It’s a beautiful spring day in DC. After heading to Pentagon City to pick up my packet for tomorrow’s race, I hopped over to the National Geographic Museum to see Tavis Smiley’s America I Am Exhibit. If you find yourself in DC between now and June, I recommend checking it out even though the exhibit felt a bit short, and I felt like there were some serious gaps in the story. (Then again, can you really squeeze roughly 400 years of history into a single exhibit?)
Fascinating things on display:
Frederick Douglass’s long coat
The contract that gave Douglass his freedom (for $711.66)
Prince’s (or whatever his name is now) guitar
James Brown’s concert wear
John Brown’s rifle
One thing that I noticed standing in line for tickets — most of the visitors to the exhibit were African American. Don’t take this as complaining, but it does say reinforce the idea that the people who engage in the study of history or culture of a particular group are often members of that group.
