How much is the Hope Diamond worth? Ask Smithsonian.

Our inquisitive readers are rising to the challenge we gave them last month. The questions are pouring in and we’re ready for more. Do you have any questions for our curators? Submit your questions here.

How much is the Hope Diamond worth? — Marjorie Mathews, Silver Spring, Maryland

That’s the most popular question we get, but we don’t really satisfy people by giving them a number. There are a number of answers, but the best one is that we honestly don’t know. It’s a little bit like Liz Taylor’s jewels being sold in December—all kinds of people guessed at what they would sell for, but everybody I know was way off. Only when those pieces were opened up to bidding at a public auction could you find out what their values were. When they were sold, then at least for that day and that night you could say, well, they were worth that much. The Hope Diamond is kind of the same way, but more so. There’s simply nothing else like it. So how do you put a value on the history, on the fact it’s been here on display for over 50 years and a few hundred million people have seen it, and on that fact it’s a rare blue diamond on top of everything else? You don’t. – Jeffrey E. Post, mineralogist, National Museum of Natural History

What’s the worst impact of ocean acidification so far?- Nancy Schaefer, Virginia Beach, Virginia

The impacts of ocean acidification are really just starting to be felt, but two big reports that came out in 2011 show that it could have very serious effects on coral reefs. These studies did not measure the warming effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but rather its effect of making the ocean more acidic when it dissolves in the ocean. Places where large amounts of carbon dioxide seep into the water from the sea floor provide a natural experiment and show us how ocean waters might look, say, 50 or 100 years from now. Both studies showed branching, lacy, delicate coral forms are likely to disappear, and with them that kind of three-dimensional complexity so many species depend on. Also, other species that build a stony skeleton or shell, such as oysters or mussels, are likely to be affected. This happens because acidification makes carbonate ions, which these species need for their skeletons, less abundant.

Nancy Knowlton, marine biologist
National Museum of Natural History

Art and artifacts from ancient South Pacific and Pacific Northwest tribes have similarities in form and function. Is it possible that early Hawaiians caught part of the Kuroshio Current of the North Pacific Gyre to end up along the northwest coast of America from northern California to Alaska? — April Croan, Maple Valley, Washington

Those similarities have given rise to various theories, including trans-Pacific navigation, independent drifts of floating artifacts, inadvertent crossings by ships that have lost their rudders or rigging, or whales harpooned in one area that died or were captured in a distant place. Some connections are well-known, like feather garment fragments found in an archaeological site in Southeast Alaska that appear to have been brought there by whaling ships that had stopped in the Hawaiian Islands, a regular route for 19th-century whalers. Before the period of European contact, the greatest similarities are with the southwest Pacific, not Hawaii. The Kushiro current would have facilitated Asian coastal contacts with northwestern North America, but would not have helped Hawaiians. The problem of identification is one of context, form and dating. Most of the reported similarities are either out of their original context (which can’t be reconstructed), or their form is not specific enough to relate to another area’s style, or the date of creation cannot be established. To date there is no acceptable proof for South Pacific-Northwest Coast historical connections that predates the European whaling era, except for links that follow the coastal region of the North Pacific into Alaska.

William Fitzhugh, archeologist
Natural History Museum

Giants and patriots come in all forms, as seen in "Giant Demon Attacks a Ship," an Indian watercolor ca. 1775. Photo courtesy of the Freer and Sackler Galleries

Take a look at our photo gallery of giants and patriots in the Smithsonian Institution.

In honor of Super Bowl Sunday, we’ve come up with our own contest of “giants” and “patriots.” A disclaimer, though: it has nothing to do with football. We’ve combed through archives and collections across the Smithsonian Institution to come up with a unique set of patriots and giants for you to check out to get ready for the game.

If you’re a Giants fan, we’ve got everything from giant pandas to giant sequoias to “Elaganeek: the Eskimo Giant.” “Giant’s Thumb,” a 1926 woodcut by Howard Cook in the American Art Museum, depicts one of the artist’s favorite natural spots in New Mexico, his adopted home.

For New England fans, though, the Smithsonian is filled with patriots both real and invented. Uncle Sam, of course, is the country’s iconic patriot, but real-life figures like George Washington and Samuel Adams were the original embodiments of patriotism during the birth of the country. The concept of patriotism is so powerful that the U.S. military has named missiles after it.

“Giant Demon Attacks a Ship,” an Indian watercolor painted by a Jain artist sometime around 1775, is the one piece that Giants fans might interpret as a good omen for the game. In the painting, a large blue demon seems poised to destroy a British ship, filled with sailors dressed not so differently from the Patriots original mascot, Pat Patriot. Watch on Sunday to see how the real life matchups turns out.

Take a guided tour of the universe in the Air and Space Museum's portable planetarium. Image courtesy of Air and Space.

Friday, February 3 Under the Stars

Explore the night sky up close from the Air and Space Museum’s observatory with astronomers and astronomy educators who will guide you through the different planets and constellations of the winter sky. Then zoom out for a view of the universe in the museum’s inflatable planetarium. $25 general admission, $20 for members. 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Air and Space Museum.

Saturday, February 4 Black History Month Family Day

Celebrate the start of Black History Month with performances including the blues stylings of “Guitar Man” Warner Williams and a puppet show, Can You Spell Harlem? Plus, learn the art of step in a workshop by the Taratibu Youth Association step performers. After the festivities end, head over to the McEvoy Auditorium for a screening of Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair. Free. 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Film screening at 3:30 p.m. National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum.

Sunday, February 5 The Big Sleep

Classic film noir The Big Sleep is breaking in the American History Museum’s brand new Warner Brothers Theater on Sunday. First, join NPR film commentator Murray Horwitz for a pre-screening discussion of historical tidbits and elements to pay attention to in the film. Afterward, let private eye Phillip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) lead you through a whirlwind of blackmail, murder and love in this 1946 masterpiece. Free. Pre-film talk at 1:00 p.m. Screening starts at 2:00 p.m. Warner Brothers Theater, American History Museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

The Black List features portraits of fifty African Americans who are influential in their fields, such as Chris Rock, above. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

February is Black History Month, and if you’re wondering how to properly commemorate the holiday, look no further. There are lots of (mostly free) events around the Mall this month celebrating African American heritage.

Black History Month Family Day: On Saturday, February 4, kick off the month with a full afternoon of music, performances and crafts at the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum. Enjoy the blues stylings of “Guitar Man” Warner Williams and a puppet show, Can You Spell Harlem? Plus, learn the art of step in a workshop by the Taratibu Youth Association step performers. After the festivities end, head over to the McEvoy Auditorium for a screening of Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair. Free. 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Film screening at 3:30 p.m.

Tales from Mother Africa: Kenyan poet, singer, storyteller and dancer Anna Mwalagho weaves traditional tales from “Mama Africa” into an interactive performance at S. Dillon Ripley Center’s Discovery Theater on February 2 and 3. The program is geared toward young children, but a little singing and dancing is good for adults, too. Tickets required: $8 for adults, $6 for children, $5 for Resident Associate Members, $3 for children under 2. 10:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Enslavement to Emancipation: Celebrate the 150th anniversary of the passage of the District of Columbia’s Emancipation Act in 1862 with a video and discussion at the Anacostia Community Museum. The talk will touch on a wide range of subjects, including the Civil War, laws governing slavery, the abolitionist movement, and civil rights. Free. Reserve a spot at 202-633-4844. February 5 at 2:00 p.m. and and February 24 at 10:30 a.m.

Monticello, Slavery, and the Hemingses: Join NPR host Michel Martin and Harvard Law professor Annette Gordon-Reed for a discussion about the six Monticello slave families featured in the exhibition “Paradox of Liberty: Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello” at the American History Museum. Hosted by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Martin and Gordon-Reed will challenge conventional wisdom about slavery and the political reality of the era. Professor Gordon-Reed’s book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family will also be discussed. Free. February 6 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Baird Auditorium, Natural History Museum.

Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975: The Black Power movement has been both venerated and vilified, but what exactly did it mean? Test your knowledge at the National Portrait Gallery’s screening of The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, which documents this tumultuous period and features interviews with activists Angela Davis, Bobby Seale and Stokely Carmichael. Free. February 18 at 1:00 p.m.

The Black List: Reinterpreting the exclusionary definition of a “blacklist,” photographer/filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and NPR’s Elvis Mitchell compiled a list of people who represent the African American experience in the 20th century. The result is an inspiring exhibition of large-format photographic portraits and film interviews of artists, politicians, writers, athletes and civil rights activists who have made a difference in their fields. The 50 portraits on display include musician John Legend, artist Kara Walker and political activist Angela Davis. On view at the National Portrait Gallery until April 22.

Groundbreaking for the National Museum of African American History and Culture: Almost a decade after the establishment of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, construction on the museum site breaks ground on February 22. Catch the webcast of the groundbreaking ceremony, which will feature speeches and musical performances starting at 9:00 a.m. The museum construction should be finished in 2015, so you’ll have plenty of time to head down to the new site between the Washington Monument and the American History Museum and check its progress.

For the full schedule of Black History Month events, click here.

Now that you’ve probably burned through the lists of historians, innovators, and food-writers to follow this year, we’re bringing it back home to the Smithsonian. As always, the Mall is cooking up some fascinating, crazy, and sometimes grotesque stuff for 2012. Bookmark these people and projects to keep up with this year:

Nicholas Pyenson: Pyenson studies and curates fossils of marine mammals. Get a feel for what is going on inside his lab and follow his team into the field—fresh from an expedition in Chile—at his blog, Pyenson Lab.

Postal Museum: Time for a pop quiz: A “hamper dumper” is:

a) machine in postal processing

b) bin of misprint stamps

c) failed mail vehicle

d) philatelic tool.

If you know the answer, you should be following the Postal Museum (@postalmuseum) for their daily #PostalQuiz and other philatelic factoids.

Biodiversity Heritage Library: As part of the Biodiversity Heritage Library consortium, the Smithsonian Libraries collects and digitizes biodiversity research for open online access—essentially, a bio-wiki. Check out @biodivlibrary for the species of the day: plants that eat worms, albino penguins and other bizarre creatures you never knew existed.

Archives of American Art Pinterest: The American Art Pinterest lets you browse the archives and “pin” the images you like to your virtual board. Mix and match from collections like “facial hair of note” and “ain’t no party like an artist’s party.”

Book Dragon: The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program’s Book Dragon is the pet project of former APA Media Arts Consultant Terry Hong, featuring reviews of “books for the multi-cultural reader.” Hong highlights literature for kids and adults alike that speaks to the Asian American experience. Follow her at @SIBookDragon.

Smithsonian Vids: For a moving view of the Institution, follow @SmithsonianVids. Meet a scientist studying frog-eating bats, or get a video tour of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings from Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.

Smithsonian Marine Station: This Natural History Museum field station, located in Fort Pierce, Florida, tweets news updates and photos from the field (er, coral reef) @SmithsonianSMS. Plus, there’s #followfriday trivia every week.

Field Book Project: Also, from the Natural History Museum and the Smithsonian Institution Archives check out this blog, where researchers post updates on their initiative to compile an online database of field books and journals documenting biodiversity research. Besides progress updates, you’ll also find excerpts of century-old field notes from explorers, birdwatchers and scientists (including lots of fun, old-timey sketches) and learn a lot more than you ever thought there was to know about indices.

Encyclopedia of Life: Take your best shot and enter the picture in the Smithsonian’s Encyclopedia of Life Flickr photo contest. The bi-weekly contest could be (and has been) any theme from “backyard life” to “sexual dimorphism.” Even if you don’t enter, be sure to browse the entries for gems like this.

And of course, if you’re not following them already, the museums are always Tweeting up a storm. Here’s the checklist:

American Indian Museum: @SmithsonianNMAI

National Portrait Gallery: @npg

American Art Museum: @americanart

Anacostia Community Museum: @anacostiamuseum

American History Museum: @amhistorymuseum

Air and Space Museum: @airandspace

Museum of Natural History: @NMNH

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: @hirshhorn

Freer and Sackler Galleries: @FreerSackler

Museum of African Art: @NMAfA

National Zoo: @NationalZoo

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum: @cooperhewitt

Smithsonian: @Smithsonian

See Alice Waters and her new portrait side-by-side on Friday. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

Friday, January 20 An Evening with Alice Waters

Meet organic food icon and chef Alice Waters both in the flesh and in still life at this presentation of her new portrait on view at the National Portrait Gallery. Following the presentation, enjoy light fare at a reception catered by several local celebrity chefs, including José Andrés of ThinkFoodGroup and Mike Isabella of Graffiato. Waters will be interviewed in the Nan Tucker Auditorium at 6 p.m., the reception follows at 7 p.m. in the Kogod Courtyard. Ticket prices vary, National Portrait Gallery.

Saturday, January 21 Create Your Own Peacock Room

Kids and families, learn the story of the Freer Gallery’s Peacock Room, which is now recently restored to its appearance circa 1908, when the museum’s founder Charles Lang Freer purchased it. Next come to the ImaginAsia workshop and curate your own miniature Peacock Room to take home with you. Free. 2:00 p.m. Sublevel 2, Sackler Gallery.

Sunday, January 22 Dance for the Dying Unplugged

The Luce Foundation Center’s “Unplugged” series welcomes local band Dance for the Dying for an intimate acoustic performance at 2 p.m. Based out of Alexandria, Virginia, the group says their music is a “perfectly mismatched marriage of macabre and melody.” Get there early for a pre-concert art talk. Free. Art talk meets in F Street Lobby at 1:30 p.m., performance begins in Luce Foundation Center (third floor) at 2 p.m. American Art Museum.

Guest blogger and Portrait Gallery historian Amy Henderson.

This post is part of our on-going series in which ATM invites the occasional post from a number of Smithsonian Institution guest bloggers: the historians, researchers and scientists who curate the collections and archives at the museums and research facilities. Today, Amy Henderson from the National Portrait Gallery weighs in on the influences of food in the American culture. She last wrote for us on the inimitable historical sites that you must see when visiting Washington, D.C.

As the words ring out in the musical Oliver, “Food, glorious food,” the pleasures of cooking, serving and dining are something to be celebrated. What we eat reflects our lives and times, whether it’s hot sausage and mustard, or Waldorf salad. Do we watch “Top Chef,” “Cooking with Julia,” and “The Essential Pepin?”  Does our pulse beat faster when we spot a fabulous new gadget at our favorite kitchen store? Do we have a cat that likes baby arugula? These are telltale signs that some of us consider “food” something more than ”fuel.”

There are several images of iconic food personalities held within the collections of  the National Portrait Gallery. Two of my favorites are

Visionary chef Julia Child. Photo courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery (© David A. Marlin)

Julia Child and food writer M.F.K.Fisher. I have labored through the nearly 20 pages of Julia’s recipe for French bread and produced a baguette that was almost worth the effort, and I have been snared by several of Fisher’s books because of their wonderful titles—Consider the Oyster and How to Cook a Wolf come instantly to mind. One of my fondest Smithsonian memories was meeting Julia Child when the National Museum of American History first began to acquire her collection, which now includes her entire kitchen. She was very tall, superbly gracious and approachable, and looked you squarely in the eye during conversation: this was not a woman who suffered fools.

Nurturing our recognition of the national dialogue about food, on January 20, the Portrait Gallery will host a very special event to showcase food pioneer Alice Waters, founder of the Berkeley, California-based Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café, the Edible Schoolyard and a leader of the slow food movement. In more than 40 years as chef, author, and proprietor of Chez Panisse, Ms. Waters has dedicated herself to a culinary philosophy based on using only the freshest local organic products, served only in season. Education is a key to this commitment, and her Edible Schoolyard—a one acre garden with an adjacent kitchen—is a model public school curriculum program for nearly 1,000 students.

The newly commissioned Alice Waters portrait. Photo courtesy of the Portrait Gallery

Happily, Ms. Waters will attend the unveiling of her portrait at this event. Created by photographer Dave Woody, the image depicts the chef standing beneath the branches of an enormous mulberry tree in her Edible Schoolyard—a perfect setting for this champion of local, organic food. As the winner of the 2009 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, Woody was commissioned to portray Alice Waters. The photograph is large-scale, and Waters points out that the giant mulberry tree behind her symbolizes the importance of the sustainable environment, one of her priorities:  “It’s a set of values,” she said of the portrait’s message. “This represents hope for me in the future and for the kids.”

The liveliest part of the Alice Waters event promises to be Chef José Andrés’ onstage interview with her. The winner of the 2011 James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef Award, Andrés is host of the PBS series “Made in Spain” and founder of state-of-the-art restaurants across the country. He has a special relationship with the Portrait Gallery, first because his restaurants brought an essential ingredient to the museum’s Penn Quarter neighborhood as it morphed from a place of desolation to one of the most vibrant parts of the nation’s capital.  And while he helped to make it possible for the Portrait Gallery to be in the heart of Washington’s food, sports, and entertainment district, Andrés personally feels deep affection and  respect for the museum in return. He told me that he likes to walk through our galleries and the Kogod Courtyard “to be inspired.” The American Dream is very real to Chef José, and he says that he “finds energy”  among the portraits of the historical figures that line our walls.

The Alice Waters portrait will be on view at the Portrait Gallery beginning January 20. Director Martin E. Sullivan believes that this image marks both a recognition of  “the changing way the nation thinks about how people are connected to food and the environment,” and “a lively celebration of this relatively new conversation in American culture.”
Bon appetite!

A cultural historian at the National Portrait Gallery, Amy Henderson specializes in “the lively arts,” particularly media-generated celebrity culture. Her books and exhibitions run the gamut from the pioneers in early broadcasting to Elvis Presley to Katharine Hepburn and Katharine Graham. She is currently at work on a new dance exhibition entitled “One! Singular Sensations in American Dance,” scheduled to open in September 2013.

UPDATE 1/19/2012: This post was updated to clarify that the National Portrait Gallery Commission reviewed a number of worthy candidates and voted to ask Dave Woody to create a portrait of Alice Waters.

Learn the story behind Dale Chihuly's Blanket Cylinder Series at the Renwick Gallery. Image courtesy of the American Art Museum.

Tuesday, January 17 The Loving Story

Learn about the dramatic story of Mildred and Richard P. Loving in this documentary about the 1967 landmark Supreme Court decision, Loving v. Virginia, which banned laws forbidding interracial marriages. After the film, stick around for a panel discussion with director Nancy Buirski and legal scholars. Free. 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery.

Wednesday, January 18 Dale Chihuly’s Blanket Cylinder

Join curatorial assistant Debrah Dunner for the Renwick’s monthly gallery talk. Dunner delivers on Dale Chihuly’s Blanket Cylinder Series. The artist was inspired by motifs on Indian trade blankets to create intricately patterned blown glass cylinders. Free. 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Renwick Gallery, American Art Museum.

Thursday, January 19 Beat the Blues

Shake off your winter blues with singer Andrea Wood and her talented blues quintet on the Take 5! stage. Borrow a board game to play during the concert and enjoy printmaking demonstrations by artists from George Mason University. Free. 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Courtyard, American Art Museum

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Visit the American Art museum. Photo courtesy of the museum.

Tuesday, December 27 Winter Break Special Programs

This winter break, bring the kids to enjoy a whole range of special activities at the Portrait Gallery. Check out a Discovery Kit to learn more about some of the famous Americans featured in the gallery, or join in the group art project, in which you’ll have the chance to contribute to a piece that will hang in the Education Center. Each day, a new figure will be featured in the work, and a different medium used. Free. 1 to 4 p.m., Repeats daily through Dec. 30. National Portrait Gallery, Education Center.

Wednesday, December 28 Camp Kwanzaa

Come for a family-friendly day of celebration sponsored by the Anacostia Community Museum. This program features Kwanzaa-related performances, hands-on activities and crafts that are sure to be fun for participants of all ages. Interactive music, drama and dance activities allow everyone to show their creative side in enjoying this seven-day festival. Free. For reservations, call 202-633-4844. 10:30 a.m. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Panorama Room, 1600 Morris Rd., SE, Washington, DC 20020

Due to a scheduling error, Art + Coffee will be held on January 29, not December 29. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Learn about writer and art collector Gertrude Stein as part of the Portrait Story Days series. Photo courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

Friday, December 23 ArtLab+ Showcase

ArtLab+, a digital media studio that provides local teens a chance to engage with different forms of art and design, presents this showcase event. Produced by the Creative Consultants Club of ArtLab+, it will feature young people’s creative works in fashion, music, photography and film.  Free. 6 to 7 p.m. Hirshhorn Museum, Sunken Sculpture Garden.

Saturday, December 24 Portrait Story Days

As part of the Gallery’s family-friendly Portrait Story Days series, drop in and hear about an American who has had a major impact on culture and history. This week, learn about writer, poet and art collector Gertrude Stein, subject of the new exhibition “Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories.” After the curator talk, you’ll have the chance to create your own work of art—materials provided. Free. 1 to 4 p.m. National Portrait Gallery, education center.

Sunday, December 25 Christmas

All Smithsonian Institution museums and the National Zoo are closed today. Enjoy the holiday!

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

This post is part of our on-going series in which ATM invites the occasional post from a number of Smithsonian Institution guest bloggers: the historians, researchers and scientists who curate the collections and archives at the museums and research facilities. Today, Amy Henderson from the National Portrait Gallery weighs in on the sites and stories around the city of Washington, D.C.

Guest blogger and Portrait Gallery historian Amy Henderson

In the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, my students looked with wonder at the enormous, domed canvas floating overhead. What captivated them was The Apotheosis of George Washington, a 4,664-square-foot fresco soaring 180 feet above. Completed in 1865 by Constantino Brumedi, the huge painting depics a seated Washington surrounded by Liberty, Victory and Fame plus 13 maidens who are seemingly thrown in for good measure but actually represent the original 13 colonies.

The students attend a graduate class I teach at American University called “American History On-Site.”  Organized around the extraordinary candy-box of museums, archives and historic sites that populate the nation’s capital, the class meets at key sites with key people to explore a city that is chock-full with history. How visitors engage with that history is our focus. At each place, the central question—who are we?—is consistent, but the ways history can be transmitted to 21st century audiences varies enormously:  What is the best mix of traditional and digital? Image and artifact? Sound and light?  What works best for a broad range of visitors? And, what tools should be used to engage a more specialized audience?

Our tour leader at the Capitol was the Chief Guide and Director of Public Programs for the U.S. Capitol Historical Society Steve Livengood. One of the city’s most delightful raconteurs, Livengood merrily trolled us through the Capitol’s nooks and crannies, regaling us with wonderful stories about the larger-than-life characters who have walked here before us. “Look, that’s where Lincoln sat in his one term in the House,” he said, as we walked through Statuary Hall. Past lives intersected with the present as current members of the House and Senate whizzed by on their way to meetings and votes.

As happens at the Capitol Rotunda, the sense of place can purposely evoke “awe.”  The Model Hall of the Smithsonian’s Portrait Gallery, a grand space decked out in mosaic tiles, gilded mezzanines and a stained glass dome, was built as an architectural boast of the first order. When the it opened as the Patent Office in 1842, it was only the third public building in the nation’s capital, after the White House and the Treasury. The United States had barely expanded beyond the Mississippi River, but this “Hall of Wonder” was a celebration of American inventiveness, and a declaration of the nation’s Manifest Destiny to take its place beside the great republics of the past.

A sense of place can also be invented to memorialize the past.  The Vietnam Memorial designed by Maya Lin is an architectural space that welds history and memory into a landscape both real and psychic. My students, born a generation after the last helicopter left Saigon in 1975, respond with quiet emotion. For them, the Wall represents something reverential.

The Portrait Gallery's Model Hall is an "architectural boast of the first order." Photo courtesy of the museum, ©Tim Hursley

In a totally different way, the Sewall-Belmont House near the Supreme Court has its own eccentric mix of history and memory. This was the only private dwelling that the British burned when they attacked the Capitol during the War of 1812. It was torched, my students enjoyed hearing, when someone on the second floor foolishly yelled something nasty at the soldiers marching by.  Rebuilt, it became the headquarters for the National Woman’s Party in the early 20th century. Today it’s a museum about the woman’s suffrage movement, but visitors can still see burn marks in the basement—a bit of authenticity that enthralls them.

In the last decade or so, the most popular history sites have been those that have transformed their approach to visitors. The National Archives is a prime example:  the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are still displayed in a hushed and sacred space that can accommodate the legions of tourists. But now there is also a “Public Vaults” section that features lively rotating exhibits drawn from the Archive’s collections. The current exhibition, “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam” has generated enormous publicity, healthy attendance, and even a restaurant devoted to the show and run by renowned chef José Andrés. The chef’s restaurant, located up the street at 405 8th Street, is celebrating the exhibition with a menu of traditional and historic American food.

Paul Tetreault, the dynamic CEO of Ford’s Theatre, riveted my students by explaining how he has re-invented that theater from its days as a bus-stop where tourists disembarked only to see the box above the stage where Lincoln sat beside his wife Mary, the night he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. In February 2012, they will open a major new education and exhibition center that focuses on the contemporary relevance of “the Lincoln legacy.”  What, for example, is the meaning of “tolerance” today? Clearly, history at Ford’s is not dry-as-dust, musty old stuff anymore. 

The Newseum is an exciting new addition to Washington’s museum landscape. Built near Capitol Hill, its Pennsylvania Avenue façade—engraved with the First Amendment—thrusts freedom of the press, squarely into the national sight line. Much to my students’ delight, it is also the museum with the greatest menu of history delivery systems, juxtaposing historic artifacts next to interactive kiosks, and 4D movie theaters next to segments of the Berlin Wall. Based on the idea that journalism is the “first draft of history,” it is a museum absolutely up-to-date (every day the front page of dozens of the nation’s newspapers are prominently displayed in kiosks along the sidewalk outside the building), but in the finest historic tradition as well:  like vaudeville in its heyday, there is a little something here for everyone.

Today, all major history sites use social media and blogs to vastly expand their audiences.  Seeing “the real thing” on-site or online still inspires wonder, whether through a historic sense of place or on Facebook and Twitter.  For my students, the opportunities are huge.

Dr. Seuss by Everett Raymond Kinstler, courtesy of museum, gift of the artist, 1982

At the Portrait Gallery, there’s a color sketch of one of my favorite storytellers, Theodore Seuss Geisel—Dr. Seuss, by the preeminent portraitist Everett Raymond Kinstler. When I’m out walking this wonderful city with my students, I think of one of Seuss’ rhymes, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”

“You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself

Any direction you choose.”

Get a hands-on introduction to forensics as part of the "Written in Bone" exhibition. Photo courtesy Natural History Museum,

Monday, November 21 For All the World To See

Join docents for a guided tour of “For All the World To See,” the exhibition currently featured in the African American History and Culture Gallery. The show examines the Civil Rights Movement from the perspective of visual culture, displaying films, posters, newspapers and other media to trace the history of the movement over the course of the 20th century. Hurry in for one of the final chances to experience the exhibition before it closes on November 27th. Free. Tour guides will be present 10:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. American History Museum, African American History and Culture Gallery.

Tuesday, November 22 Forensic Anthropology Lab

Hey CSI fans, don’t believe everything  you see on TV. Real forensics can be even more mysterious and fascinating. Bring children of all ages and get a hands-on introduction to forensic science. The lab provides a family-friendly opportunity for visitors to use real bone specimens to identify stories from the past and solve mysteries from America’s colonial history, as part of the “Written in Bone” exhibition. Free. The lab is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 1 to 5 p.m., and Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Natural History Museum, 2nd floor west.

Wednesday, November 23 Lecture and Book Signing

The story of African American contributions to mass culture during the early 20th century is the topic discussed by historian W. Fitzhugh Brundage of University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and editor of “Beyond Blackface.” Brundage will discuss the myriad roles played by African American entrepreneurs, performers and consumers during this era. After the talk, have your copy of the book signed by the author. Free. 12 to 1 p.m. National Portrait Gallery, bookstore.

Thursday, November 24 Thanksgiving

All Smithsonian museums and the Zoo will be open during regular hours on Thanksgiving.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Guest blogger and Portrait Gallery historian Amy Henderson

This post is part of our on-going series in which ATM invites the occasional post from a number of Smithsonian Institution guest bloggers: the historians, researchers and scientists who curate the collections and archives at the museums and research facilities. Today, Amy Henderson from the National Portrait Gallery weighs in on the museum’s mission. She last wrote for us about cinema as art.

When PBS launched the new documentary series “Prohibition” this October, Ken Burns told a luncheon meeting at the National Press Club that his work—whether spotlighting the Civil War, baseball, or the temptations of drink—always explores the essential American question: “Who are we?”

Burns is a spellbinding story-teller renowned for using the moving image to draw audiences into his narrative web. As he spoke, I was struck by how his purpose echoed that of the National Portrait Gallery, which uses the power of images and story-telling to illuminate “who we are” through visual biography.

The wonderful expression “visual biography” emerged last year during strategic planning discussions at the NPG. John Boochever, vice chair of the Gallery’s Commission, introduced the phrase to express how the museum “brings the face of American history to life. Literally.”

“Ultimately, the National Portrait Gallery is the story of individuals and their ideas that becomes a mirror by which the country can see itself,” Boochever says. Visual biography catalyzed a strategy that made it a Gallery priority to “bring visitors face-to-face with important questions about our shared identity, our individual place within it,” he adds, “and about what it means to be an American.”

As we considered strategic ways to make “visual biography” our calling card, I thought about how philosopher Marshall McLuhan ’s idea—the medium is the message—still resonates. Each generation of media generates its own iconic cultural figures, but the key linkage at the Portrait Gallery is the one that connects the “image” medium to the “message” story.

Elvis at 21: Presley reads fan mail on March 17, 1956. © Alfred Wertheimer. All rights reserved.

An exhibition I co-curated last year, “Elvis at 21,” attempts to connect this link explicitly, chronicling the early days of Elvis Presley’s rise to fame in 1956 when he was 21. A journey that the young singer took from Memphis to New York is remarkably documented by the photographs of Alfred Wertheimer, who was hired by RCA to take publicity shots. Wertheimer was able to “tag along” for several months that year, and used his lens to capture Elvis’s phenomenal transition from anonymity to superstardom. His earliest photographs show Elvis walking along Manhattan streets unrecognized; momentum soars as he appears on several live television programs in the ensuing few months until, by the time of his seminal performance on the Ed Sullivan show in the fall of 1956, his audience numbers 60 million out of a total population of 169 million Americans. By the end of that year, the “flashpoint of fame” has engulfed him.

In addition to his own transformation, Elvis became a major player in the cultural upheaval that was reshaping the American landscape: Rosa Parks refused to leave her seat in the front of the bus in December 1955; Betty Friedan was still a suburban housewife, but beginning to think of the feminist struggle—“is this all?”—before she would write The Feminine Mystique in 1963.

Asian American Portraits of Encounter: Daniel Day Kim, 2007, by CYJO, photo courtesy of the museum.

An exhibition that is currently at the Portrait Gallery, “Asian American Portraits of Encounter,” also focuses on the visual biography of identity. This show, a collaboration between the Gallery and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, showcases seven artists whose “portraits of encounter” depict the complexity of being Asian in America today. One of the artists, CYJO, focuses on contemporary Asian Americans connected only by their shared Korean ancestry. Her photographs of KYOPO–those of Korean descent who reside outside the Korean Peninsula—challenges the idea of a monolithic Korean identity by telling the stories of individual Korean Americans who each seek their own sense of “being American.” CYJO’s images are wonderfully unencumbered: she uses her lens to convey straight-forward stories of the constructed “self”—here we are, the images tell us, in our stance as contemporary Korean Americans. Change may constantly skim the surface of modern life, but KYOPO reveals something lasting beneath: above all, as CYJO writes in her text, the images connote a celebration of “modesty, kindness, and courage” in the Korean American experience. This exhibition will be up at the Gallery until October 2012.

“Elvis at 21” and “Asian American Portraits of Encounter” both exemplify NPG’s core mission to explore issues of identity and the American experience through visual biography. In whatever media, the idea of visual biography—primarily its ability to link images with their stories—establishes the Gallery as an extraordinary arena for viewing and examining the public face of “what it means to be American.”

A cultural historian at the National Portrait Gallery, Amy Henderson specializes in “the lively arts”—particularly media-generated celebrity culture. Her books and exhibitions run the gamut from the pioneers in early broadcasting to Elvis Presley to Katharine Hepburn and Katharine Graham. She is currently at work on a new dance exhibition entitled “One! Singular Sensations in American Dance,” scheduled to open in September 2013.

Narrating the story of both Elvis Presley and America in 1956, “Elvis at 21″  is a collaboration of NPG, the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service, and Govinda Gallery, and is sponsored by The History Channel. It is at the Mobile Museum of Art until December 4, and then will be at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from December 24, 2011 to March 18, 2012.

Cronkite interviews Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Photo courtesy National Portrait Gallery

No cable news. No satellite dish. No streaming internet video, no podcasts, not even a remote control. Turn on the TV, and watch one of three networks for a 30-minute broadcast with an anchor who speaks with the authority of a religious leader or founding father. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, this is how most Americans got their news—and the man who defined this era, more than any other, was Walter Cronkite.

“For somebody of my generation, he was the pillar of American broadcast journalism,” says David Ward, a historian at the National Portrait Gallery. “He was always the responsible father figure. According to polls, he was the most trusted man in America—more than the first lady, the Pope or the president.”

Cronkite, born on this day in 1916, got his start in journalism working as a radio announcer for a series of stations in Missouri. But when he joined the United Press and left the country to cover World War II, he made his mark as a journalist capable of reporting stories in difficult conditions. “He’s flying over Berlin, and he’s at the invasion of Normandy and the ‘Bridge Too Far,’ the Battle of Arnhem. It was a total disaster, and he’s lucky to get out of there alive,” Ward says.

After the war, as the TV news era blossomed, Cronkite was there to become one of its key figures. While working for CBS in a variety of roles, hosting everything from morning shows to political conventions, he sat down in the “CBS Evening News” anchor chair and proceeded to hold it for nearly 20 years.

“Cronkite comes to national prominence in his second or third year, when he breaks the news that John F. Kennedy has been killed in Dallas,” says Ward. “There’s the famous moment where he starts to lose his composure, and he takes his glasses off, as he shares the news with the nation.”

One of the main elements of Cronkite’s appeal, though, was the fact that he presented the day’s news with an objectivity and reserve that Americans expected in anchormen at the time. “Authoritative, calm, rational—they explained the world to you,” Ward says. “The idea was that this was a very serious job, performed by various serious men.”

Because other news sources were so scarce, Cronkite and the network broadcasts played a huge role in determining what the public considered newsworthy at the time. “When Walter Cronkite signed off by saying ‘And that’s the way it is, Friday, November 5, 1972,’ that actually was what was important in the world,” says Ward.

Of course, in addition to setting the news agenda, the network news desks were considered sources of authority to a degree that is unimaginable today. “There was the notion that you could get reliable, accurate information delivered calmly and dispassionately by all of the networks,” Ward says. “That was the model.”

This view was linked to the deep-seated faith most members of the public held in the honesty of the government, as well as journalists—and although Cronkite was emblematic of the era, his innovative reporting and willingness to challenge authority were instrumental in bringing about its demise. “In 1968, he goes to Vietnam and does a documentary,” Ward says. “He hears one thing from the generals, and then he walks around and talks to GIs and Vietnamese, and he realizes there’s a disconnect.”

“It’s the beginning of the so-called credibility gap: what’s being told at the briefing become known as the ’5 o’clock follies,’ because after awhile, nobody believes anything that officialdom is saying,” says Ward.

Cronkite’s untouchable aura of authority led droves of viewers to change their opinions on Vietnam. “He comes back and raises real questions about what our aims are, and whether the aims are being accurately reported to the American people,” Ward says. “In 1968, there were plenty of people who were protesting the war in Vietnam. It’s the fact that he’s a firmly established, mainstream, church-going, centrist, respectable person that matters.”

In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a former defense consultant, leaked the Pentagon Papers, a set of documents that provided evidence of systematic government wrongdoing and deception throughout the war. Public mistrust of the government reached a new level, and Cronkite’s interview of Ellsberg—captured in a photograph now among the National Portrait Gallery’s collections—became one of the many iconic moments of his career.

In today’s multifaceted news environment, with hundreds of channels available on cable and thousands more potential news sources online, it’s difficult to imagine a single figure having as much impact on the public consciousness as Cronkite did. “It’s so strange to think of that world,” says Ward. “That element of implicit authority, we just don’t have anymore.”

In 1981, CBS’s mandatory retirement age of 65 required that Cronkite step down from his post. Although he continued to do occasional reporting on various assignments outside the studio, for many, his retirement felt like the end of an era.

“This is my last broadcast as the anchorman of ‘The CBS Evening News,’” Cronkite said. ”For me, it’s a moment for which I long have planned, but which, nevertheless, comes with some sadness. For almost two decades, after all, we’ve been meeting like this in the evenings, and I’ll miss that.”

Learn about destinations in Chile, such as Torres del Paine National Park. Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Monday, October 31 Spooky Storytelling

Come listen to some American Indian ghost stories on Halloween. Museum associate director Tim Johnson (Mohawk) will tell traditional stories from his home community, the Six Nations reserve, in Ontario. This family-friendly event will also be available online via webcast. Free. 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. American Indian Museum, imagiNations Activity Center, 3rd level.

Tuesday, November 1 Explore Chile

Learn about the remarkable range of habitats and landscapes all within a nation that’s just about 100 miles wide. Chilean travel destinations include some of the world’s driest deserts, regions of legendary wine production, a volcano-studded Lake District and the mysterious Easter Island. In conjunction with the “Against All Odds: Rescue at the Chilean Mine” exhibition, travel expert Kristina Schreck will lead a virtual tour of these and many other locations in Chile. Tickets to this Resident Associates program are $30 for members, $27 for senior members, and $40 for the general public. 6:45 p.m. Ripley Center.

Wednesday, November 2 Behind the Scenes at the Lunder Conservation Center

At the Lunder Conservation Center, staff work tirelessly to examine, treat and preserve the priceless works of the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. This behind-the-scenes tour is provides the perfect opportunity to see how museum conservators use science to care for the art in both collections. Free, register at Luce Foundation Center information desk, 3rd floor. Held most Wednesdays from 3 to 3:30 p.m. American Art Museum

Thursday, November 3 Sounds of the Dragon

This remarkable collaboration is a fusion of classical Western music and traditional Chinese instruments. The highly acclaimed Music from Copland House, based in New York’s Hudson River Valley, will premiere new pieces by clarinetist Derek Bermel. Joining them will be an ensemble led by Wang Guo-wei, featuring performers on erhu (fiddle), guzheng (zither), yang-chin (dulcimer), and pipa (lute). Free tickets can be reserved online, by phone or in person. 7:30 p.m. Freer Gallery, Meyer Auditorium

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.