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El Chandelier (1988) by Pepón Osorio. Image courtesy of the American Art Museum.

Friday, October 9: Latino Art in Transition

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by coming out to the American Art Museum and listening to a lecture conducted by Pepόn Osorio—who is perhaps best known for his large-scale installations—and emerging artist Miguel Luciano who will discuss how Latin art is changing. Free. American Art Museum, 7:00 PM

Saturday, October 10: Stamp Design: Big Message, Small Canvas

If you’re ever looking for cheap—but attractive—apartment art, it’s hard to go wrong with a nicely framed sheet of postage stamps. (This blogger has a sheet of Star Wars stamps proudly displayed in his living room—but still can’t decide what to do with Elvis and Marilyn.) Considering the breadth of subjects that stamps cover, there’s something suitable for every personality, and as I’ve mentioned, postage stamp design can be absolutely stunning. But how does an artist approach working on such a tiny canvas? Come on out to the Postal Museum and hear art director Ethel Kessler discuss how powerful messages—from breast cancer awareness to civil rights—are adapted to stamp-sized works of art without losing their punch. A question and answer session will follow. Free. National Postal Museum, 11:00 AM

Sunday, October 11: Steinway Series: Left Bank Concert Society

Come and enjoy the Left Bank Quartet with Colette Valentine, on piano, perform compositions from Bélla Bartók’s first string quartet, Ernö Dohnányi’s Piano Quintet, Op. 1, and György Kurtág’s Signs, Games, and Messages. Free. American Art Museum, 3:00 PM.

John Lennon's stamp collection. Image courtesy of the National Postal Museum.

Monday, October 5:

Sorry kids, no special events happening at the Smithsonian today. But be sure to check out this site for a listing of regularly-scheduled happenings around the Institution.

Tuesday, October 6: Africa to America to Paris: The Migration of Black Writers

Come watch the film Africa to America to Paris: The Migration of Black Writers and learn about black writers and artists—such as Richard Wright and James Baldwin—who expatriated from America to live in France. After the film, E. Ethelbert Miller, director of the African American Resource Center and board chair of the Institute for Policy Studies at Howard University, will lead a discussion. Free. Anacostia Museum, 7:00 PM

Wednesday, October 7: The World’s First Military Airplane: A Public Symposium on the 1909 Wright Military Flyer

Celebrate a century of military aviation and attend this symposium that deals exclusively with the 1909 Wright Military Flyer—the flying machine that lifted US military aeronautics programs off the ground. Museum curators Peter Jakab and Tom Crouch will be on board as well as College Park Aviation Museum director Cathy Allen and Ken Hyde and Paul Glenshaw of the Wright Experience, a group that builds sky-worthy reproductions of Wright brothers aircraft. The lectures will also be sprinkled with rare photographs and film footage of the flyer in action. Free. Air and Space Museum, 7:30 PM

Thursday, October 8: The Gay Divorcee

This 1934 screwball comedy may be thin of plot but packs on pounds of style. Ginger Rogers plays Mimi, a young woman travels to England to secure a divorce from her husband— only to find love on the rebound in the form of Guy Holden, played by Fred Astaire. Not only does the film feature the timeless Cole Porter tune “Night and Day” but it is crowned by “The Continental,” a lavish, 22-minute song and dance number. Free. American Art Museum, 6:30 PM

Friday, October 9: Happy Birthday John Lennon!

When the Beatles did their cover version of the Marvelettes’ song “Please Mr. Postman,” one can only wonder if John Lennon wanted the stamp more than the tender communiqué inside. As a young boy, Lennon was an avid stamp collector, and to mark what would have been his 69th birthday, swing by the Postal Museum to view the only album of his you can’t spin on a turntable (or other musical reproduction media of your choice.) Free. Postal Museum, 11:00 AM-3:00 PM

For more information on events and exhibitions at the Smithsonian museums, check our companion website, goSmithsonian.com, the official visitor’s guide to the Smithsonian.

Improving Education (2000). Image courtesy of the National Postal Museum.

Back to school season is upon us! Students are spazzing over course schedules and the teachers they have to expand their minds. Teachers are sure to wonder what young minds they get to contend with over the course of the next school year and parents are prepping for an onslaught of PTA meetings and kids needing a helping hand with their homework.

That said, let the Smithsonian give you a helping hand with its open buffet of online educational resources. There’s a little something for everybody here–teachers, students and parents—to enhance the experiences in the classroom and to keep young minds active at home. So, for your convenience, here is a listing of educational materials and hopefully they’ll help make this year’s return to the classroom an exciting—and enriching—experience.

American Art Museum

Picturing the 1930s is an immersive multimedia experience that provides a vision of what life was like during the Great Depression. Browse a virtual movie theater where you can watch interviews with artists working during the period, view artwork, listen to radio programs, watch short films and even create a documentary movie of your own. You can find this and other media-rich learning aids on the Classroom Activities site. For grades 6-12.

Teachers: get your pupils involved in the world of art with Student Podcasts. This program invites students to discuss pieces in the museum’s collection. For grades K-12.

Educators are also encouraged to browse the museum’s Education Resources, a page chock-full of lesson plans and ideas on how to incorporate the arts into the classroom. These guides encompass a wide variety of subjects such as history, science and literature. There are currently 28 guides available, and new guides are added three times a year. For grades K-12.

Environmental Research Center

Check out the Environmental Research Center’s Education and Outreach Programs for a host of hands-on science programs and activities that foster learning experiences in the field as well as in the classroom. If you’re a college undergrad or graduate student, also be sure to check out the Environmental Research Center’s professional training programs. For grades K-12 and collegiate students.

Folkways

Smithsonian Folkways—the Institution’s nonprofit record label—offers a Tools for Teaching website that promotes cultural understanding through a series of lesson plans and education kits. Through studying music, students can enhance their understanding of other subject areas, such as history, geography, language arts and social studies. For grades K-12.

National Air and Space Museum

The Classroom Resources site offers learning guides and online activities that allow you to test your knowledge of the science and history of aeronautics. For grades K-12.

Educators can make use of the museum’s Teaching Resources, which include posters and teaching packets that cover a wide range of topics from how things fly to the structure of the universe. Also be sure to check out Educational Videoconferencing—programs that feature the museum’s staff and volunteers who use artifacts and photographs to teach the history and science of aeronautics. The videoconferences are geared to students in grades 3-5 and grades 8-12.

National Museum of American History

History Explorer is a resource for teachers, students and their families that invites you to investigate the museum’s artifacts and the stories they have to tell. For teachers, there are lesson plans and activities, as well as interactive media, designed to enhance the learning experience. For grades K-12.

Our Story is a resource for parents who would like to expand their child’s classroom experiences at home. This website is chock-full of activities, recommended reading and field trip ideas. For grades K-4.

National Postal Museum

The museum’s Curriculum Guides site offers a host of educational opportunities for students in grades K-12. Not just a means of exploring postal history, these guides will expand your knowledge of history and the visual arts. For grades K-Adult.

Also, be sure to check out Arago, the Postal Museum’s free online guide to the study of philately. Not only for people who are interested in stamp collecting, a host of online exhibits are available that will enhance your understanding of art, science and history. To see how stamps have been used in educational activities—and perhaps to generate some ideas of your own—check out Heroes on Stamps. For grades K-Adult.

National Zoo

Especially for educators, the zoo’s Curriculum Guides site offers a wide range of interdisciplinary student activities. For grades K-12.

If you’re planning a trip to the zoo this school year, be sure to check out the Field Trip Resources site for pre- and post-visit lesson materials and resources, as well as ideas for activities to do during your visit. For grades K-12.

The Smithsonian Biodiversity in the Classroom page will encourage students to explore the natural world and hone their math and science skills with a series of classroom lessons and outdoor activities. For grades 3-6.

Conservation Central, sponsored by FujiFilm, is designed to help kids learn about the importance of conservation and the challenges faced in preserving temperate-forest habitats—home of the Giant Panda. For grades 6-8.

UPDATE: We were remiss to not include the clearinghouse for Smithsonian education materials: SmithsonianEducation.org

The U.S. Postal Service is scaling back on mailboxes, photo courtesy of flickr user Poldavo (Alex)

Nancy Pope, a curator at the National Postal Museum, started getting phone calls two years ago from reporters asking about the removal of standard, four-foot-tall blue mailboxes from street corners. She heard from newspapers in small towns first, mainly in the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest. “It could be the smaller the community, the more obvious it was,” she says about the phantom letterboxes. But now the trend is being noticed in cities like Chicago, Boston, New York and here in Washington, D.C. According to a recent article in the Washington Post, half of the blue boxes in the Washington area have disappeared in the last nine years, and 200,000 nationwide have been plucked up in the last 20 years, leaving 175,000 total.

“They [reporters] are using the blue mailboxes to get to the story they really want to talk about, which is where is the postal service going?” says Pope.

Guess she caught my drift. In this texting, twittering world, who hand writes a letter anymore? Or, of more impact according to Pope, who doesn’t opt for online bill payments these days?

“It’s very hard for me to get my head around where the postal service is going to be in five or ten years,” says Pope. “But it’s easy for everyone to understand that that thing that was on the corner of their street isn’t there any more.”

She calls the mailboxes pieces of iconic Americana and mentions two that are in the museum’s collection. Maybe if all the boxes were as creative as the one painted to resemble Star Wars‘ R2-D2 and signed by George Lucas and Post Master General Potter, currently on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, we’d be more enticed to feed them.

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Today marks the first officially sanctioned airmail flight. On Aug. 17, 1859, balloonist John Wise carried a bag of mail on his voyage from Lafayette, Indiana to New York City. Image courtesy of the National Postal Museum.

It was August 17, 1859 and 51-year-old John Wise set out from Lafayette, Indiana to deliver 123 letters by hot-air balloon to New York City. Unfortunately, the winds weren’t in his favor. The air was still, and he had to ascend to 14,000 feet before he found enough air power to propel the balloon. After five hours, Wise had only traveled 30 miles south, not east, and had to touch down in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Nevertheless, the bag of mail eventually made it to New York by train and one of the letters therein now resides at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

For more on this monumental flight, check out Owen Edwards’ “Airmail Letter.“

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a passion for stamp collecting, a hobby he had cherished since childhood. A new exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum highlights his philatelic interests, and provides rare insight into the behind-the-scenes workings of his administration.

During his administration, Roosevelt played a critical role in much of the creation, design and promotion of some 200 stamps released during his time in office (1933-1945).

Whether celebrating Mother’s Day, Arctic exploration, National Parks or New Deal programs, FDR believed three cents of postage (the going rate back then) could deliver more than just a letter.  Curator Cheryl Ganz explains FDR’s motives in the video above.

Bart "El Barto" Simpson, the wild child of the Simpsons family, as depicted on the new US postage stamp. Image courtesy of the Postal Museum.

Friday, July 19: Soul in Motion

Experience the richness of African American culture through the explosive dancing style of the Soul in Motion Players. Come enjoy the chest-pounding rhythm of the drums and uplifting joy of the dance on their final day of performing at the Smithsonian. Tickets are required. Rates are: $6 for adults, $5 for children (ages 2-16), $4 for Resident Members. Call 202-633-8700 to reserve your seats today. Ripley Center, 10:15 AM. This event repeats today at 11:30 AM and 1:00 PM.

Saturday, July 18: Stampin’ With the Simpsons

I’ve been watching the Simpsons since I was in kindergarten and totally hopped on the fanboy bandwagon. From bendables, to talking bottle openers (which I received when I was of legal age, naturally), to many hours spent in front of the boob tube playing Simpson’s Road Rage on my brother’s Game Cube, I really can’t imagine life without America’s First (animated) Family. After 20 years on the air, it’s about time the mugs of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and the typically silent Maggie grace United States postage stamps. The first 1,000 to the Postal Museum will receive a commemorative first day cover with one of the stamps. Free. Postal Museum, 10:00 AM-1:00 PM

Sunday, July 19: Special Exhibition Sampler Tour

Let’s face it, museums are sometimes so big that it’s hard for a visitor to know where to start. If that’s the boat you’re in, come and partake of this sampler tour, a docent-led journey through the highlights of the special exhibitions currently on display at the American Art Museum. On your tour you will see pieces from Jean Shin: Common Threads, 1934: A New Deal for Artists and Graphic Masters II. Free. American Art Museum, 4:00 PM

For more information on events and exhibitions at the Smithsonian museums, check our companion website, goSmithsonian.com, the official visitor’s guide to the Smithsonian.

FDR sketched the design for the 1933 Byrd Expedition stamp, photo courtesy of the National Postal Museum.

A 44-cent stamp can carry a letter to the other side of the world. But can a stamp get a man to Antarctica and back?

President Roosevelt set aside time in his day to study his stamp albums.

In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt thought a special stamp might stoke public support for the expensive expedition. In fact, Roosevelt, who was an avid stamp collector, was so convinced of it, he even put pencil to paper and drew out a design for the stamp himself. The president’s sketch, all squiggles and dashes, eventually became the 3-cent Byrd Antarctic Expedition II stamp, commemorating Rear Admiral Richard Byrd’s exploration of the South Pole by plane.

In the fall of 1933, stamp makers at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing presented FDR with four different designs for the Byrd stamp. Roosevelt rejected all of them. The president knew stamps. He began his own collection at the age of eight. And even as president, he managed to set aside at least 30-minutes of his day to tend his stamp albums. During his presidency, stamps became an important communication tool to impart hope and optimism.

FDR rejected stamp makers designs and designed the Byrd stamp himself.

“Studies had revealed the impact on color on mood,” explains Smithsonian curator Cheryl Ganz, “and FDR applied this knowledge in the colors he chose for stamps.” Over the course of his presidency FDR would sketch out designs for five other stamps and had a direct influence on the artwork of every stamp issued (more than 200) between 1933 and 1945.

FDR’s rough sketch for the 1933 3c Byrd Antarctic Expedition II Stamp will be on view through June 2010, along with a rotation of the five other FDR sketches and stamps in a new exhibit, “Delivering Hope: FDR and Stamps of the Great Depression,” at the National Postal Museum. Highlights include some of FDR’s prize pieces from his stamp collection, as well as a number of his specialty tools that the hobby called for and more original sketches by FDR.

I spoke with Ganz about FDR’s stamp collecting habits.

Was this the first time a president had ever become so engaged in the making of stamps?

Yes, there were other presidents who were stamp collectors. For example, Herbert Hoover was a stamp collector. But FDR was the first president who took such a strong, personal interest in the postage stamp. And as a result, his postmaster general James Farley made sure that FDR approved every single stamp design before it went into production. So, he’s the only president, that I know of, who has ever done that for every single stamp.

How did FDR’s enthusiasm for stamps change the world of stamps and stamp collecting?

FDR had an incredible impact on stamps in multiple ways. First of all, what images would be on stamps, as well as, the design of the stamps. Everything from streamlining or simplification of design, to a lightening of color of design, and to how a stamp design was arranged in its graphic. So his affect on stamps was multiple. And he used stamp designs to sell his programs and to reinforce his role as president during this difficult time of the Great Depression.

Was this a good thing for the presidency?

Yes I think it was. He used stamp collecting as his stress buster. So first of all, in a very, very difficult time, very much like today, when we had so many problems at once, and no easy answers. After a demanding day, FDR would spend a half hour every night before he went to bed working on his stamp collection to just clear his mind before he’d go to sleep. So his hobby was incredibly useful so that he remained fresh at all times. And it also helped him as a life long learner. When we went into World War II, just from collecting stamps he knew every island in the Pacific—its location, its size, its population, its strategic importance. So as a life long learner the stamps added to his understanding of many, many things.

What’s the most intriguing stamp story of the FDR period? Did he have a significant impact on philately (the study of stamps)?

I don’t know if I have one intriguing story, but here’s one that I really like. He would put things on stamps to help people understand the programs of the new deal. For example, there is a stamp with Boulder Dam on it —today we know it as Hoover Dam. If you look at this stamp showing this huge dam, the first thing you think of is, oh my goodness, it put a lot of people to work to build that dam. But then you realize. oh my goodness, it’s creating electricity. So there are factories and businesses all able to benefit from this, and oh my goodness, it created irrigation for farmers so it’s helping the farming business out, too. It was a regional economic stimulus package much like the Tennessee Valley Authority at that time. While that may not be the most intriguing stamp story, I think it’s a good example of stamps coming in your mail and reinforcing all the positive things that the government was doing for you at that time.