2018 Meeting at the National Museum of American History

Consortium for American Material Culture

12th Annual Meeting
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C.
May 31-June 1, 2018

Host

National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Fath Davis Ruffins, Curator, Division of Home and Community Life
Bill Yeingst, Chair, Division of Home and Community Life

Attendees

The primary participants are CAMC members and the curators of the various exhibitions. In addition are new curators at the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of African American History & Culture, and faculty from nearby institutions.

CAMC Members

Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture
• Catherine Whalen, Material Culture
• Meredith Linn, Historical Archaeology
Cooperstown Graduate Program, State University of New York at Oneonta
• Cindy Falk, Material Culture
Michigan State University Museum
• Shirley Wajda, Historian and Curator
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
• Fath Davis Ruffins, Home and Community Life
• Nancy Davis, Curator Emeritus, Home and Community Life
Pennsylvania State University-Harrisburg
• Anne Verplanck, American Studies
University of Delaware
• Sandy Isenstadt, Center for Material Culture Studies and Art History
• Wendy Bellion, Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and Art History
• Catharine Dann Roeber, Winterthur Program in American Material Culture
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
• Bernie Herman, American Studies
• Rebecca Herman
Yale University
• Matthew Jacobson, American Studies, African American Studies History, and Public Humanities

Local Faculty

American University
• Malgorzata Rymsza-Pawlowska, History
Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives
• Kimberly Springle, Executive Director
Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
• Izetta Autumn Mobley, Co-Chair, D.C. History Conference
University of Delaware
• Susan Strasser, History (emerita)
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
• Denise Meringolo, History
University of Maryland-College Park
• Donnesha Blake, Women's Studies
• Jo Paoletti, American Studies (emerita)

Smithsonian Curators and Staff

Anacostia Community Museum
• Samir Meghelli, Chief Curator
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
• Jim Deutsch, Curator
• Sojin Kim, Curator
National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Bill Pretzer, Senior Curator for History
• Dwandalyn Reece, Curator of Music and Performing Arts
• Michelle Wilkinson, Curator
National Museum of American History
• Nancy Davis, Curator Emeritus, Home and Community Life
• Catherine Eagleton, Associate Director, Curatorial Affairs
• Theodore Gonzalves, Curator, Culture and the Arts
• Lisa Kathleen Graddy, Curator, Political History
• Claire Jerry, Curator, Political History
• Bonnie Lilienfeld, Assistant Director, Curatorial Affairs
• Ryan Lintelman, Curator, Culture and the Arts
• Magdalena Mieri, Director of Special Initiatives and of the Program in Latino History and Culture
• Amanda Moniz, Curator of Philanthropy
• Harry Rubenstein, Curator, Political History
• Fath Davis Ruffins, Curator, Home and Community Life
• Debbie Schaefer-Jacobs, Associate Curator, Home and Community Life
• Barbara Clark Smith, Curator, Political History
• Megan Smith, Interpretive Specialist, Education and Impact
• Steve Velasquez, Curator, Home and Community Life
• Bill Yeingst, Chair, Home and Community Life
National Museum of the American Indian
• Cecile Ganteaume, Associate Curator
• Christopher Turner, Cultural Research Specialist
• Paul Chaat Smith, Associate Curator
National Portrait Gallery
• Kate Lemay, Historian

http___americanhistory.si.edu_sites_default_files_JdL%20Fig%201.jpg.jpg

_{Border fence between Mexicali and Calexico, Many Voices, One Nation, NMAH, Smithsonian.}
_{Uncle Sam costume, 1956, American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith exhibition, NMAH, Smithsonian.}
_{Kat Rodriguez, Immokalee Statue of Liberty, 2000, Many Voices, One Nation, NMAH, Smithsonian.}

Theme

Changing National Narratives

Various scholars and curators have written about the difficulties and possibilities of changing national narratives to make them more inclusive and more accurate. Three Smithsonian museums have produced new exhibitions in the last couple of years that take up national narratives in some new ways. This conference will provide time to visit these new exhibitions at the National Museum of American History (NMAH), the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and the National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC). After viewing each of the new exhibitions on your own, we will have time to dialogue with the specific exhibition curators about their goals, challenges, obstacles, and successes in these projects.

_{1948 Indian Chief motorcycle, Americans exhibition, NMAI, Smithsonian.}
_{Northern Inunaina (Arapaho) pipe bag, ca. 1885, Wind River Reservation, Wyoming, Nation to Nation: Treaties between the United States and American Indian Nations exhibition, NMAI, Smithsonian.}
_{Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Oren Lyons, Ph.D., (right), and The Tadodaho of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chief Sidney Hill, examine the signature of Ki-On-Twog-Ky, also known as Cornplanter (Seneca), on the Treaty of Canandaigua of 1794 at the National Museum of the American Indian, Sept. 8, 2014.}

Schedule

Thursday May 31st

Morning

9:00-9:30
Continental Breakfast at S.C. Johnson Center, National Museum of American History (NMAH)

9:30-10:15
Call to order by Fath Davis Ruffins, Curator, Home and Community Life
Welcome by William Yeingst, Chair, Home and Community Life
Self-introduction by participants

10:15-12:00
Viewing of "The Nation We Built Together" at NMAH with two new exhibitions: Many Voices, One Nation and American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith

Afternoon

12:30
Welcome by Catherine Eagleton, Chair of the Office of Curatorial Affairs

12:00-2:00
Lunch at S.C. Johnson Center and conversation with NMAH curators. Key presenters:
American Democracy - Harry Rubenstein (recently retired, Politics and Reform), Lisa Kathleen Graddy, and Barbara Clark Smith
Many Voices, One Nation - Nancy Davis, Project Director (retired),
Bonnie Lilienfeld, and educator Megan Smith

2:00-2:15/2:30
Transfer to National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI)

2:15-3:30
Viewing of two new exhibitions: Americans and Nation to Nation: Treaties between the United States and American Indian Nations

3:30-5:00
Conversation with NMAI curators and mini-reception, NMAI Board Room. Key Presenters:
Nation to Nation - Chris Turner
Americans - Cecile Ganteaume and Paul Chaat Smith

Evening

7:00-9:00
Reception and dinner at the Charles Sumner School and Archives, 1201 17th St NW, Washington, DC

7:30
Welcome by host Kimberly Springle, Executive Director

Friday, June 1st

Morning

9:00-9:30
Continental Breakfast at S.C. Johnson Center, National Museum of American History (NMAH)

9:30
Call to order by Fath Davis Ruffins

9:45/10:00
Walk to the Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)

10:00-12:15/12:30
Viewing of NMAAHC

Afternoon

12:30-3:00
Lunch at S.C. Johnson Center, NMAH, and conversation with NMAAHC curators. Key presenters: Bill Pretzer, Michelle Wilkinson, and Dwandalyn Reece

3:15
CAMC business meeting