101 Objects

I'm a public library connoisseur.  One of my first acts when we move into a new town is to get a library card.  At last count, I have eight active library cards.  I would have eleven, but three libraries cut me off.  (Oh, by the way, anybody got a NRH library card number I could borrow?  I will only use it for on-line audiobooks.)    I've found every library has its strong points no matter how small it may be.  For instance, my current library, El Dorado County Public Library, South Lake Tahoe, California, has this nifty magazine box in which patrons donate magazines and the library resells them for a quarter apiece.  I bought a Smithsonian Magazine from the box the other day in which the main article was "101 Objects that Made America".  That bad boy had my name all over it.

It was fascinating to read about what other people think of as iconic.  Icons in America can be so loaded when there are so many cultures and ethnic groups clamoring for inclusion.  I was a little intimidated by #1 which is 'the buffalo' as portrayed on the Buffalo Nickel.  It wasn't the buffalo that was the problem - it was the essay written by David Mamet to kick off the article.  Gosh, to be able to write like that.  There were some 'objects' which had essays accompanying them like the Mamet essay on the buffalo.  Some of the essayists were famous - Martha Stewart wrote about the Singer Sewing Machine.  (I think I write just as well as she does, at least.)  Frank DeFord wrote about Negro League Baseball.  Others weren't famous, but still experts in whatever field the object represented.  

As I worked my way through the article, I kept thinking, "We've seen that."  Then I began thinking, "Well, how many of these things have we seen?"  And Drake's quantitative nature has rubbed off [after 40 plus years of intensive training], so I started counting....  It turns out we've actually seen fifty-nine of the one hundred and one objects.  The rarest?  Hmmm.... the actual American flag from 1814 - the one that flew over Fort McKinley.  You know, the flag Francis Scott Key wrote that song about?  The most beautiful?  The Audubon book, Birds of America.  I was surprised it was so big. Turns out the reason is because all the birds are life sized. The object which completely gobsmacked me once I understood its significance: Clovis Points.  The one I haven't seen I want most to see:  The Aids Quilt.

So as not to keep you in suspense; here's the list with asterisks beside the ones we've seen.

Buffalo*, pre-historic Duck Decoy, Bald Eagle*, Coastal Redwood*, Stegogaurus skeleton*, Audubon Book of Birds*, Passenger pigeon*, John Wesley Powell's life preserver, Bierstadt Painting*, Neil Armstrong's Spacesuit*, Lewis/Clark Compass, Gold Nugget, Polio Vaccine, Dark Matter Spectograph, Scopes Trial photograph, Ben Franklin's Experiments, Burgess Shale, George Catlin Paintings*, Smithson's will,Walt Whitman photograph,  Bell's Telephone*, Remington Typewriter*, Marian Anderson's fur coat, FDR's microphone*, Nat Turner's bible, Langston Hughs' poem: "The Colored Soldier", Middle Mississippi Mask, Andy Warhols' "Michael Jackson", Cesar Chavez's Jacket*, Louis Armstrong's trumpet*, Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway*, Justice O'Connor's robe, Telstar*, Lincoln's Top Hat*, Appomattox Table & Chairs*, Gordon photograph*, George Washington's Gilbert Stuart portrait*, Susan B Anthony's gavel, Red Horse's Drawings of Little Bighorn*, Greensboro Lunch Counter*, Predator Drone*, Bell Iroquois Helicopter*, Enola Gay*, Wright Flyer*, Wonder Woman comic, White House charred timber, Colt Revolver*, Clovis Points*, Singer Sewing Machine*, Levi's Jeans*, Cotton Gin*, Eames chair*, Eniac Computer*, Edison light bulb*, Kodak camera*, Morse telegraph*, John Bull Locomotive*, Model T*, Discovery space shuttle*, Ration ticket, Pueblo jars, "This Land is Your Land" recording, suitcase from Japanese Internment*, AIDS Quilt, Emergency Money, John Deere plow*, Negro League baseball*, Psychedelic sign board, Chuck Berry's guitar, Irving Berlin's piano, Barbie*, R2D2*, Teddy Bear*, Ruby Slippers*, Michael Jordan's jersey*, Ali's gloves & robe*, Richard Petty's stockcar, Spirit of St. Louis*, Novus Orbis map, World Trade Center sign, WWI gas mask, Fallout shelter, Mash sign*, Pocohontas portrait*, Giant panda, vintage California wines, USS Maine bugle, USS Oklahoma stamp, Stained glass shards [Birmingham bombing], LBJ's pen [Civil Rights Act], Harriet Tubman's hymn book, Stamp Act proof, The Pill*, US Olympic Hockey Jersey*, Geronimo portrait*, John Brown Daguerreotype*, Thomas Jefferson's desk*, piece of Plymouth Rock*, Clipper Flying Cloud*, original Star Spangled Banner*.