Monday feels: Mary Jane the baby sloth, born at our National Zoo in 1964.
Zoo staff, who hand-reared Mary Jane, named the two-toed sloth long before it was determined that the baby was a male. He’s seen snuggling at 9 months old in this Smithsonian Institution Archives photo.
More about Mary Jane and the work of our staff in raising young animals.
“I never plan my color more than five stripes ahead and often change my mind before I reach the third stripe.” – Gene Davis, 1971
Start the weekend with some jazzy stripes from Gene Davis. Davis is primarily known for his bold stripe works, which range from minuscule micro-paintings to mammoth outdoor street pieces.
This one, “Raspberry Icicle” (1967), stretches almost 10 feet tall and more than 18 feet wide.
Davis often compared himself to a jazz musician who plays by ear, describing his approach to painting as “playing by eye.”
See 15 classic stripe paintings from the 1960s, some of which haven’t been seen publicly in decades due to their huge size, through April 2 in “Gene Davis: Hot Beat” at our @americanartmuseum.
This poster claims “it’s summer somewhere in the world.” But there’s 91 days until summer here…not that we’re counting.
The poster, in our @amhistorymuseum’s collection, was designed by John Van Hamersveld for the 1964’s “The Endless Summer.” The movie followed two young surfers as they went around the globe in search of the perfect wave, and helped give rise to the popularity of surf culture that continues to this day.
Van Hamersveld was the art director for “Surfer” magazine and a friend of R. Paul Allen, the assistant cinematographer on the movie. He was only paid $150 for the iconic design, and Allen hired silk-screener Eric Askew to produce the poster in a garage in Costa Mesa, Calif.
To celebrate Gene Davis’ signature stripe paintings, one of our buildings has a bold new look.
The (temporary) vinyl stripes are made from a high-res image of the artist’s “Hot Beat”—one of the large, bright pieces from the 1960s on view now at our @americanartmuseum. Walk up the stairs and you can see the brushstrokes.
Feel the rhythm of “Gene Davis: Hot Beat” through April 2.
In 1968, thousands of anti-poverty protesters built a tent city on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. They stayed for six weeks.
The Poor People’s Campaign of 1968, started by Martin Luther King Jr. but continued after his assassination that year, set up 3,000 tents in what they deemed “Resurrection City, USA.”
Painted on a plywood tent wall, this mural shows the interracial nature and diverse concerns of the demonstrators, who were pushing for a guaranteed minimum income, job programs and education opportunities.
Now the salvaged mural is back on the Mall, but on display inside our @nmaahc.
You can see it in more detail, and through the eyes of staff from across the Smithsonian with our Many Lenses project.
Before the 1960s, it was rare for wallpaper to be designed for young girls’ rooms—papers were limited to styles intended for boys, or floral patterns with mothers in mind.
Then came designs like this magenta leopard gem.
Learn more about mid-century wall decor (and gender norms) from our design museum, @cooperhewitt.
Before pop artist Roy Lichtenstein painted “I Know How You Must Feel, Brad…” he saw this frame in a newspaper comic by Ted Galindo.
Lichtenstein clipped it out and included it in a 1963 letter to a curator. Now his inspiration is in the collection of our @archivesofamericanart.
Their exhibition, “Finding: Source Material in the Archives of American Art,” peeks into artists’ creative processes.
On Feb. 1, 1960, four African American college students—Ezell A. Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil and David L. Richmond—sat down at this “whites only” lunch counter at the Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, N.C., and politely asked for service. Their request was refused, and when asked to leave, the students remained in their seats in protest.
For the six months that followed, hundreds of students, civil rights organizations, churches and members of the community joined the protest and boycotted the store. Their commitment ultimately led to the desegregation of the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter July 25, 1960. Their peaceful sit-down was a watershed event in the struggle for civil rights and helped ignite a youth-led movement to challenge racial inequality throughout the South.
To learn more about freedom and justice in American history, visit the National Museum of American History’s “Separate is not Equal” online exhibition website.
(Source: newsdesk.si.edu)
Airline Poster, c. 1969
This week’s Smithsonian Snapshot marks the start of summer with this 1969 airline poster.
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s collection of more than 1,300 posters focuses on advertising for aviation-related products and activities. In the mid 1900s, airline advertisements like this one from Continental Airlines promoted exotic travel destinations.
This multicolor screen print shows a Hawaiian surfer wearing orange-and-red swim trunks and pink lei. In the background a volcano hidden among a lush, green jungle explodes with a swirl of warm colors. The black lines and bright solid colors are typical of psychedelic posters from the 1960s.
The poster collection is a unique representation of the cultural, commercial and military history of aviation. It represents an intense interest in flight, both public and private, during a significant period of its technological and social development.
To learn more about aviation advertising, visit the National Air and Space Museum’s “Fly Now” online exhibition website. To view more summer-related items at the Smithsonian, visit our summer Pinterest board.
This item is one of 137 million artifacts, works of art and specimens in the Smithsonian’s collection. It is not currently on display. To learn more about this item, visit the National Air and Space Museum website.
