Artifacts of War Evoke Memories From Museum Visitors
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16-There are the wool bunting fragments cut from the flag of Francis Scott Key’s Star Spangled Banner. And there are the steel girders painstakingly extracted from the wreckage of the crumbled twin towers.
These relics of America’s past evoke memory, and mourning, from American History Museum visitors who pass through a new exhibition, “The Price of Freedom: Americans at War.”
But smaller, subtler tokens of war have meaning for those visitors who themselves fought or served. There are Army song sheets and melt-proof Hershey’s bars that were passed around among the troops of World War II. There also are packs of Truong S’on cigarettes and the tin cups given to the prisoners of war in North Vietnam.
Artifacts, aged combat gear, mementos and undying photographs, all grace the winding halls of the exhibit that opened last Thursday in the Smithsonian Institution’s recently remodeled American History Museum.
With its début timed for Veteran’s Day, the exhibition traverses the history of America’s conflicts, from the Revolutionary War to the current war in Iraq, with more than 850 items and graphics. It provides what museum director Brent Glass said is a “sweeping and memorable overview” of American military history.
“What is most significant about this exhibition is its comprehensive nature,” he said. “I think that one of the lasting impressions that visitors will come away with upon visiting this exhibition, is an appreciation for the people through history who have served the country, both on the battlefield and on the home front.”
And indeed, this 18,000-square-foot exhibition provides a multi-faceted window into the world of battle, both at home and abroad.
The displays of earlier wars are filled with relics that might have been plucked straight from a high school history textbook: the buckskin coat worn by Gen. George Armstrong Custer and pieces from the battleship USS Maine.
But as visitors meander through the wings of the museum, and through history, they encounter displays filled with what Glass said are “stories and collections.of a more personal nature.”
Not only are there battlefield artifacts, but also pieces of American military actions as viewed through the eyes of those who remained at home. It provides a glimpse of history that Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said is unique to this country.
“Many of us know, the best footpath beyond war is not to dwell on our experiences, but to draw from them,” Ridge, a Vietnam veteran, said Thursday at the opening of the exhibition. “And that is the gift of this exhibition-for it tells a story that is uniquely American-and that will embolden and enlighten, as only the American experience can.”
There is the cast metal Pearl Harbor lapel pin, a pierced oval with “remember” in red, and “harbor” in blue, hugging a single center pearl. Thousands of these and similar lapel pins were distributed across the country, to solidify war efforts and remind Americans of the tragic bombing of the military base in December 1941.
Joining it nearby is a tarnished air raid helmet, once worn by a factory worker turned air raid warden, when the threat of nuclear war was uncertain; and a cookbook from the World War II era that offered women ways to stretch the value of their food ration coupons, reading, “It may not be convenient, But we don’t admit defeat, For in spite of War and Rationing, America must eat.”
Some critics have argued that the museum is overly inclusive, and that displays of the Sept. 11 attacks and Iraq war are inappropriate, because they blur the line between history and current events, and in the latter case, make a political statement about a controversial conflict.
But Glass said the move was spurred by the overwhelming agreement of historians commissioned during the planning process, and also at the request of teachers who had sent in requests for the inclusion of current events. He added that the museum will continue to try and incorporate ongoing history, as events unfold.
“Unfortunately, war is part of human history and is part of human condition,” he said. “We would imagine that there would be wars in the future.and it would be important to include them.”
Glass said it would be a shame to focus on that aspect, and ignore the magnificence of an exhibition that is rich, not only in content, but also in display.
The halls of the museum take on a multi-dimensional approach, due to the work of Boston-based design team, Christopher Chadbourne & Associates, and a Virginia company that assisted with the installation process. The process was also given a boost from a $16 million gift from California real estate mogul and philanthropist Kenneth E. Behring, who has donated a total of $100 million to the museum over the past ten years.
There are objects small and large; from the pile of gold flakes that lured settlers to California after Mexico ceded the land in the war from 1846 until 1848, to the restored UH-1H Huey Helicopter that was manufactured by Bell Helicopter in 1965 and formed a lasting image of the Vietnam conflict in many individuals’ minds.
“It was in a way, the center of the conflict,” Glass said. “Now it is the center of our museum.”
And there are interactive displays, like the touch-screen computers that provide first-person narratives from men and women who experienced each conflict, and the 40 panels spread throughout the museum that provide points-of-view of U.S. military involvement. There are also nine videos donated by the History Channel, including the film “Fighting for America” which visitors can view upon leaving the exhibition.
“The people whose stories are told in this exhibit, and the countless American graves around the world, serve as reminders of the willingness to bear this burden of defending liberty,” Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday.
Also in the exhibition are activities for children. The “Give Me Liberty” puppet play explores Colonial resentment to tea sanctions, and the “Hay Foot, Straw Foot” exhibit allows visitors to learn musket drills and field maneuvers.
It is a panoply of visuals and text that provides a slideshow of history that is open to interpretation. But Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small said there is one idea all should agree on:
“Though nations declare wars, individuals fight them, sacrifice and suffer in them,” he wrote in the museum’s magazine. “In the end, the price of freedom may be incalculable, because its true costs lie buried so deep within individuals, where no one can fully take their measure.”
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