From Dorothy's ruby slippers to a speech that saved Teddy Roosevelt from assassination, this authoritative guide delivers in-depth reportage on the history of remarkable objects from the Smithsonian's collections
For American history, pop culture, and museum enthusiasts
With charm and exuberance,
The Object at Hand
presents a behind-the-scenes vantage point of the Smithsonian collections. Veteran Smithsonian magazine editor Beth Py-Lieberman weaves together adaptations of the magazine's extensive and compelling coverage and interviews with scholars, curators, and historians to take readers on an unforgettable journey through the Smithsonian museums.
Objects are grouped into the themes audacity, utopia, fierce, haunting, deception, lost, desire, triumph, scale, optimism, playful, rhythm, and revealing to engage with the emotional dimensions of each object, how they relate to each other, and how they fit into the larger American story. A sampling includes:
The Star-Spangled Banner
Frida Kahlo's love letter to Diego Rivera
Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega 5B
Nat Turner's Bible
An AIDS quilt panel honoring Roger Gail Lyon
A signpost from the Standing Rock protest
A glass-plate portrait of Abraham Lincoln
Life-sized model of a Megalodon
The Hope Diamond
Chuck Berry's Cadillac
Portrait of Henrietta Lacks
Py-Lieberman reflects on the profound connections between even outwardly dissimilar objects, and offers insight and stories from Smithsonian experts. The book explores artworks, scientific specimens, historical artifacts, airplanes, spacecraft, plants, and so much more, contemplating how each item represents different facets of humanity and resonates with cultural meaning in surprising ways. Whimsical, affecting, and insightful,
offers an intimate and exclusive tour of the Smithsonian collections.