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A tree peony blooms in the Mary Ripley Garden. Photograph by Eric Long

One of the benefits of working here at the Smithsonian is that not only do we arrive each morning greeted by Lindbergh’s Spirit of Saint Louis and other classic museum keepsakes, but walking about the place usually involves strolling through a garden.

The Smithsonian campus on the National Mall stretches eleven blocks from 14th Street to 3rd, and includes ten gardens and specialized landscapes designed to compliment the museums they border. There’s a formal Victorian-style parterre behind the Castle; a butterfly habitat growing at 9th Street; hundreds of exotic perennials line the pathways of the Mary Ripley Garden next to the Arts and Industries Building; and there’s a magnificent cast of native plants, sedges and trees surrounding the American Indian museum. This year the American Public Garden Association and Horticulture magazine recognized the Smithsonian with its prestigious award for “Excellence.”

Gardening is a growth industry. The National Gardening Association recorded in its 2010 survey that in just one year the number of flower buffs and lawn lovers increased by 2 million to 83 million households. And here at the Smithsonian, gardening aficionados who wander into the Smithsonian’s courtyards and patios will often encounter a cadre of horticulture experts, who can be talked into sheathing their clippers to sit for a spell if it means an audience for sharing techniques and tips.

The parterre in the Enid Haupt Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle. Photograph by Eric Long

I like to putter in my garden whenever I can break away from the deadlines here at the magazine. And I’ve picked up a host of ideas over the years from the team: Janet Draper, who tends the Ripley Garden; Christine Abelow-Price, who has created a secret wildlife refuge for ducks, red wing blackbirds and orioles at the re-created pond beside the American Indian museum; Shelley Gaskins, whose glorious roses near the Castle blossom continuously (and miraculously) throughout the city’s hot summer; and Michael Riordan, who keeps the Haupt Garden looking fastidiously formal—nary a weed in sight.

Today at lunch, I wandered among the tropicals in the Haupt. Here a lobster claw, there a Buddha belly, a giant spider lily, a foxtale agave, until my eyes fell on a magnificent portly fellow called a King Sago—a palm with a robust 14-inch trunk growing impossibly from a huge flower pot.  I want one for my container garden.

Barbara Faust, director of Smithsonian Gardens, who recently served a term as the secretary of the American Public Gardens Association is spotlighted in this Smithsonian.com video presentation. Have a look, but beware, gardening is contagious, so don’t blame us if you find yourself in search of a spade.

Sam and Friends. Photo by Richard Strauss, courtesy of the American History Museum. Click on this image for more photos of Sam and Friends.

Jim Henson, one of America’s great powerhouses of imagination, has been gone from this earth for 20 years. Though not physically here to ply his puppeteering genius and expand his artistic horizons to who knows where, he is still with us by way of his creations. And who here doesn’t know the cheery urban landscape of Sesame Street, the vaudevillian stage of The Muppet Show or the subterranean world of Fraggle Rock—and the menagerie of wonderful creatures therein? Although his range went well beyond those hallowed television programs, they are perhaps what he is best remembered for. And if there was ever a poster boy for the body of Henson’s work, it’s Kermit the Frog.

Kermit—that verdant amphibian whose optimism and earnestness has endeared him to generations of viewers has joined the collections of the American History Museum. Again. No, the Smithsonian isn’t collecting Kermits like one collects glass animals or Hummel figurines. The frog most visitors have seen is from 1969 when Kermit’s presence graced Sesame Street. What joined the collections on the morning of August 25 was the earliest incarnation of the character, along with a troupe of friends known primarily to TV viewers in the D.C. metro area.

The show was Sam and Friends, a five-minute program that ran on NBC between 1955 and 1961, sandwiched in between the Huntley/Brinkley Report and The Tonight Show. It was a time slot that made it clear that this was puppet show that could entertain people of all ages. A teenage Henson crafted the colorful cast of characters himself, including Sam, who never spoke but lip synched to popular recordings, Harry the Hipster, a jive-talking and jazz-loving puppet, and Icky Gunk, a fiendishly-grinning snakelike character. (The one exception is the bulbous Mushmellon, sort of a prototypical Oscar the Grouch character, which was made by Henson’s future wife, Jane.) “Sam and Friends are ingenious and creative characters who add a spark of humor and imagination to the collections,” said museum director Brent Glass during the donation ceremony.

Jim and Jane Henson with Sam and Friends (ca. 1956/57). Image courtesy of the Jim Henson Company and the Muppets Studio LLC.

And then there’s Kermit. Fashioned from Henson’s mother’s discarded coat, ping pong balls and a pair of denim jeans, he was an abstract, lizard-like creature when he appeared on Sam and Friends. (Think of it as the pollywog phase of Kermit’s development. He wasn’t positively identified as a frog until the mid-to-late 1960s.) You’ll note that the original puppet doesn’t sport the signature 11-point collar or flipper feet of the more familiar character design. The early Kermit would also occasionally don a wig to assume a feminine alter ego, Kermina, who you can see in this YouTube video lip synching to “That Old Black Magic” alongside Sam.

“I’m sure Jim would have been so pleased to know that they’ve come to live here,” Jane Henson remarked. “It’s really a great privilege for the museum to want our pieces, and I hope you get to know these characters in the future through the Smithsonian.” And indeed you shall. Current plans are to have the Sam and Friends cast go on display in November, alongside the 1969 iteration of Kermit.

For more images of the early Muppets, view our photo gallery.

An artist's rendering of MESSENGER orbiting the planet Mercury. Image courtesy of NASA.

Monday, August 30: Sadly, no special events are slated for today. However, visit this site for a full listing of regularly-scheduled goings-on around the Smithsonian and I am sure something is bound to strike your fancy.

Tuesday, August 31: Book Signing: George Norfleet’s Pilot’s Journey: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman

Washington, DC resident and author George Norfleet will be available to sign his book Pilot’s Journey: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman, which details the life of Tuskegee airman Curtis Christopher Robinson. Copies of the book will be available in the museum store. Air and Space Museum, 12:00-4:30 PM

Wednesday, September 1: Ask an Expert: MESSENGER: On Its Way To Orbit Mercury

In this lunchtime mini-lecture, Dr. Thomas R. Watters of the museum’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies will introduce you to MESSENGER, the first NASA spacecraft designed to provide insight into the atmosphere and evolution of the planet Mercury. Free. Air and Space Museum, 12:00-12:15 PM.

Thursday, September 2: Book Signings: Wolfgang Samuel’s Glory Days and American Raiders

Retired Air Force colonel and author Wolfgang Samuel will be available to sign copies of his books Glory Days, the story of the select crew of men who flew the B-66 Destroyer plane during the Vietnam War, and American Raiders. which recounts how a team of men worked to keep Hitler’s technological secrets out of the hands of the Soviets. Copies of both books will be available in the museum store. Air and Space Museum, 1:30-5:00 PM.

Friday, September 3: Book Signing: Richard Toliver’s An Uncaged Eagle

Retired Air Force colonel and author Richard Toliver will be available to sign copies of his memoir An Uncaged Eagle. Copies of his book will be available in the museum store. Air and Space Museum, 10:00 AM-5:00 PM.

For updates on all exhibitions and events, visit our companion site goSmithsonian.com

Poster for The Cats of Mirikitani. Image courtesy of the Renwick Gallery.

Friday, August 27: Sorry, no special evening events are slated for today. But be sure to check out this site for a full listing of regularly-scheduled activities happening all over the Smithsonian.

Saturday, August 28: Gullah Art

Today, musician and visual artist James Stephen Terrell leads a discussion and workshop that will open your eyes and ears to the art, music and religion of the Gullah people. While at the museum, be sure to check out the companion exhibit Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Communities through Language. The Gullah people were also the inspiration for George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess, which was recently covered in this Smithsonian.com article. Free. Anacostia Museum, 11:00 AM-3:00 PM

Sunday, August 29: The Cats of Mirikitani

In this documentary, filmmaker Linda Hattendorf traces the painful past of Jimmy Mirikitani, a man who spent part of his youth in a Japanese internment camp during World War II and ultimately lived on the streets creating works of art. After the screening Hattendorf and co-producer Masa Yoshikawa will answer audience questions. DVD signing follows. Free. Renwick Gallery, 2:00 PM.

Afro-Brazilian Musical Workshop

Come enjoy an opportunity to play special Brazilian instruments such as the reco-reco, the repinque, and a percussion instrument called the samba batacuda and learn about their African roots. Free.Anacostia Museum, 1:00-3:00 PM

For updates on all exhibitions and events please visit our companion site goSmithsonian.com

A 1970 bronze sculpture of Martin Luther King by Charles Alston from the National Portrait Gallery is on loan to the White House. Photo courtesy of the museum

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. -Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963

So began King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, which he delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial 47 years ago tomorrow to a crowd of 250,000 marchers standing on the National Mall. The protest, known today as the March on Washington, was undeniably one of the most important milestones on the road to civil rights.

Several performers played before Dr. King’s speech, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mahalia Jackson, Peter, Paul and Mary and Marian Anderson. Members of the sponsoring organizations each spoke, as did Catholic, Protestant and Jewish religious leaders. Last was Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

To commemorate that day, we thought we’d offer a selection of works in the Smithsonian collections related to Dr. King:

National Portrait Gallery: Photographer Jack Hiller captured a pensive King in 1960 when he delivered a speech to the Virginia Teachers Association in Richmond, Virginia. King had just been released from prison with help from presidential candidate John F. Kennedy to reverse a judge’s sentence (King had been arrested during a sit-in in Atlanta earlier that year).

National Postal Museum: King’s “I Have a Dream” stamp is in the collections of the Postal Museum. The 33-cent stamp issued in 1999 depicts him looking up to the sky, with the National Mall and the Washington Monument in the background.

National Museum of American History: A smattering of King photographs are available in the collections that depict the Civil Rights leader at dinner with friends and giving speeches. One notable work from the Scurlock collection shows King standing next to Jackie Robinson at Howard Univeristy in academic dress. The Scurlock Studio captured many of the important people in Washington, D.C.’s vibrant and influential African-American community.

American Art Museum: Among a group of artworks depicting Dr. King, one of the most vibrant is Washington, DC artist Lois Mailou Jones’ 1988 watercolor, “We Shall Overcome,” which shows King along with other renowned African Americans of the 20th century.

Prominent among the vast trove of works honoring King’s legacy is a nearly 13-inch-high bronze sculpture crafted by Harlem Renaissance artist and teacher Charles Alston in 1970. The work (left) is held by the National Portrait Gallery and currently sits in the Oval Office, on loan to the White House along with many other works of art from the Smithsonian collections.