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Treasures of American History

November 17, 2006 - April 13, 2008

Museum: Air and Space Museum

Location: Changing Exhibitions, Gallery 211 (previously Flight & the Arts)

While the American History Museum is closed for renovation (Sept. 5, 2006-fall 2008), more than 150 highlights from the museum are on view here. The exhibition is divided into four sections: Creativity and Innovation, American Biography, National Challenges, and American Identity.

Highlights include:

• Dorothy's ruby slippers and the rarely seen Scarecrow costume worn by Ray Bolger in The Wizard of Oz
• First lady Jacqueline Kennedy's inaugural gown
• the compass used by Lewis and Clark during their journey across the Louisiana Territory
• the Woolworth's lunch counter from Greensboro, N.C., where four African American students began a "sit-in" in 1960 that lasted for six months
• Thomas Jefferson's bible and lap desk
• Abraham Lincoln's top hat
• Thomas Edison's lightbulb
• General Custer's buckskin jacket
• R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars
• Kermit the Frog
• Duke Ellington's sheet music for "Mood Indigo"

See related article in Smithsonian magazine: Nov. 2006, p. 47; Jan. 2007, p. 34; Feb. 2007, p. 30 (Rocky Balboa's boxing gloves donation), and p. 36 (Jarvik heart donation)

Related book: $12.95 (paper)