What We Owe

Today I was over on Barracks Row in Capitol Hill . My husband and I ate lunch at the Ugly Mug and he set off for the Public Library. I stopped in at Stitch DC and after feeling much of the lovely yarn, asked for a museum suggestion. Astrid mentioned the Sewall-Belmont House, Lauren looked it up online for me (thanks so very much) and off I went down 8th Street!

Having never heard of the S-B House I was visually engaged and emotionally overwhelmed by what I found there. The House, where Alice Paul, founder of the National Woman's Party, lived and worked is the 4th headquarters of the Party and has been for 80 years. Part of the generation following Susan B.Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt, Paul began as a crusader for women's suffrage in 1907 and her aggressive strategies were crucial to the adoption of the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote in 1920.

Less than 100 years ago and we don't even know the names of the women whose portraits line the stairs at Sewall-Belmont. The National Woman's Party is now a 501 (c)( 3) educational organization. Katie Campbell, their docent who showed me the world of those women and their legacy, told me that the portraits are all of women who went to prison in order to focus attention on their crusade. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their strength and vision from which I and my daughters and the entire community benefit. Maybe the other side of the "taking for granted " coin is that the generations who have come after see women's suffrage simply as "normal".

Alice Paul died in 1977. She had drafted the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 and lived long enough to see it adopted by Congress but not long enough to see its failure to be ratified by enough states. Katie Campbell hopes that maybe Paul died assuming that the hard part was over. We looked at a large map on the wall showing which states have ratified and which states haven't. The amendment has been reintroduced every year since 1982 and needs only three (3) more states to ratify it. Maybe its time has now arrived.

MAD about Masons

Back in the District after three days in Buffalo, I wanted somewhere close and free so I walked over a few blocks to the House of the Temple, the Headquarters Building of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern District, U.S.A.. This building, itself of historic and architectural significance, also contains a museum and library. And my grandfather Papa Sam was a Mason so I had lots of reasons to pick this spot today.

Full disclosure: I had been here before several years ago (Note: The rules of MAD allow return visits) and went today in order to be in the only museum I knew of that contained a room devoted to Burl Ives right next to a room devoted to J. Edgar Hoover. I was disappointed to learn that the Hoover collection had unfortunately (for me) been relocated to the Newseum. Burl's stuff was still there.

Also there was Colin Bornmann, a GWU student from Colorado who is a guide at the Temple. I was lucky enough to have him give me a personal tour of the rooms that I wanted to see. His knowledge, articulateness and enthusiam made me forget my disappointment about J. Edgar.

The Library happens to be the oldest library open to the public in the District and includes the oldest Masonic book published in America (Anderson's Constitutions, printed by Benjamin Franklin in 1734) along with Freemasons for Dummies. Besides Burl Ives', there are museum exhibits devoted to Americanism, to Albert Pike - Grand Commander from 1859 - 1891, to the collection of gifts the Grand Commander has received world wide and to the Masons' philanthropic efforts and more.


Construction of the building started in 1911 and was completed in 1915, despite that fact that no steel, concrete or then-modern construction techniques were used. The Temple Room has 9 foot thick walls and looking up 100 feet into a dome-like skylight I couldn't see any apparent means holding it up. Materials used in the Executive Chamber include gold leaf and carved Russian walnut The beauty and richness of this building, which is open to the public free of charge, is something that would be interesting to almost anyone. I think it's out of the way for tourists but I am surprised by the number of people who pass by frequently, comment on its unusual appearance, but haven't bothered to go inside.

The Masons raise about $1 million a day and give much to the community in the way of philanthropy. They also give anyone the opportunity to visit a unique and fascinating structure. So go.

On the Road With Lincoln

Yesterday's MAD was the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum. No, I didn't travel to Springfield, Illinois. The Library came to the District.

Met my son for lunch and figured this being DC I'd spot at least several museums between home and him. Right across from his office was a nondescript trailer with an "Open" sign and a banner proclaiming A. Lincoln Self-Made in America . I had just seen Lincoln's handwritten victory speech on Friday so this was a perfect invitation. Especially since I don't have any plans for Springfield soon.

The trailer housed a small yet perfect exhibit about Lincoln's life. There were artifacts - always appealing to me - real and replica - of books he read, invitations, Mary Lincoln's music box and maps (the best!). My favorite part was the animated map (turns out to be a DVD) showing the Civil War In Four Minutes or "one week in one second". The borders of the Confederacy expand and contract, the sites of battles explode in puffs and a running casualty tally appears at the lower right hand corner. As they say "One picture....."


Found out that there were many funerals for Lincoln as the train carrying his body made its way from DC to Springfield. One was held in Buffalo on April 27, 1865 and I'd like to find out more about it.

This exhibit is travelling around the country for two (2) years and is a vivid introduction to Lincoln and his times. It made me particularly aware of how much more I would like to know about American History in general and Lincoln in particular. Team of Rivals and April 1865 are now on my to-read list.

2009 is the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth and there will be many events and exhibits devoted to him and his role in shaping the US. Get ready.

Truth to Power

Imagine that you get to see the manuscript of Abraham Lincoln's 1864 Victory Speech which just happens to be on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art for one day. The words that Lincoln wrote with his own hands echo (or maybe pre-echo - is this a word?) the words that our new President spoke a few days earlier when he took his oath of office and hopefully ushered in a new era of US government for ALL of us.

Then - imagine that you visit Richard Avedon's Portraits of Power, a compilation of his stunning photos of the famous and the unknown which ends with a close up of none other than Barack Obama, Illinois State senator and keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic Convention, taken in 2004.

Just imagine the connection between life and art that settles in your heart!

Other than the fact of the Avedon exhibit, and that I needed to get to it quickly since it was closing on Sunday January 25, all of this was unexpected.

I've been at my DC house since last Friday, having arrived in time to experience Inauguration Weekend, MLK day and the Inauguration itself. But until yesterday, no Internet had arrived. That lack was my excuse to delay the start of MAD. The cable guys showed up yesterday morning and I was on my way after lunch.

The exhibit displayed Avedon's straightforward portraits of political activists, politicians, government officials, and labor leaders, artists, using their selection and juxtaposition to explore their relationships and influence with the community.

Particularly affecting to me was the group portrait of the Chicago 7 and especially of the Civil Rights workers (shown above), which triggered memories of the active hopefulness of those times and our wearing down by the most recent 8 years. And looking at the faces of power from especially the earlier decades during which Avedon worked made me realize how male, white and middle-aged those faces were.

What an appropriate way to start museum going in DC in 2009!

Opportunities for MAD

Since the real MAD will be starting soon you should know that there are - so far - three (3) ways to be a part of it

• Suggestions - always welcome. Perhaps there is a special museum that is dear to your heart - just let MAD know about it and consider it done.
  
• Guest MADDER - join a MAD excursion. You select the museum and the date. Subject to availability.
• Guest blogger - this is really an add-on to opportunity 2. Choose to be a Guest MADDER then write about it here. No extra charge.

Keep watching this space for specials from time to time. You too can be a part of MAD!

Coming next: the Rules of MAD.

Not Really MAD yet

Maybe I am a little bit ahead of MAD - after all, I'm still in Buffalo- but today I went to the brand new Burchfield Penney Art Center here and it was a wow! My younger son is home (so to speak) on Winter Break; he joined me and we were both overwhelmed by the structure and the art it contains. BP is the first free standing art museum constructed in Buffalo in over a hundred years so it's sort of momentous. Yet today was the Saturday of a holiday weekend and while there were people around it was not crowded. We could get close to the paintings and take our time.

The emotional intensity of Charles Burchfield's unique mix of fantasy and urban landscapes were pretty much all we could take in. We did wander through the room that showed art works depicting Buffalo at earlier times in its history and talked about a city, which we usually think of a solid and unchanging, as being an evolving organism that changes almost without our notice. How I would love to go back in time and visit Buffalo at the height of its prosperity at the turn of the 20th Century! Can't wait to go back to BP again. Milton Rogovin's Appalachia Revisited
is next.

What was next this afternoon was lunch at Globe Market. Curried pumpkin soup seemed just right after the museum and a horseradish potato egg roll tasted even better than it sounds. And lots of good conversation. We asked for containers to take home the leftover soup, and then gave them back before we left; we had finished everything.

MAD day one coming soon

Day One MAD is now scheduled for Saturday January 17. I am driving from Buffalo to DC on that Friday so by Saturday morning or thereabouts I should be all set for my first MAD.

What's on the agenda? Just read a review of a Miro show at MOMA in the November 10th issue of The New Yorker. Peter Schjeldahl referred to "The Farm" which he called "... a treasure in the National Gallery in Washington". Sounds good to me!

Now Buffalo has the Albright-Knox - a world class art musuem -and another good one the Burchfield-Penney just opened in November; there's lots of good stuff - but when have I ever been able to walk out my front door and grab public transportation to see a work of art that I read about in a magazine?

Too much stimulation overwhelms me in museums. I'd rather see a few things really intensely than race from item to item. So while I'm sure I'll get distracted on my way to and from The Farm , I'll try to focus on that one painting and anything closely related and close by. And since I am making my own MAD rules, I can go back another day.