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No. 5, by Takiguchi Kazua, image courtesy of the Sackler Gallery

Basking in the glow of reflecting pool on the underground fourth level of the Sackler Gallery, is a collection of ceramic arts that represents significant trends in Japanese pottery from the 1930s onwards—a period in which traditional workshop masters took on new roles as studio potters, reviving ancient firing and glazing technology in attempts to create new expressive forms of art.

A mere dozen or so pieces show how ceramic artists of this era departed from conventional ideas of function to hand create more sculptural forms, essentially giving up the potters wheel that had been the staple of Japanese pottery.

The new exhibition “Reinventing the Wheel: Japanese Ceramics 1930-2000,” which opened July 23, is a celebration of the museum’s imminent 25th anniversary. (The gallery opened to the public in 1987, five years after Arthur M. Sackler, the museum’s founder, left his collection of 1,000 masterpieces of Asian art.)

“The purpose of the exhibition was to show some of the best pieces from the collection of modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics,” says curator Louise Cort. “I wanted to highlight these pieces. Most of the pieces have never been seen before so it’s a chance for people to see new things.”

The gallery glows with light that comes from multiple hidden sources. It is an underground space yet natural lighting seems somehow to pierce the three floors overhead and highlight the pieces in the cases. Deep blue and sky-colored pottery blended into the blue tiles of the reflecting pool. Earthy tones of dusty red and green glazes enriched the space as the architectural columns and sounds of running water elicited the feeling of being in a sunlit forest. It was a peculiar feeling, being so far below the surface but seeming to be perched atop the sunlit atrium.

“I chose absolutely what I thought were the most outstanding pieces in the collection. I had a limit on the number of pieces that could be used because of that very peculiar architecture in that space so I had to cut down the list until pieces would fit into that limited number of cases. I wanted pieces that looked good together, and I wanted to show, as much as possible, pieces that people had never seen before. So it was a combination of the goal of the exhibit and the practical matter of what pieces looked good together or next to each other,” says Cort.

Form is obviously ranking high over function, these pieces would not be found on a dinner table. Precise edges and symmetry are replaced by uneven curves, even just blobs. But their simple elegance and beauty can not be disputed.

A curious metallic-silver ceramic, entitled No. 5 by Takiguchi Kazua’s, seems to be sprouting a head and arms. The label says that the artist stretched a single sheet of clay to make the piece, in hopes of evoking a human or animal body.

“We sat and talked about the way in which the role of the potters wheel came into question among many potters in the mid 20th-century, and as people felt that they wanted to move beyond the cylindrical, symmetrical form that one gets from making a pot on the potters wheel and treat ceramics as sculpture or treat it, at the very least, as asymmetrical. And that title, Reinventing the Wheel, popped out,” says Cort.

The caldonian gecko, one of the zoo's many reptiles. Photo courtesy of Mehgan Murphy/National Zoo

Friday July 29 Can You Take the Heat?

This Friday break out of the usual and visit the Natural History Museum for a special treat. Come to the Ocean Hall on the first floor of the museum at 12 for the Discovery Theater’s “Real Cost Cafe.” Become a guest “chef” on a Food Channel-type television show with a TV chef “host” and assistant. Try on the chef hat for size and see if you can take the heat as viewers learn how everyday choices at restaurants and fish markets can affect our ocean resources. Afterwards, journey through the Ocean Hall to explore more about aquatic life. This event is free and is fun for the whole family. Can’t make it at 12 p.m. ? The event repeats at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. as well.

Saturday July 30 Reptile Discovery Day

Don’t spend one of the last precious summer weekends indoors. Come to the National Zoo for a chelonian celebration for Reptile Discovery Day. Come to the Reptile Discovery Center at 11 a.m. to meet the Zoo’s turtles, tortoises, lizards and the other fascinating reptiles that call the Zoo home. Talk to the Zoo scientists who are working to save reptiles and amphibians in the wild and learn about their current research and rescue projects. Stick around for animal demonstrations throughout the day. This three-hour event is free and family-friendly, offering educational activities and fun programs for children and parents alike.

Sunday July 31 Get Creative

This Sunday escape the heat at the Anacostia Community Museum. Come to the Program Room of the museum at 1 for a chance to get creative with the Paper Mosaic workshop. In this workshop, participants will be able to learn about the work that goes into creating beautiful mosaics. After the introduction, dig in and create your own unique picture with small bits of colored and patterned paper to replicate a mosaic image from the museum. This event is free and lasts two hours but reservations are required so call 202-633-4844 to save a spot. Can’t make it today? Swing back by Anacostia on August 20 for a repeat of this workshop.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian Institution events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide.

En route to Rock Springs, Wyoming, Matt Quy flew by Pinnacle Rock. Photo by Tina Quy/NMAAHC

When pilots of an earlier era talked about “cross country hops,” the operative word was “hop.” In slow aircraft with limited fuel capacity, they flew from airport to airport, covering a distance in a day that modern planes cover in an hour or less.

So it was with Captain Matt Quy, who in his Spirit of Tuskegee Stearman biplane, is on a journey across the United States to deliver his historic aircraft to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The museum will open on the National Mall in 2015 and the aircraft will become a tribute to the Tuskegee Airman who flew in it.

Quy took off from Lincoln, CA, just after sunrise on July 9, in a temporary mini-formation with a friend in another Stearman. His pal peeled off and went home, and Quy continued eastward toward the snow covered Sierra Nevada mountains with a flight plan that has taken him to the Air Force Academy in Colorado, where Quy spent time with cadets and with eight Tuskegee Airmen. Then, he flew on to his home state of Minnesota for three air shows as well as meetings with Boy Scouts, Civil Air Patrol members, and community groups.

Matt Quy speaks before a student group in Minnesota. Photo by Tina Quy/NMAAHC

As of today, July 27, the intrepid captain is in his fourth day at what some have called “the mother of all airshows” in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. “It’s been great being here,” he said in a telephone conversation. “Everybody who sees the plane seems to appreciate what it represents.” One visitor to the show with a special appreciation for the Stearman was Lt. Col. James Warren, one of the most renowned of the original Tuskegee Airmen. Matt wasn’t able to give the colonel a ride in a plane he may well have flown because, as he points out, “Just now this is the busiest airport in the world, with several thousand airplanes on the ground. It took me half an hour to cross the active runways when I arrived.”

There has been the expected storm-dodging, but the seven-decade old plane has performed well, according to Quy, having reached 10,500 feet climbing over the Rockies. “We had a minor maintenance issue a few days ago,” he said, “but other than that the flight has been trouble free.”

Tomorrow Matt and his plane will leave for Tuskegee, Alabama, where the Stearman spent its youth as a trainer for America’s first black military fliers. And then on to Washington, DC, with a planned landing on August 2.

Weather permitting, of course.

Owen Edwards is a freelance writer and author of the book Elegant Solutions. Each month in Smithsonian magazine, he selects one artifact from among the Smithsonian Institution’s 23 million and tells its story.

The Patent Office Building as it looked before the Civil War. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

The old Patent Office Building in Washington, D.C. covers an entire city block, and currently houses not just one, but two museums as well as an archive gallery: The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery of the Archives of American Art.

Poet Walt Whitman called it the “noblest of the Washington buildings,” and it was modeled in part after the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. City planner Pierre L’Enfant originally intended the building to house a “church of the Republic,” but although the structure has survived several transformations, it never actually became a church. This week, the American Art Museum’s deputy director emeritus Charles Robertson will lead a now fully-booked tour describing the uses of the historic building during the Civil War. But since the museum is only taking wait-list requests for the popular tour, we took a look back in time to show you the five lives of the old Patent Office Building.

1. Patent Office: Bet you never would have guessed, but the Patent Office moved into the building in 1842, even before the structure was entirely completed. It granted patents from the building until 1932.

2. Civil War Hospital: During the Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865, the Patent Office Building served as a hospital for wounded soldiers, in addition to housing a temporary barracks and a morgue. American Red Cross founder and nurse Clara Barton worked there as a volunteer nurse. Walt Whitman, who also served as a Civil War nurse, often came to the building to read to the wounded.

President Lincoln's second inaugural ball, from the Illustrated London News, April 8, 1965. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

3. Ballroom: In March of 1865, the building was host to President Lincoln’s second inaugural ball, the first time a government had been used for the event. A ten dollar ticket admitted “one gentleman and two ladies” to the celebration.

4. Civil Service Commission Offices: After the Patent Office left the historic building in 1932, the Civil Service Commission took over. The commission administers the country’s civil service, which is composed of government employees not in the military. It was renamed as the Office of Personnel Management in 1978.

5. Museum: The Patent Office Building was given to the Smithsonian Institution by Congress, and was restored from 1964 to 1967. In January of 1968, the building opened to the public and today houses two museums, the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery (which is currently hosting a series of interviews with curators and historians about the people and events of the Civil War).

Owney the Dog, immortalized in a stamp. Photo courtesy of the National Postal Museum

It’s been more than 120 years since a little dog named Owney trotted into an Albany, New York post office and took up residence there, sleeping among the mail bags. For nine years, Owney, by then a beloved pet to the mail clerks, served as the unofficial mascot of the U.S. Railway Mail Service, riding the rails from state to state. After his death, his body was preserved and spent decades on display at the Smithsonian Institution. When Owney was transferred in 1993 to the Smithsonian’s new National Postal Museum, the scruffy Postal pub would became one of that museum’s most popular attractions. This summer, Owney is finally being honored with his own postage stamp, one with interactive features sure to endear him to new generations.

“It’s been in the works for a long, long, long time,” says Nancy Pope, historian and curator at the National Postal Museum, who recalls that there has been talk of an Owney stamp since the 1980s. “People would ask, ‘Shouldn’t there be a stamp with Owney on it,’ so it’s been one of those things that people bring up on a regular basis.”

According to Pope, new postage stamps are chosen each year by a group called the Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC). Made up mostly of of average American citizens, CSAC looks through tens of thousands of petitions and decides which new stamps will be issued. “I think Owney just got in CSAC’s mind and they finally decided it’s time [they] do something for this dog,” says Pope.

A dog who was, by all accounts, extremely popular around the world. While researching Owney’s adventures, Pope, along with museum intern Rachel Barclay, discovered frequent mentions of Owney and his travels in various newspapers of the era.

“[Owney] has traveled the length of every railroad in the United States and has seen the inside and enjoyed the hospitality of more post offices than the oldest inspector of the service,” reported a January 4, 1895 article in the Hopkinsville Kentuckian.

And now, Owney’s story is being re-told for a new generation. Next month the museum will be launching an Owney augmented reality experience on its website and via a free iPhone app that will be triggered by the Owney stamp image. “When you hold that image up to your iPhone or the camera on your computer, Owney will just kind of pop up off the stamp,” Pope says. “He’ll start trotting and there will be music. You will hear his tags jingle and then he’ll sit down and bark.”

The three-dimensional Owney stamp is only part of the re-telling of his story. There will also be a new exhibit and an e-book, which will teach children geography using Owney’s rail travels as their guide.

“We really wanted to reinterpret how we talk about the Railway Mail Service connecting the nation, using Owney as the tool,” Pope says. “[We want ] to really engage families and teachers into teaching how important the Railway Mail Service was through the eyes of a dog that people can really relate to.”

The Owney Forever stamp will be released on July 27 and celebrated with a First Day of Issue Ceremony taking place at the Postal Museum, after which curators will debut the new Owney exhibit and the “Art of the Stamp: Owney the Postal Dog” exhibit, featuring original stamp art painted by artist Bill Bond. This ceremony, starting at 11 AM, will kick off the four-day Owney Family Fest. To learn more about Owney’s amazing journey, check out the article on the storied pup in the magazine’s upcoming September issue.

Update: This post clarifies information on the Owney the Dog iPhone app.