By Bruce Shawkey
Of all the museums in Washington, D.C., I like the National Museum of American History the most. Construction of the National Museum of American History began in the late 1950s, and opened to the public in January 1964. They regularly feature something of interest on their website, and here are some of their past and present exhibits.
Edison's talking machine
In 1877 Thomas Edison invented the first device to ever record and play back sound. Soundwaves captured by a mouthpiece caused a stylus attached to a diaphragm to move up and down, making indentations on a sheet of tinfoil wrapped around a rotating drum. In playback, the stylus traced those indentations, causing the diaphragm to recreate a recognizable version of the original sound. Edison’s “talking machine” was a public sensation. It -- not the light bulb -- earned him the moniker “Wizard of Menlo Park.” Americans first read about the device in the papers, but soon witnessed it for themselves at public demonstrations around the country. They were in awe. This machine could capture a sound and transport it to the future. Sales of Edison’s tinfoil phonograph were poor. Its recordings were fragile and short-lived -- and he abandoned it. Nearly a decade later, spurred by competition from Alexander Graham Bell, Edison made multiple improvements and introduced new machines that found popular appeal. The Edison Home Phonograph, first manufactured in 1896, played individually prerecorded wax cylinders.
Bell's Gramophone
Alexander Graham Bell and his associates at the Volta Laboratory set out to best Thomas Edison’s original phonograph. They were convinced of the profit-making potential of an improved device—especially one that could capture more clearly the speaking voice for business dictation. They originated wax cylinder records, and developed a machine to record and play them, the graphophone. The wax cylinders could record about five minutes of dictation, approximately two or three short business letters.
America on the Move
This major exhibition examines how transportation—from 1876 to 1999—has shaped our American identity from a mostly rural nation into a major economic power, forged a sense of national unity, delivered consumer abundance, and encouraged a degree of social and economic mobility unlike that of any other nation of the world.
Among the 300 objects on view, highlights include:
“Jupiter,” a steam-powered locomotive built in 1876 for the Santa Cruz Railroad
260-ton “1401” locomotive, which pulled President Franklin Roosevelt's funeral train on part of its journey to Washington, D.C.
1903 Winton, the first car driven across the U.S.—by H. Nelson Jackson and Sewall Crocker, with Bud the Dog as a passenger.
1926 Ford Model T Roadster.
1942 Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Chicago Transit Authority “L” mass transit car built in 1959.
A piece of U.S. Route 66, the “People's Highway,” that connected Chicago to Los Angeles.
Food: Transforming the American Table
Julia Child’s home kitchen, with its hundreds of tools, appliances, and furnishings serves as the opening story of the museum’s first major exhibition on food history. Countertops were custom-built extra tall to accommodate Julia's height at 6 feet 2 inches.
Taking America to Lunch
This display case celebrates the history and endurance of American lunch boxes. Reaching the height of their popularity at the dawn of the television era, lunch box sales became barometers for what was hip in popular culture at any point in time. Included in the display are more than 50 objects drawn from the Museum’s collection of children’s and workers illustrated metal lunch boxes and beverage containers dating from the 1890s through the 1980s.
Lunch box, circa 1905
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