American Aspirations: A Nation in Pursuit
About this episode
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III discusses the storytelling of American history through significant artifacts in a special exhibition.
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III has spent a lifetime thinking about how history gets told. Before becoming the head of the Smithsonian, he was a curator, someone whose job is deciding which stories, people, and objects help us make sense of ourselves. So as America approaches its 250th birthday, Lizzie wanted to know: if you had to tell the story of the United States through just a handful of things, where would you begin? In this special episode, Secretary Bunch puts his curator hat back on to lead Lizzie through American Aspirations, a new exhibition he co-curated. Starting with the desk on which the Declaration of Independence was drafted, they get up close with some of the nation's most treasured objects: Abraham Lincoln campaign swag, Amelia Earhart's flight suit, Thomas Edison's light bulb, and even a miniature Statue of Liberty (which is still pretty big!). What can these objects reveal about a nation still striving to become its best self? Guest: Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution The American Aspirations exhibition at the Smithsonian Castle was co-curated by Smithsonian Secretary Bunch — alongside Abeer Saha, curator at the National…
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