Rather appropriately for the President’s Day
weekend, the Secret Victorianist spent the last few days in Washington D.C. It
was my first visit to the US capital, and partially inspired by my recent review of Henry Adam’s Democracy,
which provides a fascinating glimpse into the social and political milieu of
the city in the 1800s. It was a culturally diverse weekend (from Renaissance
art to 50 Shades of Grey, with lots
in between), but I wanted to share some nineteenth-century highlights among the
attractions I visited.
First up was the National Museum of American
History, where three very different exhibitions which dealt with the period
stood out. There was the original star-spangled banner – the huge flag which
flew above Fort McHenry to mark its victory over the British in September 1814
and which inspired the poem by Francis Scott Key which would become the
country’s national anthem.
O say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Etc.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Etc.
The flag |
What I found interesting here, aside from the
impressively huge flag itself, was the story this told about the afterlife of
objects and texts. Just as the flag has gone through changes – been invested
with a meaning beyond its initial use, cut up to provide keepsakes, displayed
in private homes and in public spaces, so too has Key’s poem been adapted and
repurposed. Listening to older recordings of the anthem being sung and
comparing to the conventions of anthem-singing today, for example, posed
questions about cultural continuity and evolution. The exhibition isn’t just an
important piece of US history – it’s a testament to the ongoing and
ever-developing nature of history and an argument in itself for the value of
reception studies.
Alexander Graham Bell |
Meanwhile Hear
my Voice was a (much emptier!) special exhibition featuring recordings and
equipment from Alexander Graham Bell’s Volta Laboratory in Washington D.C. in
the 1880s. Indistinct and crackling as the recordings are, hearing voices from
the nineteenth century, testing equipment and reciting ‘Mary Had a Little
Lamb’, is a real thrill, and one which draws attention to the impressive nature
of the kind of technologies we now take for granted.
'The Mutiny on the Amistad', Hale Woodruff |
If learning about the star-spangled banner
led to reflections on American patriotism today, a way of looking back at the nineteenth century through a
different lens, was the Rising Up: Hale
Woodruff’s Murals at Talladega College exhibition. This series of six murals
by Woodruff, painted in the 1930s, was commissioned by the Alabama college and
portrays significant events in African American history, including the
foundation of Talladega College in 1867 and the slave uprising on the Amistad
in 1839.
Seeing a nineteenth-century slave ship and
courtroom rendered in Woodruff’s colourful, geometric murals is vivid and
compelling, and with recent interest in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
narratives with black heroes and heroines at their centre (think Twelve Years a Slave and Belle), it seems like a timely moment
for these wonderful murals to be touring the country, post-restoration.
Tudor Place |
Away from the history museum, I also visited
the historic Tudor Place – a family mansion in Georgetown, which was home to
Thomas Peter, and his wife Martha (granddaughter of Martha Washington), and
four generations of their descendants (until 1983). The beautiful house, which
dates from 1814, holds many objects from Mount Vernon, and visiting gives you
an insight into the life of one family throughout the entire nineteenth, and
most of the twentieth, centuries, against a backdrop of large scale political
and social change and upheaval. The family watched the White House burn from
their windows in 1814, hosted Union soldiers, despite their Southern sympathies
during the Civil War, and, throughout all, lovingly preserved the character of
the house.
On what was one of the coldest days of the
year in D.C., I was lucky enough to have the first tour of the day entirely to
myself, but would love to visit again in the summer to wander around the
tranquil and extensive gardens. If you’re fed up with the throngs at the city’s
headline tourist attractions, this is a gem.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. |
A final mention goes to the current display
of works from the Corcoran Gallery at the National Gallery of Art, as the
latter incorporates 6,000 works from the former into its collection. There’s so
much here, but I particularly enjoyed Frederic Edwin Church’s Niagara (1857). Catch it with its fellow
pieces from the Corcoran while you can.
Do you know of any other great
nineteenth-century attractions in D.C.? Let me know for next time I visit –
here, on Facebook or by tweeting @SVictorianist!
'Niagara', Frederic Edwin Church (1857) |
I love your insight on the afterlife of objects and texts. Very thought-provoking read (and with such amazing pics!). Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Glad you enjoyed it :)
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