Legacies: Collecting America's History at the Smithsonian

Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press - National Museum of American History, 2001. First printing. Dk. green full-cloth boards, stamped cover and spine titles, moderate shelf wear, bump. Heavy stock coated pages, fine. Folio 9.25" x 12.25" design. Richly and vibrantly illustrated throughout. Indexed. In this highly selective tour of the museum's inventory, museum curators Lubar and Kendrick point out curiosities and treasures alike, all of them providing clues about the American past: a clamshell used in the Depression as currency, accepted as an object of value by the denizens of a California beach town; a fragment of a Confederate flag torn from its post by an angry Union sympathizer the day after Virginia voted for secession; the overstuffed chair from which actor Carroll O'Connor delivered Archie Bunker's diatribes on the sitcom All in the Family; a 1903 Teddy bear, made after then-president Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear cub while out hunting; Tom Thumb's hat, Prince's guitar, Cesar Chavez's windbreaker, and dozens of other items that chronicle the ever-changing culture. Through the stories behind more than 200 representative objects many not photographed previously for publication Lubar and Kendrick propose to answer the question, "What do [the museum's] vast collections tell Americans about themselves?" 256 pages.. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. Book.