SO MUCH HISTORY!!!
So our original plan after touring the monuments was going to be spread out between the various branches of the Smithsonian along the mall – namely, the American History Museum, the Natural History Museum, and (the one I was looking forward to the most) the Air & Space Museum.
Needless to say, after probably about four straight hours within a single building, our plan had been revised to: see the American History Museum, come back later for everything else!
Where to Start, Where to Start?
I think pure awe is probably the best way to describe it – I never would’ve imagined each individual museum being so huge, maybe partly because admission is free and partly just how everything is laid out inside. I mean, the area doesn’t seem that big when you’re just walking around the hallways and four floors doesn’t seem like a whole lot, but when you get back into the actual exhibits, they seemed to go on forever! I constantly caught myself saying as we walked into another room – “Ooh – they have science stuff here, too? And stuff about transporation? And inventions? And pop culture?!“
The place just seemed to go on and on, and although I know that war plays a big part of our history (not to mention unfortunately our present), it was cool to see so many other aspects of our nation’s history in addition to the somewhat grusome stuff.
Sometimes Americans Were Kinda Jerks
One theme that I honestly and frankly couldn’t get over as we toured the various war exhibits was that not for nothing, but our country has a lot of really dark times in its past! There was definitely no sugar coating (which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong), but to see all of the racism of the civil war or the evils of World War II spelled out in front of me was really an eye-opener. I know that we were at war, but I sat and watched a couple of different videos about the bombs that we dropped on Japan and it’s really some devastating stuff.
Granted, it was interesting, and also a bit scary, to see some of the wartime propaganda from those days talking about rationing and ways that you could help support the troops, and it definitely made me glad that our wartime efforts today are a little different than they were before. And I know that a lot of it just has to do with my own perspectives about how we shouldn’t even be in the current wars that we’re in … it may not be well received to “support the troops, but not the war” like I do today, but it’s very clear that protestors back in those days were treated a little differently than just being called unpatriotic.
Definitely one of those parts of history that was important to learn about, but still happy to get to move on to brighter days!
History – More Than Just Us Blowing Things Up
Fortunately, although the war exhibits were quite big (they were a big part of our history, for better and for worse), there were also tons of other non-war-related exhibits, and one of my favorites, albeit somewhat small, was the wing dedicated to pop culture. I think it’ll be pretty obvious as to why…
More to come…
While I couldn’t possibly write about everything that we saw in the few hours that we wandered the halls of the Smithsonian, I think my next post is going to be a photo post with more highlights so I don’t feel like I’m leaving anything out.
You know, just to prove that there’s more to American history than war and Kermit the Frog… 😉