The Newseum, built on Pennsylvania Ave in 2008, has an amazing array of artifacts. A special exhibit on The Berlin Wall (1961 -1989) has huge chunks of the concrete Wall, which went up overnight.
Above are activist signs on the West Berlin Wall. Nothing was on the East Berlin wall due to no freedom of expression.
Imagine you lived in Berlin, whose bldgs were destroyed in World War II, and you traveled about freely to visit your friends and relatives.
Then - poof! - one day a huge wall went up and you could no longer see them.
Lenin's iconic statue was torn down and look where it ended up, headless. This young man, dressed in a Mark Rothko shirt, still can't figure out what Lenin is doing here in the States.
The Kennedys' personal photographer Jacques Lowe stored thousands of the photos in the basement of one of the Twin Towers.
They were destroyed beyond recognition, but the original photos were restored and are part of this wonderful exhibit.
Jacques Lowe said this was his personal favorite of President Kennedy b/c it shows the loneliness of the job.
Jackie was unlike any other first lady. She bonded with the American people when she took them on a television tour of The White House.
Jacques Lowe, the German-Jewish-born photographer, who, with his mother, hid out in Cologne, during the Nazi era, died in 2001 at age 71 of cancer.
The Newseum has a huge collection of newspapers and magazines from all over the world, including Match from France, the equivalent to the former Life magazine.
The museum is laid out so that you must walk counterclockwise and then you will find the stairs or elevators to the next floors. There are sixth floors in all, including the top floor which is a terrace where I could feel the breeze in my hair and beard.
One wall featured some Mafia deaths....
And of course you remember the Rosenbergs - Julius and Ethel - convicted as
Red spies - and executed.
This man is a terrorist who wrote a poem on a napkin - above - to the man who hunted him down. See the handcuffs he wore when he was captured? He was implicated in the 1993 plan to bomb the World Trade Center.
There was a display on the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, including the ladder, where the kidnapper entered the baby's bedroom.
Many artifacts from the destroyed Twin Towers including these plane engines.
A mother and her young daughter went down in one of the planes. On loan to the museum are the woman's wallet and credit cards. Brrrrr!
Charred cell phones from 9/11,
They had live-streaming of Osama bin Laden.
The Unibomber's cabin in the wilds of Montana.
The Unabomber's name is derived from the places this terrorist anarchist bombed: university and airline bomber. Born in 1942, this mathematical prodigy is serving a life sentence
for his crimes.
Remember the terrorist who had a bomb in his shoe? Isn't it amazing that the shoes are on display with their hidden pouches. The terrorist was subdued on an airplane by using tranquilizers kept in a flight attendant's bag.
Back to Ted Kaczynzki. No more bombs for you, young man. Off to life sentence you go.
Something as simple as this killed three people and injured dozens more.
Next we'll limp into the section of Pulitzer prize-winning photographs.
This simple photograph - called Lunch at the Newseum with black plastic fork and hard-boiled egg brought from home - was a surprise winner. The photographer also included a photo of the huge cafeteria, with sandwiches going for a hefty $8. The above veggie platter was $3.50.
The Babe retires.
This camera shot some real winners like Kennedy and Eisenhower going for private talks.
Ooof! Jack Ruby shoots Oswald. Live and on TV.
James Meredith, the first integrated student at Ole Miss university, is shot, but survives.
Kent State, another Pulitzer-prizewinning shot of a terrible tragedy, a protest of the Vietnam war.
Altho you can't see it now, the woman on the left had such pained expressions on her face, due to the verisimitude of the photographs, which, were indeed often painful to look at. There were some famous shots in Vietnam which I couldn't bear to look at.
In one of the many theatres there was a filmed discussion that photographs and videos DO change the way people think as war is brought closer to them. Hence, the defeat of LBJ and his lies about the Vietnam War.
Walter Cronkite's typewriter and stop watch that he used to 'time' his news accounts.
BELOW is Cronkite's SCRIPT for Nov 23, the day after Kennedy's assassination.
ABOVE - Jacket and shirt worn by Oswald when he killed Kennedy, shown for the very first time.
Mug shot of Jack Ruby. Ruby's death sentence was overturned but he died of lung cancer in jail.
Kennedy's electric Smith-Corona typewriter.
I'm up on the sixth floor terrace of The Newseum.
Exterior of Newseum, which was funded and founded by many newspaper greats. Gee, I didn't notice Today's Spirit in there. That's the first newspaper I wrote for in Hatboro, PA. It's now The Kitchen Korner.
See the crane off to the Right. I learned that's The National Gallery, one of the finest art museums in the country. When I heard this, I knew I'd find time to go.
Canadian Embassy is right next door to Newseum.
Good view of Capitol Building. Directly across town is the White House. Obama is in Russia now meeting with Putin about Syria.
WORLD NEWSPAPERS at the Newseum
An infection destroyed this woman's legs and half an arm.
Nice graphics in the WSJ.
Newspaper from Fairbanks, AK.
This FL paper features rehabbing of veterans.
Savannah, GA.
SPECIAL EXHIBIT on The Assassination of the Century.
Jehovah's Witnesses have a friend in the US Supreme Court. One justice quipped that they should have a stipend for supporting First Amendment Rights of Freedom of Religion. They do not need a solicitor's permit when coming round the neighborhood to evangelize,
since it's lawful due to the First Amendment.
Early printing press used to disseminate Declaration of Independence.
GREAT BOOKS were displayed. Many would have been printed on Gutenberg's printing press.
Death of King George.
What's this? Speak up now or forever hold your peace.
Roosevelt is elected. I believe this is The Daily News of New York.
The Gannett Family founded a
newspaper empire.
I was working at the Intelligencer/Record on Easton Road when The Challenger went down with schoolteacher Christa Mcauliffe on board.
ABOVE John Milton, the poet, wrote The Areopagitica,
Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England is a 1644 prose polemical tract by the English poet and polemical author John Milton against censorship. Areopagitica is among history's most influential and impassioned philosophical defences of the principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression, which was written in opposition to licensing and censorship. - Wiki
Don't you love how these ancient texts look?
Tim Russert's office is preserved. Russert - (1950-2008), you remember, was the longest-serving moderator of Meet the Press.
Good thing I talked to Rebecca. She told me that the below wreckage was from the North Tower of the World Trade Center. She also said there was a live performance at 2:30 of a C-Span program. I told our group about it and many went. She also told me that The National Gallery of Art was just down the street.
There were many small theaters in The Newseum, all with fascinating short films. This shows the clouds of smoke on 9/11 as the Second Tower goes down.
Where were you? They actually had a Bulletin Board with Post-It notes about this very subject. Several people wrote "I wasn't born yet."
As soon as I got home from our trip, I called Judy Diaz in Niwot, CO, to tell her to watch C-Span. She's the only person I know who watches the whole thing, with her cat Missy on her lap, now that she's retired.
The topic was First Ladies. The panelists were Cokie Roberts, historian Richard Norton Smith and the WSJ's XXX who covers the First Lady.
Fascinating discussion! An audience member asked What the protocol would be should a woman be elected president. Judging by the activity on Facebook, Hilary Clinton is already running.
Cokie is autographing one of her books. I couldn't wait to make my get-away and walk to the National Gallery. I'd spent the past FOUR HOURS in the Newseum. It felt like being in a giant underground city of the future.
I needed fresh air.
HUGE SCREENS showed tennis finals.
Twas a thrill watching the game, second only to being there.
Approaching the National Gallery. See the beautiful brick in the driveway. These are Henry Miller sculptures.
Ah, Henry! You and your big beautiful voluptuous bods.
Once inside this FREE museum - The Newseum cost $22 - I saw this lovely pile of stones, one of several.
ELLSWORTH KELLY, b. 1923, and his colored paper collages.
Below is a typical Mark Rothko.
Max Ernst, I believe.
Numerous Alexander Calder sculptures.
David Smith above.
Broad expanse of the National Gallery.
FANTASTIC SPECIAL EXHIBIT on the Russian choreograher Diaghilov who founded The Ballet Russes.
Original costumes were in the exhibit plus marvelous ballet clips by the Joffrey Ballet.
Leon Bakst was a costume designer.
The museum also featured about 18 different sculptures of hands by an American sculptor.
A typical Chuck Close.
Jackson Pollock.
More Calder below.
Shadows on the wall.
A moo-cow.
Helen Frankenthaler.
Rothko.
The first Richard Serra I've ever seen. I couldn't appreciate it.
Look! We're on the bus already heading home.
A contingent of motorcyclists roared by.
Rest stop at the Delaware House where we ate. I made myself at home on a nice private table.
I enjoyed talking to my seat mate Cheryl Wagner who lives at the Southampton Estates.
We watched an excellent movie - Amour - a sad tale of the decline of a marriage due to health problems. Superb acting.
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