttle’s main engine and a walk-through re-creation of the International Space Station’s U.S. National Laboratory, with scientific instruments and experiments that have been to space. Look for a scale model of the Artemis I rocket, a spacesuit and Robonaut 1A, “a remotely operated, experimental astronaut assistant” designed to perform basic tasks in orbit.
Military buffs love the Air and Space Museum’s galleries of planes from World War I and II. “Modern Military Aviation,” scheduled to open on Veterans Day, picks up the story in the 1950s, using objects like a swept-wing F-86 jet fighter, a type of plane used in dogfights in the Korean War; a Bell “Huey” helicopter that saw action in Vietnam; and a Predator drone that fired the first Hellfire missiles in Afghanistan.
A wall of missiles shows the evolution of combat in the air, while a glass case near the entrance to the exhibition includes training versions of atomic and thermonuclear bombs. While many items are new to the museum, there are also old favorites in new settings, like the 11-foot-long scale model of the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier.
“At Home in Space”: Oct. 30-indefinitely. “Modern Military Aviation”: Nov. 11-indefinitely. 650 Jefferson Dr. SW. airandspace.si.edu. Free; timed ticket required for entry.
‘American Stories, American Stamps’
National Postal Museum
Ever since Benjamin Franklin and George Washington appeared on the first U.S. postage stamps in 1847, our Christmas cards and letters home have been a reflection of the American experience. An exhibit in the downstairs gallery of the National Postal Museum on Capitol Hill looks at how stamps have evolved with a changing nation, where presidents and war heroes have yielded space on our envelopes to choreographer Katherine Dunham, the airy mobiles of Alexander Calder and support for breast cancer research.
The exhibition opens with stamps depicting 12 areas of American life, with some examples on display rotating every six months and all objects rotating every year. In addition to the cultural aspect, the exhibit will delve into the process of creating stamps.
Nov. 20 through 2029. 2 Massachusetts Ave. NE. postalmuseum.si.edu. Free.
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