The Real West Wing

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 8, 2001 | by Joanna Shaw-Eagle

While Al Gore and George Bush fight to the finish for a seat in the Oval Office, past presidents warn that life in the White House can be `hell.' A new exhibit tries to show a softer side.

When Lawrence M. Small became secretary of the Smithsonian Institution last January, he noted that the Smithsonian lacked an installation that illustrated the joys and sorrows of the nation's highest office. To remedy the situation, he ordered "The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden," a new $12 million display at the National Museum of American History.

The permanent exhibit attempts to show the flesh-and-blood aspects of the 41 men who have served as the nation's chief executive with items such as the fur top hat Abraham Lincoln wore to Ford's Theatre the night he was assassinated, and the pink peau de soie gown (embroidered with 2,000 rhinestones) that Mamie Eisenhower chose for her husband's inaugural ball.

"The circumstances of the presidency may ask human beings to act with greater than human capacities," Small says in the catalog. "So they must fall back on their humanity."

The museum succeeds in exploring the nuances and complexities of past presidents' lives with about 900 objects drawn from its political-history collection of 100,000 artifacts. The 9,000-square-foot exhibit explores their careers from historical, cultural, political and social perspectives but emphasizes their personal sides.

"The American Presidency" is a tale of life and death, of presidents frequently pulled to the breaking point of their capacities and the too-often tragedies of their deaths. Not surprisingly, the two most compelling segments (of the 11 presented) are the birth of the nation with George Washington and the assassinations of Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.

The exhibit represents Washington as a reluctant president -- "I have no lust for power," he's quoted as saying although it includes the first president's grand portrait by Gilbert Stuart and the painting of him as revolutionary general in Reviewing the Western Army at Fort Cumberland, Md. There are humbler images of his life, too -- his beloved Mount Vernon and the brass candle stand he used to work on his farewell address.

Visitors also can see Washington's sword and scabbard from the American Revolution, his general officer's uniform and the cane left to him by Benjamin Franklin. (Franklin wrote in his will, "My fine crab-tree walking stick, with gold head curiously wrought in the form of the cup of liberty, I give my friend of mankind, General Washington. If it were a Sceptre, he has merited it, and would become it.") The exhibit's "Life After the Presidency" section features the elegant, red-brocaded chair Washington sat in just before he died.

Thomas Jefferson became the nation's third president in 1801, leading the Democratic-Republicans, precursors of today's Democratic Party. But Jefferson distrusted centralized government and financial elites and he believed in a weak presidency. He did a turnaround, however, when Napoleon Bonaparte offered him the entire Louisiana Territory in 1803. Jefferson rightly saw that it would give the new U.S. government power across the continent. Nevertheless, the exhibition implies that Jefferson was greater as a revolutionary than as a president. "History has been generous to his memory," notes the catalog.

Jefferson called the presidency "a place of splendid misery," one of several quotes from presidents about their job. Andrew Jackson characterized the office as "dignified slavery." Warren Harding was still more severe: "It's hell. No other word to describe it." According to Woodrow Wilson, "Men of ordinary physique and discretion cannot be president and live." According to Lyndon B. Johnson, "The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands."

The exhibit also makes clear that presidents have to be willing to lay down their lives. Four presidents have been killed in a total of 11 attempts and assassinations over the years. The Lincoln display is one of the most successful in the show. The curators centered the drum and drumsticks played at Lincoln's funeral to be seen just as visitors enter the room. Nearby are the top hat and the contents of his coat pockets from the night he was shot. An enlarged illustration from Harper's Weekly (April 29, 1865) of "Columbia Grieving at Lincoln's Bier" hangs nearby.

"The American Presidency" needs more space, however, to display the 900 objects included along with the videos and interactive displays -- too much is presented to visitors in these relatively few and small sets of rooms. But the reasonably priced, scholarly Smithsonian Press catalog ($24.95 softcover, $50 hardcover) presents both old and new research in exciting ways (unfortunately, it lacks a badly needed index). The exhibit is open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. Timed entry passes are necessary, with same-day passes available on the third floor. Advance passes, with a convenience charge, are available through Ticket-Master at 800/551-SEAT (7328).