American History

A stop at the Smithsonian's American History Museum is always a must, although a photo blog will not have an image of the Star-Spangled Banner, kept in a controlled-light display that is designed to preserve it for future generations. But we did see the ruby slippers of Oz, Julia Child's kitchen, Archie Bunker's chair, and these two quite different images.

My favorite George Washington statue, depicting him quite incongruously in toga, was formerly in a lower level of the Capitol. Here it is a hallway feature, quite near the dress Carol Burnett wore in a spoof of Gone With the Wind. Turning the drapery of Tara into a dress to impress was funny enough, but including the curtain rod was comic genius. When Burnett referred to it as "something I saw in a window," that might have been the heartiest laugh I ever enjoyed in front of the television.