Day 3 - Museum Day

March 9, 2020

Today was Museum Day!


     For the first two hours, we had the option to go to the Museum of Natural History or the Museum of American History, both Smithsonians and just down the street from each other. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to see half of what was in one museum, much less both.


     I chose to go to the Museum of American History as several of my friends who had been here before said they preferred it over the Museum of Natural History and I had been torn about which to choose and open to both. 

   



But I'm glad I went there, I saw a lot of really neat stuff. There was an exhibit about food over the years, and also about travel.

(Not My Image)

  One of my favorite exhibits was that of the Star-Spangled Banner. The 30x34 huge flag that was raised at the battle of Baltimore inspiring Francis Scott to write the song, "The Star-Spangled Banner," that would become the nation's anthem. I did not before know that this huge flag was behind the writing of the song so it was quite a learning experience for me, a very moving and beautiful one. I really enjoyed learning about it all and being able to see the flag that was created over 200 years ago.


         If you'd like more info on the flag: Star-Spangled Banner Smithsonian


     Another favorite exhibit of mine was the Ruby Red Slippers from the Wizard of Oz. I grew up always having a pair of red sparkly shoes, getting a new pair often around Christmas time if I had outgrown the previous ones, I loved wearing them around Christmas especially and they felt so special because they were so different from every other pair of shoes I owned. 







When I first saw the movie I loved the shoes. So being able to see an original pair in person was really crazy cool.








 There was a musical instrument exhibit with a Stradivarius Violin which was really cool--I am a violinist sooo yeah, thats a big deal.


     We also went and looked at "The First Ladies" exhibit which has almost 100 of the inaugural dresses the First Women have worn over the years. I found it very interesting to see the changes in fashion over the years. There is also a presidential exhibit with information about previous presidents and the roles and things they must take on. It was super interesting.

We ate some lunch at food carts along the road and headed to the African American Museum.

     While we were standing in line I was chatting with Hope, one of the girls on the trip, and we were talking about some of the reasons we enjoy sign language and were talking about how, obviously, we love the language and culture surrounding it, but it's also really neat cause we can sign while we're eating, we can sign from afar, we can sign in loud places, and because it is a lesser-known language in most places we can sign and have relatively private conversations even in a public place. There are so many amazing and fun elements to sign language.


      The African-American Museum has 6 different floors, one on culture, one on the community, one on something else I forgot, and 3 on history. I ended up going to the 3 on history for the majority of the time. It was so interesting and really put me in the shoes of what these people that have gone through and broken free from. I grew up learning about many key figures in the fight for civil rights and it was really cool to learn more about them as well as lesser-known individuals that made a great difference. The exhibits make everything seem so much more real: displaying artifacts, including quotes, showing videos, etc. It was so interesting. Some of the specific individuals I especially enjoyed learning about Sojourner Truth, MLK, Rosa Parks, and Emmet Till--so moving. I briefly got to peek at some of the other exhibits upstairs, but so much we didn't get to see, there just isn't enough time.



     The final museum we visited was the Holocaust Museum. Wow. Once again, three levels of history and so much information packed in, there was no way to see and fully experience it all. But it was still such an educational and moving experience. It started first how the Holocaust started as just discrimination toward the Jews and eventually developed into the mass killing and imprisoning. I grew up being very well educated on the holocaust, it was something my mom really emphasized every year during Holocaust remembrance month. Because of this, I entered the Museum pretty prepared for what was to come but was still, and in new ways, so horrified at the practices and events surrounding this period of history. It's truly awful what happened to the Jews by the hand of the Nazis. The exhibits hurt me all the way to my core. There was one image showing bales of human hair the Nazis collected from the Jews that were later manufactured into slippers, fabric, rope and other soft things for the germans. Another exhibit was a replica of the gas chambers and how the procedure occurred, that one hit me the hardest, seeing the images of carven people within this replica and reading how they burned body after body was a lot to process. 
There was a hall of photographs of Jews who had died, people of all ages, real people, murdered by the Nazis. There was a hall of artwork by little kids created during the Holocaust, some of them just innocent drawings and others of the things happening to the people around them. Artwork by kids that were later killed by the Nazis. There was video footage of hundreds of bodies being bulldozed into ditches, it was so heartbreaking, I couldn't watch for very long before I had to turn away, I just couldn't continue to watch.
     The whole experience was so shocking and saddening, very solemn. But I'm so grateful that this museum exists, it reminds us of the evil that has happened and can happen in the world and hopefully inspires us never to let something like this ever happen again. It reminds us to be thankful for the freedom we have right now. 
     I'm really glad that I visited the museum at a time when I had to sign all week because I really didn't want to talk at all throughout the museum or for a long time afterword. I feel like using my voice would have somehow ruined that solemnity, that reverence, the respect belonging to these people and what happened to them. So I'm thankful that when I did need to communicate could do so without speaking.

     For supper we went to the Cafe again. This time while I was looking around for a place to sit a girl actually invited me to sit with her, she also invited another girl on the trip with me so the two of us sat with her and she was super nice. She is a freshman and super involved with sports and in a sorority and more! Turns out she's from Tennessee which is where my university it is so we connected over that which was cool. She also was super patient--repeating signs, slowing down, and explaining things. That's something I have noticed, most everybody who knows sign whether they are deaf or hearing, are super patient and kind when it comes to those of us who are learning. They're always willing to repeat, explain, and slow down. I really appreciate that. Like so much. Without it, I would not be able to understand or learn what is going on. But anyway, she was really fun to chat with, unfortunately, though she had to leave for a sorority meeting. So then I was chatting with Hope and Sarah (who joined us toward the end) for a while which was fun, they are both super nice. They taught me a bunch more signs. I need to start keeping a list, there have been so many. Our meeting was much shorter tonight which gave me some time to work on blogging and video editing. But in the meeting, we once again shared stuff we'd learned and observed today and we talked about the plan for tomorrow and what not.


Notes From Today:

1. Something I noticed in the Gallaudet Cafeteria was that often a student is playing music aloud on a speaker, it isn't so loud that it's distracting but it is definitely there. I suppose it doesn't bother most people because it's all about feeling the vibrations which would only be felt at that one table. I saw one guy who had his speaker hanging from his shoulder, I'm assuming so that he could feel the vibrations through his chest. It was neat. The other night I saw one girl playing music on her speaker and it seemed like she was hearing and her friend was deaf because the first girl was signing the song to the second girl and sometimes the second girl would join in. It was just really neat and unique to witness. It's a very different environment than other communal food areas. For the most part quiet, with the exceptions of music sometimes and laughter every now and then, but its a more enjoyable place to be because there isn't constant loud chatter everywhere.

2. One thing one of the girls mentioned that I hadn't thought of was that individuals who are deaf don't get to hear the sometimes casual remarks we hear strangers make as we pass by. The example she gave was that yesterday on the monument tour there was one little boy at the Lincoln memorial that was fascinated by "all the big words" on the wall, and it was so cute to hear him, but those who are deaf don't get to hear those little cute and funny remarks. I hadn't thought of that before. I wish was there was a way they could.

I will link the video below as soon as it is finished:)



     


    It was a good day, a lot of learning--signing wise as well as historically--and my brain is very stuffed full of information but it was great. Onto tomorrow!

Gabriella