Fun Museum Finds

Summer's winding down, but I can't bear to think about long sleeves yet. It's been too much fun hanging out in the sunshine and taking road trips to new museums. Before we pack away the sundresses and sandals for good, here are some fun images of outdoor festivity that I've seen recently. 

To start off, here are two paintings from the series Apollo and the Muses at the Cleveland Museum of Art. 

Erato, the muse of Lyric Poetry on the left, is basically Taylor Swift's spirit animal. She's all billows and curls, sitting in a romantic grove with Cupid while she literally writes with one of his arrows. I imagine this is how Swift's Wall Street Journal article was also composed. "[People] are buying only the [albums] that hit them like an arrow through the heart ... and I'd also want a nice garden."

Meanwhile check out the epic side eye Clio, the muse of History is giving her. "Are you serious girl? I'm over here writing about wars and plagues and fallen empires, and you're sitting under a billowing canopy? I hope the Persians get you with a spear." The two paintings really are displayed like this, with Apollo between them.

I'm not exactly sure what the artist Charles Meynier meant here. Clio's expression is pretty hilarious - but hey wait, is he saying female scholars are all ice cold? Does he think history is just dust and monuments? I do like the suggestion that maxi dresses and serious business can go together, though. 

Speaking of summer fashions, lest you think flower crowns are a new trend, check out this etching from the print collection of Washington's Headquarters in Morristown, NJ. George Washington is entering Trenton victorious after  crossing the Delaware River to defeat the British. The city's daughters have turned out for the parade in their best music festival apparel. 

George Washington also spent some time in Brooklyn, although he wasn't as successful there. NYC wasn't quite as built up back in the 1770s, as you can see in this 18th century map from Morristown. I love the little soldiers marching along the palisades.

See Charles Meynier, even military history isn't completely humorless.

Happy Birthday to my pal George

Did you ever play the totally nerdy party game of "who is your favorite Founding Father"? Of course I have, many times. As a self-respecting WM alum I cannot say the pompous "Mr. Jefferson." While I respect the intellects of John Adams and James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin's' wit, there is only one dead white male who can claim my heart- George Washington. Maybe it's because of  that Barry Bostwick miniseries that aired when I was a child, or the awesomeness of Mount Vernon's back piazza overlooking the Potomac, or his action hero/political patron saint status. Or maybe it's because our birthdays are a few days apart. Either way, my first president crush has not subsided.

As an early present to myself, I picked up this set of coasters at the museum's President's Day sale. They are like the "greatest hits" of the museum's Washington portraits, and I'd had my eye on them for weeks.

Clockwise from upper right we have:

• George Washington at the Battle of Princeton-James Peale 1804 (Note the tragic battle death scenes happening in the background.)
• George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army - Charles Peale Polk 1787-93 (There are about 70 copies of this "Princeton portrait" floating around various museum galleries)
• George Washington Reviewing the Western Army at Fort Cumberland, the 18th of October 1794 - Frederick Kemmelmeyer, 1794-1800 (Go suppress that Whiskey Rebellion, G-dubs!)
• Washington at Verplanck's Point - John Trumbull, 1790 (They say this was Martha's favorite portrait of her husband. This is also my favorite version of his horse.)

My very first conference

So before I went to grad school I had no idea conferences were such a big deal. They are sort of a cross between a nerd convention and research show-and-tell. The museum where I study has hosted several this year, so I've gotten to attend a few talks and see how things work.

Then this weekend I got to be on stage myself presenting my very first conference paper! (That sounds like a playset Fischer Price should sell, along with my very first thesis defense.) The Susman Conference at Rutgers is for graduate student research only, so it was a good place to start. It was encouraging to know the other presenters were people like me, who had also thrown together PowerPoints and final drafts the night before.

My paper was about a wax memorial picture from 1800 dedicated to George Washington. I wrote 3 papers on it last semester, so I had more than enough material for 20 minutes worth of talking/reading. Deciding what not to mention was a good exercise - let's be serious, no one but my professor would be clamoring to know about the invention of paraffin. Reading to an audience was also good - I realized I said "identity" and "patriotic" way too many times.

Even though my topic was a little obscure, people seemed to like it! That was the best part; having Rutgers faculty tell me that they found it interesting. My last minute PowerPoint was a hit too, again proving my faith in abundant illustrations.

Another cool part of the conference was hearing what other people were researching. Some were right up my alley: tourism and urban planning in 1950's New York City, dance as a way of understanding American social history. Others were completely new to me: medieval sermons, the role of androgyny in colonial India.

There was even another material culture paper of sorts: a gloriously fun look at the evolution of Mattel's Classically themed collector Barbies. Apparently early "Grecian Goddess" Barbie was schlock, but now Athena Barbie comes with armor and killer boots. I got really excited when the speaker brought American Girl Dolls into the discussion. Then I laughed at the people who got too academic and tried to relate Athena Barbie to Iraq. Puh-lease.

A star spangled hunk of patriotic kitsch

That's right, it's George Washington vs. Bengal Tiger... in a hurricane. This is pretty much made of win.